Hughes vs. Makar, Carolina’s Cup quest, and the biggest storylines to watch in Round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs
The Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning’s Game 7 bout on Sunday night was a fittingly unusual send-off for a conference quarterfinal round that brought even more chaos than usual.
With major comebacks like the Buffalo Sabres’ three-goal third period explosion in their first home playoff game in 15 years, surprise heroes like the Canadiens’ rookie goalie Jakub Dobes, and classic playoff antics like the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins’ Game 3 melee, it’s no wonder fans (and certain experts) revel in the chaos of Round 1.
There’s no rest for the weary in this sport, though, no time to recall the first round with too much sentimentality when the second has already begun; the conference quarterfinal and semifinal round overlapped for two days as Philadelphia and the Carolina Hurricanes kicked off their Round 2 series on Saturday night, with the Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche following suit on Sunday.
The games won’t stop rolling in, and though we’ve already had a hint as to whether Carolina can overwhelm Philadelphia or the Wild and Avalanche can live up to their heavyweight billing, other storylines that bear watching from series that haven’t begun yet, like the Canadiens unshakeable demeanor and the Anaheim Ducks’ new defensive ace. Read on to find out which on and off-ice developments to look out for as the Stanley Cup Playoffs roll into Round 2.
Hughes and Makar offer a true superstar showdown
It feels disingenuous to bill a playoff series in the ultimate team game as a matchup between two individual superstars. The risk of false advertising increases when both parties are defensemen. They won’t meet in the faceoff dot, nor will they joust at the net front. It would be even more disingenuous, though, to call the second-round matchup between the Colorado Avalanche and Minnesota Wild anything but a titanic clash between Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes, the two best blue liners on the planet.
Hughes was expected to elevate the Wild from playoff also-ran to Stanley Cup contender when Bill Guerin traded for him in December, and he has delivered thus far; the mercurial puckmover was crucial to the Wild’s dismissal of the rival Dallas Stars, collecting eight points, a +9 rating, and, most impressively, logging a freakish 31:40 ATOI. Makar didn’t have to elevate his game for the Avs to cruise past the hardworking but overmatched Kings, but historic dominance comes standard with the NHL’s ultimate dynamo (26 G, 89 P in 84 career playoff games).
The clash of styles between Hughes, who keeps more of the puck than anyone, and Makar, who needs the disc for mere seconds to create magic, seems to leave only enough room for one of them to truly succeed. In Game 1, Hughes fired the opening salvo by peppering the scoresheet with three points only for Makar, who had been hobbled by a heavy first-period check from Marcus Foligno, to fire home a pair of wristers during a frenetic 9-6 victory. While Hughes and his Wild teammates try to think of a way to slow this superheavyweight bout to a pace they can control, the rest of us ought to just enjoy the ride.
Are the Anaheim Ducks contenders ahead of schedule?
The Ducks’ paltry 92-point finish betrays the streakiness they battled throughout the regular season. Their relentless volume-shooting attack, engineered by coach Joel Quenneville and spearheaded by young guns Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier, nonetheless made them a scary team to stop for long stretches. Defense, though? The only fans scared of the Ducks’ defense lived in Orange County. It stood to reason, then, that the Edmonton Oilers would shred Anaheim in their first-round matchup. The Oil boasted the league’s best power play, the league’s best player in Connor McDavid, and an undefeated record in Western Conference series dating back to 2023.
For the Ducks to handily beat the Oilers in their first playoff appearance in eight years, they’d need to burn Edmonton’s shoddy goaltending early and often to outscore their own porous ‘D.’ When the Ducks did handily defeat the Oilers, it’s true they led all playoff teams in goals per game by half a tally (4.33) and sizzled to a preposterous 50% conversion rate on the man advantage. It’s also true that Anaheim, which so often got lost in its own high-event style during the regular season, reached a new level as a defensive club.
Quenneville hard-matched Jackson LaCombe, the mobile leader of the Ducks’ blue line, to a dinged-up McDavid at every opportunity. LaCombe responded by eating the best in the world alive at five-on-five (6-2 game score, 67.30% expected goals share vs. McDavid), all while piling up eight points of his own. Fellow former MVP Leon Draisaitl didn’t fare much better against LaCombe (26.76% expected goals share vs. LaCombe). If this was a coming-out party for LaCombe, already a well-regarded two-way rearguard, as a legitimate defensive eraser, the high-scoring Ducks just added a desperately needed extra layer to their game. Can the lanky Minnesotan repeat the trick on Vegas star Jack Eichel?
The Hurricanes are set up well to cash in on a favorable Eastern bracket
Over the past 12 years, countless fans have complained to the NHL that its 2 vs. 3 playoff format punishes competitive divisions in the name of rivalry, parity, and other buzzwords from commish Gary Bettman. One fanbase that has been happy to accept the controversial format at face value is in Raleigh, North Carolina, where the Hurricanes’ ascension to perennial contender status has coincided with a general lack of competition from an aging, flabby Metropolitan Division that tends to serve up softballs.
The Philadelphia Flyers are neither aging nor soft. Still, even after knocking off the rival Pittsburgh Penguins to continue a surprise playoff return, they are tailor-made for Carolina to blitz. Rick Tocchet’s team is an overachieving group whose greatest success comes from its teamwide commitment to structured defensive play. Led by mainstays Sebastian Aho, Jaccob Slavin, and Jordan Staal, Rod Brind’Amour’s Canes have spent the past eight seasons hammering that same style into a science. Just as you wouldn’t outjab Larry Holmes, you won’t outwork the Hurricanes.
The Ottawa Senators, another tight-checking team with more heavy ordinance than Philadelphia, learned that the hard way as Carolina swept them out without ever trailing. The Flyers began their own education during Game 1 with a comprehensive 3-0 defeat. Once again, the bracket is coming up Canes, especially if the fearsome matchup taking shape on the Atlantic side of things (more on that later) wears both teams out. Carolina’s best chance to take advantage is another quick KO that will keep Frederik Andersen fresh in goal. The veteran Dane (5-0, .961 SV%, 2 SO) can still turn it on come playoff time if he’s not overworked.
The Bell Centre has forged the unflappable Canadiens
As the Tampa Bay Lightning desperately struggled to tie up one of the stranger Game 7s in recent memory, Benchmark International Arena’s PA speakers blasted Mötley Crüe, Metallica, and, perhaps most effectively, Kevin James’s Daytona 500 introduction to rile up the home crowd. The Floridians never achieved the sort of volume the visiting Montreal Canadiens would endure on their own ice on a random Tuesday in November. Such is life at the Bell Centre, the Mecca of Montreal’s rabid hockey cult.
Perhaps that’s why Habs’ goalie Jakub Dobes is already an ice-cold killer after all of 66 NHL starts. Dobes says he approaches “every game … like a Game 7.” In front of 20,000 screaming Habs fanatics, his imagination doesn’t usually need to stretch too far. The netminder isn’t the only member of this young outfit who possesses maturity beyond his years. During last night’s game, when Montreal could do little right (outshot 29-9 in a 2-1 victory), there was no panic from the Canadiens as the star-studded Lightning mounted a final push to save their season.
Buffalo’s KeyBank Center has just about registered on the Richter Scale during the Sabres’ first three home games since returning to the dance. Still, can the Swords really count on their building being an advantage against the team with one of the truly great (and truly insane) home atmospheres in any sport? It might lack the mythic, spectral aura of the old Forum, but the Bell Centre nonetheless provides its home team a seven-month crash course in what the playoffs will sound like. Against Tampa, it might have overstated things.
The price for Alex Tuch just went up – and no one in Buffalo is complaining
It isn’t news that Alex Tuch is an excellent hockey player. Consistent 30-goal scorers with active defensive sticks don’t grow on trees, not least of all in a 6’4” power forward’s frame. Still, Tuch’s status as the undisputed king of the 2026 UFA class has more often been used to lament the decimation of a July 1 feeding frenzy that might have seen Jack Eichel, Kirill Kaprizov, or even Connor McDavid change teams than to pump Tuch’s tires.
Perhaps that will soon change. Through a round, Tuch looks more like a star than a consolation prize. The brawny winger wrecked the Boston Bruins’ ability to exit their zone, hounding their defenseman with a level of physicality he’d seemingly kept in reserve for this stage. Scoring in four of the six contests while averaging over 21 minutes of ice time, Tuch led the way for Buffalo more so than 40-goal linemate Tage Thompson or even superstar captain Rasmus Dahlin. The Syracuse native might have tacked an extra $5 million+ to his next contract in the process.
Neither his bosses nor the Western NY faithful will bother to worry about the salary cap (or even the risk of Tuch walking) so long as he keeps the good times rolling for a franchise that had to wait 15 long years to return to the postseason and 19 to win a round. Things won’t get any easier for the second-seeded Sabres against a battle-hardened young Canadiens team, though Montreal’s lightweight backline would nonetheless do well to watch out for No. 89 in blue.