TONY’S TAKE – 2026 STANLEY CUP PLAYOFF SECOND ROUND PREVIEW
- Tony Fiorello
- May 4
- 8 min read
by Tony Fiorello
It’s the most wonderful time of the year.
Typically that’s a phrase one would hear around Christmas. But for hockey fans, there’s no better time of year to enjoy the game than the playoffs. With storylines galore and the intensity at an all-time high, witnessing 16 teams battling for the right to lift Lord Stanley’s Cup is a sight to behold.
Throughout the postseason, Buffalo Sports Page will provide you with series previews and predictions from the start of round one through the finals. Previews will become more in-depth as the playoffs roll along, but for now here is our analysis of the second round:
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Buffalo Sabres vs. Montreal Canadiens – Buffalo’s talents can be seen on a nightly basis. Three-time 40-goal scorer Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin are finally getting their due as two of the NHL’s best players (Dahlin has been mentioned by some as a potential Norris Trophy candidate). Alex Tuch and Ryan McLeod are two-way dynamos, especially when killing penalties for a team that needed six games to upend the Boston Bruins.
Josh Doan, Jack Quinn, Jason Zucker and Josh Norris – when healthy – have provided timely secondary scoring up front along with Bowen Byram and Mattias Samuelsson on the back end (Samuelsson is finally healthy after some injury-marred campaigns). Zach Benson, Peyton Krebs and Beck Malenstyn give the Sabres some snarl and grit and the trio of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Alex Lyon and Colten Ellis have been reliable in net. Luukkonen is finally starting to deliver on the promise that he showed when Buffalo drafted him in 2017 and Lyon has allowed just five goals in five appearances this postseason. Which is something no other Sabres goaltender has ever done, and that includes the likes of Dominik Hasek and Ryan Miller.
The Montreal Canadiens, led by coach Martin St. Louis, general manager Kent Hughes and president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton, are in the playoffs for a second consecutive season. Led by holdovers from the 2021 roster that reached the Final like Brendan Gallagher, Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Phillip Danault and Josh Anderson while blending in new faces such as Lane Hutson, Juraj Slafkovsky, Ivan Demidov, Noah Dobson and Mike Matheson, the Habs certainly don’t lack talent. Sam Montembeault lost his the starting job in net to Jakub Dobes, and while neither had an outstanding regular season Dobes had an impressive performance in goal during the team’s seven-game series against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
While the two teams are comparable in goals for (Buffalo fifth, Montreal seventh) and goals allowed (Buffalo 10th, Montreal 16th), special teams have been uneven. The Canadiens were 10th on the power play but a mediocre 18th on the penalty kill, meanwhile the Sabres were just 20th on the man-advantage yet fifth in killing penalties.
PREDICTION
Sabres in six. This will be the seventh time these division rivals have met in the Stanley Cup Playoffs (both teams have split the prior six meetings, Buffalo’s series wins came in 1998, ’83 and ’75 while Montreal was the victor in 1991, ’90 and ‘73) and they’re also two of the three youngest teams in the NHL in terms of average age. While the Habs have played well enough to get this far, we don’t think their depth can match Buffalo’s nor will their goaltending hold up for a second straight playoff round.
Carolina Hurricanes vs. Philadelphia Flyers – While guys like Travis Konecny, Trevor Zegras, Sean Couturier, Owen Tippett, Christian Dvorak, Travis Sanheim and coach Rick Tocchet have helped the Flyers get hot since the beginning of March, they’re a relatively young bunch – Zegras and other key contributors Matvei Michkov, Jamie Drysdale, Porter Martone and Cam York are all 25 and younger, and their special teams have stunk all season (not to mention they were just 21st in scoring and employ the NHL’s worst power play). In goal they’re held down by ex-Calgary Flame Dan Vladar, and they needed just six games to topple the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round.
The ‘Canes – second in goals scored, fifth in goals allowed – are paced by the usual suspects up front (Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, Seth Jarvis) along with newcomer Nikolaj Ehlers and Shayne Gostisbehere averaged nearly a point per game from the blue line (Jaccob Slavin, the team’s best defender, has had an injury-marred season). Goaltenders Frederik Andersen and Brandon Bussi split starting duties during the regular season but Andersen has reclaimed the job in the postseason with some stellar performances in net – helping the ‘Canes sweep the Ottawa Senators in the process.
PREDICTION
Hurricanes in five. Carolina has better special teams play (the Hurricanes were fourth and 11th on the power play and penalty kill, respectively), plus coach Rod Brind’Amour’s smothering defensive system and general manager Eric Tulsky’s superior roster will win out here against Flyers general manager Daniel Briere’s bunch. The ‘Canes will reach the Eastern Conference Final for the fourth time in the last eight years.
WESTERN CONFERENCE
Colorado Avalanche vs. Minnesota Wild – The Colorado Avalanche have been one of hockey’s best teams for years and are coming off a President’s Trophy-winning campaign as the NHL’s best regular season squad. Paced by all-world talents Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Martin Necas, they’re supported by solid players like Gabriel Landeskog, Brock Nelson, Brent Burns, Devon Toews, Nazem Kadri, Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen. The pair of Scott Wedgewood and Mackenzie Blackwood have split duties in goal.
Coach Jared Bednar’s Avs accomplished the rare feat of leading the NHL in both goals scored and goals allowed. They also had the league’s best penalty kill, however general manager Chris MacFarland and president of hockey operations Joe Sakic’s roster was curiously just 27th on the power play. Those didn’t matter in the first round of the playoff though, as they swept the Los Angeles Kings in four straight games.
Minnesota, meanwhile, has been knocking on the door for a few years but hasn’t been able to break through in postseason play. Some of hockey’s most talented athletes in Kirill Kaprizov, Quinn Hughes, Matt Boldy, Mats Zuccarello and Brock Faber call the State of Hockey home and have helped the Wild finish 10th in scoring (third on the power play) and fourth in goals against (16th on the penalty kill). Jesper Wallstedt and Filip Gustavsson have shared time in the crease, yet Wallstedt has grabbed the reigns in the playoffs for coach John Hynes and general manager Bill Guerin while knocking off the Dallas Stars in six games.
PREDICTION
Avalanche in seven. While this could be the year the Wild break through, ultimately we believe Colorado’s championship experience wins out here against a franchise that hasn’t gone to a conference final since 2003.
Vegas Golden Knights vs. Anaheim Ducks – The firing of Cup-winning coach Bruce Cassidy in exchange for veteran John Tortorella has seemed to light a fire underneath the Golden Knights, as they rallied to win their division after slumping late in the season and have defeated the Utah Mammoth in six games. Backed by excellent talent in Mitch Marner, Mark Stone, Jack Eichel, Ivan Barbashev, Pavel Dorofeyev, Shea Theodore, Tomas Hertl, Noah Hanifin and Rasmus Andersson, Vegas is typically in the thick of things as a contender year in and year out. Middle of the pack in goals scored and allowed, general manager Kelly McCrimmon and president of hockey operations George McPhee’s squad also has special teams units that are ranked in the league’s top-10. Carter Hart, Akira Schmid and Adin Hill have all gotten playing time in goal but Hart has been Tortorella’s choice as the man between the pipes since the playoffs began.
Anaheim is back in the playoffs for the first time in eight years and has accumulated some talented players during their rebuild under general manager Pat Verbeek. 40-goal scorer Cutter Gauthier, Leo Carlsson, Beckett Sennecke, Mason McTavish and Jackson LaCombe are some of the NHL’s best young guns and are accentuated by veterans who have been there and done that. A few of those names include Troy Terry, Chris Kreider, Mikael Granlund, Jacob Trouba, Alex Killorn, John Carlson and captain Radko Gudas, and Lukas Dostal has emerged as coach Joel Quenneville’s starter in net. 13th in scoring, Anaheim was fourth-worst in defending, 27th on the penalty kill and 23rd on the power play but they overcame those poor marks to upset the two-time defending Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers in six games.
PREDICTION
Golden Knights in six. While the Ducks have an up-and-coming roster, they haven’t proven they can go deep into postseason play. Meanwhile the majority of Vegas’ lineup was with the team when they won the Cup three years ago – that battle-tested experience should help them immensely at this time of year.
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