The Wraparound: Lightning begin quest for third straight Stanley Cup

The Wraparound is your daily look at the 2022 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. We’ll break down the NHL playoff games today with the all-important television information.

• Bruins-Hurricanes kicks off opening day First-Round slate

• Lightning begin their march towards a Stanley Cup three-peat against Maple Leafs

• No Andersen for Hurricanes; Ullmark gets start for Bruins

The Tampa Bay Lightning’s quest for a third consecutive Stanley Cup will begin in Toronto Monday night (7:30 p.m. ET). The odds are against the back-to-back champions to add another ring to their collection, and the team realizes just how difficult the road will be for them.

“Just because you’ve gone through it doesn’t mean you’re automatically, ‘Well, hey, we’ve done this before,'” said head coach Jon Cooper. “It’s still hard work and that’s what our group’s been good at. They understand the work you’ve got to put in and fighting through adversity at times, it takes work.”

During their last two Cup runs, the Lightning has never dropped consecutive games and only trailed in a series three times — all three coming in Game 1s. Taking that opening game has proven important in NHL history. Teams win Game 1 in a best-of-seven series are 499-228 (.868) all time.

The Lightning will be tested against a Maple Leafs team that has home-ice advantage and finished with 115 points, five ahead of Tampa Bay in the Atlantic Division. Their lineup is loaded with offensive talent, including 60-goal scorer Auston Matthews, that will challenge goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.

“We’ve got to make it hard on him,” said Cooper. “It’s hard enough with his skill set. You can’t let Auston Matthews go unabated right down the pipe, time after time again. You could give him a right-handed