Empty, silent PNC Arena prepares Canes for unique playoff atmosphere in Toronto
The Carolina Hurricanes are holding training camp in PNC Arena, before more than 18,000 empty seats, with only the voices of the players and coaches being heard during practice.
You know, just like it will be in the games in Toronto.
In the NHL’s Return to Play format, there will be no fans in the seats. Not in Toronto, where 12 Eastern Conference teams will be playing postseason games, or in Edmonton for the Western Conference competition. Not during a pandemic.
“It’s going to be awkward, absolutely,” Canes forward Justin Williams said.
The playoffs, especially for the Canes, often have made for the biggest, rowdiest party in town. Tailgating, music, cold beverages of every sort. PNC Arena has been the place to be and Canes fans known for jacking up the decibel levels during playoff games.
But Scotiabank Arena in Toronto will be an empty place. It will be game after game after game, with, yes, only the voices of the players and coach being heard during play.
“And if the microphones are really good there’s going to be a lot of bleeping out,” Williams quipped.
Oh, there will be some of that needed on the telecasts. Hockey can be a chippy sport, especially in the postseason, and a few choice words — four-letter and otherwise — are uttered, loudly.
Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour has been known to blurt out a few of his own from behind the bench.
“That’s one thing I do not pride myself on, that I do have the occasional slip-ups there,” he said in a media Zoom call. “I can’t imagine anyone will really care, though.”
Probably not. The teams are going to Toronto to win hockey games, even in what should be a sterile, silent environment. For the Canes, it begins Aug. 1 in the Stanley Cup qualifying round against the New York Rangers.
Deciding the 2020 Stanley Cup champion during a coronavirus pandemic will be a challenging, stressful experience for everyone. To keep the competition safe, there will be a lot of testing and no fans in the stands or any fan interaction.
“I think the players think it’s going to be OK, like, ‘Yeah it’ll be all right, we’re competitors,’” Brind’Amour said. “But I think it will be the biggest factor going, walking out into a building where you’re used to stepping out on the ice and getting juiced from the crowd and it’s not there.
“That’s going to take some time and adjustment. A huge adjustment.”
Some of the Canes have done it before while playing for the Charlotte Checkers in the AHL. In January 2018 a snowstorm in Charlotte made travel hazardous and brought the city to a halt, but the Checkers game against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers was played as scheduled in an empty Bojangles’ Coliseum, which seats 8,600.
“It was different but I didn’t notice any difference in game intensity,” Jason Shaya, the Checkers’ broadcast play-by-play man, said of the Checkers 4-3 win. “Once the puck drops, guys want to win. Their internal drive kicks in.”
Brind’Amour is counting on that . He’s also hoping that holding training camp practices at PNC Arena, as opposed to the smaller practice rinks some teams are using, might be a slight advantage once at Scotiabank Arena.
“That’s exactly what you’re going to have,” he said. “The noise you’re creating in practice is what you’ll get in a game. When we start ramping up the scrimmage practices, that will be a component we throw in — the noise level and the emotion in the practice.
“We’re trying to up the ante on the communication part, making sure we’re talking a lot, keeping energy up, because it won’t be in the rink.”
The Canes will have one exhibition game in Toronto, against the Washington Capitals on July 29. That’s fine with Brind’Amour, who said Wednesday “one game is perfect” as a test run to get a feel for the pace, for game speed.
After not being a part of the Stanley Cup playoffs since 2009, the Canes made their “Bunch of Jerks” appearance last season a memorable one. Many of the players now have the experience of the playoff grind, of handling playoff pressure, of winning playoff games.
Advantage, Canes?
“In this situation I really think everybody is kind of a rookie,” Brind’Amour said in his Wednesday media call. “You just don’t know how it’s going to affect you, going out there and not having that emotion. To me, what makes playoff hockey so great is the emotion of it. It’s the energy in the building. It wows you at times.
“That’s where experience can help you. If that’s not in the building, it will be interesting to see. I think it’s going to affect everyone a little differently. I don’t know how much experience is going to matter in these playoffs.”
This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 3:06 PM.
