Five NHL Teams That Need A Strong Post-Olympics Start

As the 2026 Winter Olympics wind down, NHL hockey is looming large on the horizon.

The competitive parity in the league means that there’s a slew of teams that need to come out of the post-Olympic break firing on all pistons.

But first, there are some honorable mentions of teams that need to be strong out of the Olympic break. For instance, the Boston Bruins need to have some urgency to their game. They’re currently in the second and final Stanley Cup playoff wild card spot, but four other teams are chasing Boston that are within six standings points of the Bruins.

For various reasons, the Los Angeles Kings, Nashville Predators, and Vegas Golden Knights have to be better than they’ve been of late. 

But five other teams need to hit the ground running and put together a lengthy stretch of above-average hockey to salvage their season. As we’ll explain below, those five teams all qualify as particularly requiring strong post-Olympics start. 

The Oilers careened into the Olympic break on a three-game losing streak and a 5-5-0 record in their past 10 games. That’s not going to cut it if they intend on holding on to second place in the Pacific Division.

Given that there are currently two teams within one point of the Oilers – with teams like the eighth-place Anaheim Ducks and the seventh-place Seattle Kraken having two games in hand on Edmonton – you’d better believe the Oilers need to produce wins early and often.

Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch has to make his team’s defense a priority, as they’ve been outscored 16-8 in their current losing skid. If things don’t change for the better relatively soon, will the Oilers be pressured to make a splash in a trade or two prior to this year’s March 6 trade deadline? 

Regardless, there’s a lot at stake for Connor McDavid & Co., and Edmonton has to play as a team possessed as soon as games resume on Feb. 25. Missing the playoffs would be a nightmare scenario, but without a strong return to action, that could be a real possibility for the Oilers.

As the back-to-back defending Stanley Cup champs, the Panthers deserve a little respect when it comes to figuring out how to turn things around.

But the reality here is stark: Florida currently sits in 14th place in the Eastern Conference, and in eighth place in the competitive Atlantic Division. And with 61 points in 57 games, the Panthers are nearly as close to the final playoff spot in the East as they are to 16th place in the East. 

Florida has lost five of its past six games. Although having star winger Matthew Tkachuk around for the rest of the season will give the Panthers a boost, Florida coach Paul Maurice has to jump-start his team’s offense, which has managed only 12 goals in their past five losses. 

So while Panthers GM Bill Zito probably has some tricks up his sleeve, time is running out for Florida to pull out of their tailspin. You can’t convince us that teams can just flip a switch and be competitive again. That’s why we’d be worried about this Panthers team if we were a Panthers fan.  

Before the 2025-26 season began, the Senators were pegged by some observers (this writer included) as a team on the rise. Their young players are shifting toward the prime of their careers, so you can imagine how disappointed Sens fans are when they look in the standings and see Ottawa in 6th place in the Atlantic and in 11th place in the East.

The Senators have indeed won five of their past six games, but that tells you more about how ineffective they were prior to that improvement than it does about the improvement itself. 

Having veteran goalie Linus Ullmark back with the team should give the Sens some help, but Ottawa’s sub-standard first half of the season means they now need teams above them to falter in addition to staying as hot as they were entering the Olympic break. So it feels like some of the Senators’ destiny is out of their hands.

That doesn’t mean we think Ottawa isn’t capable of staying hot. But they’ve only got 25 games left to stick the landing. That means the pressure on them starts immediately after the Olympic break, and it’s going to stay that way the rest of the season. 

The Maple Leafs did go into the Olympic break on a three-game win streak – but that came after a six-game losing stretch where they nearly completely buried their playoff hopes. As a result, Toronto now sits in 12th place in the East and in 7th place in the Atlantic.

And while the good news is that the Leafs are a great home team with a 16-9-6 record at Scotiabank Arena, the bad news is they’re an entirely different (read: much worse) road team, and 15 of their remaining 25 games are road games.

If they can get a bounce-back performance from goalie Anthony Stolarz, the Maple Leafs should be in the mix for a wild card berth. 

But this is another reason they need a strong post-Olympics start – Leafs GM Brad Treliving must decide whether he’s a buyer or seller, and a hot streak may convince him to add talent, while a poor stretch could lead him to sell off parts for draft picks and prospects.

Thus, every game will have heightened expectations for this Buds team the rest of the way this year. They can’t afford another long losing streak, and they’ve only won more than three games in a row just once this season, with a relatively modest four-game win streak. So Leafs fans are probably leaning toward pessimism regarding Toronto’s playoff chances. And we wouldn’t blame them for feeling that way.

The Capitals are the defending regular-season Metropolitan Division champs, and for a while there this season, they looked like a strong team, building a record of 21-14-5 through New Year’s Eve. But since then, the Caps have been on a slow-but-steady decline, going 8-9-2 in their past 19 games to fall to 6th place in the Metro and 10th place in the East.

That said, Washington won four of its five games heading into the Olympic break. And they’re only four points behind the Bruins for the second wild card position. But the Capitals are a Jekyll-and-Hyde team when it comes to thriving as a home team (17-10-3) and struggling on the road (12-13-4), and they have more remaining games away from home than they do at home.

The Caps have $9.3 million in salary cap space – a number that rises to $12.6 million if they hang onto the space until the trade deadline. We can’t envision Washington GM Chris Patrick being a seller if the Capitals stumble out of the Olympic break, as he’s got a veteran group that needs roster addition rather than subtraction.

The sun is setting on one generation of Caps, and they need to make the most of their time with their current core. A strong start to their final 23 games will encourage Patrick to take big swings on the trade front.

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