And Then There Were Four

Now that we’ve seen the all-too-familiar Toronto Maple Leafs vanquished in a Game 7 and the Presidents’ Trophy-winning squad eliminated early (this time the Winnipeg Jets), the Stanley Cup Playoffs have reached the conference finals.

These should both be doozies — even with all four division champs ousted in the second round.

In the Eastern Conference final, the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers — the lowest-seeded team remaining of the final four — face the Carolina Hurricanes. It’s a rematch of the 2023 clash to reach the Final, which Florida won in a four-game sweep, albeit needing quadruple overtime in the series opener, overtime in Game 2, and one-goal victories in the last two clashes.

In the West, the Edmonton Oilers and Dallas Stars meet in the third round for consecutive years. Edmonton won in six games a year ago, closing out the series with three consecutive wins.

Here’s a look at why all four teams are capable of advancing to the Final amidst what was a fantastic first two rounds of the Stanley Cup chase.

Florida Panthers

The champions until they are unseated, the Panthers made short work of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round but appeared on the ropes when they dropped the first two games against the Maple Leafs before finding their form.

Florida is looking for a third consecutive trip to the championship round, and arguably has a more complete team than a year ago — especially with its third line of Brad Marchand, Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarainen, who have combined for 10 goals, more than the Aleksander Barkov-led top line.

Carolina Hurricanes

Andrei Svechnikov, who missed the 2023 playoffs and last meeting with Florida due to a knee injury, has scored eight goals — second only to Mikko Rantanen of the Dallas Stars — while the Hurricanes dispatched both the Montreal Canadiens and conference champion Washington Capitals in five games.

The oddsmakers are picking the Panthers, but don’t gloss over the fact that Carolina boasts the best team goals-against average and penalty kill to this point in the playoffs — in large part because goaltender Frederik Andersen has a league-best 1.36 goals-against average and .937 save percentage.

Dallas Stars

Dallas arguably has gone through the toughest opposition to reach this point, first beating the Colorado Avalanche in seven games and then taking out the Jets in six.

The kicker is that Dallas has not been clicking on all cylinders. Not only have the Stars been outscored 38–34, but while Rantanen has been a dominant force, Jason Robertson and Matt Duchene have both failed to score a goal. Key will be for Dallas to continue boasting lights-out special teams. The Stars also have the better goaltender in the series in Jake Oettinger.

Edmonton Oilers

We all know how the Oilers boast the game’s best offensive dynamic duo in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. A huge difference from the past is the supporting cast, with the likes of Corey Perry (five goals), Evander Kane (four goals), Connor Brown (four goals) and Adam Henrique (three goals).

The other new aspect of the Oilers is their much-improved defensive play, especially after the first few games of their six-game opening-round series with the Los Angeles Kings. Edmonton’s defense — which is expected to receive a huge boost with Mattias Ekholm returning from injury this round — has been a huge factor as the team won eight of its last nine games and closed out the Vegas Golden Knights with consecutive shutouts.