via the NHL PR department,

TWO FIRST-EVER PLAYOFF SERIES BEGIN TONIGHT
Two more Second Round Game 1s will be contested today as the Hurricanes host the Lightning at PNC Arena and the Avalanche welcome the Golden Knights to Ball Arena. Both sets of franchises are meeting in a postseason series for the first time.

* Tampa Bay (2004, 2020) and Carolina (2006) are two of three teams competing in the 2021 Second Round which have won at least one Stanley Cup over the last 15 years (also Boston: 2011). The Hurricanes and Lightning had identical head-to-head records during the regular season, with Carolina owning a narrow edge against the defending champions in goals (CAR: 18, TBL: 17) as well as power play (CAR: 14.3%, TBL: 13.6%) and penalty kill (CAR: 86.4%, TBL: 85.7%) percentages.

* The Hurricanes/Whalers franchise has faced the defending Stanley Cup champions in the postseason on three prior occasions – Hartford fell to Montreal in the 1980 Preliminary Round, while Carolina lost to New Jersey in the 2001 Conference Quarterfinals but defeated Washington in the 2019 First Round.

* The top two teams from the regular season are set to collide after Colorado swept its First Round series, while Vegas required seven games to oust Minnesota. Teams coming off a Game 7 win own an all-time series record of 7-7 (.500) when facing an opponent which completed a four-game sweep in their preceding round. The last such series came in the 2019 Second Round when two matchups aligned that way – both won by the club that had emerged from a Game 7 (BOS defeated CBJ, 4-2, and CAR defeated NYI, 4-0).

* Like their Discover Central Division counterparts, the 2020-21 season series between the Avalanche and Golden Knights was closely contested. The clubs were also tangled in a neck-and-neck race for the Presidents’ Trophy, with Colorado defeating Los Angeles in its final game of the season to overtake Vegas for the top seed by virtue of the regulation wins tiebreaker.