{"id":607767,"date":"2026-06-26T16:03:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T16:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/607767\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T16:03:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T16:03:51","slug":"what-to-watch-in-the-nhl-playoffs-as-the-stanley-cup-final-arrives-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/607767\/","title":{"rendered":"What to watch in the NHL playoffs as the Stanley Cup Final arrives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two teams are left standing as the NHL playoffs<\/a> have reached the Stanley Cup Final.<\/p>\n

After the first round<\/a> \u2014 and even the second \u2014 was full of newcomers<\/a> who hadn’t played postseason hockey in a long time, the conference finals featured some of the usual suspects<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> swept Presidents\u2019 Trophy-winning Colorado<\/a> in the West final, and the Carolina Hurricanes got past Montreal in five games. They’ll meet in a final matchup of the two hottest teams in hockey over the past two months. <\/p>\n

There will be a new champion<\/a> and no three-peat after the Florida Panthers<\/a> were derailed by injuries following three consecutive trips to the final. In fact, both finalists are new after Edmonton got knocked out by Anaheim<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s happened so far<\/p>\n

WESTERN CONFERENCE:<\/a> Vegas got through Utah and Anaheim<\/a> in six, then won four in a row against the Avalanche. <\/p>\n

EASTERN CONFERENCE:<\/a>Carolina swept<\/a> Ottawa and Philadelphia<\/a>, then responded from a Game 1 loss to the Canadiens to advance to the final for the first time since 2006.<\/p>\n

The matchups<\/p>\n

The top three teams in each of the four divisions make the playoffs. The other four spots go to the next two highest-placed teams in each conference, regardless of division. All four rounds of the playoffs are best-of-seven; the first team to 16 victories wins the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Carolina<\/a> vs. Vegas<\/a> vs., Game 1 Tuesday night. <\/p>\n

The favorites<\/p>\n

Carolina is a slight favorite at just over even money.<\/p>\n

How to watch<\/p>\n

Every playoff game will be nationally televised in the U.S on an ESPN or Turner network. The NHL schedule is here<\/a> and a streaming guide is here.<\/a> Much of TNT\u2019s coverage, which includes the Stanley Cup Final, will be simulcast on truTV and available on Max\u2019s B\/R Sports Add-On. In Canada, games will be showcased on Sportsnet and CBC.<\/p>\n

After three rounds of best-of-seven series, the final starts Tuesday night. If it goes the distance, Game 7 could go as late as June 20.<\/p>\n

What to know<\/p>\n

WEST: No-nonsense John Tortorella took over coaching<\/a> the Vegas Golden Knights in late March, and they’ve been rolling<\/a> since. Mitch Marner, who was maligned for a lack of playoff<\/a> success during his time in Toronto, has been arguably the best player in the postseason.<\/p>\n

EAST: The Carolina Hurricanes have rolled through the East, getting dominant goaltending from 36-year-old Frederik Andersen<\/a> and do-it-all play from 2018 league MVP Taylor Hall. After so many disappointing playoff exits, they are hoping to win the franchise’s second championship and first since 2006.<\/p>\n

Canada’s Stanley Cup drought will extend one more year. No team north of the border has won it since Montreal in 1993.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two teams are left standing as the NHL playoffs have reached the Stanley Cup Final. After the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[463,464],"tags":[11309,11288,11310,11308,1251,5,4,60,14,104,718],"class_list":["post-607767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl-playoffs","category-stanley-cup-playoffs","tag-ap-online-sports-headlines","tag-ap-top-news","tag-ap-top-news-l-twc-regions","tag-ap-top-news-sports","tag-associated-press","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-playoffs","tag-stanley-cup","tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","tag-stanley-cup-playoffs-nhl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116817262372115376","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}