{"id":321263,"date":"2026-04-19T16:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T11:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=321263"},"modified":"2026-04-19T16:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T11:28:10","slug":"nhl-stanley-cup-playoffs-begin-with-3-canadian-teams-in-contention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/04\/19\/nhl-stanley-cup-playoffs-begin-with-3-canadian-teams-in-contention\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Stanley Cup playoffs begin with 3 Canadian teams in contention"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div data-article-socialshare=\"true\">\n<div id=\"article-fontSizer\" class=\"c-fontSizer\">\n<p>\n\t\t<button class=\"c-fontSizer__button c-fontSizer__button--decrease c-button c-button--details c-button--mini\" data-trackable=\"true\" data-trackaction=\"Font Sizer Decrease Font\" data-tooltip-title=\"Decrease text size\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"sr-only\">Descrease article font size<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<svg class=\"c-icon  c-fontSizer__icon\" focusable=\"false\">\n\t\t<use xlink:href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/wp-content\/themes\/shaw-globalnews\/assets\/dist\/icons\/out\/symbol\/svg\/sprite.symbol.svg?v=03zxzk4qx#font-decrease\"><\/use>\n\t<\/svg><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/button>\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t<button class=\"c-fontSizer__button c-fontSizer__button--increase c-button c-button--details c-button--mini\" data-trackable=\"true\" data-trackaction=\"Font Sizer Increase Font\" data-tooltip-title=\"Increase text size\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"sr-only\">Increase article font size<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<svg class=\"c-icon  c-fontSizer__icon\" focusable=\"false\">\n\t\t<use xlink:href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/wp-content\/themes\/shaw-globalnews\/assets\/dist\/icons\/out\/symbol\/svg\/sprite.symbol.svg?v=03zxzk4qx#font-increase\"><\/use>\n\t<\/svg><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/button>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>Hockey fans across Canada lean into excitement because the NHL playoffs begin Saturday, with three Canadian teams set to compete for hockey\u2019s top prize, the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n<p>The Ottawa Senators opened the playoffs on the road against the Carolina Hurricanes, marking the primary Canadian appearance on this yr\u2019s post-season.<\/p>\n<p>The Montreal Canadiens are scheduled to start their run Sunday against the Tampa Bay Lightning, while the Edmonton Oilers are set to open their series Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The Oilers, led by considered one of the league\u2019s most potent offences, are widely seen as Canada\u2019s strongest contender heading into the post-season.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-inlineSignup\" data-newsletter-inline=\"\">\n<div class=\"c-inlineSignup__image\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/wp-content\/themes\/shaw-globalnews\/images\/skyline\/national.jpg\" alt=\"Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won't miss a trending story.\">\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"c-inlineSignup__content\">\n<h2 class=\"c-inlineSignup__title\">Get breaking National news<\/h2>\n<p>Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox because it happens so you will not miss a trending story.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The team, led by a high-powered offence featuring Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, enters the playoffs after struggling through the regular season and deep recent runs, including a visit to the Stanley Cup final the last two years.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-ad c-ad--bigbox l-article__ad\">\n<p>Story continues below commercial<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Sixteen teams qualify for the playoffs, with the format based largely on divisional standings and wild-card spots.<\/p>\n<p>The highest three teams in each division earn automatic berths, while the remaining 4 spots go to the subsequent highest-ranked teams in each conference.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-tabs\">\n<p>\n\t\t\t<button role=\"tab\" class=\"c-tabs__tab c-tabs__tab--active\" type=\"button\">More on Sports<\/button><br \/>\n\t\t\t<button role=\"tab\" class=\"c-tabs__tab\" type=\"button\">More videos<\/button>\n\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Each round is played as a best-of-seven series, with teams needing 4 wins to advance.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/news\/topic\/playoffs\/2026-nhl-stanley-cup-playoffs-predictions-by-nhl-com-staff\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">In a poll by NHL.com<\/a>, just one expert predicted a Canadian team would reach the ultimate, with the Canadiens losing to the Vegas Golden Knights.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately for Toronto Maple Leafs fans, Canada will likely be without representation from its largest hockey market this yr, after the team was eliminated from playoff contention.<\/p>\n<p>The opening weekend also features several U.S.-based matchups, including Dallas hosting Minnesota and Pittsburgh facing Philadelphia on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The playoffs will proceed Sunday and Monday as the total first-round schedule gets underway.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\n\t\t&#038;copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Descrease article font size Increase article font size Hockey fans across Canada lean into excitement because the NHL playoffs begin Saturday, with three Canadian teams set to compete for hockey\u2019s top prize, the Stanley Cup. The Ottawa Senators opened the playoffs on the road against the Carolina Hurricanes, marking the primary Canadian appearance on this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":321264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[6333,24739,1060,649,2751,9246,730],"class_list":["post-321263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-canadian","tag-contention","tag-cup","tag-nhl","tag-playoffs","tag-stanley","tag-teams"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321263"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321266,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321263\/revisions\/321266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}