Could the Hurricanes’ extended playoff experience be the difference against Devils?

If playoff experience is the difference, the Carolina Hurricanes should beat the New Jersey Devils.

The Canes, winners of the Metropolitan Division, are in the Stanley Cup playoffs for a fifth straight year and growing playoff beards an annual thing. It is a veteran team led by coach Rod Brind’Amour, who won a Cup for Carolina in 2006 as a player, who understands the demands of the championship quest and wants another as the head coach.

The Canes looked the part of an older, more seasoned team Wednesday in Game 1 of the second-round series against the Devils, winning 5-1. The Devils appeared overwhelmed in the first period by the shock and awe of the Canes’ tenacity, with and without the puck, and had to chase the game nearly the entire 60 minutes at PNC Arena.

Asked Thursday if the Canes could replicate it Friday in Game 2, Brind’Amour said one game “rarely bleeds into another.”

“It’s a whole new entity,” he said. “I think what happened last night we were ready to go. The rest we had helped. It helped us get refocused. I think the lack of rest hurt them at the start. Then the game was kind of won in that first period.

“I obviously expect it will be a different game (Friday). But we just need to worry about what we need to go and replicate that first period.”

So how valuable is playoff experience?

Not as much as you might think, Brind’Amour said.

“You see a lot of young guys do really well in the playoffs, because I don’t even know if they know how big the moment is,” he said. “They’re just playing. The more you play the more you understand it.

“So I don’t know. It definitely doesn’t hurt you, just (knowing) the ups and downs of it and how hard it is. But maybe we make a bigger deal of it than we should.”

Canes captain Jordan Staal, 34, has been in 123 playoff games in his career, winning the Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009. Devils captain Nico Hischier, 24, has been in 13 playoff games.

Frederik Andersen, the Canes’ starting goalie, was in his 55th Stanley Cup game. In the other net was Akira Schmid, a rookie in his sixth.

Hischier played his first five playoff games with the Devils in 2018. That was the last time they qualified for the playoffs until this season, when they entered the playoffs with 10 players on the roster without Stanley Cup experience — notably forward Jack Hughes, their 99-point scorer.

Before the playoffs began, Devils coach Lindy Ruff noted the New York Rangers had an edge in experience, calling his team “a bunch of rebels,” but also adding they were “rebels ready to go.”

The older, more seasoned Rangers romped to a 5-1 win in Game 1 of their series. They repeated it in Game 2 with another 5-1 victory, both games played at the Devils’ Prudential Center.

The Devils seemed overmatched. Then, they weren’t. New Jersey won three straight, dropped Game 6 but rebounded for a 4-0 victory in Game 7 on Monday to oust the Rangers and their high-priced, underperforming talent to reach the second round.

The Canes, who topped the Islanders in six games, only have a few players making their Stanley Cup playoff debuts this season including defenseman Jalen Chatfield.

Chatfield, 26, comes across as someone unfazed by playoff pressure. It has shown in the way he has played the first seven playoff games and in his demeanor off the ice.

“It’s been a whole lot of fun,” Chatfield said Thursday. “For the first playoffs in the NHL it’s the way I wanted it to go, and I’m happy it’s going that way.”

A year ago, Chatfield was in the playoffs — in the American Hockey League. He was a part of the Chicago Wolves’ run to a Calder Cup championship.

“Being able to play in the postseason like we did and to be able go all the way and just kind of feel that grind, you get used to what it’s going to be like out there.

“It’s playoff hockey. it’s definitely different. It’s been fun.”

Forward Jack Drury also was vital in the Wolves winning. Drury played his first Stanley Cup game against the Islanders, and got his welcome-to-the-playoffs moment, NHL style, when he was hammered into the wall by the Isles’ Ryan Pulock in Game 4.

Drury, knocked out of the game, missed the last two games of the series but returned Wednesday for Game 1 against the Devils, played on Staal’s line and had almost 15 minutes of ice time.

While it wasn’t Stanley Cup hockey, Brind’Amour doesn’t discount the value of their AHL postseason experience and winning a championship.

“There’s something about learning how to win, at any level,” he said. “Just knowing you’ve been through something like that before, pressure moments, can’t hurt you.”