{"id":609816,"date":"2026-04-17T08:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T08:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/609816\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T08:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T08:13:11","slug":"nhl-announces-start-dates-for-playoff-matchups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/609816\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL announces start dates for playoff matchups"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\t\tBy The Canadian Press<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Canadian Press\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted April 16, 2026 1:17 pm<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tUpdated April 17, 2026 1:28 am\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t1 min read\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tDescrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tIncrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>NEW YORK \u2013 The NHL has unveiled when playoff-bound teams will begin their quests for the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The league released start dates and times for Game 1 of each first-round series on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The playoffs begin Saturday with the Ottawa Senators facing the Hurricanes in Carolina (3 p.m. ET), followed by the Dallas Stars hosting the Minnesota Wild (5:30 p.m.) and the Philadelphia Flyers visiting the Pittsburgh Penguins (8 p.m.).<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRelated Videos\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: 'Habs, Oilers, Senators look to end Canada\u2019s Stanley Cup drought'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/260415-HEATHER.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   data-\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:52<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHabs, Oilers, Senators look to end Canada\u2019s Stanley Cup drought\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\tPrevious Video<\/p>\n<p>\t\tNext Video<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, the Colorado Avalanche will entertain the Los Angeles Kings (3 p.m.), who lost 3-1 to the Calgary Flames on Thursday night and finished their regular season in the Western Conference\u2019s second wild-card spot.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767930311_275_national.jpg\" alt=\"Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won't miss a trending story.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n<p>Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won&#8217;t miss a trending story.<\/p>\n<p>Later Sunday, the visiting Montreal Canadiens face the Tampa Bay Lightning (5:45 p.m.), while the Boston Bruins face the Sabres (7:30 p.m.) in Buffalo. The Utah Mammoth take on the Vegas Golden Knights (10 p.m.).<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Sports<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The final series begins Monday (10 p.m.) with the Edmonton Oilers hosting the Anaheim Ducks. The Oilers defeated the Vancouver Canucks 6-1 on Thursday night to finish second in the Pacific Division, while the Ducks beat the Nashville Predators 5-4 to finish third and two points ahead of the Kings.<\/p>\n<p>This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 16, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By The Canadian Press The Canadian Press Posted April 16, 2026 1:17 pm Updated April 17, 2026 1:28&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,453,5239,72244,448,208384,744,208385,124695,208386,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-609816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton-oilers","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-national-hockey-league","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-ottawa-hockey","15":"tag-ottawa-senators","16":"tag-ottawa-sports","17":"tag-senators","18":"tag-senators-hockey","19":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}