The battle of Ontario, the battle of Florida and some dandy first round playoff matchups.
Yes, the National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup playoffs begin Saturday night.
Five Canadian teams, the Winnipeg Jets, Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens, qualified for the postseason.
We know one Canadian team will move onto the second round because two of them are playing against each other..
For the first time since 2004, Toronto takes on Ottawa in the battle of Ontario. The Maple Leafs are (16-8) all-time against the Senators in the playoffs.
Elsewhere in the East, Montreal meets Alex Ovechkin and Washington. These two teams have only played seven times in the playoffs with the Habs holding a (4-3) record against the Capitals who feature former Brock Badgers goaltender Logan Thompson who is trying to return from an upper body injury.
It’s Carolina and New Jersey, as former Niagara IceDog Dougie Hamilton, who now calls St. Catharines home, returned from injury Wednesday night in the Devils regular season finale.
And it doesn’t get much better than the battle of FLA – Florida – as former IceDogs captain Carter Verhaeghe and the Panthers will puck it up with the Lightning. This best of seven series features two of the best goaltenders in the world in Andrei Vasilevskiy for Tampa Bay and Sergei Bobrovsky for Florida.
To the west, and two series that could go the distance sees Winnipeg taking on St. Louis, while Colorado faces Dallas.
First to the Jets, who for the first time in franchise history captured the President’s Trophy finishing first overall – that’s a lot of firsts – with 116 points.
Winnipeg netminder Connor Hellebuyck will win the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goaltender, and might even win the Hart Trophy as the league Most Valuable Player.
St. Louis enters the playoffs on a roll since essentially the all-star break. This series could go the distance.
Edmonton will try once again to get back to the Stanley Cup finals, but the Los Angeles Kings finished with 105 points and are the hottest team in the west
(8-2 over their last 10 games) entering the postseason.
Hard to believe that a team that features Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl could bow out in the first round, but the Kings are that real in 2025.
Believe it or not this is the fourth straight year these two teams have met in the postseason but it’s the first time Los Angeles has home-ice advantage.
Another former Niagara IceDogs captain Akil Thomas played in 24 regular season games for the Kings this past season.
The Stars/Avalanche series features two of the favorites to hoist the Cup come June. Both teams finished the regular season with over 100 points.
Another former Niagara IceDog Jason Robertson is a question mark to start the playoffs with a lower-body injury for the Stars.
Former Niagara IceDogs captain Alex Pietrangelo and the Vegas Golden Knights meet the Minnesota Wild in the west’s final series.
Sixteen teams will try to win 16 games and capture the Stanley Cup.
There’s nothing like playoff hockey.
Rod Mawhood is a lifelong Niagara native who has had the pleasure of working in all three mediums – Radio, Print and TV – for over 20 years. His first announcing gig was with the then St. Catharines Stompers. Since then he’s worked in radio and TV in Toronto, and currently is the announcer for the Niagara IceDogs and Niagara River Lions.
Rod also covers the Buffalo Bills for FOX Sports and the Buffalo Sabres for NBC Sports.
