What has disappointed in the 2026 playoffs?
Hockey fans love the Stanley Cup playoffs. It’s the one part of the sport we rarely if ever criticize. We use it as a point of pride, boasting about having the “best postseason in sports”. But, if we can be honest amongst ourselves, it’s not always perfect.
Not every game is a thrill-a-minute classic. Officiating can be frustratingly inconsistent, or even just downright bad. The best players don’t always perform at their best, leaving some series’ wanting for star power. Sometimes, a team just pulls a no-show, making their series less than must-see.
On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed which aspects of the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs have disappointed in the early going.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Most disappointing part of the playoffs so far, on or off the ice. Do you have anywhere you want to go with that one, Hutts?
Carter Hutton: That’s a good question. That’s a tough one. I guess I just circle back to, I hate seeing the Dallas-Minnesota series, playing each other in the first round. I really am a big fan of getting those matchups spread out a little bit. I don’t have a lot to complain about. I think the series’ have been good. It will be concerning if we get three sweeps, though. I think that sucks for hockey in general. You want to see series’ go the distance, and better matchups.
Tyler Yaremchuk: I agree with you on that. My one thing, and listen I know it’s easy to bitch about officiating on shows like this, I just feel like in some of these games I’ve watched the standard has been very confusing to follow. Where I’ll be sympathetic towards some refs in some of the situations they’re in, when you have games like Tampa and Montreal, or even Philly and Pittsburgh to some extent, if all you do as an official is hand out coincidentals every time there’s a big scrum, that’s not going to deter anyone. That’s not going to stop whatever nonsense is happening. At some point you need to take a stand and say “Hey, we’re picking one guy out of the pile and that’s who’s getting it.” But I do think the officiating at times has been a touch frustrating to watch. Especially, I’m watching that Utah-Vegas series really closely, and Vegas has mastered the art of “If we take eight infractions every period, they might call one or two.” They know that if they just run around, the refs don’t want to “impact the game” and call everything, so I think it’s leading to some teams feeling like they can get away with a lot.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Friday’s episode here…