Will Dougie Hamilton play for Hurricanes in Game 1 vs. Bruins? Carolina is ‘hopeful’
The will-he-or-won’t-he questions about Dougie Hamilton may be answered Monday, but no one will really know until Tuesday. Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said the injured defenseman will practice with the team for the third straight day Monday, but with the NHL’s scheduled media availability held before practice, there’s unlikely to be any update ahead of Tuesday’s Game 1 against the Boston Bruins.
“I’m hopeful for sure,” Brind’Amour said from the NHL’s Toronto bubble. “I think we’ll know a lot today, obviously. We’ll get through today’s practice and see how he feels. If he can go, he can go. It’s a positive sign that he’s practiced with us the last two days. He seems to feel better.”
Hamilton had 40 points in 47 games and was leading the Hurricanes in ice time before breaking his left fibula in January, then suffered a different injury last month during the practices leading up to the resumption of play and missed all of the Hurricanes’ three-game qualifying-round sweep of the New York Rangers.
Sami Vatanen, acquired at the trade deadline but injured at that time, made his Hurricanes debut in Game 1, filling Hamiton’s spot alongside Jaccob Slavin for the rest of the series and finishing as the team’s third-leading scorer. With Hamilton, Vatanen would likely drop to the third pairing to keep the solid second pairing of Brady Skjei and Joel Edmundson intact, although he would get some of his minutes back on the power play.
Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask and star winger David Pastrnak did not practice Monday, but are both expected to play Tuesday.
“I believe we’ll be completely healthy for Game 1,” Boston coach Bruce Cassidy said.
STARTING FROM SCRATCH
Under different circumstances, Brind’Amour might agree that the Hurricanes had an edge on the Bruins having played meaningful preliminary-round games to start the postseason while the Bruins stumbled through a round-robin with the other top-four seeds. After a full week off since their Game 3 win over the Rangers last Tuesday, he thinks both teams are probably starting from zero.
“I would have said yes for sure if we had started a day or two after that series,” Brind’Amour said. “Let’s be honest: we were playing for something and those teams in the top four seeds were trying to get to this point healthy. They weren’t playing for near as much there might have been. There might be a little advantage there, but that might have went away with us sitting for a week.”
The Bruins were outscored 9-4 in their losses to the Philadelphia Flyers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Washington Capitals. The Hurricanes outscored the New York Rangers 11-4 in their sweep, to the extent anything can be drawn from one team playing for seeding and the other playing for its postseason life.
“Those were preseason games,” Bruins forward Marchand said. “Let’s call it what it is.”
Said Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal: “I know from past experience it’s hard to flip that switch sometimes.”
Cassidy, for his part, would have preferred more time to prepare.
“Any adjustments from team to team had to happen this morning on the ice,” Cassidy said. “Coming out of a game, you’d like a day to get yourselves back together. We didn’t have that luxury, but we’re starting tomorrow. The schedule is what it is.”
TWO IN THE HAND
Goalies Petr Mrazek and James Reimer played against the Rangers, with Brind’Amour going to Reimer in Game 3 even after a pair of wins. Mrazek had been good in the first two games; Reimer was even better in the third. The coach said Monday both goalies are likely to play again against the Bruins.
“I anticipate seeing both of them in this series,” Brind’Amour said. “I think we’re in a real good spot that way. We were coming in. We feel pretty confident whichever way we go.”
LOOKING FOR HELP
A little lost in the staggering output from the Andrei Svechnikov-Sebastian Aho-Teuvo Teravainen line was the relative lack of contributions from elsewhere on the Hurricanes’ roster against the Rangers. The big line combined for 15 points and the rest of the roster 13 — and three of those 13 of those came on goals the Aho line scored.
“It’s what makes our team go,” Staal said. “It’s pretty obvious. … They’re three very talented players and they’ve pushed our team. They’ve made me try to be better. They’ve made everyone else in that room try to be as good as that line.”
And still, that line could still just be scratching the surface.
“You can get to another level,” Svechnikov said. “It’s always like that, but I think we have good chemistry together. We have to get to another level for sure. We’re going to try that against Boston.”
Aho joined some esteemed company with 20 points in his first 18 playoff games, tying the franchise record set by Kevin Dineen and Eric Staal, both past captains.
SCOUTING REPORT
Cassidy said he saw the same team against the Rangers that he saw in the playoffs last year, at least in terms of mentality and style, and that the Bruins would attempt to defend the Hurricanes the same way.
“It’s the same coaching staff on both sides and a lot of the same players, so you can see some tendencies from last year will probably bleed into this year’s series,” Cassidy said. “For us, we felt when we were able to counter Carolina’s puck pressure with good support and good execution and good decision-making, we were at our best in that series. That’ll be our game plan going in. We saw a lot of that against the Rangers. That’s their style of play. They haven’t changed a lot there.”
HURRICANES VS. BRUINS PLAYOFF TV SCHEDULE
- Game 1: Tuesday, 8 p.m., FS Carolinas, WCMC-99.9
- Game 2: Thursday, 8 p.m., FS Carolinas, WCMC-99.9
- Game 3: Saturday, noon, WRAL-5, WCMC-99.9
- Game 4: August 17, 8 p.m., FS Carolinas, WCMC-99.9
- Game 5: Wednesday, Aug. 19, TBD*
- Game 6: Thursday, Aug. 20 TBD*
- Game 7: Sunday, Aug. 23 TBD*
* if necessary
This story was originally published August 10, 2020 at 2:24 PM.
