Which 2025 playoff team is under the most pressure right now?
It’s been a strange season in the Eastern Conference, with only a select few teams able to build separation above the playoff cut line in the Tampa Bay Lightning, Carolina Hurricanes and Detroit Red Wings.
Only three teams who were in last year’s eight-team playoff field are currently in the picture right now (Carolina, Tampa Bay and the Montreal Canadiens) leaving five teams who expected to be at the very least strong contenders to return to the playoffs on the outside looking in.
On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by Daily Faceoff Managing Editor and Senior Writer Matt Larkin to discuss which teams that made the playoffs a year ago are currently facing the most pressure to get back in the dance in the spring of 2026.
Carter Hutton: With 30 games remaining… there’s five teams in the East that were playoff teams last year that aren’t now. Of those five, who has the most pressure on them? When you talk about, Toronto, Panthers, Devils, Caps and Ottawa. Five teams right now are not in the playoffs that were last year. I think that is a big topic in the East because of the parity and how close it is.
Matt Larkin: I don’t know if this would be everybody’s answer. I think it’s the Ottawa Senators. You look at how much pressure was on them to finally make the playoffs, especially to keep their captain happy, Brady Tkachuk. They finally get through after a seven-year layoff between playoff games… And if after all that, you take a big step back and now you’re a non-playoff team again? I think that’s an absolute disaster for a team that was supposedly on an upward trajectory. They’re still a very good defensive team… They have not gotten the goaltending. I think their offense has been a little bit underwhelming… To just go backward when you’re supposedly coming out of the darkness, I think it’s a really tough pill for the fan base to swallow. It’s a really tough pill for Brady Tkachuk to swallow.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…