The Florida Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes, Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars are the only teams remaining that have a chance to win the Stanley Cup this season.
The Panthers and Hurricanes are in the Eastern Conference Final. Game 1 is at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; TNT, CBC, SN, TVAS).
Florida will try to reach the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1996, Carolina for the first time since 2006, when it won the Cup.
The Golden Knights and Stars are in the Western Conference Final. Game 1 is at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Friday (8:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, CBC, SN, TVAS).
It's the fourth time in their six seasons that the Golden Knights are in the third round of the playoffs. They reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2018, their inaugural season. The Stars reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2020, defeating the Golden Knights in the third round to get there. They won the Cup in 1999.
Here are 10 storylines for the conference finals:
Staal family reunion
For the first time in the 16 seasons they've all been in the NHL, brothers Eric Staal, Marc Staal and Jordan Staal will play in the same playoff series.
Jordan, the Hurricanes captain, will go against his brothers. Eric, a forward, and Marc, a defenseman, each is in his first season with the Panthers.
Marc and Eric each has faced Jordan in the playoffs prior to this series.
Marc went against Jordan twice when he played with the New York Rangers,in the second round in 2008 and in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers in 2020. Jordan was with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2008 and the Hurricanes in 2020.
Eric and Jordan matched up against each other in the 2009 Eastern Conference Final, when Eric was with the Hurricanes and Jordan was with the Penguins. Jordan won the Stanley Cup that season with Pittsburgh.
Dallas vs. Vegas, Part 2
The Stars and Golden Knights will play each other for the right to go to the Stanley Cup Final for the second time in four years.
Dallas won the 2020 conference final in five games. Its current coach, Peter DeBoer, was coaching Vegas at the time. Twenty players who played in the 2020 series could play in the conference final this season, 11 for Vegas and nine for Dallas.
Teacher vs. student
There's a lot of history in the coaching matchup in the Eastern Conference Final between Florida's Paul Maurice and Carolina's Rod Brind'Amour.
Maurice was coach of the Hartford Whalers in their final two seasons (1995-97) and stayed with the franchise when it relocated to North Carolina for the start of the 1997-98 season. He remained Hurricanes coach through the 2003-04 season, when he was fired, having led them to the Stanley Cup Final in 2002.
Brind'Amour, then a player, arrived in Carolina during the 1999-2000 season via trade from the Philadelphia Flyers. He has never left.
Maurice returned to coach the Hurricanes during the 2008-09 season and was with them through the 2011-12 season, when he again was fired. Brind'Amour retired as a player after the 2009-10 season and became an assistant on Maurice's staff in 2011-12.
Brind'Amour is in his fifth season as Hurricanes coach, having led them to the playoffs in each season. They're in the conference final for the second time during his tenure (also 2019).
Maurice is in his first season with the Panthers.
DeBoer against his former team
As juicy as the coaching matchup is in this series, DeBoer coaching against his former team gives the Western Conference Final some added pulp.
DeBoer, in his first season with the Stars, was fired by the Golden Knights after missing the playoffs last season. It's the only time in its six seasons that Vegas has missed the postseason. Though injuries played a huge part in it, DeBoer was let go exactly one year ago Tuesday.
Dallas hired him June 21, 2022, and here he is in the conference final for the fifth time with a fourth team (New Jersey Devils, San Jose Sharks, Golden Knights). That Vegas is the opponent certainly allows for a revenge storyline.
The Golden Knights went 98-50-12 in 160 regular-season games, and 22-17 in 39 playoff games under DeBoer.
Don't ask about 'Bob' anymore
Sergei Bobrovsky has delivered in the playoffs since replacing Alex Lyon in the third period of Game 3 in the first round against the Boston Bruins. The Panthers need the goalie to stay hot against the Hurricanes if they're going to reach the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 27 years.
Bobrovsky is 7-2 with a 2.82 goals-against average and .918 save percentage in 10 playoff games. He arguably never was better in his NHL career (that's saying something for a two-time Vezina Trophy winner as the best goalie in the NHL) than he was in the five games against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the second round, going 4-1 with a 1.89 GAA and .943 save percentage. He made 50 saves in Florida's series-clinching 3-2 overtime win in Game 5.
Bobrovsky is in the third round of the playoffs for the first time in his NHL career. When he starts Game 1, he will set his NHL high for games in a single postseason with 11. He already has more wins than he ever had in a single postseason. He's finally making good on the seven-year contract he signed July 1, 2019.
Climbing on Hill's back
That Adin Hill is the starting goalie for the Golden Knights in the conference final is a story unto itself, because of injuries to Logan Thompson (undisclosed) and Laurent Brossoit (lower body).
It's not exactly what anyone envisioned when Vegas acquired Hill in a trade from San Jose on Aug. 29, 2022, but how the 27-year-old got here doesn't matter because he earned his way to Game 1 against the Stars by how he played against the Edmonton Oilers.
Hill, on his third team in six seasons after playing for the Arizona Coyotes and Sharks, closed the second round with 38 straight saves in a 5-2 win in Game 6 at Rogers Placein Edmonton. He made 32 saves in a 4-3 win in Game 5 at T-Mobile Arena. He also made 24 saves on as many shots in relief of Brossoit in a 5-1 win in Game 3 against the Oilers.
Hill is 3-1 with a 2.19 GAA and .934 save percentage in the first five games he has played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
'Chucky' is here
There's no better example of the difference in the Panthers this season from last season than forward Matthew Tkachuk, who outside of Bobrovsky, or along with him, is the biggest reason why Florida is in the conference final for the first time since 1996.
Despite winning the Presidents' Trophy and reaching the second round of the playoffs last season, the Panthers felt they needed something extra to compete for the Stanley Cup. So, they traded their leading scorer (forward Jonathan Huberdeau) and one of their top defensemen (MacKenzie Weegar) to the Calgary Flames for Tkachuk on July 22, 2022.
Tkachuk leads the Panthers with 16 points (five goals, 11 assists) and a plus-10 rating in 12 playoff games. He is averaging 21:40 of ice per game, second among Florida's forwards to Aleksander Barkov (22:07).
He is the Panthers' heart and soul, and arguably the best among the many reasons to watch them play. He's the player who drags them into the battle most often, and he will be a factor in the outcome of this series one way or another.
Eichel hot going into third round
Jack Eichel has looked like a savvy playoff veteran in his first NHL postseason run. It took until his eighth season for him to get here, but the Golden Knights center has delivered and needs to continue to do so in the conference final, particularly the way he did in the second round.
Eichel dominated the Oilers with a Golden Knights-high nine points (three goals, six assists) in six games. He had five points (three goals, two assists) in five games against the Winnipeg Jets in the first round, and that was after being held off the score sheet and finishing minus-3 in Game 1.
Vegas is 7-0 when Eichel has at least one point and 1-3 when he doesn't this postseason.
Freddie's net … for now
Frederik Andersen is the only goalie among the 23 who have started at least one playoff game that doesn't have a loss; he's 5-0 with a 1.80 GAA and .931 save percentage in six games. The Hurricanes net appears to be his to start the series.
Andersen replaced Antti Raanta as Carolina's starter for Game 6 of the first round against the New York Islanders and made 33 saves in a 2-1 overtime win.
He stayed in the net to start the second round and stayed hot, allowing two goals on 47 shots in back-to-back wins in Games 1 and 2 against the New Jersey Devils.
Game 3 was a challenge. He started, gave up four goals on 12 shots and was replaced by Pyotr Kochetkov, the backup because Raanta was out with an illness. Carolina lost 8-4. But with Raanta still out, Brind'Amour went back to Andersen and he delivered in Games 4 and 5, stopping 48 of 51 shots in back-to-back wins to close the series.
Raanta is available if Andersen struggles against the Panthers. The Hurricanes may need each to get through the series. It's unknown at this point, but it's crystal clear who should get the start in Game 1.
'Misfits' mayhem lives on
The Golden Knights are in the third round of the playoffs for the fourth time in their six seasons since coming into the NHL as an expansion team in 2017-18. The constants, the six players who have been around for all 77 playoff games Vegas has played, are forwards Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson, Reilly Smith and William Carrier, and defensemen Shea Theodore and Brayden McNabb.
They are the remaining members of the original "Golden Misfits" and all have played a role in getting the Golden Knights back to the third round. They will be a big part of the storyline if Vegas is able to reach the Stanley Cup Final for the second time.
Marchessault, Smith and Karlsson were Vegas' goal-scorers in its 5-2 series-clinching win in Game 6 against Edmonton. Marchessault had the first natural hat trick in Golden Knights playoff history. Each of the three has played all 77 playoff games, including 46 wins.
Theodore, who missed his first playoff game with Vegas this year, has five assists and is averaging 20:12 of ice time in 10 games. McNabb is plus-4 and averaging 19:50 of ice time in 10 games, also having missed one game. Carrier has played seven of the 11 games in the playoffs.
