The second round of the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs continued on Saturday night, and we already saw one team advance to the conference finals as the Carolina Hurricanes
improved their postseason winning streak to eight consecutive games.
Let’s take a look at some more winners and losers from Saturday’s action.
Saturday’s winners
Jackson Blake, Carolina Hurricanes. Just an enormous game for Blake on Saturday as he figured in to all three Hurricanes goals in their 3-2, series clinching win against the Philadelphia Flyers.
He scored two goals, including the overtime winner, while also assisting on Logan Stankoven’s goal. The Hurricanes have one of the NHL’s deepest teams, and it has a great mix of established veterans and on-the-rise young stars. Blake is one of the latter.
Carolina Hurricanes are getting rest. There is a school of thought that having too much time off in the playoffs can be a bad thing, as it could disrupt your momentum. But there is also something to be said for having rest and time off, given how physical and demanding a deep playoff run can be.
We are about to find out which school of thought will win out here with the Hurricanes.
Thanks to their second straight four-game sweep to open the playoffs, they are now going to have some significant time off as they await their Eastern Conference Final opponent. The series between the Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens is tied, 1-1, going into Sunday’s Game 3, and if it goes seven games, that could be nearly two weeks off for the Hurricanes.
The earliest they would start the next round is Saturday, May 16. That is a full week. It could potentially be as far out as Wednesday, May 20. That would be 11 days.
Quinn Hughes, Minnesota Wild. The Wild’s in-season trade for Hughes was significant. Not only because it added an elite, top-tier defenseman, but also because it gave them another superstar to pair up with forward Kirill Kaprizov. That is important when it comes to building a Stanley Cup-worthy roster.
Hughes and Kaprizov both shone on Saturday night in a 5-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche, with Hughes playing over 28 minutes, scoring a goal, adding an assist and helping to control the pace of the game when he was on the ice.
The Wild have some potential weaknesses on this roster (especially at center), but having a duo like this will give them a chance on most nights and against any team.
Saturday’s losers
Matvei Michkov, Philadelphia Flyers. It is going to be a long offseason for the Flyers and Michkov following his second healthy scratch of the playoffs. The entire season was a small step backwards for one of the Flyers’ top young players, but not even being in the lineup for two of the team’s last six playoff games is going to be eye-opening.
Flyers offense. If there is an area Philadelphia has to improve in order to take the next step, it is going to be with its offense. They somehow ended the playoffs having lost six of their final seven games, and scored only 10 goals in those games. That is not good enough.
Colorado’s winning streak. While Carolina remained perfect this postseason, the Avalanche saw their winning streak end at six games in their 5-1 loss to the Wild. They are still in the driver’s seat in the series and should be the top Stanley Cup favorites, but they now have their first defeat of the playoffs.