The NHL playoff field included some unexpected entrants, and the first two rounds featured some surprises and a handful of upsets.
Yet as things stand right now with the conference finals beginning Tuesday night, the teams still in contention for the Stanley Cup are a familiar mix of those who have been fighting for it the past few years.
The West final is a rematch of this same round last year with the Dallas Stars facing the Edmonton Oilers. The Carolina Hurricanes are in the East final for a second time in three years, awaiting their opponent from the winner of Game 7 between Florida and Toronto on Sunday night.
“We’ve already been in a conference final, and we know what’s going to happen there,” said Carolina’s Andrei Svechnikov, whose eight goals are second in the postseason to only Mikko Rantanen. “It’s not going to be easy there.”
Nothing is easy this time of year. But some team is eight wins — the Panthers and Maple Leafs nine away — from hoisting the Cup.
East: Carolina vs. Toronto or Florida
Game 1: Tuesday at Carolina if the Panthers win or at Toronto if the Leafs win (8 p.m. EDT, TNT)
Oddsmakers had the Hurricanes among the championship favorites going into the playoffs, in part because their path included an opening series against New Jersey without best player Jack Hughes. They were also favored to beat Washington, then suffocated the Capitals to finish it out in five games.
“You hope it’s a value,” coach Rod Brind’Amour said of playing just 10 games through two rounds and getting time off to heal. “There definitely is something to that.”
There is also something to Carolina being overlooked each year, dogged by a string of disappointing exits. But this team is one Igor Shesterkin goaltending showcase away from being in the East final for a third spring in a row.
The Hurricanes have allowed the fewest goals a game in the playoffs, thanks to Frederik Andersen’s play in net and a penalty kill clicking at a top-ranked 93.3%. Their first line of Svechnikov, Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis has also been stellar.
But they’ve also played with a bit of a chip on their shoulder without names-on-the-marquee star power.
“I don’t know if this team gets maligned or this and that because we don’t have an (Alex) Ovechkin: We don’t have the greatest goal scorer of all time,” Brind’Amour said. “And we don’t have a (Nathan) MacKinnon or all these superstar kind of players. We have a little different mix, and we think we do have those kind of players — they just do it a little differently. Every team counts on all their players, but I think we definitely need everyone to contribute, and that’s what you’re getting right now.”
The defending champion Panthers did not face Carolina on the way to the title last year, but they did in the East final in 2023, winning that series in a sweep before getting beaten by the Golden Knights. The most recent time Toronto got this far in the playoffs was 2002 — also against the Hurricanes, who won to advance to that franchise’s first Cup final before losing to Hall of Famer-stacked Detroit.
West final: Dallas vs. Edmonton
Game 1: Wednesday at Dallas (8 p.m. EDT, ESPN)
Katy Perry was scheduled to be on tour at the Stars’ arena on Wednesday night. Instead, it will be Corey Perry and the Oilers.
Edmonton has rolled since opening the playoffs with a pair of losses at Los Angeles, getting back to the third round thanks to an unlikely combination of defense and goaltending. And, oh yeah, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl have combined for 33 points, too. No big deal.
The Oilers won the West final last year in six games, with Stuart Skinner putting up a 1.91 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage and the Stars’ Jake Oettinger a 2.56 and .901. Oettinger has been a rock this playoffs to get Dallas through Colorado and Winnipeg and now has the chance to show he can carry a team into the final.
“The guys that hadn’t had any experience, we have all the experience in the world now,” Oettinger said. “It’s up to us as a group to take that next step, and I think we should feel great about what we’ve done with the adversity we’ve faced. I think our best hockey is yet to come.”
Peter DeBoer has now coached a team into the third round for the sixth time in seven years. He was fired twice in that span, once each by San Jose and Vegas.
To play for the Stanley Cup that has eluded him, the Stars need to flip the script on the Oilers, with McDavid and Draisaitl also motivated 11 months since falling one game short of hockey’s hallowed trophy.
“You’ve got two hungry teams that have been really close and haven’t gotten there yet,” DeBoer said. “It’s going to be a battle of wills here.”
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AP Sports Writer Stephen Hawkins in Dallas contributed to this report.
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