‘Failure definitely drives me more than anything else’: Inside Corey Seager’s perpetual pursuit of the perfect swing
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Jeff Passan, ESPN
THE BASEBALL SWING is a puzzle, an ever-changing riddle. Even for the best hitters in the world, the fragility of the swing is palpable. Every minuscule detail matters. Batters are not machines, built to replicate the same action countless times before they are replaced. They are human beings aiming to be their most machine-like and grappling with the defect of the endeavor.
Perhaps the best representation of this duality belongs to Corey Seager, the shortstop for the reigning World Series champion Texas Rangers. Seager obsesses over his swing. “I love the process,” he says. “You have to enjoy it to be able to do this, right?” Now in his 10th major league season, Seager has grown into one of the game’s finest hitters as much because of the time he spends fine-tuning his swing as the inherent ability packed into his 6-foot-4, 215-pound frame.
Seager’s left-handed swing is gorgeous, rhythmic, elegant even. It is an aesthetic marvel, its art rooted in its science. Seager is a baseball engineer, building complex processes on the fly. Every movement has meaning and the end product — the swing — is a one-man symphony.
And yet Seager lives with perpetual anxiety, worrying that for all of the time and effort and energy he devotes to his swing, it could desert him at the most inopportune moment. For all of the offense his swing produces, it exists equally as a defense mechanism. Seager’s infatuation is also his torment.
“The fear of failure,” he says. “Failure definitely drives me more than anything else.”
So the man widely regarded as the most clutch hitter of his generation focuses on the most microscopic of details. Little invigorates Seager more than the daily rebuild of his swing. This is the process in action.
“It takes an aggressive humility to say, ‘I’ve been a multiple-time World Series MVP, Rookie of the Year and every day I’m going to start with a blank state,'” Rangers bench coach Donnie Ecker says. “‘How do I put this thing together to be ready at 7 o’clock?’ What I appreciate about Corey is there’s no guessing. He’s not willing to do that.”
Seager understands that his cues are ever-evolving, that swings do not exist in vacuums. Aging can degrade them and injuries can contaminate them, and that’s all before trying to calibrate them for a pitcher marrying 98 on the corner with a bastard back-foot slider and a tumbling splitter just to make hitting even more the fool’s errand. The inherent defensiveness of the batter — every hitter, quite literally, is starting on the back foot — forces Seager to vise-grip everything he can control.
On the cusp of 30 years old, Seager is figuring out who he is and what he can be. And for all the help he receives, all the support offered, hitting is ultimately a solo endeavor. It’s just him and himself, raging against the fear and seeking the peace of the perfect swing and things beyond.
“There is no worse feeling than being in a bad spot in a major league batter’s box,” Seager says. “Knowing you’re in a bad spot and not being able to compete. You’re just by yourself. It’s an empty, bad place to be. You have no chance. These guys are way too good. And nobody’s coming to save you.”
BEFORE EVERY AT-BAT, Seager finds a mirror. At Globe Life Field, he heads for the one next to the batting cage or in the weight room. At the other 29 stadiums around Major League Baseball, Seager knows exactly where he can locate one, because it’s every bit as important to him as the bat he’s going to use at the plate.
When Seager stares into the looking glass, he sees angles. It’s less about mathematics than about comparing the mental snapshot of his most idealized batting stance to how closely he is reproducing it in that particular moment. This varies by the day, even the at-bat. For Seager to be who he aspires to be — the best version of himself, which consequently would be the best hitter on the planet — he must constantly tweak and contort his limbs into the proper angles to put himself in an ideal position to punish a baseball.
The mirror is Seager’s muse. He stares at himself with clarity, both literal — he’s got 20/12.5 vision — and figurative, the latter born of thousands of hours studying the angles and knowing himself better than any opponent hunting for a weakness ever could.
“Even with good vision, if you’re in a bad spot you’re not going to be able to dictate your at-bat how I would prefer to,” Seager says. “So I’ve learned that it always comes back to how I move.”
Seager’s main mirror sits in the hallway at Globe Life. A piece of white tape adorns its top frame. Written on the tape is a message: “I’m here to help you look good & move good. Please don’t break me.” Rangers hitters retreat from the dugout to partake of it, none with quite the reverence of Seager.
“The mirror,” he says, “does not lie.”
This kind of single-minded focus has helped him ascend to the highest rung of one of the game’s most successful families. His oldest brother, Kyle, was an All-Star and Gold Glove-winning third baseman with Seattle. The middle sibling, Justin, topped out at Double-A in the Mariners organization. Kyle was in the midst of his first major league season when the Dodgers chose Seager out of high school in North Carolina with the 18th pick of the 2012 draft. Promoted to Double-A two years later after wrecking the lower minor leagues, Seager linked up with then-Dodgers minor league hitting coach Shawn Wooten, a fortuitous pairing that refined his abundant raw skills.
In Wooten, a six-year big leaguer, Seager found a kindred spirit. Seager’s obsessiveness is not limited to his swing. Everything in his orbit has a specific place and if something is not where it belongs it eats at him.
“It’s helped me in my profession to be OCD” — Seager uses the term colloquially, not clinically — “and have things lined up exactly how I need them to be,” he says. “The way he could break it down — put me in different segments of the swing, different points, different parts — is what really clicked with me. Give me how it’s going to go, what you need at that point and let me do it and figure it out. And that’s where it really clicked for us.”
Seager’s early work with Wooten consumed him, even at the oddest times. In the minor leagues, Seager lived with current Oakland A’s right-hander Ross Stripling and Stripling’s future wife, Shelby. Once, when Seager and Shelby were eating breakfast, he stood up from the table, handed her his phone and asked her to take video of him pantomiming a swing. The boundaries of swing enlightenment are anchored to neither place nor time. When Seager takes video of himself, Stripling says, “it looks like he’s doing nothing, but to him he’s doing something so important.”
Prior to games, Seager still meanders through the clubhouse with a bat in one hand and a phone connected to a tripod in the other — a digital complement to his analog mirror — scrutinizing clips of his swing and comparing them to others in a library that spans his minor league days to the present. Optimizing a swing is a constant fire drill and any tool that proves effective finds its place in Seager’s routine.
Seager and Wooten talk every day, speaking a language foreign to even other big leaguers. The nomenclature matters because Seager uses it to discuss with Wooten where his body parts belong at particular points in the swing. Achieving angles is an exercise in subtlety. When Seager arrives in the box and stares out to the endless world of outcomes on the field in front of him, he takes his mirror session and tries to duplicate it. He digs his legs into a wide base. He cantilevers his right arm. His first move starts before the pitcher releases the ball.
“Go watch a game and, if you can, watch before he gets his hands up,” Wooten says. “He just pushes his hips back and turns his front foot in. It’s by design to get on the plane of the pitch.”
Getting on plane — lowering the barrel of the bat to the same level as the incoming ball — is perhaps the most important element of the swing to Wooten. To achieve that, Seager’s back elbow drops into the slot, tucked toward his body. His back knee stays underneath his body to prevent him from lunging. His posture remains upright to allow him to hit high, inside fastballs.
Even though Seager cues himself to swing down — a long-taught tenet that has fallen out of favor in the era of hitters chasing higher launch angles — he’s not actually doing so; it’s simply terminology that Wooten found allows him to stay on plane. Seager’s head barely moves as his hips rotate and the potential energy built through his swing transfers into kinetic energy when bat meets ball.
“If there’s one thing off,” Wooten says, “it’s a big deal.”
All of it is in service of avoiding that bad spot in the box, when the walls of a 40,000-seat stadium seem as if they’re caving in, when the pitcher feels far closer than 60 feet, 6 inches away. Every session in the mirror, every moment spent crafting a routine, goes back to that.
“What makes him an outlier that puts him in the 1% of the 1% is there’s a true obsessive nature about his pursuit of mastery,” Ecker says. “Nothing about that is going to be relatable. When you’re talking about the Kobe Bryants and Tom Bradys and Corey Seagers, everything they do is on the far end of the spectrum.”
As much as Seager studies scouting reports and knows every pitcher’s arsenal, he sees that knowledge as secondary to his swing. The ultimate in control is the capacity to eliminate variables, and rather than do so by guessing what pitch is coming next Seager cuts out one side of the equation altogether, a rare approach because so few have the skill to pull it off.
“That whole question of would you rather know what’s coming or have the perfect swing,” he says, “I’m picking the perfect swing every single time.”
DIFFERENT INCARNATIONS OF Seager have manifested through the years. There was the skinny, pliable kid who arrived in the major leagues at 21 and in 2016 won Rookie of the Year. The maturing masher who when he was healthy did incredible things — his opposite-field World Series home run off Justin Verlander in 2017, punctuated by an unexpected scream of delight, remains a defining highlight of his career — but struggled to stay on the field. The in-his-prime star in 2020 who won his first World Series MVP after retooling his swing. The beneficiary of a 10-year, $325 million free agent deal from the Rangers, who were coming off a 66-96 season in 2021. And the latest build, Seager 5.0, owner of a body that doesn’t move like it once did and needed Wooten’s whispering following a disappointing first year in Texas.
By 2023, because Seager had added weight and strength over time, warping his body into angles he previously achieved was no longer an option. So going into the season, he kept what he did well — his back leg — and overhauled the rest. Ecker learned the language and served as boots on the ground to translate, forging a partnership with Wooten, now an independent hitting coach, that thrived on collaboration and brought out the best in Seager.
“He has the ability to test and retest,” Ecker says. “That second iteration is the most important part. He’s going to stress test it and be able to put it back together.”
For almost all of 2023, Seager operated as if he’d solved the puzzle. After missing six weeks in April and May with a hamstring injury, he finished the year with career highs in batting average (.327), slugging percentage (.623), home runs (33) and RBIs (96), despite playing just 119 games. If not for Shohei Ohtani, Seager would have won the AL MVP award.
And then Seager came the closest he ever has to a perfect swing, at the perfect time: Game 1 of the 2023 World Series, when he stepped to the plate in the ninth inning, one runner on, down two runs, against Arizona Diamondbacks closer Paul Sewald.
Years ago, Sewald learned by accident that his low arm slot could deliver almost-impossible-to-hit high fastballs. The last home run he had issued on a fastball at the top of the strike zone came Sept. 23, 2021. Surely aware that Seager has led MLB in first-pitch-swing percentage for three straight years but not wanting to fall behind in the count, Sewald threw a first-pitch fastball. High in the zone, on the inner quarter of the plate, the well-executed offering was designed to induce a swing-and-miss. Over the previous two years, at-bats that ended on Sewald fastballs as high off the ground as this one — 3.32 feet — had produced six hits, all singles, and a .133 batting average.
Seager hammered the 93.2-mph fastball 418 feet into the right-field stands, stared into the Rangers’ dugout and emitted a primal scream.
“I was watching the World Series,” his former Dodgers teammate and close friend Justin Turner says, “and it was like, ‘Oh my god, he Verlander-ed him.'”
Seager says he does not remember anything about the home run, and as unbelievable as that sounds — an iconic moment for the world was fleeting for the person who made it — his friends and teammates believe him. They see what he turns into in October. The tunnel vision. The attention to detail on every play. If in-season Seager is focused, postseason Seager never lapses — not at the plate, not in the field, not on the bases.
“I don’t remember a lot of the playoffs,” he says. “You know it means more, so you are more focused. You’re trying to make it the same game, but truly the atmosphere, everything else — I don’t remember certain plays, I don’t remember certain sequences of the game. You have bits and pieces that you remember. And especially on homers, I have flashbacks of certain aspects of it, but there’s a lot of ’em I don’t even remember what happened. It’s kind of crazy. It sucks. I wish I remembered.”
Seager’s propensity to meet any moment, any situation, any pitcher is earning him hallowed company. Last October, he hit .318/.451/.682 with six home runs, including three against the Diamondbacks en route to his second World Series MVP. He joined Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson and Reggie Jackson as the only two-time winners. Plenty of people in baseball see him as the modern-day version of Derek Jeter — and Seager is only one postseason home run away from tying the New York Yankees captain despite playing in half as many playoff games. Since 2020, among the 82 players with at least 15 postseason games, Seager has the most home runs (16) and RBIs (38, tied with Houston’s Yordan Alvarez) and the second-most runs and hits.
“This is where I want to be,” Seager says. “You change, you adapt, you learn. But I don’t know if you ever get enough, especially in the postseason.”
For Seager, the names, the comparisons, the accolades — they land with all the impact of a snowflake hitting the pavement. He considers the idea of being clutch and believes there’s something to it, but it’s nothing innate, he thinks, not something he was lucky enough to have inherited. It’s a positive consequence of his process, the routine of which allows him to take advantage at any time — including, yes, those most opportune.
“He doesn’t give a f— who’s on the mound,” Stripling says. “He doesn’t care if it’s Jacob deGrom or the last starter in the big leagues. It is see ball, hit ball. He’s just awful to face.”
When Seager was filming videos at Stripling’s breakfast table, Turner was remaking his own career with the Dodgers, and the two later bonded over their focus on routine. Now, in many ways, the student has exceeded the mentor. They’re peers, exceptional hitters both, and they share that knack for October that Turner believes goes beyond their ability to swing the bat with great conviction in moments that crumble lesser players.
“Clutch is misconceived as the three-run homer,” says Turner, 39, now the Toronto Blue Jays’ designated hitter. “It’s hard because only one guy maybe even gets that opportunity in a game to have that clutch moment. Where can you identify clutch in a game throughout plate appearances when that moment is not present. An aspect of clutch is being prepared and being confident in the work you’ve done to put you in a position of confidence when you’re in those moments. Guys probably get out of character in the big moments if they’re not as prepared or as confident and they’re trying to do too much in those areas.
“He’s prepared. There’s a lot of confident guys, right? But he believes in his work. He believes in everything he does going up to the game to give him that mental freedom where no situation is too big for him. A lot of this is being able to find freedom in your game — that you’re not thinking about a mechanic, a situation. There are no what-ifs. You can get ready on time and let it rip. When you have that freedom, you can do anything.”
ON THE NIGHT he hit the home run off Sewald, Seager returned home and watched a replay. He has not pressed play on the video again since. The yell does not embarrass him, exactly, but anything that generates attention goes against his entrenched approach. Seager is guarded: happy to sing the praises of teammates, loath to talk about himself. Little by little, as with his swing, he’s working on that, too.
“I don’t want to be in the spotlight. I don’t want to be the person who’s talked about. And … it’s where I work,” Seager says. “It took a long time to get used to. I used to be super uncomfortable, especially away from the field when people notice you. It was the most uncomfortable thing that could ever happen. I stopped leaving [the house]. I stopped going out. I stopped going to dinner. I just couldn’t handle it. And then finally my wife kind of was like, ‘We have to go out. We’re going to go out. It’s going to be fine. You’re going to figure it out.'”
He is slowly learning, still grappling with the demands of excellence and the trappings of fame. As obsessed as Seager is with his swing — about once a year he’ll fling his bat with anger into the net of a batting cage when he can’t properly set his angles in his mirror — he’s beginning to recognize what chasing impossibility all this time can unlock in him. It’s the foundation for everything else — particularly growth in what he sees beyond his reflection. There is peace independent of the perfect swing, contentment amid the fear, even if not in quite yet the same quantities.
“As much as I hate the mental grind, I love going in there and fixing the puzzle,” Seager says. “I think that’s what draws me back.”
There’s a growing appreciation in Seager for things beyond swings, something that took years to blossom. On the day of Seager’s debut, Chase Utley, the veteran second baseman, pulled Seager aside and told him to treasure the game and what it has to offer. For Utley, that meant five minutes before he stepped onto the field every day to stretch, he would walk into the dugout, sit on the bench and take in the majesty of it all. Seager, too green to understand the purpose of Utley’s routine, didn’t bother.
“I never really thought about it for four years on why he did it,” Seager says. “And then during COVID, actually weirdly enough, when nobody’s around, is kind of when I started. I went on out on the line, kind of took my time of just being there and not getting rid of the nerves, but being in the emotion, being in everything. And then it just kind of goes away.”
Mike Sullivan, who led the Pittsburgh Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017, is out as the team’s head coach, it was announced Monday.
Sullivan was the longest-tenured coach in Penguins history after just completing his 10th season. The 57-year-old, who also coached Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off, was under contract in Pittsburgh through 2026-27.
In a statement, Penguins GM Kyle Dubas said the decision was “the best course forward for all involved” as Pittsburgh navigates a transitional period.
“On behalf of Fenway Sports Group and the Penguins organization, I would like to thank Mike Sullivan for his unwavering commitment and loyalty to the team and City of Pittsburgh over the past decade,” Dubas said. “Mike is known for his preparation, focus and fierce competitiveness. I was fortunate to have a front-row seat to his dedication to this franchise for the past two seasons. He will forever be an enormous part of Penguins history, not only for the impressive back-to-back Cups, his impact on the core of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Bryan Rust, but more importantly, for his love and loyalty to the organization. This was not a decision that was taken lightly, but as we continue to navigate the Penguins through this transitional period, we felt it was the best course forward for all involved.”
The Penguins have missed the playoffs for three straight seasons as Dubas works to retool the team into a contender while Crosby is still competing at a high level. Crosby just completed his 20th straight season in which he posted a point-per-game scoring pace, and he was voted by his peers in the NHLPA as the league’s most complete player. The captain is under contract through next season on a two-year extension he signed prior to the 2024-25 season.
Sullivan was elevated to Penguins head coach in 2015 after leading the organization’s AHL team in Wilkes-Barre. With 409 wins in Pittsburgh, he leaves as the Penguins’ all-time wins leader.
With Sullivan’s departure, there are now seven head-coaching vacancies in the NHL. The Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers, Anaheim Ducks, Seattle Kraken and New York Rangers are also searching for new coaches right now. According to sources, Sullivan has been atop the Rangers’ wish list.
Sources also said Sullivan is keen on coaching again next season and will be a top candidate for several of the vacancies. Sullivan worked as an assistant coach with the Rangers and as both an assistant and head coach with the Bruins earlier in his career.
Home teams are on a tear in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs, going 21-10 thus far. Will that trend continue Monday?
The early matchup is Game 4 of the Battle of Florida, and the festivities have become heated; Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brandon Hagel was given a major penalty for his hit on Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov in Game 2, and subsequently suspended for Game 3. In that game, Matthew Tkachuk leveled a hard hit on Jake Guentzel but did not receive the same punishment. What will transpire in Game 4?
In the nightcap, the clash of West titans continues, as the Colorado Avalanche look to keep the momentum going after their 4-0 victory over the Dallas Stars in Game 4 on Saturday.
Read on for game previews with statistical insights from ESPN Research, recaps of what went down in Sunday’s games, and the Three Stars of Sunday Night from Arda Öcal.
Matchup notes
Tampa Bay Lightning at Florida Panthers
Game 4 (FLA leads 2-1) | 7 p.m. ET | ESPN
Teams that hold a 2-1 series lead have gone on to win the best-of-seven matchup 69% of the time in Stanley Cup playoff history. The Panthers have won two out of three best-of-seven series when holding a 2-1 lead, and the Lightning are 6-7 all time when trailing 2-1.
Jake Guentzel had three points (goal, two assists) in Game 3, and his 40 career playoff goals are third most among active U.S.-born players, trailing Patrick Kane (53) and Chris Kreider (48).
With his win in Game 3, Andrei Vasilevskiy now has 67 for his postseason career, second most among active goaltenders (behind Marc-Andre Fleury, who has 92), and one behind Andy Moog for 11th on the all-time list.
Matthew Tkachuk scored his third goal of the series in Game 3, and became the third player in franchise history with 20 career playoffs goals (Carter Verhaeghe 26, Sam Reinhart 22); he is also the third Panther to record 50 playoff points for the club (Aleksander Barkov 62, Verhaeghe 54).
Aaron Ekblad‘s return from suspension didn’t go so well. According to Stathletes, Ekblad and Gustav Forsling played 10:50 together at 5-on-5, and the Lightning scored three goals while they were on the ice.
Colorado Avalanche at Dallas Stars
Game 5 (series tied 2-2) | 9:30 p.m. ET | ESPN
With the series tied 2-2, history is on the Stars’ side: Colorado is 11-12 when a series is tied 2-2. Dallas has gone 18-14 in the same scenario.
Nathan MacKinnon is up to 52 career playoff goals, which is six away from tying Peter Forsberg for second in Avalanche/Nordiques franchise history; Joe Sakic is first with 84.
Gabriel Landeskog made his return to the ice in Game 3 for the first time since the 2022 Stanley Cup Final, and scored a goal in Game 4, the 28th playoff goal of his career.
Mikko Rantanen (formerly of the Avs, now of the Stars) has only one point (an assist) through four games, but it’s not for a lack of trying; he has 12 shots on goal, which is second most on the team this postseason (Roope Hintz has 13).
Stars goalie Jake Oettinger was pulled in Game 4, just the fourth time in 49 career playoff starts he has played 40 minutes or less. Since 2022, Oettinger has the second-most postseason wins (25), behind Sergei Bobrovsky (34).
Arda’s three stars from Sunday night
Svechnikov potted a hat trick to lift the Canes to a 5-2 win against the Devils in Newark, giving them a 3-1 series lead. Svechnikov is the only Hurricanes/Whalers player in franchise history (45 seasons, 205 playoff games) with a hat trick in the playoffs (he now has two).
His two goals in the third period tied the game at 3, setting the stage for the Oilers to win in OT and tie up the series. Bouchard is now the fourth defenseman to have back-to-back multigoal games in Stanley Cup playoff history.
After two points over the first three games of the series, Neighbors scored a goal and added two assists as the Blues emphatically tied the series with a 5-1 victory in Game 4.
Sunday’s scores
St. Louis Blues 5, Winnipeg Jets 1
Series tied 2-2 | Game 5 Wednesday
Although he is the overwhelming favorite to win the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goalie in the regular season, Connor Hellebuyck is not having a great time this postseason. He was pulled in the third period of this loss after giving up five goals on 18 shots. Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor opened the scoring in this game, but the Blues charged back with five straight goals off the sticks of Jake Neighbours, Tyler Tucker, Brayden Schenn, Justin Faulk and Robert Thomas. The home team has won every game in this series. Will that continue in Game 5 in Winnipeg? Full recap.
0:51
Tyler Tucker puts the Blues ahead with a goal
Tyler Tucker scores in the second period to give the Blues a 2-1 lead over the Jets.
Carolina Hurricanes 5, New Jersey Devils 2
CAR leads 3-1 | Game 5 Tuesday
After the Canes went up 3-0, the Devils punched back with two second-period goals, and Carolina starting goalie Frederik Andersen was knocked out after a collision with New Jersey’s Timo Meier. However, that was as close as the Devils would get, as Brent Burns added a goal at 14:14 of the third, and Andrei Svechnikov finished off his hat trick with an empty-net goal to seal the deal. Full recap.
2:05
Andrei Svechnikov scores his second career playoff hat trick
Andrei Svechnikov lit the ice with his second career playoff hat trick in Game 4 vs. the Devils.
Washington Capitals 5, Montreal Canadiens 2
WSH leads 3-1 | Game 5 Wednesday
The Bell Centre was rocking again for this one. Washington’s Dylan Strome started the scoring at 1:25 of the second period, but the Canadiens answered back with two power-play goals (from Juraj Slafkovsky and Cole Caufield) to take the lead heading into the third. However, the Caps proved they were the better team, tying it 6:39 into the third, taking the lead 10 minutes later and then pumping in two empty-netters to put it out of reach. Full recap.
0:39
Andrew Mangiapane’s big-time goal gives Caps a lead in the 3rd period
Andrew Mangiapane notches a big-time goal to give the Capitals a lead late in the third period.
Edmonton Oilers 4, Los Angeles Kings 3 (OT)
Series tied 2-2 | Game 5 Tuesday
Another back-and-forth contest for these two teams. The Kings held a 3-1 lead heading into the third, thanks to goals from Trevor Moore, Warren Foegele and Kevin Fiala. But the Oilers came back, thanks to a pair of goals by Evan Bouchard (both of which were assisted by Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid) to send the game to overtime. Draisaitl then scored the winner on the power play with just 1:42 left in the extra session. Full recap.
1:14
Leon Draisaitl’s OT winner evens the series for the Oilers
Leon Draisaitl nets the winning goal in overtime to give the Oilers a dramatic win over the Kings in Game 4.
Round 1 of the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs is hitting the nitty-gritty stage, as elimination games will be coming from all corners of North America this week.
The storylines are many, from goaltenders being pulled and trying to regain their form to heavy hits stirring emotions even more than they already were.
ESPN reporters Ryan S. Clark, Kristen Shilton and Greg Wyshynski identified their top takeaways as all 16 teams remain alive — at least for the time being.
Read more:
Full schedule
Intel on all 16 teams
Top 50 players
Wyshynski’s bracket
Contender flaws
Are Connor Hellebuyck and the Jets in trouble … again?
Even with their Game 4 loss Sunday to the St. Louis Blues, the Winnipeg Jets are tied in their series as they look to get out of the first round for the first time in three seasons. But things aren’t trending well for Winnipeg as two-time Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck again received an early exit.
In Game 3, Hellebuyck allowed six goals on 25 shots before being pulled, then gave up five goals on 18 shots Sunday. Watching how Hellebuyck would respond to being pulled in Game 3 was clearly a point of interest.
Every Western Conference series has seen one goalie have an early departure. This started with Stuart Skinner being removed in Game 2 in the Oilers’ 6-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings, while Thursday saw both Hellebuyck and Vegas’ Adin Hill get yanked in their team’s defeats. It happened again Saturday with the Stars relieving Jake Oettinger to start the third period in their 4-0 loss to the Avalanche.
Hellebuyck’s recent history with trying to bounce back from consecutive playoff defeats has been an issue. After he won the opening game in last year’s first-round series, he and the Jets lost four straight. The same thing happened in 2023 when they faced the Golden Knights. In 2021, Hellebuyck lost all four of his starts against the Montreal Canadiens.
The last time Hellebuyck snapped a two-game losing streak in the playoffs came in 2019, when he guided the Jets to wins in Games 3 and 4 against, you guessed it, the Blues, who would go on to win the Stanley Cup that season. Hellebuyck needs to show he can turn things around — in a hurry. — Clark
There’s been no better “salt in the wound” moment in the 2025 postseason than Blues fans chanting “WE WANT CONNOR!” after Hellebuyck was pulled from Game 4 in the third period, having given up five goals on 18 shots.
Superior trolling. Winnipeg fans would be proud.
Why wouldn’t they want Hellebuyck back in the crease? He’s just the seventh goalie in NHL history to allow four or more goals in six straight road playoff games, a streak that includes series losses to Vegas and Colorado. He became the second reigning Vezina Trophy winner ever to be pulled in consecutive playoff games, joining the Flyers’ Ron Hextall in the 1988 divisional series.
Hellebuyck has a .817 save percentage and a 4.24 goals-against average in four playoff games. Over his last three postseasons, Hellebuyck has a 4-10 record with an .866 save percentage and a 4.27 goals-against average.
Over his last three NHL regular seasons, Hellebuyck has 121 wins in 187 games with a .922 save percentage and a 2.29 goals-against average. That guy hasn’t even come close to showing up in the playoffs statistically.
Yet anyone that’s watched the Blues’ 16-goal parade against the Jets knows not all of this is Hellebuyck’s fault. “You watch the replays of the goals that went in and there are deflections, screens, pucks bouncing off us and in,” defenseman Luke Schenn said.
Screening Hellebuyck has been the path to success for teams in the playoffs. Around half of the Blues goals have come with traffic in front of him.
“If there’s people getting to the net, we’ve got to get them out of there before they get their screens. We’ve gotta box out earlier. There’s a lot of coverage stuff,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said.
Hellebuyck is a victim of his own domination. We expect the guy considered to be the best goalie in the world to be able to fight through screens and cover for defensive breakdowns.
Arniel was clear that he’s “100% confident” in Hellebuyck in the playoffs. “There are things that we have to do to help him and he knows he has to do things to help us,” he said.
But Arniel also said that if Winnipeg is going to win two out of the next three games, “our best players have to be better than their best players.” And there’s no question that Jordan Binnington has been the better goalie in this series than Hellebuyck.
On Monday, the NHL will announce the finalists for the 2024-25 Vezina Trophy, which Hellebuyck has won twice and will probably win again in June. It’s the award given annually to the best goalie in the regular season. Connor Hellebuyck is in real danger of having his career defined by what he’s failed to do after those initial 82 games. — Wyshynski
Ottawa has life — until Toronto proves it can close
1-12.
That’s the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ record in playoff elimination games going back to 2017.
It’s an unflattering figure, just like the Leafs’ 0-1 record in this series in attempting to close out the Ottawa Senators.
There’s that old cliché that the final win of a series is the toughest to get. The Leafs have spent almost a decade proving that’s true. And Toronto certainly had its chances to sweep the Senators into summer mode in Game 4 on Saturday night. The Leafs had a four-minute power play in overtime, albeit without John Tavares available after he exited earlier to be assessed for a possible injury.
Still.
Toronto was 5-for-9 with the extra man in the first three games of the series; the Leafs were 0-for-4 on the power play in Game 4. They gave up a shorthanded goal to Shane Pinto in the first period to boot. Not ideal.
1:07
Jake Sanderson sends Ottawa fans into a frenzy with Game 4 OT winner
Jake Sanderson celebrates with his teammates after netting the game-winning goal in overtime for the Senators vs. the Maple Leafs.
Now, Ottawa is due ample credit for how it persevered to earn an overtime victory. The Senators went up 2-0 in the first period, only to see that lead evaporate by the second. David Perron put Ottawa up again and the Leafs tied it to force the extra frame. The Senators could have shrunk in the face of that daunting four-minute power play (with or without Tavares) and instead they stood tall. And Jake Sanderson‘s goal gave Ottawa the chance to play on.
Have the scales tipped in Ottawa’s favor? The Senators have nothing to lose here; they have the luxury of playing loose. Toronto is saddled with expectations born of too many prior postseason disappointments. But this Leafs team is built differently, right? And so Toronto can’t — or won’t — let one demoralizing defeat turn into two, will it? — Shilton
Maybe don’t challenge, coaches?
In the regular season, coaches who challenged scoring plays for interference won more than they lost, with a 56% success rate on 126 challenges. Which means the risk — getting a delay of game penalty if they’re wrong — was worth it.
That’s an acceptable risk in an 82-game season. But in a seven-game playoff series, you’ve got to be sure — and so far in the 2025 postseason, coaches would have been better off not challenging.
The first challenge was a somewhat desperate one from Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch in Game 1 against the Kings. Defenseman Jake Walman was ruled to have shot the puck over the glass for a delay of game penalty. He was convinced that wasn’t the case, and the Oilers — trailing 5-3 at that point in the third period — backed up Walman by challenging the call. It was ruled there was “no conclusive evidence” that the puck went off the glass “after a thorough examination of all available replays.”
So Edmonton got a delay of game on top of a delay of game, although Los Angeles couldn’t convert on the ensuing 5-on-3 power play.
The other coaches weren’t as lucky. Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper unsuccessfully challenged goalie interference on Nate Schmidt‘s goal that gave Florida a 3-1 lead in Game 1. The league ruled Eetu Luostarinen was making a play on the loose puck in the crease before Schmidt’s goal, which by rule isn’t interference. The Lightning were given a delay of game penalty. Matthew Tkachuk scored 14 seconds into the ensuing power play to make it 4-1 and put the game out of reach.
But the most ill-conceived challenge of the playoffs was from Kings coach Jim Hiller in Game 3 against Edmonton, seeking to overturn an Evander Kane goal that made it 4-4 at 13:18 of the third period. I’m still trying to figure out what they saw that inspired the challenge, and why the Kings would gamble with giving Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl a chance to break the tie by handing them a power play — which they did, when Draisaitl assisted on Evan Bouchard‘s eventual game winner.
“We got a good look at it. We took plenty of time. We felt it was goalie interference, so we challenged it. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose on those. Tonight we lost, and it cost us big time. No other way around it,” Hiller said, stating the obvious.
So far in the playoffs, the cost has outweighed the benefit. — Wyshynski
Are the Golden Knights about to turn the corner?
Being a franchise in a championship window that already has produced a title is naturally going to spark a conversation about what can be done to win a second. For the Vegas Golden Knights? The whole has been greater than the sum of their parts, not that the parts themselves are to be taken lightly.
The Golden Knights won a Stanley Cup in 2023 by receiving contributions throughout their lineup. That’s exactly what happened Saturday in their 4-3 overtime win that was the difference between them being tied at 2-2 versus facing a consecutive first-round exit with an elimination game on home ice.
Look at how Vegas was able to win. Shea Theodore scored the opener on the power play with Nicolas Roy also scoring a power-play goal that tied it at 2-2. Adin Hill made the necessary saves that allowed the Golden Knights to navigate overtime before Ivan Barbashev scored the winning goal. All three goals were from players who hadn’t scored in the first three games of the series, while Hill rebounded from allowing four goals on 21 shots in Game 4.
Everything Barbashev, Hill, Roy and Theodore did speaks to how the Golden Knights can tap into their depth. Could Game 5 lead to similar results for star Jack Eichel and captain Mark Stone? Both players, who were held to no points entering Game 3, were also pointless in Game 4 but showed signs of promise considering they combined for 10 shots on goal. That’s the same number of shots they had in the first three games combined. — Clark
No love lost in the Battle of Florida
Of course it all starts with Matthew Tkachuk.
Florida’s feistiest forward already was giving Tampa Bay fits in their first-round series with three goals in the first three games. Then came another crushing blow — literally — when Tkachuk smacked Bolts forward Jake Guentzel at center ice and earned a game misconduct as Florida fell 5-1 in Game 3.
0:59
Fracas ensues after Tkachuk’s late hit, Cirelli’s empty-netter
Matthew Tkachuk gets a five-minute major for a late hit prior to Anthony Cirelli’s empty-net goal.
Naturally, debate ensued over whether Tkachuk deserved supplemental discipline for the hit — Guentzel was in the process of passing the puck and had released it when Tkachuk made contact. There will be no suspension for Tkachuk — and how that decision will sit with the Lightning, well, we will find out in Game 4 on Monday night.
Players on both sides exchanged pleasantries following Tkachuk’s hit on Guentzel, and it was clear the physical ante was upped in more ways than one. The Lightning played a statement game Saturday, scoring five unanswered goals to get themselves back in the series. Now we can only wonder how the bad blood will seep into the rest of it.
Discipline is key in a long playoff run; it’s even more critical for Tampa Bay given the Panthers’ strong power play (30%) so far in the postseason. The Lightning getting that win and now being further bonded by the way Tkachuk leveled their leading playoff goal scorer adds new layers of intrigue to what lies ahead in this bout of Atlantic Division rivals. — Shilton
Everyone loves Tom Wilson (except those that hate him)
After their Game 4 win, Washington Capitals goalie Logan Thompson was asked how important teammate Tom Wilson was to the team’s success. Wilson was seated next to Thompson, who turned and grinned widely at the hulking forward.
“No need to make his head any bigger,” said Thompson, who then proceeded to further inflate it.
“He’s been huge for us. The heart and soul of this organization, right? When he’s making plays, big hits, we feed off that. Especially in our home rink, I think the whole building feeds off it. He’s a huge part of this team. We love him,” the goalie said, before expanding his arms to mimic Wilson’s head filling with praise.
Wilson deadpanned: “That’s it?”
Like Logan Thompson, there are many who love Tom Wilson. There are also legions of fans and opponents who loathe him for a history of injurious hits and other unsportsmanlike conduct. Montreal fans and players were not enamored with Wilson in Game 3 when he fought Josh Anderson in a brawl that spilled into the Capitals’ bench and then pretended to sob while calling out an unidentified Habs player as a whiner.
“Things escalated,” said Anderson after the game.
1:45
Canadiens-Caps brawl spills into the bench at end of 2nd period
The Canadiens and Capitals close the second period with a massive brawl in which Josh Anderson and Tom Wilson spar into the bench.
Wilson was more controlled in Game 4 — by his own admission, he wanted to stay out of the box to make a difference on the ice and didn’t take a penalty in the game. In the third period, his impact was felt quite literally: Wilson demolished Montreal defenseman Alexandre Carrier with a center-ice check moments before the Capitals controlled the puck and Brandon Duhaime scored to tie the game at 2-2 with 13:21 left in regulation.
“It’s been a physical series both ways. Getting hit. Giving hits,” said Wilson, who added an empty-netter in the 5-2 win. “It was a big hit. The boys were able to score right after. That’s the way that hockey goes.”
Wilson has played in the postseason for the Capitals since 2012-13. He’s experienced the high of the Stanley Cup championship in 2018 and the lows of postseason collapses. It’s to Washington’s credit that they haven’t given oxygen to a Montreal upset bid, thanks to their Game 1 OT win on an Alex Ovechkin goal and their third-period comeback in Game 4 that gave them a 3-1 series lead.
“It’s a group that’s had different guys step up throughout the year. I don’t think there’s any panic when we’re down a goal. We believe in ourselves,” Wilson said. “We got it done. It’s really fun to come to the rink.”
No one’s scarier when he’s having fun than Tom Wilson. — Wyshynski
More to Landeskog’s Game 4 performance than just his goal
Any questions about how Gabriel Landeskog would fit into a Colorado Avalanche lineup that has dramatically changed since he last played nearly three years ago have been answered at various times this postseason. But in a 4-0 win over the Dallas Stars in Game 4 on Saturday, he provided a clear reminder of what the Avs had been missing.
Landeskog scored 11 goals and 22 points in 20 games when he led Colorado to the third Stanley Cup in franchise history in 2022. His goal and assist in Game 4 against the Stars pushed his career totals to 28 goals and 69 points in 71 postseason contests.
Part of what has allowed Landeskog to consistently find success within the Avs’ setup — whether scoring himself or setting up his teammates — is how he positions himself on the ice, from working in the corners to gain possession to finding a way to get in the slot. Those traits played a role in his one-timer from the slot, off a feed from Brock Nelson, that gave the Avs a 3-0 lead.
Yet the sequence that might have best summed up what Landeskog provides came on Samuel Girard‘s goal that gave Colorado a 4-0 advantage. Landeskog, who received a secondary assist, gave the puck to Nelson, who then found Girard. As Girard was getting ready to shoot, Landeskog went to the net front and battled with 6-foot-7 Stars defenseman Lian Bichsel to gain position and screen goalie Casey DeSmith.
Landeskog’s presence not only helped the Avs knot the series as the scene shifts to Dallas, it is a key element that could push Colorado onward as the playoffs continue. — Clark
Goalie clinic turned to controversy in Hurricanes-Devils
New Jersey’s run might already be done if not for goalie Jacob Markstrom. Carolina could hardly be this commanding if not for netminder Frederik Andersen.
That’s been a significant storyline in the series so far, how two top-tier goaltenders have held their respective teams in balance. In Game 4 on Sunday things took a turn, though, when Andersen was bowled over in his crease by Timo Meier and had to exit the game, being replaced by young Pyotr Kochetkov.
There was no penalty called on the play that sent Andersen to the locker room. And to add insult to injury, Meier turned around and scored on the incoming Kochetkov to narrow the Hurricanes’ lead to 3-2. Ouch.
1:30
GK Frederik Andersen exits the game for the Hurricanes
Frederik Andersen exits the game after a collision, causing backup goalkeeper Pyotr Kochetkov to enter the game.
It’s no secret Andersen has had a rough go with injuries. He missed 39 games in the regular season following knee surgery and was finally appearing at full strength — and health — for the playoffs. Now his status is murky, and the Devils can take advantage — thanks in large part to the marvelous Markstrom.
New Jersey has had poor luck with its blueline health, playing without Brenden Dillon or Luke Hughes since Game 1 and losing Johnathan Kovacevic in Game 3, and it’s Markstrom who has made up for his club’s deficiencies. The veteran has stood tall against Carolina’s attack to give New Jersey every opportunity to take a lead — and hold it — but the Devils’ scoring woes (they had just five through the first three games) haven’t exactly supported Markstrom’s cause. No matter. The Devils goaltender has still produced an impressive .929 save percentage in the postseason, putting him just behind Andersen in that category atop the playoff leaderboard for starting goalies.
And Andersen has earned his place at the peak. He’s been rock solid for Carolina and closed the door on New Jersey time and again. Andersen’s heroics in Game 3 allowed the Hurricanes a chance to come back and win in double overtime. (His stop on Meier in the second period was particularly outstanding.)
The way these two have gone toe-to-toe is playoff goaltending at its best. We should be talking about who can sustain their excellence long enough to be the deciding factor in a series victory. Now it’s a question of who will be available for the Hurricanes going forward — Andersen or the upstart Kochetkov? The answer could have long-term implications for Carolina. — Shilton
Can the Oilers beat the curse of the Western Conference?
OK. Maybe “curse” is too strong a word in this case. However, being the team representing the Western Conference in the Stanley Cup Final has come with its fair share of issues over the last few postseasons.
It started in 2020 when the Stars won the Western Conference playing in the Edmonton bubble. They lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning and failed to make the playoffs the following season. Of course, there was no Western Conference champion during the 2020-21 season because of the pandemic.
Fast-forward to 2022. The Avalanche won the West and the Stanley Cup. But a year later, they were eliminated in the first round. In 2023, the Golden Knights captured their first title only to get knocked out in the first round in 2024. Entering the weekend, the Oilers were trailing 2-1 in their series against the Kings after losing the first two games in Southern California.
The Kings-Oilers series has been bizarre beyond the fact this is the fourth straight time they’ve played in the first round. A last-minute goal in a 6-5 thriller in Game 1 was followed up by the Oilers giving up six goals for the second consecutive game in a 6-2 loss, which was followed by another high-scoring contest with the Oilers winning 7-4 in Game 3. It’s a safe bet something else bizarre could happen, like the Oilers either falling prey to the curse or breaking it. — Clark
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