The official 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs "It would be cool if they won" rankings

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are here once again and everyone is filling out their little brackets or thinking about who they think will win the Cup. 

Winners, losers, whatever. Hockey is a highly randomized sport and even if you are one of the true geniuses of it, you're just not gonna nail every "______ in six" pick you make. Upsets rock. Seeing great teams flex their muscle over merely good ones rocks. What's better than this?

However, you can pick your winners and you can support your favorite team, but from an outside point of view, you gotta ask yourself, "Would it be cool if that team won?" For some teams, the answer is an unequivocal yes — even the most ardent Canadiens fan surely wouldn't begrudge the neutral fan hoping Columbus squeaked in at the end there — but for others it's a stone