observer_reporter
Last season, the Carolina Hurricanes captured the Stanley Cup with a playoff performance unmatched since the late 1980s, and now they return as the team everyone is aiming to beat. "It kind of gives you something to chase after," said Montreal's Cole Caufield, who scored 51 goals last year.
Challengers from across the league are lining up to take down Carolina. The Florida Panthers, who won back-to-back titles not long ago, welcome back captain Aleksander Barkov from injury and have added Brady Tkachuk to skate alongside his brother Matthew. The Tampa Bay Lightning remain strong in the East, with several young teams emerging, while the Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, Vegas Golden Knights, and Edmonton Oilers continue to dominate the West.
This season, all 32 teams will play two additional games before the playoffs start in April, marking the first expansion of the regular season in over thirty years. The total number of games will reach 1,344, the most in NHL history, before 16 teams compete for the coveted Cup. "You're just trying to build momentum," said Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog. "You're trying to make your team better every single day. And then at the end of the day, you'll see where you stack up and if you can play your best hockey at the most important time of the year."
Carolina Sets the Standard
The Hurricanes finally broke through in their eighth straight postseason appearance after a series of heartbreaking exits. Their 16-3 playoff record is second only to Wayne Gretzky's 1988 Oilers, who went 16-2, since the four-round, best-of-seven format was adopted in 1987. With the exception of goaltender Frederik Andersen, Carolina returns nearly the same roster and appears to be the class of the Metropolitan Division after running away with it last year. Defenseman Jaccob Slavin doesn't see being the target as a major adjustment for him and his teammates, who have the most total wins in the league since Rod Brind'Amour became coach at the start of the 2018-19 season. "I feel like multiple years in a row, teams know that going to Carolina or when Carolina comes in, it's going to be a hard night," Slavin said. "Teams always have been giving us their best for years now, and winning the Cup just adds to that."
Florida is Back
Before torn ligaments in Barkov's right knee and a rash of other high-profile injuries ruined the Panthers' last season and caused them to miss the playoffs, they had won the Stanley Cup in back-to-back years in 2024 and 2025 as part of three consecutive trips to the final. They got extra rest after so much time on the ice took a toll and had a chance to reset. The core of Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett, Anton Lundell, Gustav Forsling, and Aaron Ekblad remains intact, bolstered by Brady Tkachuk, Seth Jones, Brad Marchand, and new goaltenders Jacob Markstrom and Akira Schmid. Florida is favored to win a third championship in four years. "Of course that's our dream, that's our goal, but for us it's always been a day at a time," Barkov said. "We don't think too much ahead. We only live in the moment, try to live in a moment. And that's what it is. Of course we added unreal players, we added real leaders to our team and we're really excited about that."
Western Conference is a Gauntlet
The best player in the world, Connor McDavid, has now played 11 NHL seasons without winning the Cup, including a gut-wrenching Game 7 loss in the 2024 final against Florida and a six-game Final loss to the Panthers the following year. This may be one of the last chances for the Oilers to show him they can do it; McDavid signed a two-year extension through 2028 without a raise to give management salary cap space—and a deadline—to figure it out. Edmonton is turning to Mike Babcock to lead the way, much to the surprise of franchise icon and five-time champion Mark Messier, who questioned the old-school taskmaster coach getting the endorsement of McDavid and other leaders. "I am absolutely shocked they hired him," Messier, now an ESPN analyst, said on a conference call Wednesday. "I'm absolutely shocked from the stories that I heard from very good, reputable, character people about the way they were treated. It's been no secret. I am just horrified about the whole thing, to be honest." To bring the Cup back to Canada for the first time since 1993, the Oilers almost certainly have to go through the defending Western Conference champion Golden Knights and a Central Division power like the Avalanche, Stars, or Wild. Dallas is hoping to bounce back from a first-round exit against Minnesota. Colorado, which won it all in 2022, has one more season before standout defenseman Cale Makar begins the richest contract in league history, while he, Nathan MacKinnon, and others are still firmly in their prime. "Pressure is a privilege, and it has to be embraced," Landeskog said. "It's not to say that you go every single day of the regular season and wake up thinking, 'Oh, it's Cup or bust.' But I think you're aware of it. You know where your team's at. Everybody knows it." Nobody knows which team will be the last one standing in June. The puck will drop more times than ever before figuring out hockey's next champion.
Originally reported by observer_reporter.