Hurricanes set tone early in Game 1 victory over Rangers. Will it set tone for series?
Justin Williams caught nearly everyone by surprise, it seems, when the Carolina Hurricanes forward dropped the gloves for an early fight Saturday.
A replay shows Williams and Ryan Strome of the New York Rangers going at it, with a closeup of the Hurricanes’ bench behind them. Some players, including Canes rookie Martin Necas, have jaws dropped. Others, including Vincent Trocheck, have eyes wide.
Behind them is Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour, who doesn’t appear to be the least bit surprised to see his oldest player and former teammate on the ice duking it out.
“Willy,” he said Sunday, “never ceases to amaze me.”
The tone was set, quickly and emphatically, in Game 1 of the best-of-five qualifying series as the Canes went on to a 3-2 victory at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. But can winning Game 1 can set the tone in short postseason series?
“I hope so,” Brind’Amour said in a Sunday media call. “I don’t know how much it will carry over or not. I hope it does. We had a good game and I expect our guys to come out ready to play again but I don’t know how much one game bleeds into the next. It remains to be seen.
“When you have a positive outcome, you always think, ‘OK, let’s carry it over.’ If you don’t it’s ‘Trash it and move on.’ But I liked the way we played for the most part of that game and we’re going to need to do that to be successful.”
The Canes will go into Game 2 on Monday again missing defenseman Dougie Hamilton, who has been skating on his own in Toronto but has not practiced. Brind’Amour said Hamilton, injured in postseason training camp, was skating “a little better” and was closer to being ready but still not quite fit to play.
The Canes also go into Game 2 having answered two important questions: could they beat the Rangers and could they beat goalie Henrik Lundqvist? The Canes were swept by New York in the regular season, beaten three of the four times by Lundqvist, and the aging but poised goalie has had his way with Carolina through the years.
Rangers coach David Quinn said Sunday that he was not sure about the availability of rookie goalie Igor Shesterkin, who many believed would start Game 1 but was ruled unfit to play. As for forward Jesper Fast, he will not play, Quinn said.
Fast took a large hit from Canes defenseman Brady Skeji along the boards in the first minute of Saturday’s game, leaving the ice soon after Jaccob Slavin scored for Carolina and not returning. Quinn said Kaapo Kakko could move up to the second line and replace Fast on the wing on Strome’s line.
Strome, who did land some punches of his own against Williams, left bleeding after the early fight but did return. It was Williams’ first postseason fight in six years and only the second of his career.
“The timing of everything he does just seems to be dead-on,” Brind’Amour said Sunday. “Willy answered the bell.”
His teammates noticed. And responded.
“The first period was very physical and Willy getting in there and fighting right away definitely was a momentum change for us,” Trocheck said in a Sunday media call. “I think everyone was extremely pumped up to see him go and do that in the first period of the playoffs. Knowing the caliber of player he is, it set the tone for us.”
The Canes’ aggressiveness also was evident in their penalty killing. They stifled the Rangers’ power play, making zone entries difficult, getting in shooting lanes and successfully clearing the puck. The Rangers were 0-for-7 — their only special teams’ score came in the third period on defenseman Marc Staal’s shorthanded goal.
Allowing the Rangers seven power plays, Brind’Amour said, was “playing with fire” considering the Rangers’ skill level and also a product, he said, of a tightly called game. Some penalties, he said, were careless but some came from “just playing hockey.”
“You sure don’t want to take aggressiveness away from the guys,” Brind’Amour said. “It’s a fine line but I know we can’t take seven penalties and be successful too long.”
The Rangers’ Mika Zibanejad said the Canes’ penalty killers out-competed the Rangers on many of the power plays and New York had just eight shots on goal.
“There were a couple of times there when we were a little unorganized coming up the ice and they set up and it was a little bit of a struggle for us,” Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba said Sunday.
The Canes and Rangers now will play on back-to-back days — Game 3 on Tuesday will have an 8 p.m start and be a “home game” for New York. The Canes have the upper hand after Game 1 but also realize winning a series is about consistency of effort, execution and staying power.
“The focus always with our group is to worry about us,” Brind’Amour said. “You have to get to your game no matter what the other team is doing.”
That can be with 5-on-5 play, goaltending, penalty killing or with the power play. Or by dropping the gloves, if need be.
CAROLINA HURRICANES VS NEW YORK RANGERS
What: Game 2, Qualifying Round.
When: Monday, Noon
Where: Scotiabank Arena, Toronto.
Watch, listen: FOX Sports Carolinas is broadcasting the game remotely from PNC Arena, with Mike Maniscalco handling play by play and Tripp Tracy the analyst.
This story was originally published August 2, 2020 at 3:14 PM.
