Hurricanes, consistent to a fault, open with uncomfortably familiar Game 1

Sports

add

RALEIGH, N.C. — Call it whatever you feel the need to call it. Pick a word that lands somewhere on the spectrum of “reliability” and “predictability.” Pick one, or pick the other. The point remains the same: we tend to know what we’re getting from Rod Brind’Amour’s Carolina Hurricanes.

There will be forechecking pressure, relentless, from the front, back and side. There will be defensemen, pushed up further than anyone else’s, daring opponents to flip the puck over their heads, calling bluffs. There will be shot attempts. Oh, baby, will there ever be shot attempts.

And, for now, there will be competitive losses — or something close — to the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference finals. Brind’Amour’s team, by his accounting, has now had five of them consecutively. Thursday’s was the latest, extending a streak that started two years ago, when Florida swept all four games by one goal. That made Game 1, different, at least; the Panthers took this one 5-2.

The way it all went down, though, set the script for the postgame media sessions. Carolina didn’t play badly; they won the shot attempt game, of course (56-38 at five-on-five, 78-46 overall), and they won on high-danger chances (14-5) and expected goals (3.1-1.78). They did the sorts of things that’ll win you more hockey games than not. If a bounce or two goes differently, or if the other team just executes a bit less expertly, the result would’ve flipped.

None of that happened, of course. The result was the result. And that got us all another crash course in the paradox of the Carolina Hurricanes.

Dogmatic belief to their system is part of what makes them great. It gives them structure. It gives them purpose. It takes the panic button off the table and puts it on a shelf. And sometimes — usually around this time of year — it just might put that button a little too far out of reach.

The Hurricanes, with years’ worth of regular-season, first-round and second-round success as proof of concept, believe they can win every game they play if they play The Right Way. Even when they lose.

“I didn’t hate our game tonight,” Brind’Amour said. “It’s gonna be hard. It’s gonna go back and forth. I think we had our opportunities. Early in the game, too, we had a couple good opportunities, didn’t capitalize and then, you know, it went a different direction.

“(Florida) played a great game. You gotta tip the cap. But we created a bunch of turnovers and had a couple, almost. And that’s the game. They’re trying to forecheck us. They probably put more pucks in (on the forecheck) than we did tonight. And they put more stress than we did on them. That’s how they play. That’s why they’re the best and we’re trying to beat ’em.”

Gustav Forsling lays a heavy hit on Jesperi Kotkaniemi during the second period. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)

He’s not wrong. Of course he’s not wrong. In the first period alone, Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky made consecutive stops on Sebastian Aho on a breakaway and Seth Jarvis on a one-timer. If Bobrovsky performs just five percent worse, Carolina’s win probability skyrockets. Those two chances alone came before Carter Verhaeghe put Florida up 1-0 — and even that goal came with Aho in the box for dubious reasons.

Those are the bits of variance that work themselves out over the course of an 82-game schedule. A short series, as Brind’Amour and Aho and Jarvis and Jordan Staal know plenty well, is a lot less forgiving.

Staal talked about the Panthers capitalizing on their chances and his team failing on theirs, taking the blame for a rough night for the penalty kill and a mishandled puck in the corner that led to Florida’s second goal. He said the Canes weren’t fast enough at the start of the game, and that they need to limit their mistakes.

Staal wasn’t happy. He wasn’t totally unhappy, either.

“I wouldn’t say they dominated us. I think there was definitely some moments here and there on either side of the puck, and they buried their chances when they had them,” he said. “We have to be better, obviously. It wasn’t like we were great. But you know, we have an opportunity here and we’re excited about the next challenge.”

Jarvis, like Brind’Amour, dropped “I didn’t hate our game.” Carolina knew what was coming, he said, but they were right there.

“Playing a team like that, yeah, it’s gonna be tough,” he said. “But (we’ve got) all the confidence in the world that we’re gonna figure this out and get back on the horse.”

That’s the rub on those post-loss reactions. They lost. They didn’t play badly. But … they lost, and they only get to lose three more times. How are they supposed to reconcile that nasty bit of reality with the idea, true or not, that the arc of the hockey universe bends toward the way they play?

It was tough, all things considered, to watch Game 1 and not think of 2023. Florida squeaked by the Hurricanes then, yes. They also did it four consecutive times. After the sweep was complete, Brind’Amour dropped a quote that felt like an all-timer when it left his mouth — “That’s the unfortunate part of this, is that we’re going to look back and everyone’s going to say you got swept and that’s not what happened. I watched the game. I’m there. We’re in the game. We didn’t lose four games.”

It was a meme then, and it’s aged accordingly. He was reminded of it on Monday.

“I liked how we played,” Brind’Amour said. “That’s the point. The point was we had a chance to win every game, and maybe we were the better team in some of those games. It’s hockey. It works that way. I couldn’t ask for more of my group. And that’s the thing I love about this team, is that’s generally how it goes almost every night. You may not win, but how often am I going, ‘Well, that wasn’t very good,’ or, ‘We’re not good enough?’ That’s what you want.”

There’s blank space between “not good enough” and “good enough,” though. On Tuesday night, the Hurricanes found themselves in it. They’ve got three more chances to get themselves out.

(Photo of Carter Verhaeghe: James Guillory / Imagn Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

Share on

email

Previous

trending_flat

These Knicks were built in Jalen Brunson’s image

Sports

Next

trending_flat

How to watch Club America vs. Gotham FC in the Concacaf W Champions Cup semifinal

Sports