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The NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs begin Saturday. Here's what to watch for
Oliver Ekman-Larsson of the Florida Panthers celebrates with the Stanley Cup following their victory over the Edmonton Oilers in Game Seven of the 2024 NHL Stanley Cup Final on June 24, 2024. The 2025 playoffs begin Saturday with hopes of an equally thrilling ending.
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Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
WASHINGTON — Hockey’s Stanley Cup Playoffs begin Saturday.
It’s a tall order to live up to last year’s dramatic seven-game final. But the pieces are in place for an entertaining playoffs, with contenders for first-time Stanley Cup winners and generational stars looking for a last trophy to cap off their career.
The puck drops on the first round with a pair of games on Saturday and three more to follow Sunday. And with no New York, no Boston and no Chicago in the mix, it’s a chance for smaller(-ish) markets to shine — including the NHL’s smallest market, Winnipeg, whose Jets finished with the best record in the league and head into the playoffs with a top seed.
Here’s who to watch for:
The Washington Capitals
Pre-season expectations were low, low, low for the Washington Capitals last fall.
In October, the Athletic gave the Caps only an 18% chance of making the playoffs — and less than a 1% likelihood of earning more than 110 points. Franchise cornerstone Alex Ovechkin turned 39 and had just posted the second-lowest goal-scoring season of his career. The only two other remaining pieces of the roster that won the Stanley Cup in 2018 — winger Tom Wilson and defenseman John Carlson — also looked to be past their primes.
Instead, Washington has blown those expectations out of the water.
The Capitals have the best record in the Eastern Conference. Ovechkin has the fourth-most goals in the league, and his chase for Gretzky’s all-time career goals record energized the whole team. Younger players like Dylan Strome, Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas have all played the best seasons of their careers.
Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals scores a goal against the Pittsburgh Penguins Thursday. Coming into the season, the expectations for the Capitals were low. But the team has the best record in the Eastern Conference.
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Justin Berl/Getty Images
Yet now that the Ovi-Gretzky chase is over and the playoffs are nigh, there is cause for concern. The Caps have slumped. Injuries and perhaps a post-chase energy comedown have contributed to losses in eight of their last 12 games.
“It’s like, has this chase drawn too much out of them, or has this raised their game to another level and they’re just kind of patiently waiting now to start playing playoffs and ramp it back up again?” said ESPN analyst P. K. Subban, who played 13 seasons in the NHL.
No team ever wants to enter the playoffs on a cold streak, yet that’s exactly where the Capitals are. Now they’ll look to shake it off in a first-round matchup against the Montreal Canadiens.
The Tkachuks
Whether you see Tkachuks as the heroes or the villains might depend on your national allegiance … or your political persuasion. But it’s undeniable that last February’s 4 Nations Face-Off, the NHL’s wildly successful replacement for an All-Star Game, propelled the two brothers from hockey stars into actual stars.
Both Tkachuks — Matthew, of the Florida Panthers, and Brady, of the Ottawa Senators — were already big names in the hockey world. And as Americans with six NHL All-Star Game appearances between them, they were locks for Team USA.
The 4 Nations Face-Off began just a couple weeks after President Trump’s inauguration. When Team USA traveled to Montreal to play Canada, the Canadian fans showered the arena with boos as the Star-Spangled Banner was sung. And Matthew Tkachuk “didn’t like” that, as he said later, and the moment the puck hit the ice, he dropped his gloves to fight a Canadian player. Brady did the same moments later. It was an electric moment for hockey. (The U.S. won that game, which was the most-viewed non-Olympic hockey game ever in the U.S. But Canada got the last laugh when it won the final in overtime.)
Ahead of the final, Matthew Tkachuk told ESPN that he viewed 4 Nations as more important than the previous year’s Stanley Cup Final between his Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers, which went to seven games. “Even comparing it to last year’s game, this feels bigger. It feels bigger than Game 7,” he said.
For both Tkachuk brothers, the spring has been a bit of a comedown since then. Matthew sustained a lower-body injury during the 4 Nations event that has sidelined him for the past 25 games. And Brady has dealt with an injury of his own that has caused him to miss eight games.
But both are set to return in the playoffs. Matthew’s Panthers open with a first-round matchup against fellow Floridians, the Tampa Bay Lightning. And Brady’s Senators will take on the Toronto Maple Leafs in a “battle for Ontario.”
No matter the results, get ready to see them back with Team USA next February in the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The Winnipeg Jets celebrate a win against the New York Rangers last month. Winnipeg is a long-suffering hockey town. But this year, the Jets finished 56-22-4, the best record in hockey. And the pressure is on to deliver.
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Cameron Bartlett/Getty Images
Winnipeg’s first Stanley Cup?
Winnipeg is a long-suffering hockey town.
The first iteration of its NHL team, the Jets, played in town from 1979 to 1996 — and never won a Stanley Cup, or even advanced past the second round of the playoffs. Then, the team packed up and moved to Arizona, and Winnipeg went without an NHL team until 2011. When the new version of the Jets arrived in town, local fans were so hungry for an NHL team that tickets to the home opener went for $1,000 or more.
Yet this new version of the Jets hasn’t won a Stanley Cup, either. And it’s not because the team has been bad: They’ve reached the playoffs in seven of the past eight seasons.
This year, the Jets finished 56-22-4, the best record in hockey. And the pressure is on to deliver. A mere appearance in the Stanley Cup Final would be the best result in franchise history, new or old.
One player to know: The Jets’ hopes rest, in large part, on the shoulders of goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who leads the NHL in both wins and save percentage. No team allowed fewer goals all season than the Jets. (Hellebuyck was another star for Team USA in the 4 Nations Faceoff.)
“The kind of year that he’s stitched together for himself this year is really, really, really impressive,” said Mark Messier, the six-time Stanley Cup champion who is now an analyst for ESPN. “And it hasn’t been all Hellebuyck. They’ve played excellent structurally. They’ve got great scoring, timely scoring, depth at position.”
Candidates in California’s volatile race for governor will meet Wednesday night for the first televised debate since Eric Swalwell dropped out, each looking to seize momentum in the tight contest.
The debate, being held at the television studio of KRON4 in San Francisco, will include four Democrats and two Republicans who are tightly bunched in recent polls, with many voters still undecided less than six weeks before the June 2 primary.
Mr. Swalwell, a Democrat, had just begun to emerge as a Democratic front-runner when his campaign swiftly collapsed after he was accused of sexual assault in news reports on April 10.
Candidates have taken relatively few risks so far in debates around the state, but every candidate is now eyeing a chance to jump to the front of the pack.
“Even though we have seen some movement in the last couple of weeks, it continues to be a fairly crowded, fractured field,” said Sara Sadhwani, an assistant professor of politics at Pomona College. “So candidates need to be able to grab attention in a debate like this.”
The debate comes as Xavier Becerra, a Democrat and former California attorney general, has enjoyed a surge of support in polls since Mr. Swalwell dropped out of the race.
Mr. Becerra and Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose, did not originally meet the threshold to participate in Wednesday’s debate when Mr. Swalwell was running. But they both qualified after receiving enough support in a follow-up poll that debate organizers commissioned once Mr. Swalwell had dropped out.
The other Democrats scheduled to participate are Tom Steyer, a former hedge fund manager, and Katie Porter, a former congresswoman, each of whom have been polling near the top of the Democratic field for several weeks. The Republicans in the debate are Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host who has been endorsed by President Trump, and Chad Bianco, the sheriff of Riverside County.
All candidates run on the same ballot in California’s nonpartisan primary, with the two who receive the most votes advancing to the general election, regardless of their party affiliation. The large number of Democratic candidates has created fear among state party leaders that their voters could splinter, potentially allowing two Republicans to sweep the primary in this heavily Democratic state.
The odds of that happening have decreased since Mr. Swalwell dropped out and another Democrat, Betty Yee, withdrew on Monday. But Rusty Hicks, the chairman of the California Democratic Party, still believes there are too many Democrats in the race and has urged those lagging in polls to end their campaigns. (The actual ballot will include 61 candidates for governor, most of whom are completely unknown to voters.)
The messy race to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, who cannot run for re-election because of term limits, has played out as the most unpredictable contest California has seen in a generation. It has attracted a sprawling field but no one with the star power of former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger or the political might of Mr. Newsom or former Gov. Jerry Brown.
Much of California’s Democratic establishment is still figuring out whom to back in the turbulent race.
Mr. Newsom has not endorsed anyone, saying he trusts voters to elect someone “who reflects the values and direction Californians believe in.” Representative Nancy Pelosi, the influential former House speaker from San Francisco, and Senator Alex Padilla also have not announced their favorites. Senator Adam Schiff endorsed Mr. Swalwell earlier this year but quickly withdrew his support after the accusations against him were published.
On Tuesday, Ms. Yee endorsed Mr. Steyer, praising his work to fight climate change and engage young voters. Mr. Steyer has swamped his competitors with a raft of advertising by pouring $134 million from his personal fortune into his campaign.
Also on Tuesday, Mr. Becerra, whose campaign had appeared to be flailing until Mr. Swalwell dropped out, received the endorsement of Robert Rivas, the Democratic speaker of the California State Assembly. Mr. Rivas said he had encouraged Mr. Becerra to run for governor because he was impressed by his work as California’s attorney general during President Trump’s first term.
“He understands both the policy and the politics,” Mr. Rivas said in an interview. “And he has a track record, in my opinion, of delivering results under pressure.”
The 90-minute debate on Wednesday begins at 7 p.m. PT and will be broadcast and streamed by KRON and other California stations.
Virginians approved a new congressional map on Tuesday that would aggressively gerrymander the state in the Democrats’ favor, giving the party as many as four more U.S. House seats.
The new map draws eight safely Democratic districts and two competitive districts that lean Democratic, according to a New York Times analysis of 2024 presidential results. It leaves just one safe Republican seat, compared with the five seats the G.O.P. holds on the current map.
The proposed map was drawn by Democratic state legislators and approved by Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat. It eliminates three Republican-held seats in part by slicing the densely populated suburbs in Arlington and Fairfax Counties and reallocating their overwhelmingly Democratic voters into five congressional districts, some stretching more than a hundred miles into Republican areas.
Perhaps the most extreme new district is the Seventh, which begins at the Potomac River and stretches to the west and south in a manner that resembles a pair of lobster claws. Several well-known Virginia Democrats have already announced their candidacies and begun campaigning in the district.
Reid J. Epstein contributed reporting.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks as FBI Director Kash Patel listens during a news conference at the Justice Department on Tuesday in Washington.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
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Jacquelyn Martin/AP
WASHINGTON — The Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted Tuesday on federal fraud charges alleging it improperly raised millions of dollars to pay informants to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan and other extremist groups, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said.
The Justice Department alleges the civil rights group defrauded donors by using their money to fund the very extremism it claimed to be fighting, with payments of at least $3 million between 2014 and 2023 to people affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan, the United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America and other extremist groups.
“The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred,” Blanche said.
The civil rights group faces charges including wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in the case brought by the Justice Department in Alabama, where the organization is based.
The indictment came shortly after SPLC revealed the existence of a criminal investigation into its program to pay informants to infiltrate extremist groups and gather information on their activities. The group said the program was used to monitor threats of violence and the information was often shared with local and federal law enforcement.
SPLC CEO Bryan Fair said the organization “will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our work.”
Blanche said the money was passed from the center through two different bank accounts before being loaded onto prepaid cards to give to the members of the extremist groups, which also included the National Socialist Movement and the Aryan Nations-affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club. The group never disclosed to donors details of the informant program, he said.
“They’re required to under the laws associated with a nonprofit to have certain transparency and honesty in what they’re telling donors they’re going to spend money on and what their mission statement is and what they’re raising money doing,” he said.
The indictment includes details on at least nine unnamed informants were paid by the SPLC through a secret program that prosecutors say began in the 1980s. Within the SPLC, they were known as field sources or “the Fs,” according to the indictment. One informant was paid more than $1 million between 2014 and 2023 while affiliated with the neo-Nazi National Alliance, the indictment said. Another was the Imperial Wizard of the United Klans of America.
The SPLC said the program was kept quiet to protect the safety of informants.
“When we began working with informants, we were living in the shadow of the height of the Civil Rights Movement, which had seen bombings at churches, state-sponsored violence against demonstrators, and the murders of activists that went unanswered by the justice system,” Fair said. “There is no question that what we learned from informants saved lives.”
The center has been targeted by Republicans
The SPLC, which is based in Montgomery, Alabama, was founded in 1971 and used civil litigation to fight white supremacist groups. The nonprofit has become a popular target among Republicans who see it as overly leftist and partisan.
The investigation could add to concerns that Trump’s Republican administration is using the Justice Department to go after conservative opponents and his critics. It follows a number of other investigations into Trump foes that have raised questions about whether the law enforcement agency has been turned into a political weapon.
The SPLC has faced intense criticism from conservatives, who have accused it of unfairly maligning right-wing organizations as extremist groups because of their viewpoints. The center regularly condemns Trump’s rhetoric and policies around voting rights, immigration and other issues.
The center came under fresh scrutiny after the assassination last year of conservative activist Charlie Kirk brought renewed attention to its characterization of the group that Kirk founded and led. The center included a section on that group, Turning Point USA, in a report titled “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2024” that described the group as “A Case Study of the Hard Right in 2024.”
FBI Director Kash Patel said last year that the agency was severing its relationship with the center, which had long provided law enforcement with research on hate crime and domestic extremism. Patel said the center had been turned into a “partisan smear machine,” and he accused it of defaming “mainstream Americans” with its “hate map” that documents alleged anti-government and hate groups inside the United States.
House Republicans hosted a hearing centered on the SPLC in December, saying it coordinated efforts with President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration “to target Christian and conservative Americans and deprive them of their constitutional rights to free speech and free association.”
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