Familiar foes Capitals, Penguins know what to expect

The Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins arrive at their latest showdown looking very much like they did a year ago.

It's the little things that might matter most this time around.

The Capitals added centre Lars Eller and defenceman Kevin Shattenkirk as a direct response to losing their second-round series last season, hoping the depth will help against the defending Stanley Cup champions. The Penguins have a different goaltender with Marc-Andre Fleury replacing injured Matt Murray and are without injured defenceman Kris Letang.

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Aside from those changes and a few other tweaks, the teams that take the ice Thursday night for Game 1 in Washington are strikingly similar to those who played for six games last spring.

"This is a unique situation both teams have a lot of guys back," Penguins centre Matt Cullen said. "It's not often with the salary cap and everything that you bring a similar team back. It makes for an interesting matchup."

The stars are again aligned for Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Braden Holtby and the Capitals to face off against Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel and the Penguins. Familiarity should breed quick contempt, but Washington's changes are what players think will flip the script.

"I feel better about our team going into it this year than I did last year, that's for sure," Capitals defenceman John Carlson said. "We can attack from different ways, and we can find ways to score throughout the lineup. I just think a lot of guys are playing better than they did last year."

That's a shout out to second-line centre Evgeny Kuznetsov, who struggled after March last year but played an essential part of the first-round series this season against the Toronto Maple Leafs by defending Auston Matthews. Defencemen Dmitry Orlov and Nate Schmidt are also much improved after being scratched during the 2016 playoffs.

Letang a key loss for Penguins

The Penguins are rolling again after eliminating Columbus, but the absence of Letang is significant after he logged 31:36 of ice time per game last year.

"Obviously they lost key player, Letang," Ovechkin said. "It's good for us, bad for them ... (but) it doesn't matter who's in the lineup. We just have to pressure them, and we don't have to give them any chances to get success."

Pittsburgh exposed Washington's lack of speed a year ago and has the potential to do so again even if winger Carl Hagelin isn't ready to start the series. The Maple Leafs' up-tempo style challenged the Capitals, something coach Barry Trotz called "a good warmup" for the Penguins, but it remains to be seen how his team will play faster this time.

Who's better off after a year of no change? Watch and find out.

"I think I guess the series will show that more than anything," Crosby said.

T.J. Oshie had five goals and an assist in last year's series and three goals and seven assists in four games against the Penguins this season. Facing Pittsburgh's top competition seems to get Oshie clicking.

"Typically we're going against Crosby's line and that's a tough task, he's a great player," Oshie said. "You can get motivation from that and kind of the game within the game. Last few years, the puck found the net for me and hopefully it will be the same."