NHL playoffs begin Saturday
The 2026 NHL Stanley Cup playoffs kick off on Saturday, April 18, marking the start of first‑round Game 1s across the league. (usatoday.com) The regular season finished with final games on April 16 and teams moved straight into seeded matchups for the weekend slate. (sportingnews.com)
The National Hockey League playoffs open Saturday, April 18, with three first-round Game 1s and the rest of the bracket starting by Monday, April 20. (nhl.com) Saturday’s opener is Ottawa Senators at Carolina Hurricanes at 3 p.m. Eastern, followed by Minnesota Wild at Dallas Stars at 5:30 p.m. Eastern and Philadelphia Flyers at Pittsburgh Penguins at 8 p.m. Eastern. The league said all three games will air on ESPN in the United States, with Sportsnet and TVA Sports carrying them in Canada. (nhl.com) The bracket shows Buffalo Sabres vs. Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Montreal Canadiens, Carolina vs. Ottawa, and Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia in the East. In the West, Colorado Avalanche draw the second wild card, Dallas faces Minnesota, Vegas meets Utah Mammoth, and Edmonton opens against Anaheim. (nhl.com) The field changed sharply from a year ago. The league said Anaheim, Boston, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Utah all returned after missing the 2024-25 postseason, a six-team turnover that ranks as the second-highest in National Hockey League history. (nhl.com) The matchups also reflect how the regular season finished on Thursday, April 16. Colorado led the Central with 121 points, Vegas won the Pacific with 112, Carolina topped the Metropolitan with 113, and Buffalo won the Atlantic with 109. (espn.com) Several series carry long arcs into this spring. Tampa Bay reached the playoffs for a ninth straight season, tied with Colorado for the league’s longest active streak, while Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin enter their 16th postseason with Pittsburgh. (nhl.com) Utah is the new wrinkle in the bracket. The league said Utah will become the 23rd state to host Stanley Cup Playoffs hockey and is one of the rare post-expansion clubs to qualify within its first two National Hockey League seasons. (nhl.com) By Monday night, every first-round series will be underway. After an 82-game regular season, the playoffs now shift to best-of-seven series that run through June’s Stanley Cup Final. (nhl.com)
