The NHL playoff field is set, and it is time to fill out the bracket. Every series, every pick, one Stanley Cup winner.
Dallas over Montreal in the Stanley Cup Final is where I am landing. Getting the Canadiens there is probably the hottest take on the board, and I make the case for why this young Montreal team is more dangerous than people are giving them credit for heading into the postseason.
But that is not the only bold call in here. Dallas beating both Minnesota and Colorado to get out of the Central would be a gauntlet run that not many people are predicting. And I have both Vegas and Edmonton losing in the first round, which is going to make a lot of people in two very passionate hockey markets want to argue with me in the comments.
I am ready for it. Let me know where I got it most wrong.
#NHLPlayoffs2026 #NHLPlayoffPredictions #DallasStars #MontrealCanadiens #EdmontonOilers #VegasGoldenKnights #MinnesotaWild #ColoradoAvalanche #NHLBracket2026 #StanleyCupFinals2026 #NHL2026 #HockeyTwitter #StanleyCupPredictions #CouchPotatoDiary #PeterKlein
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Dallas over Montreal in the Stanley Cup Final is where I am landing. Getting the Canadiens there is probably the hottest take on the board, and I make the case for why this young Montreal team is more dangerous than people are giving them credit for heading into the postseason.
But that is not the only bold call in here. Dallas beating both Minnesota and Colorado to get out of the Central would be a gauntlet run that not many people are predicting. And I have both Vegas and Edmonton losing in the first round, which is going to make a lot of people in two very passionate hockey markets want to argue with me in the comments.
I am ready for it. Let me know where I got it most wrong.
#NHLPlayoffs2026 #NHLPlayoffPredictions #DallasStars #MontrealCanadiens #EdmontonOilers #VegasGoldenKnights #MinnesotaWild #ColoradoAvalanche #NHLBracket2026 #StanleyCupFinals2026 #NHL2026 #HockeyTwitter #StanleyCupPredictions #CouchPotatoDiary #PeterKlein
🎧 Listen on: Apple https://apple.co/49NGm2L | Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3QgazeHcSKSteZbBIubcuM?si=icY7NEBvT7yZadv_JFlT6Q
💬 Follow for live breakdowns: X.com/primetimepk | Twitch.tv/primetimepk | Kick.com/primetimepk
🔗 Support the Show:
- Tip Jar: https://streamelements.com/couchpotatodiary/tip (fuels more content!)
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SportsTranscript
00:00it is the best time of year for hockey fans the stanley cup playoffs are here and we have some
00:05unreal matchups for round number one let's dive in let's make our picks to see who's
00:12going to the stanley cup final or at least the second round anyway
00:23all right so it is playoff bracket time so going to uh just quickly here pull up what we're looking
00:33at and uh yes so the the bracket here um i definitely need to change this overlay a little
00:38bit but that's fine we will uh we will work with that as uh as this kind of goes along
00:43here uh but
00:45uh all right let's dive right in shall we um just a second i just want to see this is
00:52being a little
00:53bit weird on me oh no that is not what i wanted to do but it's working anyway so we're
00:57fine uh okay
00:58so uh round number one this one i i don't think we have to put a lot of thought into
01:03this colorado
01:04was a better hockey team than the la kings are now la has shown that they can be pretty good
01:09defensively they've obviously shown that they're good at playing in one goal games setting the record
01:14for most overtime games played in the nhl but colorado is just better and i i just i don't see
01:23the kings being able to slow down colorado enough nor do i see the kings being able to score enough
01:27to be able to hang with the avalanche and a big piece of this is colorado getting healthy right now
01:34and i do think having and i guess we'll see about cadre but having macar have a bit of time
01:41off there
01:42to work his way back into nhl shape and then to see how nhl shape he was um especially the
01:48couple
01:49of those rushes against the calgary flames i i feel like having those guys have a bit of a break
01:54is actually going to help because this has been a absolute grind to get to this marathon that is the
02:02stanley cup playoffs and i i think having him get a little bit of that break is going to be
02:06helpful
02:06uh so i do i like the colorado avalanche there and i think they sweep them i like the avalanche
02:11in four up next probably the series of the second round with all due respect to the folks out east
02:16uh but probably the series of the second round is the dallas stars taking on the minnesota wild there
02:23is absolutely a world where this is a western conference final in a different setup i know colorado
02:31is the cream of the crop but these two teams make no mistake about it are elite high level hockey
02:36teams and there isn't a whole lot that separates this two or these two sorry dallas a little bit
02:43banged up on the the blue line with heiskanen dealing with um dealing with some things i still
02:49like this forward group for dallas and this is like breaking down this matchup i like so much of what
02:55minnesota has going on right like kaprizov obviously um you have a couple of electric players
03:01on that blue line and you have a very good tandem between the pipes but i kind of like what
03:07dallas has
03:07going just a little bit more i like the dallas forward group just a little bit more than minnesota's
03:12i think there's just a little bit more high level depth that dallas can rely on compared to what
03:17minnesota has going for it um minnesota not a one-line team by any stretch of the imagination
03:23but they are closer to that than dallas is and the the dallas young players they have been in these
03:28spots before and they have been able to succeed to a certain degree anyway i i like the dallas
03:34forward group just a bit more i think i do like minnesota's blue line especially after the quinn
03:38hughes acquisition just a touch more than what dallas has going on um there but it's very close
03:44and i i would take ottinger over the two goalies with minnesota so it's going to be a grind of
03:49a series
03:49but we are going to take the dallas stars here uh going chalk with our first two picks then down
03:55in the pacific division it is the vegas golden knights taking on the utah mammoth vegas winning
04:01the pacific division i i am still underwhelmed by this hockey team i still think that they have
04:07troubles with depth scoring they are going to need their high-end guys to be able to play like
04:13high-end players and i think they can but utah they are quick they are young they're explosive
04:20the melka might be the best goalie in this series if that's the case utah wins like vegas is going
04:25to
04:25need whether it's heart or whoever they're going to need them to step up and be the best goalie here
04:30if the melka is i i think utah wins and so i am i'm going the upset with this one
04:35i'm going to say
04:36the utah mammoth make their way into the uh the pacific final with a series win a close one seven
04:43over vegas and then we get down to what is going to be a really fun one with edmonton taking
04:49on
04:49anaheim obviously a lot of this series oilers and ducks focuses on the health of leon dreisaitl and
04:58what he is going to be able to give you anaheim has limped their way to the finish line it
05:04has not
05:04been great over the last little bit and if it were a veteran team you could say well you just
05:08gotta um they're just gonna flip a switch everything's gonna be fine i don't believe
05:14that to be the case with this duck side they are young and this like we said this has been
05:19a grind
05:19of a season kind of wearing on them a little bit i do think getting a little bit of extra
05:23time
05:23into monday is gonna help them but i i still i like a lot of pieces on this team though
05:29and i think
05:29if you could just stack them up side by side um like edmonton obviously has the two high
05:34level guys but anaheim there's a lot of talent on this forward group and they can beat you with
05:41their blue line but it's not a very good defensive team carlson there helps them out the thing that i
05:46think can turn this is dostal can steal a series for you not just games a series for you and
05:54i think
05:55he might there's absolutely some haterade happening here and oilers fans um don't don't fret not that i
06:01think you would but don't fret i picked against the oilers in every series of the um the playoffs
06:06last year and it went pretty well for you guys right up until the end so i have anaheim making
06:11it to the second round in a uh six game series so uh we have to break the games here
06:18uh i said
06:18colorado in four i went dallas in seven i went utah in seven and i'm gonna go anaheim in six
06:26so that
06:26is the western conference side of the bracket now let me just whoa nope that's not what i wanted to
06:32do uh let me just uh drag this oh great this is not going to work in the way that
06:37i want it to is it
06:38um okay so you get to see a little bit on the fly uh putting this together there we go
06:44uh so eastern
06:46conference side now we go with the buffalo sabers taking on the boston bruins buffalo phenomenal season
06:54winning the division boston i do think being slept on a little bit i you hear a lot of oh
06:59well and
06:59you know pasternak and all that it's like geeky scored 39 this year swayman could have got vesna
07:04votes in a different season and might still anyway um he's been very very good for them this year i
07:10just
07:10i i don't think they have the firepower to compete with what buffalo is going to be able to do
07:16um i do
07:18think that they're going to be able to steal a couple games in this series and it's going to be
07:22a very
07:22good learning experience for buffalo but i do have the sabers moving on to the eastern conference
07:27semi-final tampa bay taking on montreal the other marquee series of the first round and i don't think
07:34there's a whole lot separating these two teams the one thing that there would be is experience
07:38obviously that's on the tampa bay side i have loved how tampa bay's forward group has played i mean
07:43all season long kucherov again he's gonna get heart votes but i i really like lately the intensity that
07:50they have been able to ramp up with and how they've been able to play in those games but
07:53montreal when they've played here late in the season has been able to go step for step with
07:57those guys and they have maybe the most dangerous line in the nhl when you look at slafkowski suzuki
08:03and cole caulfield dobson being hurt sucks but they do have a lot of talent on that blue line to
08:10be able
08:10to backfill and i think dobich is playing some very good hockey right now i think it's montreal's
08:15time i'm going the habs um and we'll do the games here in a second but i'm going the habs
08:19in seven uh up next you got carolina taking on the ottawa senators i want to do the upset pick
08:26with
08:26ottawa so badly but this is still a good carolina team and i know that they have run into some
08:32problems at various points in the playoffs but they are very much made for this and i do think
08:40that they can play the ottawa style better than what ottawa can do the one x factor on both sides
08:45is between the pipes right like the the carolina goaltending situation has been inconsistent and not
08:51one that you can rely on in the playoffs for a very long time all mark has been wildly inconsistent
08:56this season when either is on both are very very good but when either is off it's incredibly
09:02debilitating i do think carolina just squeaks through but i think this is an absolute rock fight
09:07of a series and then we get down to the no one saw this coming portion of the bracket with
09:13pittsburgh taking on the philadelphia flyers um philadelphia you love what they've been able to do
09:19the thing that i like about this team is that it's spread out right like no one on their team
09:23got more
09:23than 70 points this season but a bunch got over like 45 or 50 like they just have had a
09:28lot of guys
09:29who are contributing and now porter martone stepping in and kind of doing the same thing just
09:34keeping up with the current of everything going on in philadelphia for pittsburgh this has been a
09:40tremendous job in team building for kyle dubis and how he's been able to just win a lot of small
09:47trades along the way building that depth up and now all of a sudden you have a pretty good hockey
09:53team going for you here the goaltending situation it is advantage philadelphia uh dan vladar has been
09:59excellent this season i saw a video saying like could vladar get heart votes that's too far uh but
10:05a fifth place vesna if you wanted to throw him in there absolutely he has been tremendous this year
10:10skinner playoff experience not all of it great but playoff experience i think advantage uh philadelphia
10:16there but the rest of it i just like pittsburgh more um i do like the penguins and i have
10:20them in
10:21five so quickly here um i got buffalo coming out of this one in six montreal in seven ottawa in
10:29seven
10:30and i have pittsburgh in five so those are my picks for the first round of the stanley cup playoffs
10:38let's get into the rest of the bracket here just really quick um we got buffalo taking on the
10:44montreal canadiens again a lot of firepower on both sides of this i think the check mark to me
10:53that is the decider is i like much and again like if i'm basing montreal beating tampa bay on
10:59dobich can steal it i kind of have to do it with buffalo as well um so i i think
11:04dobich would be able
11:05to steal this again i think montreal can match the buffalo firepower the crowds in this series would be
11:11nuts but i'm gonna go with montreal in that spot um carolina taking on the pittsburgh penguins this
11:18one is just a feel one every bit of anything i'm sure if i click this analysis tab um you
11:24could see
11:24like it is advantage well goals per game is uh pretty well right down the middle actually uh but
11:28it is advantage carolina on basically every aspect of this series it is just a feel that i i think
11:36that
11:37the the tight games that carolina thrives in i feel like going doing that against crosby malkin and
11:43all of those guys would just come back to bite them a little bit and there's a nostalgia field with
11:48it so i'm gonna go pittsburgh to win that one and make their way into the conference final montreal
11:55taking on the pittsburgh penguins again i just think montreal too much firepower too good between the
12:00pipes i if they're going to make it to this point i'm banking on dobich a lot here um and
12:04fowler
12:04potentially as well but i'm gonna go montreal on their way to the stanley cup final so now we take
12:11a look at the western portion of the bracket to kind of finish this off here colorado taking on
12:17the dallas stars um again tremendous series absolutely incredible i kind of like dallas here
12:26this is banking on heiskanen being healthy and back to normal by this point but again i just i think
12:33great trade deadline for colorado incredible high level talent that the avalanche have no question
12:38about it we're splitting hairs in this i feel like the scoring depth for dallas helps them out a touch
12:42and i i like ottinger i i like ottinger in this spot i know that there are some questions about
12:47him
12:48in the playoffs but i mean that's come in the conference finals against edmonton who have done
12:52that to a lot of goalies so i'm i'm picking dallas i'm picking dallas over colorado to get to the
12:57conference final and in again no one saw this coming utah taking on the anaheim ducks i think
13:04this would be anaheim's time uh utah a great run if they get into the second round and a lot
13:08to build
13:08on same for anaheim a little bit more experience on the anaheim side i trust the goaltending more
13:13so i'm going to go with the ducks to win that one conference final dallas taking on the anaheim ducks
13:20this is where the anaheim run comes to an end dallas too good too strong too quick too talented
13:25i think that they can just kind of out ducks the ducks so i would have dallas winning what i
13:30think
13:30would probably be a pretty quick series and then you get to the cup final um dallas taking on the
13:35montreal canadiens and i have the dallas stars as your 2026 stanley cup champions so uh we don't have
13:45to answer the tiebreaker question right now that's how i have it dallas taking on montreal i'm sure
13:49there's at least 15 fan bases that would disagree with me on this one where are you guys where did
13:54i go
13:54wrong on this bracket um in your guys's opinion let me know uh whether it's in the comments if
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14:21you
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