NHL Playoffs 2024: What Top Stars Are Saying Ahead of Stanley Cup Race

The brighter the star, the greater the pressure entering the NHL Playoffs.

Toronto's Auston Matthews, New York's Artemi Panarin, and Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon are among the best to lace skates and they all understand the enormity of the postseason and the chance to play for a Stanley Cup.

They expressed as much as the regular season ended and their attention turned to the highest-stakes time of the year in professional hockey.

Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews fell just short of 70 goals this season, which would have made him the first player to achieve that feat since Alexander Mogilny and Teemu Selanne both did so in the 1992-93 season.

As incredible an accomplishment as it would have been, Matthews is unwavering in his pursuit of the real endgame: the Stanley Cup and getting his team there.

"The most important thing is the team and the team's success, making sure I'm pulling my weight as a leader on this team and help the team win. That's where my focus is at," he said after Thursday's loss to familiar foes, the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Matthews' head coach, Sheldon Keefe, said that, regardless of the play, Matthews' hot streak at the end could be beneficial to the team in the postseason.

"He's playing well, feeling good. If anything, the fact that it's a quick turnaround, right into the playoffs here, should benefit someone like Auston, who's been (in) such a great groove and feeling good."

Matthews did not reach the pinnacle but his 69 goals are a career high and a Maple Leafs record. He will need to stay hot entering the postseason, where the Leafs have not always played up to their potential.

The team has won just one playoff series in the last 10 seasons, ironically enough, against the same Lightning. They will face a potentially grueling match-up against a strong Boston Bruins team that is capable of making sure the star-studded Toronto squad sees another one-and-done playoff appearance, but has not played like the dominant Bruins squad of a year ago.

If Matthews can put the puck in the net against the Bruins' pair of talented goaltenders in Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman, the Leafs' chances of advancing out of the first round and into the conference semis enhances exponentially.

The New York Rangers have been the best team in hockey this season.

The President's Cup winners with a record of 55-23-4, there is a certain level of pressure on the team to win its first Stanley Cup in 30 years and star winger Artemi Panarin knows it.

"I feel pressure for the team. I feel it for the Rangers. We have to win the Stanley Cup. That's not just my personal pressure," he told Vincent Mercogliano of lohud.com.

Perhaps no one expressed the bitterness of defeat a season ago than Panarin, however, telling reporters after the Rangers' first-round loss to New Jersey. "My first thought is that I'm frustrated. I feel pretty empty right now."

Despite the disappointment of a season ago, Panarin feels good about what his team has been able to accomplish this year.

"I feel good about it, but there's an important time in front of us. I kind of have to forget about the regular season. I'm just trying to be ready for the playoffs and the emotions (that come with it)."

The Rangers have a first-round showdown with what appears to be an outmatched Washington Capitals team that secured the final spot in the postseason just this past week. The teams split their season series, with the home team winning each of the match-ups. That bodes well for a New York team with home ice advantage.

Nathan MacKinnon broke the Colorado Avalanche's single-season points mark Friday, tallying two assists for 140 points (51 goals, 89 assists). Those numbers may be good enough to earn him the MVP award this year, but MacKinnon is not worried about the personal accolade.

"I don't think one guy is more deserving [than] another guy," he said after Friday's game. "It's out of my hands, and I can't control people who vote for me or don't like me or like me. It's all good either way."

The star center does not care if you like him, but he does care about prepping for the best by playing the best in the game, something that did not happen in Friday's game against Edmonton.

"It's a tough game to play against a depleted lineup. It's always exciting to play the best players in the league, the best player in the world over there," he said, referencing Connor McDavid, who sat out the regular season-ending game.

The Avalanche will square off with the Winnipeg Jets, a team that bested them in the standings late. The Jets pummeled Colorado in an April 13 match-up, defeating them 7-0. It was a statement win for Winnipeg, which ultimately took over the second seed in the Western Conference, thus securing home ice advantage for the series with Colorado.

MacKinnon will have to be at his best for the Avalanche to escape the first round with a series win. From the sound of it, he is singularly focused on proving he and his team can win a Stanley Cup in 2024.