What I know About Each Remaining Playoff Team

Seven Cup hopefuls remain! More like two.

Happy Tuesday, hockey fans.

We’re several pucks deep into the second round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and Things Are Happening.

The top-seeded Avalanche and Hurricanes are exuding Top Seed Energy. The Sabres’ power play has returned from the war, but it might be too late against the relentless Canadiens. The Pacific Division remains pathetic.

I thought it would be a good time to take stock of what I know about each remaining playoff team.

Carolina Hurricanes

What I know: This is the best Hurricanes team to emerge in this window, and it’s not by chance

Plenty of us have looked at the Hurricanes over the past few years and thought: “If not now, when?” We’ve fairly criticized them for choking in the conference finals, we’ve emphasized the need for more star-power, more depth scoring, and better goaltending.

I’ll give us this: eight years is a mighty long time to keep making the playoffs with no Cup to show for it — especially after so many years of not making the playoffs. There’s going to be a sense of urgency to get it done.

Plus, the human brain loves to cling onto a pattern. The terrible showings in the ECFs are what we in the biz call “a pattern.”

Thing is, the Canes have been chipping away at improving the roster year after year, and we’ve been — perhaps — a hair too impatient, desperate and/or anxious to truly see it. It’s also been a slow burn: a K’Andre Miller here, an initially disappointing Mikko Rantanen-for-Logan Stankoven there, an evolving Seth Jarvis there.