Well, ‘tis the season, my friends. The NHL post-season is almost upon us. With electric wildcard races, multiple late-season coaching changes, and soap operas across many markets, we’re certainly in for an exciting April.

As a quick aside, I had a very exciting March (events, travel, Jets games galore!), so I haven’t had as much time to prepare this newsletter as I would have liked, so you can expect a shorter (maybe worse? Hopefully not worse) edition! Thanks for your patience!

As the post-season begins, we will hear all kinds of anecdotes about how different playoff hockey is from regular-season hockey. It’s always irked me a bit how quickly we throw the playoffs around as an ambiguous argument against solid hockey opinions. “Yeah, but playoff hockey is different” reminds me a bit of saying “it’s for the bride” during wedding season. You use this statement, and everyone’s like, “fair enough!” without any doubt.

Playoff hockey is different. I would never say that’s untrue. But I think we sometimes miss what actually makes it different.

Video coaches would kill me for saying this, but the intimacy of prep work that goes into regular-season games just can’t compare to playoff matchups.

Teams are always studying up on their opponents. They know who’s hot, they know what types of systems they’re up against, and they know what competitive advantages make the opposition special. However, for the Dallas Stars, there’s something extremely different about an upcoming best-of-seven series against the Minnesota Wild compared to a Tuesday night in January against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Say what you want about the NHL schedule, but it certainly allows space for divisional rivalries to heat up over the course of the season. Two points are always two points in the National, but you truly don’t need to worry about 16 of the teams you face over the course of a season until you meet in the Stanley Cup final. Lock in for 48 hours twice a year, then move on… unless you’re FLA/EDM.

Because of this, as you hone in on a playoff matchup, your research becomes technicoloured. All of a sudden, if you’re the Buffalo Sabres or Tampa Bay Lightning, you have a full staff of people studying each shot Cole Caufield has ever taken and clipping Nick Suzuki’s open hip skating. You go from playing 82 games of a refined version of checkers to full-blown 8D chess. This is where in-game coaching, video coaching, analytics autopsies, and reactive decisions are really exposed.

All season, you’re scouting opponents’ tendencies. In a playoff series, it’s time to solve them. That’s a very different landscape.

This is certainly one of my most old-head takes, but there’s absolutely something to be said for how the ice shifts in game 83 and beyond.

We’ve all heard the phrase “offense wins games, defense wins championships”. I’ve always found this saying kind of dumb (because isn’t winning championships just winning a lot of games?), but I think where it really shines in the NHL playoffs is in how certain types of offensive environments become a bit harder to create.

Off-puck behaviour really seems to become more aggressive in the playoffs. Forechecks step up quicker, defenders apply more pressure, and the neutral zone just gets a bit muddier - all of which make it more difficult to cleanly generate rush offense. And when rush offense is harder to come by, there’s an added sense of importance placed on chips, rims, and retrievals. Teams that struggle to set up offense from board battle wins or can’t drive the slot off the cycle are inherently at a disadvantage.

Personally, I don’t see as much of a change in the middle of the ice as I do on the perimeter. How pucks enter and exit the zone takes on a new look for almost every team, and certain groups of players are more well-equipped to find their game in that new environment than others.

It’s important to note that not every regular-season rush team is bound to fail in the playoffs. The game in the playoffs is actually faster, if anything, so players with good legs have the upper hand. However, it also gets more physical, so there are limitations for slippery players who tend to avoid contact. From a less individualistic perspective, a lot of teams that create off the rush in the regular season do so because it’s the most optimal use of their skillsets in the game environments they’re in. When the game environments inevitably change in the playoffs, a lot of these teams have the horses to adapt and continue to thrive. They aren’t creating off of the rush for the sake of it - they’re doing it because it’s what the game commands.

And so, when the game commands something else, great teams are often up for the challenge, regardless of their prior MO.

I believe there are teams and players out there who give 110% every single game. Probably not a lot, but there are definitely some!

That said, these teams are all comprised of humans. It takes a toll on a human to have intensity ramp up in early March and, well, never go back down.

The schedule is condensed. Players are collecting injuries like Pokémon. Recovery time is limited. Each game you enter is more physically and emotionally exhausting than the last. At a certain point, that fatigue gets to be a lot.

Think about the Edmonton Oilers. While most of his team spent February getting their tan on in Cabo, Connor McDavid was playing over 20 minutes per game of high-intensity hockey in Italy. That certainly would have a different impact on his recovery.

Plus, you have to factor in the reality that he’s played the equivalent of over half a season’s worth of extra games in the last two years. In the springs of 2024 and 2025, McDavid played a combined 47 additional hockey games. And these aren’t just regular hockey games. Each game’s stakes are higher than the last, and he’s playing the most high-leverage role possible.

The pressure, momentum swings, and theatrics that come with playoff hockey are just… a lot. They differ from market to market, season to season, and player to player, but there’s no doubting that the lights get brighter, and everyone responds to that in their own way.

Lastly, we simply need to acknowledge the back-breaking nature that isolated moments can have in the NHL playoffs. For that reason, gamebreakers are placed under a microscope. Your best players need to be your best players.

The biggest factors we’ve historically seen drastically alter entire games are powerplays and goaltenders. Goals are hard to come by in hockey, as we know - this isn’t basketball, where half of the possessions end in scoring plays - so the importance of any individual performance that heavily sways the scoring spread is accentuated.

Think of how many goals in the NHL are decided by one or two goals. If you add a 30% powerplay or a hot goaltender into that equation, it can completely transform outcomes, and in each series, you only need 4 outcomes to go your way. An elite goalie and elite powerplay can win you 4 games preeeeetty easily.

I get that a lot of these factors should technically impact all of these teams to a similar degree. But that’s just not the reality of our 16 playoff teams. They’re all so unique, so variance comes in different forms.

For example, if you’re a true believer that refs “put the whistles away” in the playoffs, you’d have to accept that the Dallas Stars are likely better suited for that environment than some other teams. This isn’t like people defending bad extensions by saying “the cap is going up!” Babe, you’re still going to get sewered by the Ivan Provorov deal. A rising tide lifts all boats, and that $8.5M AAV is an anchor in every ocean.

At the end of the day, we’re still watching hockey. Same players, same systems, same coaches (unless you’re the Vegas Golden Knights or New York Islanders)… different stakes. How do those stakes impact the way you play the game? That’s not for us to decide - it’s simply for us to sit back in our seats and enjoy.