5 OT playoff game pushes start of Hurricanes-Bruins playoff series to Wednesday morning
.jpg "Carolina Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho (20) is congratulated by teammates Joel Edmundson (6) , Warren Foegele (13), Jordan Martinook (48), Vincent Trocheck (16) and Brock McGinn (23) after scoring against the New York Rangers during the third period of an NHL hockey playoff game Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020, in Toronto. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)")
The Carolina Hurricanes will have to wait another day to get the Stanley Cup playoffs started.
The Canes and Boston Bruins were scheduled to play Game 1 of their first-round series Tuesday, with an 8 p.m. puck drop at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena. But when the Columbus-Tampa Bay game, which began at 3 p.m., went into a fifth overtime, the Canes-Bruins game was rescheduled for an 11 a.m. start Wednesday.
The NHL did not want to begin a game after 11 p.m., and an 87.5-minute turnaround period was needed between games for complete preparation of the rink for a new game.
The Lightning finally won 3-2 at 10:27 of the fifth OT, ending the fourth-longest game in Stanley Cup playoff history.
The Canes have not played for a week after sweeping the New York Rangers in three games of their qualifying round in Toronto. The Bruins, as one of the top four seeds, finished up their three-game round-robin schedule on Sunday.
Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said Tuesday morning that he hoped the sharpness in his team’s play would still be there after all the down time in the NHL bubble, noting the Canes had “marinated” long enough.
The game Wednesday will be televised by Fox Sports Carolinas and the NBC Sports Network.
This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 9:13 PM.
