2026 Division Semifinals Preview

We have arrived! The regular season is over, and now it's time for the beautiful insanity to start! 16 teams battling it out in a two-month long, deliciously deranged marathon consisting of close calls, gritty moments, and that beautiful five-on-five overtime that can last a long time! Welcome, folks, to the Stanley Cup Playoffs!

For the fifth straight year on Vocal, I'll deliver the round-by-round previews, starting with the Division Semis. So without further ado, here's a look at the eight series:

Atlantic Division

It still makes me happy that the Buffalo Sabres are among this year's Sweet 16. First time in 15 years that they made it, and for the first time in 16 years, they're division champions. Led by players such as Tage Thompson, Rasmus Dahlin, and Alex Tuch, the Sabres look to make a huge impact in this year's playoffs, and in this year's Atlantic Semifinal matchup, they have a familiar foe in the form of the Boston Bruins.

The Bruins being here is, well, a shock. Not because they're bad, but because I figured they were starting over, somewhat. Instead, they got it together. David Pastrnak with a 100-point season, but he didn't put in 40-50 goals this year. That tells me that there's some depth in this Bruins team. Elias Lindholm has played well, and Morgan Geekie really exploded offensively--he's the team's goal-scoring leader. Didn't have that in my Bingo card for this year.

These two teams are used to each other, they've been division foes dating back to the old Adams Division. This is the ninth playoff meeting between the clubs; of the previous eight, Boston won six of them. However, one of Buffalo's two wins was their 1993 upset sweep over the Bruins, capped off by Brad May's OT winner that spawned the famous "May Day!" call from the late, great voice of the Sabres, Rick Jeanneret.

This brings back some good memories. There were two outcomes I was pulling for in the Atlantic Division. One was Tampa Bay winning the division and giving us Sabres/Canadiens (a classic Adams Division rivalry) in Round 1. The other Buffalo winning the division and giving us Lightning/Canadiens. Interestingly, we got both--an Adams Division rivalry renewed, and this delicious matchup. The last time that the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Montréal Canadiens met in a postseason series, it was for the whole thing. The Stanley Cup Final in 2021; the Bolts defeated the Cinderella Habs in five games to repeat as champions.

It's been tough for the Bolts since then. They did return to the Final in 2022, but after losing said Final, no playoff series wins since. There was talk about the run being over, but from the looks of things, the rumors of the Lightning's demise have been greatly exaggerated. What isn't exaggerated, however, is Nikita Kucherov's playoff performances as of late. Dating back to the 2022 Final, he's scored two playoff goals, and he hasn't scored a playoff goal in three years. Don't give me stuff like, "He's being unselfish and passing the puck"; if this was either Nathan MacKinnon or Mitch Marner, they'd get skewered. This guy's supposed to be a scoring dynamo and an MVP candidate, but he's gone three years without a playoff goal. I do expect that drought to end, though.

One player who definitely has no problem scoring goals: Cole Caufield. 51 goals this season, and I expect that same explosion to happen in the playoffs. Nick Suzuki also had a hell of a season, as he is part of this year's 100-point club. Lane Hutson is continuing to show out, as is Juraj Slafkovsky; I swear, this Habs team is somehow deeper than the team that reached the Final five years ago.

Metropolitan Division

If you think about it, technically, this is another Adams Division rivalry. I mean, yeah, the Ottawa Senators' only season in the old Adams was their expansion 1992-93 season, but they were there battling the old Hartford Whalers, who are now the Carolina Hurricanes. However, these teams have never met in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Until now. Regarding the Hurricanes, if there's ever a time for them to have a long run, this is that time. This is their eighth straight playoffs, but their current stretch has seen the Final Four serve as a dead end three times, and in the last two, they were the best team remaining. I've said for the last two years that their window is pretty much closed, but finishing as the #1 team in the East does open it a crack. But if the Hurricanes don't win now, they may have to move some people, and maybe, just maybe, Rod Brind'Amour may be gone as head coach.

As for the Ottawa Senators, it didn't look like they'd be a playoff team again. Their appearance last year was amazing, but sadly, the Senators aren't exactly known for consistency. But this year, they persevered. They climbed the Wild Card ladder and managed to make it back for the second straight year. Brady Tkachuk continues to be the top player, though Tim Stutzle did have to hold things down with Brady out. This is a good appearance for Ottawa, but can they actually pull off an upset? We shall see.

Oh baby! I remember four years ago I was overjoyed when the second round of that year's playoffs gave us the Battle of Alberta. This year, we're getting the Battle of Pennsylvania; the Keystone State's two franchises--who have been division rivals for most of their shared 59 years together--will face each other in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the eighth time in their history. The Pittsburgh Penguins are back in the Sweet 16 after three years away, making it in their first year under new head coach Dan Muse. A lot changed in Pittsburgh, but three constants remain: Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and of course, Sidney Crosby. That is a very legendary core right there; together for two decades, and still kicking ass.

So that's the western half of the state. Regarding the eastern half of the state, there's the Philadelphia Flyers, and they made quite the surprising stretch. On March 10, the Flyers were nine points out of a playoff spot. They ended up going 14-4-1 in their final 19 games, and graduated out of the Wild Card standings and into the Metro's Top 3! Having players like Trevor Zegras and Matvei Michkov to go with Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, and Owen Tippett will do that.

As mentioned before, this is the eighth time that these in-state rivals will meet in the playoffs. The Flyers have won four of their previous seven meetings, but since the Penguins drafted Crosby, Pittsburgh won three of those last four meetings. This includes their last meeting in 2018, which was also the last time the Penguins won a series.

Central Division

Here we go! The Colorado Avalanche, 55 wins, 121 points, Presidents' Trophy winners. We better do something with this. This is quite a special season for us. It's our first full season with Gabriel Landeskog back in action. The last time Landeskog played a full season: 2021-22. We all know how that ended. Nathan MacKinnon finished as the goal scoring leader. We have two goalies who are keeping the puck out. Cale Makar is doing Cale Makar things. The only hiccup we have is our power play, but at least that's getting better... slowly.

As for the Los Angeles Kings, they are always interesting. Another team whose playoff hopes looked to be dead, until they weren't. Their reason for sputtering is a simple one: overtime. They played 33 OT games this year. That alone doesn't help you in the standings. Losing twenty of them makes it worse. Yet somehow, the Kings won the playoff logjam and got in for the fifth straight season, and this one is special to them, because after two decades, Anze Kopitar will call it a career. He was there for the bad times, and for the good times--the best ones being LA's two Cups.

This meeting takes me back; this is the third time that the Avs and Kings will meet in the playoffs. The previous two times came in 2001 and 2002. Both were seven-game wins for the Avs, with the 2001 being part of our Cup run, while 2002 was Peter Forsberg's first time playing that season.

Stars vs Wild, or as I call it, "Old Minnesota vs New Minnesota." That's one of three things I love about this matchup. Another is the emphasis on the color green, and the third, I get to see two teams I hate wear each other out. The Dallas Stars have a new coach, but the same problems: injuries at the wrong time, and a lot of inconsistency. I will repeat this yet again, because it bears repeating, plus I like twisting the knife when it comes to the Stars. Remember when they beat the Avs on March 18? All that talk about them passing the Avs and taking the division. Since then: 7-5-2, and they had to win their last five games to make that stretch respectable. Four of those wins were against non-playoff teams. Yeah, inconsistent.

As for the Wild, they look good. They actually look dangerous. Having Quinn Hughes to go with Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy will do it. Having Jesper Wallstedt emphasize the "WALL" part in his name will do it as well. Both he and Filip Gustavsson have been amazing in net for Minnesota (good grief, the Central is truly the Group of Death); so much so that I would think that the Wild are having a devil of a time wondering who should get the Game One start. I'll be honest, I think it should be Wallstedt, I think he's just a hair better than Gustavsson, and that is definitely NOT a slight against Gustavsson.

This is the third playoff meeting between these two division foes. The first time was in 2016, and I remember that one sadly because it was during the first round that Prince, one of the greatest musicians out there and a Minnesota native, passed away. I remember pulling for Minnesota to win Game Five so they can get Game Six on their home ice, where Prince would most likely be honored. A snippet of a Prince song played every time the Wild scored. Dallas won that game, though, and took the series, and also defeated the Wild in Round 1 in 2023.

Pacific Division

The only reason why this series interests me is because it's such a huge anomaly. For all intents and purposes, these two teams--the Vegas Golden Knights and the Utah Mammoth--debuted within the last decade. The Golden Knights, like it or not, raised the bar for expansion teams in 2017-18. We all know their story. They hit the jackpot (no pun intended) in the expansion draft, had a 100-point season, won the Pacific, and went all the way to the Cup Final that year. It turned into a stretch where they've now reached the playoffs in eight of their first nine seasons now, and they are looking to win their second Stanley Cup in a four year stretch.

Two teams have debuted since the Golden Knights joined the league, and the Utah Mammoth are the most recent of those two teams. And in their second year of play, and in their first season with an actual name, they have made it to the Sweet 16. Salt Lake City, the same city that hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics, will get Stanley Cup Playoff hockey for the very first time. And they have a good group in Dylan Guenther, Lawson Crouse, Clayton Keller, Karel Vejmelka, and Mikhail Sergachev. This should be an interesting one. It would be something if the Mammoth pulled off the upset against Vegas!

For the fifth straight year, the Edmonton Oilers face off against a Southern California team in Round 1, but it's not the Los Angeles Kings. It's the one in Orange County, the Anaheim Ducks, the one who can actually beat the Oilers in the playoffs. Boy, did the Oilers really sputter into the playoffs. Here they are, the back-to-back defending West champions, and they look cooked. They don't know if Leon Draisaitl will be back, they still have the goaltending problems they've had for about five years now, and they have not been to red hot. But hey, we have to give it to them, at least this 2024 and 2025 Cup Final team actually made it back.

The Ducks being in the playoffs this year is amazing. It's been eight years since they made it, and they do look good even though they did some sputtering of their own. It's youth that's leading the way for the Ducks: Cutter Gauthier, Beckett Sennecke, along with veterans like Troy Terry and Chris Kreider. Lukas Dostal is a total beast in net. He, alone, gives me enough of a reason to believe that Anaheim could eliminate Edmonton.

This is the third meeting between the two teams. Their first meeting was the 2006 West Final that the Oilers (an #8 seed) easily won. Meeting #2 came in the 2017 Pacific Final, which the Ducks won in seven.

Schedule and Telecasts

For the fifth straight season, it's ESPN and Turner airing the first round in the US, while Sportsnet has it all in Canada. Also, for the first round only, US-based RSNs will also cover their teams' games, and with the NBA changing their playoff coverage and making all rounds national TV exclusive, the NHL currently serves as the only league that allows US-based RSNs to air any part of the playoffs. The start dates for the eight Division Semifinal series are spread out, but not as much as last year. On Saturday, both Metro series and Central 2 (Wild/Stars) start. Sunday will see our series, both Atlantic series, and Pacific 1 (Mammoth/Knights) start, and Pacific 2 (Ducks/Oilers) starts Monday. And with WrestleMania being in Vegas again, that means Game One of that Vegas series will clash with the main event. I am absolutely ready for this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs; I've been ready for a month and a half! It's going to be a great race to award the greatest trophy in sports: the Stanley Cup!