Is 2025-2026 the worst eastern conference ever?

[Castle8130]

Yes Carolina was living on easy street

 

[WetcoastOrca]

2 highly emotional 7 games series. For sure you can run out of gas. The fact they are a young team amplifies that since most of them have never played so many games in a season. Take Kapanen for example, started strong and then by playoffs he was so burned out he was a healthy scratch most of the post-season.
Of course Carolina being off 12 days made it even worst as far as energy goes.

Sounds like excuses tbh.
The vastly superior team won.

 

[Xspyrit]

Carolina Hurricanes are very good.

But they're not that much better than Carolina Hurricanes during the past few years. This year they're just healthy and have had more favorable matchups.

Even so, they really deserve this success with the consistency they've had during the past few years. This is finally their year.

Yes they are...

K'Andre Miller is a huuuuuge addition. Ehlers is another very big one. Logan Stankoven is breaking out. Nikishin is arriving. Taylor Hall is not at his peak anymore but he's having huge playoffs.

Necas, Noesen, Pesce and Skjei are gone but they have been more than replaced

 

[Nicko999]

Sounds like excuses tbh.
The vastly superior team won.

Not really.
Carolina finished with more pts and deserved the easier path to the ECF.
They were the better team. Running out of fuel is not an excuse, it means the team isn't ready to compete for 4 rounds yet.

 

[pelderhostiga]

Yes they are...

K'Andre Miller is a huuuuuge addition. Ehlers is another very big one. Logan Stankoven is breaking out. Nikishin is arriving. Taylor Hall is not at his peak anymore but he's having huge playoffs.

Necas, Noesen, Pesce and Skjei are gone but they have been more than replaced

Yeah. Compared to 2024 playoffs they replaced Teravainen, Necas and Bunting with slightly worse individual seasons from Stankoven, Blake and Hall, and Guentzel with a lot worse season from Ehlers. Miller and Nikishin are younger and more mobile but less established than Burns, Pesce and Skjei. And the goalie is still the same, though two years older and already 36 years old.

So as I said, not that much better on paper than the previous iterations of the Hurricanes, if at all.

 

[Golden_Jet]

the answer is yes.

Good luck backing that up with facts, comparing to all the other seasons

 

[superstars]

not surprising that the West is so much better in crunch time when they have all the elite talent

McD
Mac
Drai
Eichel
Makar
Hughes
Kaprizov
Rantanen
Marner

 

[daver]

The EC champs needing OT to beat at team that wouldn't have made the playoffs in the East is a sure sign the EC is at its weakest ever.

 

[Ole Gil]

The EC champs needing OT to beat at team that wouldn't have made the playoffs in the East is a sure sign the EC is at its weakest ever.

The WC champs would have swept a team that wouldn't have made the playoffs in the East with ease.

 

[TooManyHumans]

I think every single Eastern conference team except for the Rangers had a winning (NHL-wise) record versus the West this year, so I am not sure how that means the Eastern conference is the bad one.

 

[Lshap]

I think every single Eastern conference team except for the Rangers had a winning (NHL-wise) record versus the West this year, so I am not sure how that means the Eastern conference is the bad one.

Yup - every available number says the same thing: The East was a stronger conference than the West, with the Atlantic Division going full Genghis Kahn on the entire league and on itself. The West had two/three great teams, but collectively there was no contest.

It's easy for fans to change the story after-the-fact, not so easy to dismiss the actual evidence.

 

[GrkFlyersFan]

The Eastern Conference was the minor leagues for most of the previous decade though Cups only ended up 6-4 in favor of the West, and yes for most of the DPE the West was better. Which is why it's insane to say the East is historically weak this year. Washington missed the playoffs with more points than the Western champs. Carolina had an easy road, as a top seed deserves. That's why they got Ottawa. They got the Flyers because the Metro sucks and Bettman's goofy playoff system gave the Flyers a 50-50 first round series that they won. By the way, the Flyers still took them to OT twice, it didn't have to be a sweep. They sorta caught a break getting Montreal in the ECF instead of TB, but that's what happens when you win a Game 7 with 9 shots and two "off the heezy" goals.

 

[Ghost of Murph]

Good grief.

 

[Tryamw]

Well Summation of Thread:
Carolina sucks the East sucks and The Canucks have to be better than the ENTIRE east, as it's impossible since east sucks so much for that not to be the case.

 

[PaulD]

Same thing happened to Ottawa after having the 5th most goals in the league over the second half of the season

Again, for some reason it's just really hard for a lot of people to just admit that the Canes are really good, and one of the best defensive teams the league has seen in a long time

True....and some players "game" simply does not translate to play off hockey very well.
Some teams have too many of those players.
Worse - some teams have them in their core.

 

[Matty Sundin]

Do people seriously think acting like comic book guy makes them look cool? lol

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

Born in 1990, I cant remember a worst east.

Carolinas path to the cup involved an ehhh at best ottawa team, a horrific flyers team and albeit talented, a bunch of kids barely able to drink in the US with the habs.

Whens the last time the east was close to this bad?

Weird flex but ok

 

[Joe McGrath]

Do people seriously think acting like comic book guy makes them look cool? lol

It’s sports though, so it makes you cool. Right?

 

[Beige Van]

Canes getting a Rude Awakening now that they are facing a non rebuilding team in the playoffs.