The Wraparound is your daily look at the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs. We’ll break down each day’s matchups with the all-important television and live streaming information included.
Since 1990, only two teams have ever repeated as Stanley Cup champions.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have done it twice, including being the most recent team to do it, and the Detroit Red Wings accomplished the feast in the late 90s with some spectacular teams.
Pittsburgh’s back-to-back triumphs are especially impressive given they’ve done so in a salary cap era, and now the Washington Capitals will begin their journey to try and become one of few teams to hoist Lord Stanley in consecutive years Game 1 against the Carolina Hurricanes (7:30 p.m. ET; USA; live stream)
“I think that taste that we had last year was pretty incredible and hopefully we’re going to do it again,” Alex Ovechkin said. “We basically have the same team. That experience we have is going to help us a lot.”
Another summer with Stanley for Ovechkin and Co. would make for good theatre in the offseason, but not many are giving them that repeat love.
The Capitals come into the series after taking all four games between the two clubs during the regular season. The Hurricanes are making their first foray into the postseason in a decade, snapping the league’s longest playoff drought.
“It’s going to be a great challenge,” Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “You’re playing the Stanley Cup champs. It’ll be tough, we know that. No matter who we’re playing, it was going to be an uphill battle, we know that. I like the way this group has responded all year to challenges. This is obviously a big one coming up.”
For Carolina, they’re going to need Sebastian Aho and Micheal Ferland to step up. Aho didn’t score in his final 14 games during the run-in to the playoffs, well over a month of action after leading the team with 30 goals and 83 points.
Ferland, too, has struggled with no goals in his previous 17 contests.
“If we don’t have everyone playing at their top, we’re not going to win,” Brind’Amour said. “The best players obviously have to be right up there. You talk to all your guys, whether they’re playing good or bad. I don’t think (Aho and Ferland) are playing poorly. I just think they haven’t been scoring.”
Washington, meanwhile, may have an ace up their sleeve with Carl Hagelin. He won those back-to-back Cups with the Penguins in 2016 and 2017, and Reirdan sat down with Hagelin to pick his brain about that very matter.
“Every team is different, but there’s always a couple pointers I can give them,” Hagelin said. “There’s always hard moments throughout the playoffs, but I think the second time there might just be more harder times and you’ve just got to stick with it. You’ve got to realize what you did the year before to be successful and you’ve got to realize it won’t be easier.”
[NBC 2019 STANLEY CUP PLAYOFF HUB]
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
Game 1: Maple Leafs at Bruins, 7 p.m. ET (NBCSN; live stream): Can the Maple Leafs live up to the hype? Or more importantly, can the Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins? They meet for the second straight year in the exact same round. Toronto held a 4-3 lead after two periods in Game 7 last year and went on to choke, losing the game 7-4. These teams have met twice in the playoffs since 2013, and both series have gone to Game 7, and both series have ended with the Bruins moving on. It’s time for Toronto to reverse the narrative.
Game 1: Hurricanes at Capitals, 7:30 p.m. ET (USA; live stream): As mentioned above, the Capitals are looking repeat as Cup champions. Having the same, battle-hardened team as they did last year is quite the boon, but it remains to be seen if that same hunger is there. They do get what some might see as an easier test in the first round against a Carolina team they beat in all four meetings during the regular season. Carolina makes its first postseason appearance in a decade.
Game 1: Avalanche at Flames, 10 p.m. ET (NBCSN; live stream): It’s time to see what the Western Conference champs can do in the playoffs. They’ll face a Colorado team coming in on a high after making the playoffs in the second last game of the season. Philipp Grubauer has been spectacular as of late. What remains to be seen is how Calgary’s tandem of David Rittich and Mike Smith will fare. Calgary has tremendous firepower, it’s the goaltending that has some worried.
FRIDAY’S SCHEDULE
Game 2: Blue Jackets at Lightning, 7 p.m. ET (CNBC)
Game 2: Penguins at Islanders, 7:30 p.m. ET (NBCSN)
Game 2: Blues at Jets, 9:30 p.m. ET (CNBC)
Game 2: Golden Knights at Sharks, 10:30 p.m. ET (NBCSN)
PHT’s 2019 Stanley Cup playoff previews
Capitals vs Hurricanes
Islanders vs. Penguins
Bruins vs. Maple Leafs
Lightning vs. Blue Jackets
Predators vs. Stars
Blues vs. Jets
Flames vs. Avalanche
Sharks vs. Golden Knights
• Power Rankings: Why your team won’t win the Stanley Cup
• Roundtable: Goaltending issues, challenging the Lightning
• NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs: Round 1 schedule, TV info
Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck