Previewing the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs with ESPN Commentators

Courtesy of the NHL

With the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs just getting underway this past weekend, everyone is chiming in with their predictions and thoughts about the first round matchups and which team they think is going to take home the ultimate prize this season: the Stanley Cup.

ESPN will once again be the home for a majority of NHL playoff games this spring so the broadcast crew made up of Sean McDonough (play-by-play), Ray Ferraro (analyst), Mark Messier (analyst) and P. K. Subban (analyst) shared their thoughts about many things surrounding this year’s postseason.

First and foremost, which teams are the professionals going to be watching closely in the first round? The answers varied of course, but aren’t surprising to many hockey fans.

“To me, Colorado, that’s the team to really watch in the playoffs. In the West that’s the only team I really think can take out Vegas that’s deep enough to do it,” said Subban. “I don’t think Dallas can do it unless they show me differently, but I think the team to watch is Colorado with MacKinnon and Makar and 4 Nations picking up Coyle and all these guys potentially getting Landeskog back, which is going to be a huge boost for their team. I just think Colorado is going to be a team that I’ll be watching closely.”

Ferraro also has a feeling about a team in the West making a deep playoff run, but one that’s in the Pacific Division instead of the Central.

“I would say I’m interested in the West, which looks like a murderer’s row, except at the end of the day only one team can get out of there. I’m curious how that is going to play out. I’ve just had this gut watching Vegas play. They just look like a playoff team. Like, they look like a team that is big enough and skilled enough, and I think Jack Eichel is playing as well as I have ever seen him play. I’m curious to see how — Vegas is in a pretty good spot, I think, given the way that Edmonton and L.A. are going to go at it again. I think they’re just going to be sitting there. They’re going to have a hard first-round series, but I really like Vegas. I think we kind of expect this level of success from them now already. I think we’ve kind of uncovered how good they are.”

McDonough picked a club in the East that has been in the spotlight all season thanks to a historic record being broken.

“I think for me right now it’s Washington. I think they far exceeded the expectations a lot of people had for them. They’ve gone through the Ovi GR8 Chase and all of the stuff that came with him becoming the all-time leading goal scorer in the league. They haven’t played very well lately. I thought they would be much better in the back-to-back matchup against Columbus on Sunday than they were on Saturday, and they really weren’t much better, even with Ovi back in. I think how they fare in the playoffs given the terrific regular season they’ve had for most of it is what I will be most interested in here at the beginning.”

A lot of the focus during this year’s playoffs are centered around the West where four or five Cup contender teams are all fighting to come out of the first round. Between the Avalanche, Jets, Stars, Oilers and Golden Knights, trying to see who makes it out of the West and to the Stanley Cup Final feels impossible and Messier agreed for several reasons.

“We keep saying it every year, and we’re reminded every year of how difficult it is to get through two months of the playoffs and why sometimes it can be a misleader in your regular season success with the type of team that you have built,” said Messier. “For any team that’s going to come through the West this year, they’re going to have to be a big, strong team that can withstand that kind of not only physical stress, but the emotional stress because we know the games are going to be close, obviously. If I had to pick somebody coming out of there right now, I don’t know, to be honest with you.”

Subban had some strong thoughts on the Oilers who are a very different team this year than they have been in the past when they experienced playoff success. Edmonton lost the Stanley Cup Final last year and will be facing off against Los Angeles in the first round for the fourth straight season.

“For them to lose [Broberg and Holloway], when you know that you got to pay McDavid and Draisaitl, I don’t think there’s any way to recover, and they’re relying on older players and guys are a little bit lengthy in their careers now to step up against teams like the L.A.’s that are hungry, that have young players that are champing at the bit to get over that hump,” said Subban. “That’s what you’re colliding into in the playoffs. It’s a much different feeling for the Oilers now going into a playoff round than it was three, four years ago. They’re not the same team. There’s an expectation there, and everybody is gunning for you. I’m just not as optimistic about Edmonton as I have been in the past with how strong the West is.”

This year’s postseason is also highlighted by several smaller market teams making it in after missing for several years. For those fanbases, particularly in Montreal, Ottawa, Minnesota and St. Louis, the excitement is high. But to hockey fans who are just interested in watching playoff hockey, there is also something to be said about how those smaller or different markets can enrich the playoff experience.

“The small market to me doesn’t matter, particularly because if one of the smaller markets gets into a position to punch one of the big markets in the nose, they become the underdog story. You’re going to learn about star players that play on teams that you don’t really focus on during the regular season,” said Ferraro.

“There are some great players that are going to be able to be more fully viewed and understood and exposed in the first round than teams. If there was no 4 Nations, how many people would know about Brady Tkachuk, other than his last name because they don’t watch Ottawa much? Well, they would find out about him in the first day of the playoffs because he’s going to be like a bull, and they’re going to find out about him. There’s players like that all scattered around the league. For a lot of people, they’ve seen Kirill Kaprizov, and they’re going to get to see him again, and the more you see him, you go, ‘oh my God, that guy is a star.’ These are going to be the types of players that you’re going to get to see and get to latch on to and go, ‘oh my God, I didn’t even know about that guy.’ That’s what the playoffs, to me, can bring.”

McDonough seconded this response by focusing on Ottawa directly as they are a team from a smaller market that are seen as an underdog this postseason.

“I’m not sure I would want to play Ottawa in the first round. I think a big part of their success this year is Linus Ullmark. Goaltending is the most important position. I’ve watched a lot of their games this year, and he’s played particularly well, especially lately. He’s certainly capable of doing that in the playoffs as well. I do think people like the underdog and the newcomer and the storylines. I think especially with as wide open as the East seems to be, there’s potential there in Ottawa for the Senators to make a run.”

But what about the defending Stanley Cup champions? The crew agreed that the Florida Panthers could repeat this season, but the path will be difficult as they are dealing with injuries and the team is not structured exactly the same as it was last year.

“I wouldn’t bet against them. They know how to win. Their core knows how to win,” Messier said. “They’ve been backstopped by a great goalie, and the first thing you look at to a team that’s actually trying to win a Stanley Cup, do they have the goaltending that they can ride for two months? That has been answered in spades for Florida.”

As the playoffs get underway and hockey fans watch the highly anticipated matchups, everyone knows it’s going to be a dramatic but interesting two months of playoff hockey. Anything can happen, even Messier knows that.

“There’s a lot of teams that can win. There’s a lot of different scenarios. No shortage of storylines. No shortage of personalities that are going to be entering into this for the first time in their careers, like Brady Tkachuk. The benefactors are us, as hockey fans, that get to watch it.”