The 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs have arrived, and 16 of the NHL’s top teams will once again hit the ice to take their shot at hoisting the Stanley Cup itself in June.
The NHL has one of the longest postseasons in professional sports, and it can be difficult to keep up with where and when your favorite teams are set to play. Here’s a complete guide to the whole 2026 NHL Playoffs schedule. Plus, we’ll break down some of the biggest storylines leading into the postseason, and who the favorites to win it all are.
Don’t forget: You can watch the 2026 NHL Playoffs every day on DIRECTV! Sign up today and start watching all the action on the ice.
When Do the Stanley Cup Playoffs Start in 2026?
The 2026 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs are set to begin on April 18, 2026. They’ll conclude with the Stanley Cup Final in mid-June 2026.
Key Postseason Dates in 2026 NHL Playoffs
Here are the key dates in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for 2026:
First Round: April 18- May 3
Second Round Starts: May 6
Conference Finals Start: May 22
Stanley Cup Final: June 3 – 21
2026 NHL Playoffs Teams: Which Teams Made the Stanley Cup Playoffs This Year?
Sixteen of the NHL’s best teams, eight from each conference, make the Stanley Cup Playoffs each year. Here’s the field for the 2026 NHL playoffs.
2026 Eastern Conference Playoff Teams
Atlantic Division
- Buffalo Sabres (108 points)
- Tampa Bay Lightning (106 points)
- Montreal Canadiens (106 points)
Metropolitan Division
- Carolina Hurricanes (113 points)
- Pittsburgh Penguins (98 points)
- Philadelphia Flyers (98 points)
Wild Card Teams
- Boston Bruins (100 points)
- Ottawa Senators (97 points)
2026 Western Conference Playoff Teams
Central Division
- Colorado Avalanche (119 points)
- Dallas Stars (110 points)
- Minnesota Wild (104 points)
Pacific Division
- Vegas Golden Knights (93 points)
- Edmonton Oilers (91 points)
- Anaheim Ducks (90 points)
Wild Card Teams
- Utah Mammoth (92 points)
- Los Angeles Kings (90 points)
Full 2026 NHL Playoff Schedule
Here’s the complete NHL Playoffs schedule. Games 5-7 will be scheduled as they become necessary.
2026 NHL Playoffs Round 1 Schedule
Eastern Conference
Boston Bruins vs. Buffalo Sabres (Buffalo leads 3-1)
- Game 1: Buffalo 5, Boston 2
- Game 2: Boston 4, Buffalo 2
- Game 3: Buffalo 3, Boston 1
- Game 4: Buffalo 6, Boston 1
- Game 5: April 28 — 7:30 p.m. on TNT
- Game 6: May 1 — TBD
- Game 7: May 3 — TBD
Montreal Canadiens vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (Series tied 2-2)
- Game 1: Montreal 4, Tampa Bay 3 (OT)
- Game 2: Tampa Bay 3, Montreal 2 (OT)
- Game 3: Montreal 3, Tampa Bay 2 (OT)
- Game 4: Tampa Bay 3, Montreal 2
- Game 5: April 29 — TBD
- Game 6: May 1 — TBD
- Game 7: May 3 — TBD
Ottawa Senators vs. Carolina Hurricanes (Hurricanes wins 4-0)
- Game 1: Carolina 2, Ottawa 0
- Game 2: Carolina 3, Ottawa 2 (2OT)
- Game 3: Carolina 2, Ottawa 1
- Game 4: Carolina 4, Ottawa 2
Philadelphia Flyers vs. Pittsburgh Penguins (Flyers lead 3-1)
- Game 1: Philadelphia 3, Pittsburgh 2
- Game 2: Philadelphia 3, Pittsburgh 0
- Game 3: Philadelphia 5, Pittsburgh 2
- Game 4: Pittsburgh 4, Philadelphia 2
- Game 5: April 27 — 7 p.m. on ESPN
- Game 6: April 29 — TBD
- Game 7: May 2 — TBD
Western Conference
Los Angeles Kings vs. Colorado Avalanche (Avalanche wins 4-0)
- Game 1: Avalanche 2, Kings 1
- Game 2: Avalanche 2, Kings 1 (OT)
- Game 3: Avalanche 4, Kings 2
- Game 4: Avalanche 5, Kings 1
Minnesota Wild vs. Dallas Stars (Series tied 2-2)
- Game 1: Minnesota 6, Dallas 1
- Game 2: Dallas 4, Minnesota 2
- Game 3: Dallas 4, Minnesota 3 (2OT)
- Game 4: Minnesota 3, Dallas 2 (OT)
- Game 5: April 28 — 8 p.m. on ESPN2
- Game 6: April 30 — TBD
- Game 7: May 2 — TBD
Utah Mammoth vs. Vegas Golden Knights (Utah leads 2-1)
- Game 1: Vegas 4, Utah 2
- Game 2: Utah 3, Vegas 2
- Game 3: Utah 4, Vegas 2
- Game 4: April 27 — 9:30 p.m. on ESPN
- Game 5: April 29 — TBD
- Game 6: May 1 — TBD
- Game 7: May 3 — TBD
Anaheim Ducks vs. Edmonton Oilers (Anaheim leads 3-1)
- Game 1: Edmonton 4, Anaheim 3
- Game 2: Anaheim 6, Edmonton 4
- Game 3: Anaheim 7, Edmonton 4
- Game 4: Anaheim 4, Edmonton 3 (OT)
- Game 5: April 28 — 10 p.m. on TNT
- Game 6: April 30 — TBD
- Game 7: May 2 — TBD
2026 NHL Playoffs Bracket
Here’s the bracket for the 2026 NHL postseason:
Eastern Conference
- Buffalo Sabres vs. Boston Bruins
- Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Montreal Canadiens
- Carolina Hurricanes vs. Ottawa Senators
- Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Philadelphia Flyers
Western Conference
- Dallas Stars vs. Minnesota Wild
- Vegas Golden Knights vs. Utah Mammoth
- Colorado Avalanche vs. Los Angeles Kings (likely)
- Edmonton Oilers vs. Anaheim Ducks (likely)
Which Teams are Favorites to Win the Stanley Cup in 2026?
Currently, the Colorado Avalanche, Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightning are favored to win the Stanley Cup in 2026.
Odds as of 4/16/2026
- Colorado Avalanche (+300)
- Carolina Hurricanes (+475)
- Tampa Bay Lightning (+500)
- Vegas Golden Knights (+900)
- Dallas Stars (+1000)
- Edmonton Oilers (+1300)
- Ottawa Senators (+1300)
- Buffalo Sabres (+1400)
- Minnesota Wild (+1800)
- Pittsburgh Penguins (+2500)
- Montreal Canadiens (+3500)
- Utah Mammoth (+3500)
- Boston Bruins (+5500)
- Los Angeles Kings (+6000)
- Philadelphia Flyers (+7000)
- Anaheim Ducks (+8000)
Top 2026 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs Storylines to Follow
The Stanley Cup is widely regarded as the hardest trophy to win in all of professional sports, and for good reason: Teams who hope to hoist the Cup must enduring a seven-month regular season, then battle through four grueling rounds of playoffs hockey. The play in the NHL postseason is often far more physical than in the regular season, and games do not end in shootouts, occasionally forcing teams to endure four or five consecutive overtimes, then play again a day or two later.
Only the best, grittiest and most driven teams make it to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Here are some of the most interesting storylines to watch for this time around.
Buffalo Sabres snap their playoff drought
Poor Buffalo, New York and is resident NHL club, the Sabres, have had to endure a 14-year absence from the postseason, the longest active playoffs drought in the NHL. That dry spell came to an exciting end this season, when the Sabres rose from the ashes of what many thought would be another lost season to punch their ticket to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and as the top seed in the Atlantic Division, no less. Much of their success can be credited to a midseason front office shake up and the performance of their superstars, like Tage Thompson, Rasmus Dahlin and head coach Lindy Ruff on the bench.
Ottawa Senators continue to develop as a contender
Buffalo’s neighbors just north of the border, the Ottawa Senators, are themselves loaded with talent, including captain Brady Tkachuk, who won gold in the 2026 Winter Olympics as a member of Team USA, forward Tim Stutzle, defenseman Jake Sanderson and goaltender Linus Ullmark. They’ve used it to lock in a second consecutive playoff run in the East. To make a push for the Cup, however, they’ll have to get past the Carolina Hurricanes, the top seed in the East who went 2-1 against Ottawa this season.
Anaheim Ducks find redemption under Joel Quenneville
Anaheim is another team that has struggled in recent years, missing the playoffs each season since 2018. That all changed this season, when the legendary Joel Quenneville, one of only two coaches to win over 1,000 career games in the NHL, the other being the even-more-legendary Scotty Bowman. Anaheim was the fastest team in the league this year, and they locked up the third seed in the Pacific on the backs of their younger players, including Cutter Gauthier, Leo Carlsson and Beckett Sennecke.
Utah Mammoth impresses in second season in Salt Lake City
Our final Cinderella story of 2025-26 is the Utah Mammoth, who have joined the Vegas Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken to reach the playoffs in only their second year of existence: the Arizona Coyotes relocated to Salt Lake City and rebranded to the Utah Hockey Club in 2024-25, taking on the Mammoth name this season.
Boston Bruins hit the jets on their rebuild
Following a mass exodus of long-time fixtures, including Brad Marchand, Charlie Coyle, Brandon Carlo and Trent Frederic, most fans and experts expected the B’s to enter a rebuild period. What they didn’t expect was that the rebuild would only take a single offseason. Veteran goaltender Jeremy Swayman provided the stability in net necessary for the rest of the bench to go to work, with Morgan Geekie and Fraser Minten emerging as key centerpieces. Now, Boston holds the first Wild Card spot in the East, and they’ll face Buffalo in the first round.
Vegas Golden Knights gamble on an eleventh-hour coaching change
Vegas made a surprise change at head coach towards the very end of the regular season, jettisoning the Stanley Cup-winning Bruce Cassidy in favor of John Tortorella with just eight games remaining. That change already seems to be paying off: VGK went 6-0-1 during Tortorella’s first seven starts and locked up the division. They’ll take on the Utah Mammoth in round one.
Can the Carolina Hurricanes get over the Conference Final hump?
The Carolina Hurricanes have been knocking on the door of the Stanley Cup Final for the better part of the last half decade under head coach Rod Brind’amour, who won a championship with the Canes in 2006, but multiple runs have been stymied at the last minute in the Conference Final. Most of those eliminations came at the hands of the Florida Panthers, who are absent from their year’s post-season after winning back-to-back Cups, which bodes well for Carolina. They’ll still have to potentially face the Tampa Bay Lightning or Montreal Canadiens, two teams they have struggled against this season, to make it to the Final, and that’ll be with questions around the quality of their goaltending.
Will three times be the charm for Edmonton?
Speaking of the Panthers, the Edmonton Oilers were on the losing end of both of their consecutive titles, and they’ll be hungry for a third trip to the Stanley Cup Final this year — especially without their newfound bitter rival in the East in the mix. Edmonton’s lineup includes Connor McDavid and plenty of other serious firepower, making them a constant threat.
Could this be Sidney Crosby’s swan song?
The Pittsburgh Penguins are back in the playoffs, and this run could very well be 38-year-old NHL legend Sidney Crosby’s last ride. But if it is, he’s got a good chance of making it a deep one: the Penguins face the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round — a team Crosby has scored against more than any other in the league over the course of his career. With veteran Evgeni Malkin also rumored to be mulling retirement, the Pittsburgh locker room could look vastly different next season.
Watch the 2026 NHL Playoffs on DIRECTV
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