NHL bracket finalized
The NHL regular season wrapped and the 2026 Stanley Cup playoff bracket was finalized after Thursday’s finales, with first‑round games starting this Saturday. ( ) The Western opener includes a Dallas–Minnesota series, and Seattle missed the postseason after losing 10 of 11 down the stretch. ( )
The National Hockey League playoff bracket is set, and the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs open Saturday, April 18, with three Game 1s. (nhl.com) The official bracket shows eight first-round series: Buffalo-Boston, Tampa Bay-Montreal, Carolina-Ottawa and Pittsburgh-Philadelphia in the East; Colorado-Los Angeles, Dallas-Minnesota, Vegas-Utah and Edmonton-Anaheim in the West. (nhl.com) Saturday’s opener starts with Ottawa at Carolina at 3 p.m. Eastern, followed by Minnesota at Dallas at 5:30 p.m. Eastern and Philadelphia at Pittsburgh at 8 p.m. Eastern, according to the league’s Game 1 schedule. (nhl.com) The bracket locked in after the regular season ended Thursday night, turning a final week of seeding races into fixed matchups and home-ice assignments. The National Hockey League said the complete first-round schedule would follow the regular-season finish, and the postseason now begins two days later. (nhl.com) Colorado enters as the Presidents’ Trophy winner after finishing with the league’s best regular-season record, while Carolina won the Metropolitan Division and Buffalo won the Atlantic Division. Those division titles put Carolina and Buffalo on the top line of the Eastern bracket, with Colorado on the top line in the West. (nhl.com, nhl.com, nhl.com, nhl.com) The field also looks different from a year ago. The league said Anaheim, Boston, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Utah all returned to the playoffs after missing the 2024-25 postseason, a six-team turnover that ranks as the second-highest in National Hockey League history. (nhl.com) Seattle is out again after missing the playoffs for a third straight season. National Hockey League.com said the Kraken were eliminated April 11, then closed with a six-game skid from March 28 to April 7 in which they went 0-5-1 and averaged 1.67 goals. (nhl.com) That late collapse left Seattle on the outside while the Western bracket filled in around Colorado, Dallas, Vegas and Edmonton. The first puck of the postseason is now scheduled for Saturday afternoon in Raleigh, with the full first round underway by Monday, April 20. (nhl.com, nhl.com)
