NHL Playoff Pressure Rankings: Which Teams Need to Deliver in 2025?

Peter Klein

🎙️ From the Leafs and Oilers to the Jets and Capitals — who’s under the most pressure heading into the 2025 NHL Playoffs? I rank the teams and explain what’s at stake for each.  C of Dead: https://www.cofdead403.ca/ Swift Energy: https://www.swiftenergy.gg/?ref=mriusnqm  Promo Code: PKPrimetime for 25% off Apple Pod: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/couch-potato-diary/id1564122189 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3QgazeHcSKSteZbBIubcuM Twitter: x.com/primetimeklein IG: instagram.com/primetimeklein Facebook: www.facebook.com/Couchpotatodiary Twitch: twitch.tv/primetimepk Email: couchpotatodiary@yahoo.com We Had No Idea: every Wednesday morning,  instagram.com/wehadnoideapodcast  #NHLPlayoffs #StanleyCup2025 #HockeyTalk #NHLPressure #CouchPotatoDiary

Transcript

00:00the Stanley Cup playoffs are here and with that comes a lot of pressure for everyone but some

00:12more than others so let's take a look at who is facing the most pressure as we head into

00:17the postseason we will begin with the Toronto Maple Leafs forever and always under pressure

00:23but now there's a bit of a timeline on it and it will probably be extended but for now

00:28um this is an organization that has some big decisions to make in the next little bit they

00:34have massive contracts coming up with Marner and Tavares um them being free agents at the end of

00:40the year they won the division so I'm not saying pressure's off but this group has been together

00:45for a very long time and they've made basically every change you can around them now it's time

00:51for them to actually do this or big changes could be coming so um with Matthews Marner Nylander and

00:57Tavares you could throw O'Reilly in there as well um the path really has never been more clear all

01:03respect to Ottawa but it has always been just an absolute grind of a first round series for Toronto

01:09to get through and generally they don't so this time now they are facing Ottawa who they talent-wise

01:16should stack up with pretty well and then after that um Florida and Tampa Bay whoever is coming out

01:21of that series is going to have just beat the hell out of each other so it should be not an easy

01:27series but a little bit at least beneficial to them so the the pressure I think now because of

01:33how the bracket sets up and just because of where this team is at in the kind of development of the

01:39franchise um there's there's a lot of pressure on these guys up next I have the Washington Capitals

01:44they do have that Stanley Cup win and there does feel like a little bit of playing with house money but

01:48also you have one of the greatest players of all time still playing at a very high level

01:53you need to take advantage of that so I think that there is quite a bit of pressure on the

01:58Washington Capitals to take advantage of this momentum when you have it because we know Ovi is

02:03not going to be there forever it kind of feels like he might but probably not so you have again

02:09number one seed you have a superstar playing at an extremely high level this is your time to go out

02:16and try to take advantage of this situation the Winnipeg Jets uh I have also as a team under immense

02:22pressure this season they have been good for a while and the playoff results have not been there

02:26so now uh this is one where the reason I don't have them up like right beside Toronto

02:31is because their guys for the most part like Ehlers but for the most part their guys are under

02:36contract for a little bit anyway um but they just won the President's Trophy last year's postseason

02:41was a disaster and so if this one is that again then I think some really really hard questions

02:48are going to be asked out in Winnipeg and the last one is the Oilers got to within a win of the

02:54Stanley Cup final uh sorry of the Stanley Cup last year and again generational talent on your team

03:01a couple very good players on your team and we have now seen that one of them can be I mean both

03:07of them at times can be just simply brilliant again take advantage of that while you can and

03:14that has not necessarily been a strong suit for Edmonton over the last little bit so um a lot of

03:19pressure on again everyone it's the Stanley Cup playoffs but I think those four teams are under the

03:25most amount of pressure heading into the playoffs

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