NHL playoffs arrive with the West stacked with contenders like Colorado, Dallas and Vegas

Jake Oettinger wants it this way. Or, at least, the starting goaltender for Dallas is embracing it.

The path through the Central Division to the Western Conference Final for his team and the Minnesota Wild is just about as treacherous as it gets. The Stars and Wild had the third- and seventh-most points in the NHL this season and they will meet in the first round — with the winner potentially facing the league-best Colorado Avalanche in the second.

“If you can get through that and win it all, I think it just makes it that much better,” Oettinger said. “It just makes it more fulfilling.”

Maybe not so much for the team going home early. But the Stanley Cup does not come easy, and even the Pacific Division side of the bracket is no cakewalk with Edmonton, the Stanley Cup runner-up the past two years, in the mix along with the Vegas Golden Knights, who won seven of their final eight games since hiring John Tortorella.

“It’s the most exciting time because everybody’s playing at a different level, and it’s a good test to see how high you can get as a team,” Tortorella told reporters in Las Vegas after the regular season finale. “Everything’s going to be amped up. As each game goes by in the series, it’s going to be harder and harder, and so it’s a great challenge ”

— The Presidents' Trophy-winning Avalanche are the favorites to win the West, and with good reason. They've been the best team since October, have two of the best players in the world in Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, and filled their center void by reacquiring 2022 Cup champion Nazem Kadri at the trade deadline.

Home-ice advantage is a plus, but being the team to beat also comes with pressure. The Avs, who open against Los Angeles, say bring it on.

“Pressure is a privilege — it’s the old cliche, but it truly is,” forward Logan O'Connor said. "You just have to be dialed in the whole time, and I think that’s the challenge for any team. There can’t be any lapses. You can’t have any passengers. Everyone all in, all the time. I think we obviously have the capability to do that.”

— Vegas won the Pacific after replacing Bruce Cassidy with Tortorella, who is coaching in the NHL playoffs for a 13th time with his fourth team.

— Dallas has made three consecutive trips to the West final. They have all the weapons, certainly if they get standout defenseman Miro Heiskanen back healthy.

“It’s never a straight line to win all these things,” said first-year coach Glen Gulutzan, who was an Edmonton assistant when the Oilers made back-to-back trips to the Cup final. “You keep getting yourself back in the dance and win a round and win two rounds, and then finally you break through. Hopefully that experience is going to allow us to do it.”

— Minnesota had Kirill Kaprizov grabbing headlines for years, and next season he will begin the richest contract in hockey history. Now Matt Boldy is sharing the load on a team that lacks only center depth to keep them from being a solid favorite to reach the West final.

— Calling Connor McDavid and the Oilers underdogs is rich — they took Florida to seven games and then six games in the Cup Final the past two years — but they have played a lot of hockey They are going to need key saves in net along with Leon Draisaitl in good form whenever he returns from his regular season-ending injury.

— The Utah Mammoth are the feel-good story in the West, making the playoffs in the franchise's second season since moving to Utah from Arizona. They could play like they have nothing to lose because just making it is cause for celebration in Salt Lake City.

— Los Angeles fired coach Jim Hiller and righted the ship under interim replacement D.J. Smith. Acquiring Artemi Panarin in a February trade also makes the Kings dangerous.

— Will we get an LA story? Joe Quenneville and his three Cup rings have gotten Anaheim into the playoffs, and with his experience the young Ducks are not only fun to watch but have the goaltending with Lukas Dostal to potentially pull off an upset or two.

— The two-year, $25 million contract extension McDavid signed without a raise essentially put the Oilers on notice that they have two more chances to show they can win the Stanley Cup. It's entirely possible he puts the cape on and carries them back to the final for a third year in a row.

— Colorado's window as a Cup favorite remains open, with captain Gabriel Landeskog a year removed from his emotional return back after dealing with a chronic knee injury to assist MacKinnon and Makar. Perhaps they go on another title run like four years ago.

— Can Minnesota win a playoff series for the first time since 2015? The Wild have lost their last eight opening-round series, but for the first time they went an entire season without getting shut out and their offense with Quinn Hughes added on the blue line provides some confidence.

"There’s a lot of pushback with our team," coach John Hynes said. “We have guys that can score. One of the things we talk about is trying to create offense in multiple ways.”

First round: Colorado sweeps Los Angeles in four games; Minnesota beats Dallas in six; Vegas beats Utah in five; Edmonton beats Anaheim in five.

Second round: Colorado beats Minnesota in five; Vegas beats Edmonton in six.

Conference final: Colorado beats Vegas in seven.

AP Sports Writers Pat Graham in Denver and Dave Campbell in St. Paul, Minnesota, contributed.

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Dallas Stars teammates celebrate victory following a shootout of an NHL hockey game against the Buffalo Sabres Wednesday, April 15, 2026, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)

Edmonton Oilers' Vasily Podkolzin (92), Connor McDavid (97) and Evan Bouchard (2) celebrate after a goal against the Colorado Avalanche during second-period NHL hockey game action in Edmonton,Alberta, Monday, April 13, 2026. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP)

Vegas Golden Knights head coach John Tortorella, back right, stands on the bench behind Colton Sissons, left to right, Cole Smith and Ivan Barbashev during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Vancouver Canucks, in Vancouver, on Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)

Minnesota Wild's Michael McCarron (47) controls the puck ahead of Anaheim Ducks' Leo Carlsson (91) during the third period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 14, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Lily Dozier)

Colorado Avalanche's Gabriel Landeskog, center, celebrates his goal against the Calgary Flames with Brett Kulak, left, and Martin Necas during the third period of an NHL hockey game in Calgary, Alberta, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (Larry MacDougal/The Canadian Press via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — First-time Tony Award host Pink kicked off Sunday’s telecast by leading a crowded, exuberant version of “Lady Marmalade” and John Lithgow took home the first award for “Giant.” A blockbuster revival of “Death of a Salesman” was racking up awards even before the halfway mark.

Lithgow won best lead actor in a play as children’s author Roald Dahl in Mark Rosenblatt’s production set in 1983, when the author is facing intense backlash to his antisemitic comments. The role earned Lithgow his first Olivier Award in London and now the Tony for lead actor in a play, his third.

The win puts Lithgow in an exclusive group of actors who have won in three separate acting categories. He previously won featured actor in a play for “The Changing Room” and lead actor in a musical for “Sweet Smell of Success.”

“Two Tony bookends with 53 years between them," he said. "In those years, I have worked with hundreds of just fantastic theater artists. I’ve had dozens and dozens of ecstatic moments on the stage, but I have to tell you right now, this moment has got to be one of the best.”

A revival of “Death of a Salesman” won at least five Tonys, nearing the record for most statuettes ever won by play revival, which is seven.

Laurie Metcalf won her third Tony for playing Willy Loman’s wife opposite Nathan Lane in “Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman,” which also won for lighting, scenic design and sound design. Joe Mantello won best director for a play.

Pink started the show spinning and then dangling uncomfortably from a harness over the stage, dressed like Peter Pan. Former host Neil Patrick Harris stepped in to suggest the first-time host just be herself. “You’re Pink, Pink. You can do anything,” he told her.

After lifting Harris off the stage with her legs, Pink relented to his suggestion of being “less Pan-ish” by taking off her harness, adding a top hat and leading an extended “Lady Marmalade” that included contributions from dozens of performers including Lea Michele and Megan Thee Stallion — plus some strange, new lyrics like “Gitchie, gitchie, Laurie Metcalf” — and ended with some 170 performers on stage and crowding the aisles.

In her opening remarks, Pink, who has not yet gotten a Broadway credit, called herself theater’s second-biggest fan after her teenage daughter, Willow. “I’m not here just to steal peoples’ wigs, although I will be doing that. I’m here to celebrate the hardest-working people in show business,” she said.

“Schmigadoon!” and “Death of a Salesman” each went into the main telecast with a lead of three Tonys after a pre-show on Pluto TV hosted by Laura Benanti and Tituss Burgess that announced the more technical awards. Qween Jean became the first openly trans Tony winner ever for making the costumes for “Cats: The Jellicle Ball.” Kai Harada, nominated twice for the sound design of a musical, didn’t initially know which one he had won for until told onstage — “Ragtime.”

Twenty-four Broadway shows are hoping to nab at least one win Sunday across the 26 Tony categories, which can mean the difference between keeping the doors open and pulling down the curtain.

There will be performances from the seven best new musical and best musical revival nominees: “The Lost Boys,” “Schmigadoon!,” “Titanique,” “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York),” “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” “Ragtime” and “The Rocky Horror Show.”

Other performances include the original lead cast members of “The Book of Mormon” — Josh Gad, Andrew Rannells, Rory O’Malley and Nikki M. James — this year celebrating its 15th anniversary. Leslie Odom, Jr. will sing “Without You” from “Rent” during the In Memoriam section, in honor of that show’s 30th anniversary.

Another show celebrating a milestone, “Chicago” now at 30, will have a performance slot featuring Pink, as well as Queen Latifah, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Alex Newell, Adrienne Warren, Julianne Hough, Whitney Leavitt and Dylan Mulvaney. Plus, “A Chorus Line,” which last year celebrated its 50th anniversary, will get a special tribute by Rachel Zegler.

The competition for best new musical is between four very different shows: “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York),” an opposites-attract rom-com; “The Lost Boys,” a stage adaptation of a 1987 teen movie vampire thriller; “Schmigadoon!,” which gently mocks Golden-Age Broadway shows; and “Titanique,” a camp musical comedy that reimagines the 1997 movie “Titanic.”

The two top best play nominees are “Giant,” exploring accusations of antisemitism against children's author Roald Dahl, and “Liberation,” about a consciousness-raising women’s group in the 1970s that explores inequality, gender roles and racism.

There are intriguing races in both the revival categories: A “Death of a Salesman” is competing for best play revival with a modern-set “Oedipus” led by Marc Strong and a sweet “Every Brilliant Thing” starring Daniel Radcliffe.

The best musical revival pits a new “Cats” reimagined as a “Pose”-like competition show, the sweeping American history show “Ragtime” and a rollicking, frisky “The Rocky Horror Show.”

For more coverage of the 2026 Tony Awards, visit https://apnews.com/hub/tony-awards.

John Lithgow accepts the award for best performance by a leading actor in a play for "Giant" during the 79th Tony Awards on Sunday, June 7, 2026, at Radio City Music Hall in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Maya Rudolph, left, and Cole Escola present the award for best performance by a leading actor in a play during the 79th Tony Awards on Sunday, June 7, 2026, at Radio City Music Hall in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Host Pink, left, and Shoshana Bean perform during the 79th Tony Awards on Sunday, June 7, 2026, at Radio City Music Hall in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Bernadette Peters speaks during the 79th Tony Awards on Sunday, June 7, 2026, at Radio City Music Hall in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Neil Patrick Harris, left, and Host Pink perform during the 79th Tony Awards on Sunday, June 7, 2026, at Radio City Music Hall in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Omari Wiles, left, and Arturo Lyons accept the award for best choreography for "Cats: The Jellicle Ball" during the 79th Tony Awards on Sunday, June 7, 2026, at Radio City Music Hall in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Host Tituss Burgess speaks during the 79th Tony Awards on Sunday, June 7, 2026, at Radio City Music Hall in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Kristin Chenoweth speaks during the 79th Tony Awards on Sunday, June 7, 2026, at Radio City Music Hall in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)