WASHINGTON — Hockey's Stanley Cup Playoffs begin Saturday.
It's a tall order to live up to last year's dramatic seven-game final. But the pieces are in place for an entertaining playoffs, with contenders for first-time Stanley Cup winners and generational stars looking for a last trophy to cap off their career.
The puck drops on the first round with a pair of games on Saturday and three more to follow Sunday. And with no New York, no Boston and no Chicago in the mix, it's a chance for smaller(-ish) markets to shine — including the NHL's smallest market, Winnipeg, whose Jets finished with the best record in the league and head into the playoffs with a top seed.
Here's who to watch for:
The Washington Capitals
Pre-season expectations were low, low, low for the Washington Capitals last fall.
In October, the Athletic gave the Caps only an 18% chance of making the playoffs — and less than a 1% likelihood of earning more than 110 points. Franchise cornerstone Alex Ovechkin turned 39 and had just posted the second-lowest goal-scoring season of his career. The only two other remaining pieces of the roster that won the Stanley Cup in 2018 — winger Tom Wilson and defenseman John Carlson — also looked to be past their primes.
Instead, Washington has blown those expectations out of the water.
The Capitals have the best record in the Eastern Conference. Ovechkin has the fourth-most goals in the league, and his chase for Gretzky's all-time career goals record energized the whole team. Younger players like Dylan Strome, Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas have all played the best seasons of their careers.
Yet now that the Ovi-Gretzky chase is over and the playoffs are nigh, there is cause for concern. The Caps have slumped. Injuries and perhaps a post-chase energy comedown have contributed to losses in eight of their last 12 games.
"It's like, has this chase drawn too much out of them, or has this raised their game to another level and they're just kind of patiently waiting now to start playing playoffs and ramp it back up again?" said ESPN analyst P. K. Subban, who played 13 seasons in the NHL.
No team ever wants to enter the playoffs on a cold streak, yet that's exactly where the Capitals are. Now they'll look to shake it off in a first-round matchup against the Montreal Canadiens.
The Tkachuks
Whether you see Tkachuks as the heroes or the villains might depend on your national allegiance … or your political persuasion. But it's undeniable that last February's 4 Nations Face-Off, the NHL's wildly successful replacement for an All-Star Game, propelled the two brothers from hockey stars into actual stars.
Both Tkachuks — Matthew, of the Florida Panthers, and Brady, of the Ottawa Senators — were already big names in the hockey world. And as Americans with six NHL All-Star Game appearances between them, they were locks for Team USA.
The 4 Nations Face-Off began just a couple weeks after President Trump's inauguration. When Team USA traveled to Montreal to play Canada, the Canadian fans showered the arena with boos as the Star-Spangled Banner was sung. And Matthew Tkachuk "didn't like" that, as he said later, and the moment the puck hit the ice, he dropped his gloves to fight a Canadian player. Brady did the same moments later. It was an electric moment for hockey. (The U.S. won that game, which was the most-viewed non-Olympic hockey game ever in the U.S. But Canada got the last laugh when it won the final in overtime.)
Ahead of the final, Matthew Tkachuk told ESPN that he viewed 4 Nations as more important than the previous year's Stanley Cup Final between his Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers, which went to seven games. "Even comparing it to last year's game, this feels bigger. It feels bigger than Game 7," he said.
For both Tkachuk brothers, the spring has been a bit of a comedown since then. Matthew sustained a lower-body injury during the 4 Nations event that has sidelined him for the past 25 games. And Brady has dealt with an injury of his own that has caused him to miss eight games.
But both are set to return in the playoffs. Matthew's Panthers open with a first-round matchup against fellow Floridians, the Tampa Bay Lightning. And Brady's Senators will take on the Toronto Maple Leafs in a "battle for Ontario."
No matter the results, get ready to see them back with Team USA next February in the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Winnipeg's first Stanley Cup?
Winnipeg is a long-suffering hockey town.
The first iteration of its NHL team, the Jets, played in town from 1979 to 1996 — and never won a Stanley Cup, or even advanced past the second round of the playoffs. Then, the team packed up and moved to Arizona, and Winnipeg went without an NHL team until 2011. When the new version of the Jets arrived in town, local fans were so hungry for an NHL team that tickets to the home opener went for $1,000 or more.
Yet this new version of the Jets hasn't won a Stanley Cup, either. And it's not because the team has been bad: They've reached the playoffs in seven of the past eight seasons.
This year, the Jets finished 56-22-4, the best record in hockey. And the pressure is on to deliver. A mere appearance in the Stanley Cup Final would be the best result in franchise history, new or old.
One player to know: The Jets' hopes rest, in large part, on the shoulders of goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who leads the NHL in both wins and save percentage. No team allowed fewer goals all season than the Jets. (Hellebuyck was another star for Team USA in the 4 Nations Faceoff.)
"The kind of year that he's stitched together for himself this year is really, really, really impressive," said Mark Messier, the six-time Stanley Cup champion who is now an analyst for ESPN. "And it hasn't been all Hellebuyck. They've played excellent structurally. They've got great scoring, timely scoring, depth at position."
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