After a long 82-game season headlined by Team U.S.A.’s Olympic gold medal win, the Stanley Cup Playoffs have finally arrived.
As a New Jersey Devils fan, calling it a “long” season seems like an understatement. I’m pretty sure I experienced every possible emotion watching a team I felt so confident in completely fall apart.
And now they have a huge offseason ahead of them. They just hired a new general manager, and it will be really interesting to see what moves are made and how the team looks this fall.
Anyways, with the Devils out, I have no choice but to begin my annual “hate-watch” period earlier than expected.
Since the Devils play in the Metropolitan division, there are a few teams that I simply can not root for, number one on that list is the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Hurricanes are essentially my number one enemy. They just have the Devils number. Every time they play, I question my sanity and why I like the sport to begin with. Just kidding, well sort of.
The first round matchup of the Hurricanes and the Ottawa Senators intrigues me. I like some Senators players like Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stützle, and I hope Ottawa wins, but I am concerned about them getting through Carolina.
Probably the hardest matchup for me to choose is the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers series. Yeah, this is my nightmare, and honestly I don’t have a pick. I don’t like either team at all.
But one series I am excited for is the Buffalo Sabres and the Boston Bruins.
I think this will be a great series and I’m really looking forward to seeing how it unfolds. Buffalo had a really rough start and completely turned it around to end a 14-year playoff drought, and Boston was supposed to be in a rebuild, but had a great year. I could go either way here, but my pick is Buffalo.
To round out the Eastern Conference, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens face off. I think this is another tough one, but I’m taking Tampa Bay.
Switching to the Western Conference, the first-round series I am most excited for is the Minnesota Wild and Dallas Stars.
I’m hopping on the Wild bandwagon this year. I love their group with players like Quinn Hughes, Matt Boldy, Brock Faber, and my personal favorite, Kirill Kaprisov. There’s a reason they call him Kirill the Thrill, he’s so entertaining to watch, and I can’t wait to see what he does in the playoffs.
I even got myself a Kaprisov shirt (shoutout to my sister, who kindly gifted it to me for my birthday a couple weeks ago).
I’m also interested in how teams like the Utah Mammoth and Anaheim Ducks will fare. Utah plays the Vegas Golden Knights in their first playoff appearance since moving from Arizona.
I think Vegas wins this series, but Utah is a wildcard for me. As for the Ducks, who have a young team, they play the experienced Edmonton Oilers, who are coming off back-to-back Cup final losses.
Lastly, in the West are the Los Angeles Kings and the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche. Personally, I don’t like the Avs, and I’d like to see the Kings advance in Anže Kopitar’s final season, so my pick is L.A.
My dream 2026 Stanley Cup Final matchup is the Minnesota Wild and the Buffalo Sabres, with the Wild winning it all.
But, I really have nothing on the line with my team already being out, so I’m just enjoying the “stress-free” hockey.