Before the Seattle Kraken performed the primary NHL playoff recreation in franchise historical past, gamers heard from these on the roster who’ve already gained the Stanley Cup.
“(They) told us guys that haven’t been there before just what to expect,” younger defenseman Will Borgen mentioned.
The Kraken not solely have half a dozen Cup winners, however these gamers come from quite a lot of totally different championship groups. They’re not alone: 14 of the 16 groups within the postseason subject have at the very least one participant together with his identify on the Cup and each single champion for the reason that league’s wage cap period started in 2006 is represented someplace.
It’s one other reminder how essential it’s this time of 12 months to have gamers who’ve gone by means of the playoff grind and hoisted the Cup earlier than. No staff has gained all of it and not using a earlier champion on the roster for the reason that Calgary Flames in 1989.
“Everybody climbing Everest is not going at it alone,” Boston Bruins normal manger Don Sweeney mentioned. “Chances are, they probably have somebody who has already climbed there, and to their credit, you climb it once and to go back there and sign up to climb it again. They know how hard it is, but it’s valuable, valuable knowledge.”
The top-seeded Bruins, who set data for essentially the most wins and factors in a season, have Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Krejci from the staff that in 2011 gained the group’s sixth championship. Chasing a seventh, Sweeney additionally traded for Dmitry Orlov, who gained the Cup in 2018 with Washington and has been an important playoff contributor with factors in every of the primary 4 video games.
Defending champion Colorado has the core intact from its 2022 title run, however that didn’t cease the entrance workplace from including extra expertise. The Avalanche acquired 2018 Capitals champion Lars Eller previous to the commerce deadline; he is aware of properly the worth of title-winning expertise due to what Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen confirmed him and his teammates 5 years in the past.
“To stay level-headed, the experienced guys do a good job of that,” mentioned Eller, who scored the Cup-clinching purpose for Washington. “You stay emotionally level through a series because there’s ups and downs. Whether you’re up or you’re down, you can never look too far ahead. You also can’t dwell on the past.”
With New Jersey and the New York Rangers tied 2-2, every staff has at the very least one champion to depend on. The Devils’ Ondrej Palat gained the Cup twice with Tampa Bay alongside Barclay Goodrow, who’s one in every of three champions on the Rangers roster (Patrick Kane, three titles with Chicago, and Vladimir Tarasenko, who gained the Cup with St. Louis in 2019).
Seattle, which is tied 2-2 with Colorado, has essentially the most various Cup-winning expertise. Counting injured winger Andre Burakovsky, who gained it with Colorado and Washington, the Kraken have a participant from every of the previous seven title groups: Yanni Gourde (‘20 and ‘21 Lightning), Jaden Schwartz and Vince Dunn (‘19 Blues), Philipp Grubauer (‘18 Capitals) and Justin Schultz (‘16 and 17 Penguins).
“Obviously this is a new experience for us as a team,” mentioned Jordan Eberle, who scored the additional time winner Monday for the Kraken to tie the sequence. “There’s a lot of individuals on this team who have been on long runs and have won Cups, and I think that’s important that we have that experience.”
Seattle coach Dave Hakstol mentioned having Cup champions helps in turning the web page, which is essential after a giant win or a tricky loss. Ken Hitchcock, who coached Dallas to the Cup in 1999, sees worth in it in a number of areas – from figuring out easy methods to reduce errors to driving the curler coaster inside video games and sequence.
“Those players know how deep you’ve got to dig emotionally and how important that is that you can’t lower the emotion bar, and having gone through it helps the other players because they recognize that you can’t lose that level,” Hitchcock mentioned. “They recognize that getting revved up or getting emotionally charged too early can burn you out because the emotion of the event is so high, so being very methodical and unemotional in your approach really works and players have to go through that to understand it.”
Those classes are recent for members of the Avalanche, who needed to undergo the two-time defending champion Lightning to win the Cup. Forward Mikko Rantanen mentioned the most important was about psychological energy and bouncing again after enjoying poorly.
There’s additionally one thing to be mentioned for the starvation of gamers who’ve gone deep into the playoffs, reached the ultimate and are available up brief. The Bruins, for instance, misplaced within the ultimate in each 2013 and 2019.
“We have guys that went to the doorstep and lost, as well, in a heart-breaking way,” Sweeney mentioned. “Those are battle scars that I think also serve them well.”
• AP sports writers Jimmy Golen in Boston and Pat Graham in Denver contributed.
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