Topics / NHL Playoffs & Stanley Cup
NHL Playoffs & Stanley Cup Podcasts
9 shows and 3,170 episodes sit under NHL Playoffs & Stanley Cup.
Podcast coverage of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs: bubble races, round-by-round previews, game-by-game Cup Final reactions
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By the time the bracket is nearly set, every result carries two stories: what happened tonight and what it changes next. The best playoff audio can hold both without sanding off the panic, the matchup obsession, or the pleasure of watching a contender suddenly look mortal.
The Hockey page above this one carries the wider conversation. For regular-season developments and league business, head to NHL Analysis & News; to follow one club through every swing, visit NHL Team Coverage. Fantasy Hockey follows a different pressure entirely: the listener’s roster rather than the chase for the Cup.
Before the bracket hardens
The Hockey PDOcast is built for listeners who want the sequence behind the result. Its quick, densely argued conversations move through tactics, metrics, roster construction, and the difference between a bad night and a repeatable problem. The Playoff Battles To Watch in the Final Week of the Regular Season is the natural entry point when the standings still have loose ends and every matchup can redraw the board.
The DFO Rundown works closer to the front-office nerve centre. The rhythm is conversational, but the discussion keeps landing on consequences: who survives, what a result says about the roster, and how quickly an eliminated team has to change direction. Pressure Cooker Weekend: Teams are Fighting for Playoff Survival catches the squeeze before the field settles; The Stanley Cup Playoffs Begin! + Summer Plans for Eliminated Teams turns immediately toward both sides of the cut line.
East, West, and the first argument
The Athletic Hockey Show has the feel of a smart, familiar panel working through its picks in public. Jokes and interruptions are allowed, certainty is negotiable, and an argument can change shape once somebody brings up a line combination or a performance trend. Its paired Eastern Conference playoff preview and Western Conference playoff preview make a clean bracket-opening doubleheader.
The FAN Hockey Show is looser and blunter. Banter gives way to practical questions about roles, value, injuries, and which player can swing a series. Gary Bettman's Playoff Preview + First Round X-Factors with Jason Bukala takes the league-wide view, while We're Clinched! Senators, Hurricanes & Sabres Playoff Preview narrows the conversation to three teams entering the tournament.
When one team owns the room
National previews establish the board. Team shows supply the nerves.
DNVR Colorado Avalanche Podcast turns the playoff question inward with Who will be the X factors for the Avs in the 2026 playoffs? | DNVR Avalanche Podcast. Judd's Hockey Show - A Minnesota Wild Podcast approaches the same moment through home ice and uncertainty: Minnesota Wild's weekend wins help BOOST odds of playoff home ice advantage sits beside Is it time for Minnesota Wild to PANIC about Filip Gustavsson? That capitalized panic is part of the point. A postseason run is experienced locally, one goalie decision and one bad feeling at a time.
THE Kraken Pod: a Seattle Kraken and NHL podcast brings the fan end of that experience into the room. It is fast, profane, self-mocking, and willing to let statistics collide with superstition or Seattle sports fatalism. Locked On NHL - Daily Podcast On The National Hockey League works at the opposite scale, compressing the nightly movement of several teams into episodes such as GAME NIGHT: Playoff picture developing. Sens, Bruins, Oilers, VGK IN, Wings, Kraken, Blues OUT.
Where to start
Begin with The Athletic Hockey Show for a conference-by-conference map. Choose The Hockey PDOcast when you want the tactical case behind a contender, or The DFO Rundown when elimination should lead straight into roster consequences. For the emotional temperature inside one market, go to DNVR Colorado Avalanche Podcast, Judd's Hockey Show - A Minnesota Wild Podcast, or THE Kraken Pod: a Seattle Kraken and NHL podcast.
Featured shows below are part of the PlayNext catalog. Updated weekly.
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The highest-scoring 60-second moments anywhere in nhl playoffs & stanley cup, one per show.
Drawn from 302 playable clips across 9 shows.
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The newest nhl playoffs & stanley cup clips in the library, one per show — ordered by when the clip was made, not when the episode came out.
10 clips, one per show, added between 2026-08-20 and 2026-09-05.
Featured shows
9 shows, described rather than listed
Each has a written blurb stored with the page, with the role its editor gave it on this beat.
Statistical and tactical deep-dives on playoff matchups, game-by-game Cup Final reactions, and series-level pattern analysis.
Panel-format media desk covering the full postseason arc from conference previews to instant Cup-clinch reaction.
Canadian radio sensibility with high-profile guests; heavy Stanley Cup Final coverage featuring Elliotte Friedman, Eddie Olczyk, and Ron MacLean.
Daily league-wide feed tracking the playoff picture, bubble races, and franchise-level stakes through the final weeks of the regular season.
Canadian-media perspective on the full playoff picture, from the trade-deadline fallout to the final bracket.
Avalanche-focused postseason analysis connecting the team's Olympic run and late-season positioning to Stanley Cup contention.
Minnesota Wild-focused coverage of each playoff push — clinch moments, round-one previews, and reflective postseason takeaways.
Toronto Maple Leafs' recurring postseason arc — nine straight playoff berths, first-round exits, and perennial hope-to-resolution coverage.
Fan-first Kraken coverage that pivots to league-wide playoff reaction when Seattle is eliminated, with candid emotional texture.
Where to start
4 routes in, one per reader
Game-by-game Cup Final reactions paired with mid-series tactical breakdowns make this the clearest analytical thread through the postseason.
Panel format with loose conversational energy; covers the full postseason from bubble races to instant Cup reaction.
Follows the Wild from the final weeks of the regular season through each playoff round with invested granularity.
First-round matchup previews and injury-impact tracking help fantasy managers navigate playoff brackets.
Glossary
Words this beat uses without explaining
Award given to the Most Valuable Player of the Stanley Cup playoffs, voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers' Association after the Cup Final.
Two playoff spots per conference (Eastern and Western) reserved for teams that finish third in their division or accumulate the most points among non-division leaders in the conference.
A franchise on the playoff cutline in the final weeks of the regular season — one that may qualify or miss depending on remaining games and rival results.
The benefit of hosting Games 1, 2, 5, and 7 of a playoff series, earned by the team with the better regular-season point total.
A hockey analytics metric combining team shooting percentage and save percentage; at the league level it always sums to 100, so extreme PDO values typically regress to mean over time.
A team that wins the Stanley Cup in consecutive seasons; the Florida Panthers accomplished this in 2024 and 2025, the second back-to-back since the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016-17.