Burning Questions Teams Must Answer in the 2025 NHL Playoffs

As the 2024-25 NHL regular season comes to a close as dramatic as its start, it's time to ease into playoff mode. 

We've spent so much time recently consumed by the wild-card race in the East that we've barely stopped to ask ourselves: Which wild-card teams could actually upset a top seed when the time comes?

Speaking of top seeds, the Toronto Maple Leafs currently own the No. 1 spot in the Atlantic. Is this the year they finally make it all count? 

Let's start shifting gears from the regular season to the postseason with burning questions teams must answer in the forthcoming playoffs.

If last year was any indication, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl will put up two of the best performances in the entire playoffs, even if there are questions surrounding lingering injuries.

The last thing we have to do is worry about the best player in the world and arguably the best player of the 2024-25 season.

The real question is: In the gauntlet that is the West, in a modern league that demands close to all-around perfection from its Stanley Cup champions, will the best offensive duo be enough to outscore the full-team flaws?

The Oilers have struggled a bit towards the end of the season as the injury bug persists, but they've righted the ship recently just as McDavid returned and others are set to return before the playoffs.

One of those key injuries is goaltender Stuart Skinner (head), who hasn't played since March 26. He is reportedly feeling good and nearing return, but in his absence—and in key defenseman Mattias Ekholm's absence—Calvin Pickard struggled at first.

However, the 32-year-old picked it up in an impressive way towards the end and got his season save percentage just above .900, so maybe the new development gives the goalie tandem a confidence boost headed into the playoffs.

Skinner is likely still their guy, though, and he has to prove those flashes of playoff brilliance from last season can last a bit longer this time around.

This 2024-25 Maple Leafs team is different, and it is currently holding the No. 1 spot in the Atlantic to drive that point home.

The five-on-five play, the goaltending via Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz, the defensive efforts have all improved to form a team less reliant on borderline historic nights from its stars for every win. 

The no-nonsense approach from first-year head coach Craig Berube and a few more sandpaper players such as Max Domi and Chris Tanev have no doubt contributed to this tougher-to-play-against vibe.

Even better for the Leafs, the Bruins are completely out of the playoff picture so the mental load has lightened. 

This is likely the last year for this Toronto core as we know it to go for a Cup, and what better year to attempt that than Auston Matthews' first as captain?

As soon as the playoffs start, we're on a quest to find out how "different" this Leafs team really is.

The Los Angeles Kings have looked fantastic to close out the season, which is a bit of a revelation for a team that has struggled with its identity headed into the playoffs in recent years.

They have lost to the Oilers in the first round for three consecutive years, and especially last year, you kinda saw the writing on the wall.

The attitude is different this year, though. If the Kings hang on to their positioning, they will end up with home ice. They are headed into the postseason crushing opponents and playing with their food.

Goaltender Darcy Keumper has stunned in something of a comeback season with a .922 save percentage and 2.03 goals against average. 

Their biggest test is the one they have yet to pass, and of course it's (most likely) coming up in the first round: Can the Kings finally defeat the Oilers?

It’s tough to imagine a team more poised for the postseason than the reigning champion Florida Panthers right now.

General manager Bill Zito was praised for a complete Cup roster for a reason, and he was able to keep the majority of the key players together for this run, plus the addition of big names like Brad Marchand and Seth Jones.

You see this completeness when the Panthers face off against the other best teams in the league, whether it's a multi-power-play-goal game from Sam Bennett or a glorious five-on-five outing from Aleksander Barkov, they can turn it on all over the ice wherever it's needed.

Will the new-look, defensively sound Leafs outplay them in the playoffs in a way they have struggled to in the regular season? Will the red-hot Lightning, their elite first line and back-to-form Andrei Vasilevskiy keep gaining momentum? Will the Capitals continue to make things—even beating the Panthers—look way too easy?

One things for sure: The reigning champs are still the team to beat in the East.

Sometimes, we're so focused on wild-card teams actually making the playoffs that we don't take a second to think beyond the quest to punch a ticket.

Now that the Ottawa Senators are officially playoff-bound, what are the odds they advance past the first round? The battle of Ontario would be a fun defensive showing all around, but Toronto vs. Ottawa would be a tall task for a Senators team that deals with scoring droughts.

When you look at the scoring talent from both the Leafs and the Lightning, you know the Senators and Linus Ullmark would have to be airtight on defense. You get the sense Ottawa has a better chance surviving a more chaotic Tampa Bay team despite its menacing offense.

What about the happy-go-lucky Canadiens? Don't sleep on a team that fights like heck and actually pulls off the amount of late-game comebacks this Montreal team has.

This six-game winning streak has been a warning shot to the rest of the league to respect the likely playoff-bound Habs or they just might upset you. 

They would get the Capitals in the first round if the season ended today, which would be a deliciously vibey first round from two teams many counted out before the season.

Imagine if I told you before the season that the Washington Capitals would be the No. 1 team in the East? It was a pretty big shocker watching this team rise and, well, just keep rising all season after a few unsavory years featuring negative goal differentials and bad vibes.

It’s not fair to consider this regular season a fluke even if Washington doesn’t make it far this postseason. Even if we were skeptical, the team earned its No. 1 spot in the East fair and square via shrewd offseason moves like Pierre-Luc Dubois and Jakob Chuchryn, a career year from Tom Wilson, all the goals on the way to Alex Ovechkin’s scoring record, the youth movement well-coached by Spencer Carbury, and the goaltending. 

Still, it would be a nice bow on a season of silencing the haters – and Ovechkin’s record-breaking season – if they can make a serious Cup run to top it all off.