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Here's when the Toronto Maple Leafs will know their playoff opponent

Adam Laskaris
Adam Laskaris
|
Apr 11 2025, 4:49 pm
Here's when the Toronto Maple Leafs will know their playoff opponent
Sergei Belski/Imagn Images

The Toronto Maple Leafs will know their playoff opponent within a week, as the NHL regular season is just about finished.

It’s looking like five Atlantic Division teams will be making it to the Stanley Cup Playoffs this year, with the Leafs, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Ottawa Senators having all punched their ticket already.

The Montreal Canadiens haven’t officially qualified but are just one win away from doing so themselves and can be in tonight with a regulation win over the Senators.

With Toronto holding first place, only the Lightning and Panthers could catch the Leafs in the standings and would possibly need to win out to do so.

As things stand, it looks like the Leafs and wild-card berth-holding Senators will face off in the first round of the playoffs, while the Lightning and Panthers will play each other. As the second wild-card berth, the Canadiens are set to be the lone Atlantic Division team not playing one of their own, as they’re slated to face top-seeded Washington.

While the playoff seeding could still jumble up over the next few games, they could also be set just three days from now, as it appears that date is next Monday, April 14 if the right scenarios play out.

Here’s the remaining schedule for each Atlantic Division team as the playoff race closes out.

Leafs:
Games remaining: 4 (MTL, CAR, BUF, DET)
Current points: 100
Can finish: 1-3

Lightning
Games remaining: 4 (DET, BUF, FLA, NYR)
Current points: 97
Can finish: 1-4

Panthers
Games remaining: 3 (BUF, NYR, TBL)
Current points: 96
Can finish: 1-4

Senators:
Games remaining: 4 (MTL, PHI, CHI, CAR)
Current points: 90
Can finish: 2-5

Canadiens:
Games remaining: 4 (OTT, TOR, CHI, CAR)
Current points: 87
Can finish: 4-5, out of playoffs

Three wins in four games would secure the division for Toronto, as would two wins and a Lightning loss.

With a busy weekend of hockey ahead, the absolute earliest the Leafs could settle in an opponent would be Monday if the Panthers and Lightning manage to secure top-three berths but fall out of reach of catching Toronto and the Senators lock in fourth place themselves.

One such scenario would involve the Senators picking up no more than two points over their two weekend games, with the Leafs also beating Montreal on Saturday and Carolina on Sunday. Both Florida and Tampa Bay would need to stay between 97 and 99 points to be fully out of reach of both Toronto and Ottawa in either direction.

But whether it happens Monday or later in the week, the Leafs are on the verge of figuring out who they’ll play in the first round in just a matter of days.

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