The Noon Countdown: Band of Brothers

Photo by Jeff Bottari/NHLI via Getty Images8 - Number of days remaining until the start of the Capitals’ 2022-23 season. But it’s also...

...the number of players remaining on the Caps’ roster (at least for now) from the 2018 Stanley Cup Champion squad, with Nicklas Backstrom, John Carlson, Lars Eller, Evgeny Kuznetsov, T.J. Oshie, Dmitry Orlov, Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson all sporting rings from that magical run.

That’s just about in line with other recent champions; Tampa Bay, surprisingly (or not) only has nine players remaining from their Cup run of just over a year ago. St. Louis has seven return players from their 2019 win, and the Penguins are bringing back just five from their last…