With the regular season nearly over, the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs are about to begin, and the Eastern Conference will feature a guaranteed new Cup Finalist.
These playoffs feature teams ranging from preseason favourites to surprise playoff berths. There are plenty of great matchups, but here are my five favourite potential matchups.
Pittsburgh Penguins Against the Edmonton Oilers
This matchup is something I’m dying to see. Whether either team actually reaches the Cup Final is a different story, but there are several storylines that run throughout this matchup.
First things first, we have Sidney Crosby against Connor McDavid in a seven-game series. I never thought we’d have a chance to see that unless Crosby was traded out of Pittsburgh, based on where the Penguins were at before the season began.
Now, they rank 10th in the league in expected goals for percentage (xGF%) and locked up home ice in the first round of the playoffs.
If this matchup were to happen, we’d have Crosby going after his fourth Cup and making a serious case to be a top-three player ever. On the other side of the ice, McDavid will be in his third straight Cup Final, looking to build his legacy towards one of the greatest players of all time.
Another storyline we’d be looking at is both Tristan Jarry and Stuart Skinner playing against the teams they were traded from. Skinner is going to be the starter headed into the playoffs for Pittsburgh, while we may have to wait for Connor Ingram to lose the starting job before Jarry gets a chance in goal.
This would be a legacy matchup between one of the all-time greats against the most talented player to ever play the game. On top of that, there is history between each goaltender and their old teams.
Buffalo Sabres Against the Dallas Stars
The Buffalo Sabres have finally snapped their NHL record 14-season playoff drought. One of the biggest scars from a fanbase that has gone through the most misery in potentially all of North American sports is the foot in the crease goal.
The Sabres lost the 1999 Stanley Cup Final in Game 6 to one of the most controversial goals in NHL history to the Dallas Stars. Brett Hull banged in a rebound past Dominik Hasek in triple-overtime with his foot dragging through the crease, which was notoriously against the rules at the time.
If we get a rematch from that Cup Final, the first time the Sabres make the playoffs in nearly a decade and a half, I think it would be an unbelievable storyline.
Now focusing more on the current day storylines, both teams are capable of scoring at high clips and have studs on the blue line. Being able to watch Rasmus Dahlin and Miro Heiskanen playing big minutes in a best-of-seven series would be absolutely fascinating.
Sabres head coach and potential Jack Adams Award winner Lindy Ruff would also be coaching against his former team. The whole Sabres season is a crazy storyline that has pretty much headlined the NHL season, and getting a rematch that is part of such a big moment in NHL history would be fantastic.
Montreal Canadiens Against the Edmonton Oilers
For American readers, the all-Canadian matchup isn’t interesting, and I completely understand that, but as a Canadian, it is a storyline.
The Cup hasn’t made its way to Canada since 1993, when the Montreal Canadiens beat Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings in five tight games. The last time we had an all-Canadian matchup was back in 1989 when the Calgary Flames defeated the Canadiens in six games.
Related: 3 Keys for the Canadiens Against the Lightning in the Playoffs
Although this matchup is very Canada-centric, it would still be a spectacular series hockey-wise. Both teams are so fun to watch with unbelievable weapons on the offensive side of the puck.
I already discussed the McDavid legacy point earlier, so we don’t need to go over that again, but if Montreal makes the Cup Final in their breakout year, we could potentially be looking at another juggernaut in the Eastern Conference.
This season has felt like a transitional year in the NHL with teams like Montreal, Buffalo and Anaheim emerging. It would feel kind of perfect for a new team to take hold of the Eastern Conference after years of the state of Florida dominating.
Carolina Hurricanes Against the Dallas Stars
The Carolina Hurricanes and the Stars would be the matchup of two teams who can’t make it over the hump. The Hurricanes have consistently been one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference during the regular season over the past six seasons.
They have also made the Eastern Conference Final three times in the last seven seasons. They have a great coach and highly skilled players, but they have had trouble breaking through in the latter rounds against teams like the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers.
Dallas is different in terms of how they’re built. They have the star power and goaltending that the Hurricanes don’t have, but what is similar between the two is being fantastic in the regular season but struggling to get over that final hump in the playoffs.
The Stars have been great in the regular season, making the playoffs in six of the last seven seasons. They’ve earned three Western Conference Final appearances and one Stanley Cup Final appearance in that stretch.
A Cup Final between these two teams would not only give us an elite quality of hockey but would also have two teams looking to reverse the narrative surrounding their teams.
Tampa Bay Lightning Against the Colorado Avalanche
This matchup is just two of the best teams in the league. It would also be a battle between two Hart Trophy candidates in Nathan MacKinnon and Nikita Kucherov.
The Colorado Avalanche have been the clear-cut best team in the Western Conference since the start of the season. They’re nine points clear of the second-place Stars, and MacKinnon has scored a career high 53 goals.
Although they didn’t win the Atlantic Division, Tampa battled through injuries to some of their most important players and still captured home ice advantage in the first round against Montreal. Kucherov has already tied a career high of 44 goals in just 75 games played this season and has paired it with 86 assists for 130 points.
Both teams have also shown the ability to go on deep runs; in fact, this would be a rematch of the 2022 Stanley Cup Final, where the Avs won in six games. Both these teams are star-studded, and it would make a fantastic seven-game series.
These playoffs are shaping up to have some unbelievable matchups. There are so many new teams and players that we’re going to get to see in the playoffs; it’s an exciting time to be a hockey fan.
