Winners and Losers from the Opening Weekend of the 2025 NHL Playoffs

Opening weekend of the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs is officially behind us, and wow, it delivered.

The opening games of the Battle of Ontario and Jets vs. Blues showed us two top dogs who just might live up to expectations this time around. Dallas vs. Colorado Game 1 showed us how crucial Jason Robertson and Miro Heiskanen really are for the Stars as they failed to produce offense.

Meanwhile, the Devils look just as beaten down as we thought they were, and the Hurricanes might be better than we thought.

Here are the winners and losers from the first weekend of the best few months of the year.

Non-playoff teams wasted no time making coaching changes this year, with the Ducks and the Rangers firing Greg Cronin and Peter Laviolette, respectively, just two days after the regular season ended. 

Cronin was with the Ducks for two seasons during their ongoing rebuild. Cronin's first season with the Ducks ended in a 27-50-5 record for seventh place in the Pacific Division. Ahaheim took a step forward in 2024-25 at 35-37-10 and sixth in the division, but it ended up 16 points out of a playoff spot. GM Pat Verbeek said the firing was more about personal reasons and less about the team's performance.

“There’s things that we can easily point to,” Verbeek said. “You could probably look at the power play. You can look at the penalty killing. But I didn’t look at that. There were other reasons, and I shared those with Greg, and they were private conversations that I want to remain private as to why.”

Hmm. OK. 

Meanwhile, Peter Laviolette understandably threw in the towel at the end of the Rangers season. "I don't have a message right now," he said after a brutal 5-1 loss to the Lightning. "I don't go into the locker room after games." 

It's not Laviolette's fault the New York Rangers had the dumpster fire of a season that they did, but it's clear they needed to clean house and come back next season with a clean slate. 

We aren’t declaring the Presidents’ Trophy curse over after precisely one first-round game. But if it finally happens this season, Winnipeg’s 5-3 Game 1 win over the Blues was the perfect way to start. 

It looked like it was going the other way at first, with Blues star Robert Thomas opening up the scoring. But the Jets did something they haven’t been capable of in the past – they didn’t just survive the deficit and match St. Louis’ energy, they tied it up, then took over the game when it mattered most. The Jets limited the Blues to two shots on net in the third period as they avoided overtime with Kyle Connor’s game-winner. 

The best offensive players showed up in an outcome pretty much controlled by Connor and Mark Schiefele, and they did it in front of one of the most deserving crowds in the league: The Winnipeg White Out. We’ll see what happens as the series shifts to St. Louis, but the Winnipeg crowd got an exciting game – and the win it deserved.

Footage of Mikko Rantanen, who was held off the score sheet with a minus-two rating in Game 1, pretty much encapsulates the vibe of the Colorado-Dallas series right now.

Colorado's 5-1 opening night win over the Stars confirmed Dallas' fears: This team is really hurting without Jason Robertson and Miro Heiskanen, especially if Rantanen can't give us his typical playoff heroics.

The first period was looking relatively even -- more of what we'd expect out of this matchup -- but the floodgates opened in the second with two goals from the Avalanche. Roope Hintz's power-play goal midway through the third period was essentially the only sign of life for the Stars, but the Avalanche responded with three follow-up goals for good measure.

Look, the shot count ended an even 24, and many of the underlying analytics ended up relatively even (except everyone's favorite playoff stat: the Avalanche had the 30-18 edge in hits). It wasn't for lack of trying from the Stars, it was a lack of star power without Robertson and Heiskanen. That bodes worse for Dallas in a series like this.

It's only one game, but head coach Peter DeBoer appeared dejected postgame.

Perhaps that's a wake-up call for the more high-end players on the team as they look to even up the scoring with Game 2's clean slate.

Maybe it's time to worry about the Otter in the room, as Avalanche goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood ended the night with a .958 save percentage, and Jake Oettinger had a .826. This could be a huge series for him to gain respect as a top goalie in the league if he can rise above. It's a tall task after this weekend.

After the first weekend of the playoffs, everyone involved in the Rantanen trade has tallied a point—except Mikko Rantanen.

Logan Stankoven had a two-goal evening in his Hurricanes playoff debut as the Canes cruised to a 4-1 win over the Devils.

As expected, Devils goaltender Jacob Markstrom was Carolina's biggest obstacle of the game, and he had a solid game considering the Canes outshot the Devils 45-24. Markstrom kept the score somewhat respectable as his team collapsed around him.

To be fair, the Devils were struggling headed into the playoffs and they're without their best player in Jack Hughes. The Hurricanes were favored for a reason. But the confident, Game 1 routing led by the return in the Rantanen trade was a little poetic justice for those who deemed the Canes cooked after the whole Rantanen fiasco.

Game 1 of the first Battle of Ontario since 2004 delivered, with fanfare and fighting and goals galore as Maple Leaf Square lit up. You give the Senators credit for trying everything to stay in it, but Toronto's high-end talent and new vibe had a stronghold the whole game and prevailed for a 6-2 Maple Leafs win.

Brady Tkachuk was held off the scoresheet and Linus Ullmark added another rough outing to his playoff resume with a .750 save percentage.

While the Senators realized what they were up against, guess who impressed us the most? The Leafs' core four.

Mitch Marner had a goal and two assists, matching his total output in last season's Stanley Cup playoffs. William Nylander and John Tavares each had a goal and an assist. Auston Matthews, who struggled earlier this season but turned it on in the second half, chipped in with two assists.

Not only did the top dogs lead the way, but the rest of the team helped them out -- the winning formula that has made this season so different. Toronto had six different players score all six goals, and eight different players had an assist.

Let's see if they can keep it up in likely their last chance to win it all as a group.

Who else forgets every year that the first round—especially the first game of each series—is essentially the referees saying, "Kids, you're not going to get away with anything this year!"

Officiating typically loosens as the playoffs get deeper, but the strict first games are another reminder of how crucial it is to have an elite power play when so much of the game is spent there. We're not saying it's fair, we're saying it's reality.

We saw it late Sunday night as Pavel Dorofeyev's power play goal was the deciding marker in Vegas' 4-2 win over Minnesota. We saw Nathan MacKinnon and the Avalanche take over after he drew a four-minute penalty.

The Wild, the Devils, and the Senators are the three teams that have yet to score a power-play goal, and they've suffered three of the most devastating Game 1 losses.