Breaking Down The NHL Western Conference Playoffs

It’s that time of the year again! The NHL playoffs are upon us, and they should excite any hockey fan, despite your team being out. (Like the Canucks). There will be some fun matchups in the NHL Western Conference Playoffs. Let’s take a look and each matchup and something to watch for each team. We will have a bracket for the Area 51 Sports Network that will come out later with our predictions, so make sure to see what our picks our.

Winnipeg Jets (C1) vs. St. Louis Blues (WC2)

The Winnipeg Jets are the first Canadian team to win the president trophy since the Vancouver Canucks in 2011-2012. They dominated the league for the most part, but they will be in tough against the St. Louis Blues in round 1. The Blues rattled off 12 wins at the end of the year, but are a very flawed team. Jordan Binnington came up big at the Four Nations Cup Unfortunately, he is easily the 2nd best goalie in this series. The Winnipeg Jets’ Connor Hellebuyck will run away with the Vezina Trophy this season. The thing again to look at this season is, did he play too many games once again? With the season and the Four Nations Tournament, he will be up to 67 games played by the time the NHL Western Conference Playoffs start. This has always been an Achilles’ heel when the Jets make the playoffs.

St. Louis is coming in as undoubtedly the hottest team in the NHL after rolling off 12 straight wins. Edmonton might have matched the offer sheet if they knew that Dylan Holloway was going to score 26 goals and 63 points this season. The team is led by Robert Thomas, who is sneaky good, and Jordan Kyrou, who is also sneaky good. Probably because no one saw the Blues making this run into the playoffs. Jordan Binnington didn’t have the best stats with a .900% save percentage and a 2.69 GAA, but he is still a big game player.

Why doesn’t it have to be this way in 2025? Despite the Blues’ hot end to the year, the Jets are hands down the better team. They will be without Nikolaj Ehlers to start the series after colliding with a referee, but their star power with Kyle Connors, who almost eclipsed 100 points (97), and Mark Scheifele, along with the back end of Josh Morrissey, will make them hard to beat. They could run out of steam after a great season, but I don’t think it will be in the 1st round against the Blues.

Things to watch:
Jets – Are they going to be too tired again to make a deep playoff push?
Blues – Do they keep on riding the hot hand?

Vegas Golden Knights (P1) vs. Minnesota Wild (WC2)

Sorry Wild, you had a great season. It might end here… It would be Wild if it didn’t end here…I love a good dad joke. No, but seriously, this could be a very short series. The Wild sputtered to end the year and were close to getting passed by the Calgary Flames before a couple of wins to end the season, and let Wild fans let out a collective “Phew”. The Vegas Knights quietly won the Pacific Division and didn’t even put Mark Stone on LTIR! That’s how you know they are in business this season.

As quiet as the season has been for the Golden Knights, it’s also been quiet for Jack Eichel, who finished with 28 goals and 94 points. He has solidified himself as a top center and will be key to Vegas moving on. The other key is going to be Vegas being the more dominant team. The number of players who have done it before on the roster makes it hard to see Vegas not going on a long run. The goaltending for the Golden Knights should be solid with Adin Hill. Watch out for Ivan Barbashev, and Pavel Dorofeyev who have been gritty players all season and the playoffs just fit them so well.

Minnesota is going to have an uphill battle, and the series might just be to send off Marc-Andre Fleury. Out of all the teams that made the NHL Western Conference Playoffs, only Minnesota had a negative goal differential of -11. The Wild did get back Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek, which should help them make the series not a complete blowout, but I feel like the Wild are still going to be overmatched.

Things to watch:
Golden Knights – Do they let Minnesota hang around?
Wild – Fleury’s swan song.

Los Angeles Kings (P2) vs. Edmonton Oilers (P3)

Could we possibly get this matchup anymore times? This will be the fourth year in a row the two teams have met in the playoffs, and despite the LA Kings having home ice advantage, I still think the slight nod will go to the Edmonton Oilers in this series. Why? Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. The best player in the world and the Rocket Richard winner for this season can fix a lot of the things the Oilers aren’t very good at. If they can’t show up it will be an early exit in the NHL Western Conference Playoffs.

The Los Angeles Kings posted a 31-6-4 record at home this season, which was good enough to share the most wins at home this year. After 3 years of losing to the Oilers, this might finally be their year. With defensive depth down the middle with Anze Kopitar and Phillip Danault, if anyone can shut down the high-octane offence of Edmonton, it is the Los Angeles Kings. The goaltending match-up definitely goes to Darcy Kemper with his .922 save percentage this season. A bright spot to watch will be Adrian Kempe, who broke out this year with 73 points.

One thing that could hurt the Oilers is their loss on the blueline of Mattias Ekholm, this is going to put a strain on Evan Bouchard and Darnell Nurse, who will return from his suspension for the 1st game of the series. This could be the most exciting series in the NHL Western Conference Playoffs as the two teams are creating a real rivalry.

Things to watch:
Kings – Can they play a stiff defensive game?
Oilers – The stars!

Dallas Stars (C2) vs. Colorado Avalanche (C3)

The Dallas Stars have faltered to end the season, some might say they had nothing to play for. Unfortunately, they have someone to play against in the Colorado Avalanche. There are so many story lines in this series, between the unexpected return of Gabriel Landeskog for the Avs and the Mikko Rantanen bowl, we should be up for a great series. Rantanen, of course, won the cup with Colorado back in 2022 before being traded to the Carolina Hurricanes and then the Dallas Stars.

Not only will the Avalanche get Landeskog back, they also feature the likely Norris Trophy winner in Cale Makar, who finished with 30 goals and 92 points. Martin Necas and others have filled in the void left over after trading Mikko. Colorado has also done this before, where Dallas keeps coming up short year after year despite having so much talent on the roster. If the NHL Western Conference Playoffs make their mark, it will be with this series, as it could be a finals match if the playoff format weren’t the way it is. Watch for Artturi Lehkonen and Valeri Nichushkin as they are built for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Dallas does have some game breakers in Jason Robertson, Matt Duchene, and the young and up-and-coming Wyatt Johnston. If anyone didn’t know the name Thomas Harley they did after the Four Nations Tournament. The 23-year-old Canadian defenseman had 34 assists and 50 points this season. He showed what he can do at the big stage, so watch for him to make an impact.

Things to watch:
Stars – Were they resting for the playoffs?
Avalanche – Goaltending.

It Should Be A Great NHL Western Conference Playoffs

We should get some lengthy playoff series with the Stars vs the Avalanche and Oilers at the Kings, and we might see some short rounds in the other two series. But they play the games for a reason, so who knows? Make sure to check out all the coverage from Area 51 Sports Network for all your NHL Playoff coverage.