It’s yet another postseason without the Blackhawks in it, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be watching! With the playoffs starting this weekend, the SCH crew gathered to offer some of their thoughts on it.

Western Conference

Colorado Avalanche (No. 1 overall seed) vs. Los Angeles Kings (WC2)

Dave: I initially created this article about a week before the end of the season, when we still didn’t know who’d win the second wild card spot, inserting “who cares” as a placeholder. Even though we now know the identity of that team, it still doesn’t matter because Colorado is going to eviscerate them. Anything beyond a five-game series would be a shock and the expectation is four. Avs in four.

Eric: At least the Kings can move on to getting pantsed in the playoffs by a different Western Conference contender this year. The Kings playing boring ass, trap hockey and Colorado is going to tear a hole through them so quickly it just might warp the space time continuum — and the way the Avs have looked this season, they could very well wind up doing that to everybody. Avs in four.

Steve: What a way for Colorado to start the postseason. For the Kings: good luck. I would much rather have had this year’s version of the Oilers than an Avs team that finished with 121 points and a plus-99 goal differential. Avs in five only because hockey is weird.

LBR: This feels like as no-brainer a series as you’ll get in these playoffs. The Pacific was terrible this year and the Kings were the worst of the best in that group, while the Avalanche were the best in the league. This could definitely be a four-game series, but erring on the side of “shit happens,” let’s say Avs in five.

Dallas Stars (No. 2 in Central) vs. Minnesota Wild (No. 3 in Central)

Dave: It’s the postseason, which typically means it’s time to stop considering the Minnesota Wild as a legitimate threat for success. I will concede, though, that this Minnesota team seems a little bit more dynamic than prior postseason iterations of this side, and something about this Dallas thing just never seemed all that formidable to me. So, let’s go with Wild in seven, and then the Avalanche will feast on the leftovers in the next round.

Eric: I like Minnesota for a multitude of reasons — Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy being chief among them — but my primary hope is that they can finally pull off a series win because as sports continue to trend more and more risk-adverse, they dropped it on the table and went all in with one of the league’s biggest trades of the last few years in acquiring Quinn Hughes (and without a contract extension in place to boot!). The bad news is that, while the Wild have some upper-echelon forwards, solid defense, and two outstanding goalies, there is a nary a No. 1 center to be found anywhere on their roster — and that’s probably the difference in this series. Dallas is annoying, and they’re going to win. Fingers crossed it’s Jason Robertson’s swan song before he starts looking at Lincoln Park real estate. Stars in seven.

LBR: This Stars-Wild series feels a lot more like a coin flip than any other. Dallas probably has the edge on paper with a deeper lineup and being a little cleaner at 5-on-5, but it’s not some runaway mismatch, especially with Roope Hintz out for Game 1 and Miro Heiskanen’s status still TBD (as of writing this). The Wild have taken some nice steps to become more stable and defensively sound, but they also don’t have the most overwhelmingly interesting lineup, despite having some of the most exciting guys at the top (like Quinn Hughes, Kirill Kaprizov, and Matt Boldy). The real edge for the Wild comes in net, where Jesper Wallstedt has been outstanding while the Stars’ Jake Oettinger has had a down year. I would not be surprised by the Wild taking the series, in short turn eve, because the longer the series goes, the more the Stars should be victorious, but if the Wild come out strong, it could be short with them taking it Still, it feels like the superior depth of the Stars should be enough to counter the top-end and goaltending edge for the Wild and push the series out, so let’s say Stars in seven — but this is the least confident I am in any prediction.

Steve: Both Minnesota and Dallas have been excellent all season. It’s easy to galaxy-brain this and find a way for the Wild to beat the Stars — and you can. Injuries on the Stars’ roster make it a possibility for the Wild to win in the first round. Kirill Kaprizov and now Quinn Hughes make this a fun team to watch. Still, Dallas is the second-best team in the NHL. Stars in seven.

Vegas Golden Knights (No. 1 in Pacific) vs. Utah Mammoth (WC1)

Eric: Last time I checked, it’s probably not a great sign of confidence in your team when you fire your head coach with seven games remaining in the season, and yet Vegas did just that very thing and somehow still walked away with a No. 1 seed. Ladies and gentlemen, your 2025-2026 Pacific Division: truly a suckfest for the ages. The Knights did go 6-0-1 after John Tortorella’s hiring, so they’re coming in hot, but also I hate them and their weird, scumbaggy roster full of scumbags. I always root for an upset, and this series feels like a prime one. Utah is fast, young, and has much better goaltending. Mammoth in six.

LBR: Is it bad to say I don’t care about these teams at all? Yeah, yeah, the Knights have some major stars and they seemed to get it together at the end of the season and the Mammoth have some interesting young players and I’m happy for Utah to get to experience playoff hockey for the first time. But I still just don’t care about this series. It’s whatever to me, but I guess Knights in six.

Steve: With Tortorella at the helm and ending the regular season on a hot streak, it certainly looks like the Mammoth have a tough opponent to beat. However, Vegas notoriously struggled against playoff-caliber teams in between November and the end of the season. Granted, Vegas finished 7-0-3 in their last 10-game stretch. However, the “new coach bump” only takes them so far. Utah is young, and it’s a franchise first for the playoffs (sort of). Plus, if you don’t want the Mammoth to win, you’ll wake up with this thing at the foot of your bed. Mammoth in five.

Dave: I really, really want to pick Utah here but I feel like a young, inexperienced roster is going to struggle to adapt to the pace of the postseason and VGK’s top-end talent is going to be enough to get them out of this series, although it won’t be by a big of a margin to invoke any confidence in the Knights beyond this round. Knights in six.

Edmonton Oilers (No. 2 in Pacific) vs. Anaheim Ducks (No. 3 in Pacific)

Eric: Someone has to do it, so it might as well be me — Quenneville vs Bowman, etc, etc. Neither of them should be back in hockey as far as I’m concerned, and the good news is, I don’t think either of these teams get past the next round anyway. The question looming over the entire series is the health of Leon Draisaitl, and the most recent news is that he should be good to go for Game 1, so that tilts the odds dramatically. The Ducks got off to a great start this season but have gotten real mushy since. I’ll hang my rooting hat on Jason Dickinson and Connor Murphy in this one. Oilers in six.

LBR: If you’re going just on the talent of the roster, the Oilers are clearly the favorites. But interestingly, the Ducks have been a strong analytics team in the league this season, including being better than the Oilers in terms of shot attempt share by basically two percentage points. The Ducks roster has some good pieces, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a testament to how good a coach Q is that their underlying numbers are so good. Still, the Oilers’ top-end talent and fine-enough depth are likely too much for the Ducks to handle over the course of the series. Oilers in six.

Steve: Anaheim’s second half doesn’t give me confidence that they’ll fare well against Edmonton. This will be a shock to their system, but a good experience that will carry into next season. Plus, Quenneville is leading the way. It’s possible Edmonton gets off to a slow start, but either way, this is a winnable series for a team that boasts some of the best offensive players in the NHL. But that’s part of the problem, isn’t it? When is Leon Draisaitl returning? Probably after the Ducks give them an early scare. Oilers in six.

Dave: You think I’m picking against Connor McDavid? Certainly not in the first round. Oilers in five.

Eastern Conference

Carolina Hurricanes (No. 1 overall) vs. Ottawa Senators (WC2)

Eric: I have gone from perennially rooting for the overachieving ‘Canes to beginning to loathe them for running the exact same type of team out there every single year in the playoffs only to see Lucy pull the football back once again as they go flailing through the air. Remember earlier when I talked about risk aversion in sports? Man, I absolutely hate it. And nothing embodies that more to me than last year when Carolina finally acquired a superstar in Mikko Rantanen, then gave it all of 13 games before chickening out and sending him right back to the Central for 4-foot-20 Logan Stankoven and a bunch of picks. Tim Stutzle is a stud and another one of my favorite non-Hawk players to watch, and I really, REALLY hope Sam Rinzel morphs into Jake Sanderson lite sometime in the next few years. This series is probably a lot closer than most people think. I don’t trust either teams’ goaltending, but Rod the Bod brings it home. Hurricanes in seven.

Dave: That lack of a top-end talent like Rantanen feels like it’ll be an issue for Carolina once again in this postseason … but not against the Senators. Watching Carolina trot out half of an AHL roster and dog-walk the Hawks at the UC last week makes it impossible for me to believe it’ll have a misstep here, because Ottawa doesn’t have enough sand to throw in the gears of that Hurricanes’ machine once it gets rolling. Hurricanes in five.

LBR: The Hurricanes always fall short in the playoffs despite being one of the most dominant teams in the regular season, but they should make it out of the first round easily with their opponents being the Senators. Carolina loves to forecheck like maniacs and tilt the ice as much as possible, while Ottawa still leans a bit more on rush chances to generate offense. That can steal you a game or two, sure, but it’s tough to sustain over a full series when you’re constantly defending. Eventually, the Hurricanes’ depth and structure just wear things down, and it ends before it really has a chance to get interesting. Hurricanes in six.

Steve: With Florida sitting out the playoffs this year, the East is wide open for Carolina. Anything less than a Stanley Cup Final appearance is a failure. But Ottawa has a very mobile blue line, a Linus Ullmark that’s rediscovered his game, and Brady Tkachuk (take that however you want). However, there’s no way Rod Brind’Amour and his Canes are losing in the first round. Also, they led the league in possession metrics this season. Hurricanes in five.

Tampa Bay Lightning (No. 2 in Atlantic) vs. Montreal Canadiens (No. 3 in Atlantic)

Dave: My initial hunch was to be wary of picking Tampa because of what I’ll say about Pittsburgh below. But that roster isn’t quite as old as one might think, even though they’ve been at or near the top of the league for over a decade straight now. Kucherov’s the oldest at 32, but everyone else among the top seven scorers on this team is younger. The ice time leaders are 30-year-old Darren Raddysh and 25-year-old J.J. Moser, who should help keep some of the older blue-liners fresh. Even if Victor Hedman doesn’t return (and it seems like his whole career may be over), there’s probably enough here to beat a Montreal team, most notably because of that mutant in the Tampa net, which should help contain an impressive Montreal offense. Also, Lane Hutson is so damn fun to watch, so get a glimpse while you can. Lightning in six.

Steve: I am bound by birthright to root for the Canadiens when they aren’t facing the Hawks (although a Quebec City team would be nice). Cole Caufield scored 51 goals and almost became the first Canadien to win a trophy named after one of their own players (the Rocket Richard). Montreal is loaded with young talent and makes a compelling argument to make a deep playoff run. However, Tampa Bay has an underrated superstar in Nikita Kucherov (130 points), and Darren Raddysh has filled in nicely for an absent Victor Hedman. Also, Jon Cooper. Lightning in six.

LBR: Even though I’ve grown quite fond of the Canadiens, they feel somewhat like a paper tiger: near the top of the standings but with little substance to have put them there. The Lightning, while older, have done a decent job refreshing the lineup without losing key pieces and are arguably the most balanced team after the Avalanche. Montreal might hang around for stretches, and they should win a game or two when things get chaotic and their young stars shine. But over the full course of a series, the Lightning’s top-end guys and power play are going to make the difference. It’s the kind of matchup where the Canadiens compete hard, maybe make it annoying for a night or two, but don’t quite have enough to keep up once the Lightning settle in. Lightning in six.

Eric: This narrative in this series for me feels like a passing of the guard in the East. I have to give Tampa credit for hanging around and re-tooling enough to continue to be a considered a legit contender for the past few seasons. Don’t look now but, all of a sudden, they’ve been eliminated in the first round for three straight years while their offense keeps pulling a disappearing act to boot. Making matters worse for the Bolts is no one knows exactly WTF has happened to Victor Hedman, so they’re asking an awful lot of Darren Raddysh (who I’m terrified Kyle is going to throw a huge deal at) these days. Montreal is going to be a big problem for everyone for quite a while once they figure out their goaltending, so consider this Phase I of their coming-out party. Canadiens in six.

Pittsburgh Penguins (No. 2 in Metropolitan) vs. Philadelphia Flyers (No. 3 in Metropolitan)

Dave: Seeing these teams together in a postseason matchup calls back memories of some gong-show hockey games from the 2010s that were incredibly entertaining to watch as a neutral observer and the hope here is for additional chapters to be authored during this series. Still, I’ve developed this theory over the last decade or so that teams led by aging stars seem to run out of steam in the postseason and Pittsburgh’s goaltending is also a massive red flag. The other tiebreaker for me is that one of my favorite bands hails from Philly and I’m pretty sure it’ll be the Flyers who Came Out Swinging in this series. Flyers in seven.

Eric: It feels weird that Sid and Ovi have been around long enough for me to transition from actively rooting against them for fear of them standing in the Blackhawks’ way at the very end of the playoffs (though part of me certainly wishes we would have gotten a Crosby vs. Prime Toews series) to now pulling for them any chance I get out of sheer appreciation for the magnitude of their careers. Speaking of career primes, Sid is apparently still in the midst of his as he put up yet another point-per-game plus season (21 in a row, let that sink in). The Flyers are another team that was rebuilding right alongside the Blackhawks a few years back but now feel like they’ve lapped them. They’re going to have a lot of good years coming up on the backs of Porter Martone and Matvei Michkov (assuming they don’t continue to biff his development), so let’s give this one to the Pens because of Crosby and one of my all-time favorite hockey tweets. Pittsburgh in seven.

Steve: What a nice throwback match-up that I’m sure everyone saw coming at the start of the season. Good for Sidney Crosby. It’ll be interesting to see how the older Penguins match up against the younger and inexperienced Flyers team. Penguins in seven.

LBR: This doesn’t feel like a clean, easy series and is one of the hardest to predict, mostly because both teams have major issues. The Penguins have the edge with more proven scoring and top-end talent, so they should take it, but that some of that top-end talent is older and has far more miles on it. Also, it’s the Flyers, and things tend to get weird fast in this matchup — they’re scrappy, play loose, and can absolutely drag things into the mud. It feels like one of those series where the Penguins probably win in the end, but not without a few headaches along the way. Penguins in seven.

Buffalo Sabres (No. 1 in Atlantic) vs. Boston Bruins (WC1)

Eric: The Sabres are the feel good story headed into the playoffs, and it’s well deserved after a prolific surge in the second half of the season (they were dead last in the East on Dec. 9) saw them end their 15-year playoff drought in style by walking away with arguably the hardest division in the league. Wishcasters will point to Buffalo’s back end and plethora of homegrown draft picks in forecasting a rosy future for the Blackhawks, but a big difference is a handful of shrewd moves the Sabres have made to supplement that talent with emerging young players like Bowen Byram (I will forever be salty), Josh Norris, Josh Doan, and Ryan McLeod (who is quickly becoming one of the best two-way forwards in the league). Meanwhile, Boston is old, mid, and a bit of a PDO fraud. It also took career years from Morgan Geekie, Pavel Zacha, and Viktor Arvidsson just to get them in. Viva Le Sabres. Sabres in six.

LBR: Will the Heated Rivalry reverse jinx propel the Sabres deep into the playoffs? I’m not sure about that, because there are a lot of good teams in the playoffs this year. But the Bruins aren’t one of them, so the Sabres should at least win one round. Sabres in six.

What can I say, everyone needs an outlet. 🤷 pic.twitter.com/DjY0wFGyRa

— y – Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) April 14, 2026

Dave: There isn’t a soul outside of Boston pulling for the Bruins in this series, right? I just assume anyone without a horse in this race is hopping on the Sabres’ bandwagon, and not just out of complete disdain for the city of Boston in general. Also, kind of forgot that Lukas Reichel is on the Bruins now — how about that? Anyway, the Sabres may not be battle-tested in the postseason yet but they won out in a pretty intense battle for the Atlantic crown and that should give them enough mettle to dispose of these Bruins fairly easy. Cannot wait to see what the atmosphere will be like for Game 1 in the Sabres’ barn. Sabres in five.

Steve: Feel-good story aside, Buffalo has speed and depth. If they can feed off the energy going into their first postseason appearance in 15 years, they’ll have no issue getting past Boston. Boston has David Pastrnak and playoff experience. Jeremy Swayman isn’t exactly the best in the postseason, but he’s still Swayman. Sabres in seven.