The NHL playoff field included some unexpected entrants, and the first two rounds featured some surprises and a handful of upsets.
Yet as things stand right now with the conference finals beginning Tuesday night, the teams still in contention for the Stanley Cup are a familiar mix of those who have been fighting for it the past few years.
The West final is a rematch of this same round last year with the Dallas Stars facing the Edmonton Oilers. The defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers are in the East final for a third consecutive spring after beating Toronto in Game 7 of their series and next face the Carolina Hurricanes with these teams meeting at this stage for the second time in three years.
“We’ve already been in a conference final, and we know what’s going to happen there,” said Carolina’s Andrei Svechnikov, whose eight goals are second in the postseason to only Mikko Rantanen. “It’s not going to be easy there.”
Nothing is easy this time of year. But some team is eight wins from hoisting the Cup.
East: Carolina vs. Florida
Game 1: Tuesday at Carolina (8 p.m. EDT, TNT)
The Panthers trailed the Maple Leafs two games to none, then lost their first chance to move on. They made no such misstep Sunday night, waxing Toronto to set up a rematch of the 2023 East final.
That was a sweep, with Florida winning each time by a goal: Game 1 in four overtimes, Game 2 less than two minutes into OT, Game 3 1-0 and Game 4 when Matthew Tkachuk scored with 4.9 seconds left. The banged-up Panthers lost to the Golden Knights in the final but learned lessons that helped them win it all last year.
The Hurricanes, who beat New Jersey without best player Jack Hughes in the first round and suffocated Washington in the second, get the benefit of rest having played just 10 games this postseason.
“You hope it’s a value,” coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “There definitely is something to that.”
There is also something to Carolina being overlooked each year, dogged by a string of disappointing exits. But this team is one Igor Shesterkin goaltending showcase away from being in the East final for a third spring in a row.
The Hurricanes have allowed the fewest goals a game in the playoffs, thanks to Frederik Andersen’s play in net and a penalty kill clicking at a top-ranked 93.3%. Their first line of Svechnikov, Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis has also been stellar.
But they’ve also played with a bit of a chip on their shoulder without names-on-the-marquee star power.
“I don’t know if this team gets maligned or this and that because we don’t have an (Alex) Ovechkin: We don’t have the greatest goal scorer of all time,” Brind’Amour said. “And we don’t have a (Nathan) MacKinnon or all these superstar kind of players. We have a little different mix, and we think we do have those kind of players — they just do it a little differently. Every team counts on all their players, but I think we definitely need everyone to contribute, and that’s what you’re getting right now.”
West final: Dallas vs. Edmonton
Game 1: Wednesday at Dallas (8 p.m. EDT, ESPN)
Katy Perry was scheduled to be on tour at the Stars’ arena on Wednesday night. Instead, it will be Corey Perry and the Oilers.
Edmonton has rolled since opening the playoffs with a pair of losses at Los Angeles, getting back to the third round thanks to an unlikely combination of defense and goaltending. And, oh yeah, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl have combined for 33 points, too. No big deal.
The Oilers won the West final last year in six games, with Stuart Skinner putting up a 1.91 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage and the Stars’ Jake Oettinger a 2.56 and .901. Oettinger has been a rock this playoffs to get Dallas through Colorado and Winnipeg and now has the chance to show he can carry a team into the final.
“The guys that hadn’t had any experience, we have all the experience in the world now,” Oettinger said. “It’s up to us as a group to take that next step, and I think we should feel great about what we’ve done with the adversity we’ve faced. I think our best hockey is yet to come.”
Pete DeBoer has now coached a team into the third round for the sixth time in seven years. He was fired twice in that span, by San Jose and Vegas.
To play for the Stanley Cup that has eluded him, the Stars need to flip the script on the Oilers, with McDavid and Draisaitl also motivated 11 months since falling one game short of hockey’s hallowed trophy.
“You’ve got two hungry teams that have been really close and haven’t gotten there yet,” DeBoer said. “It’s going to be a battle of wills here.”
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AP Sports Writer Stephen Hawkins in Dallas contributed to this report.
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
