NHL fine for Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour’s comments about refs sets unofficial record
.JPG "Boston Bruins left wing Anders Bjork (10) celebrates his teammates goal past Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Petr Mrazek (34) during the second period of an NHL hockey Eastern Conference Stanley Cup playoff game in Toronto, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020.")
The swiftness of Rod Brind’Amour’s fine was as unsurprising as the fine itself, coming only three hours after the Carolina Hurricanes coach called the NHL “a joke” and Wednesday’s botched review of a Boston Bruins goal “a crime scene.”
What was surprising was the severity of the fine. Brind’Amour was fined $25,000 with another $25,000 threatened if he transgressed again in the next calendar year. Only Columbus Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella — the league’s most frequent offender by a wide, wide margin — has been fined more than that in the past decade, a $30,000 hit back in January 2012.
Brind’Amour’s Bruins counterpart, Bruce Cassidy, said during last year’s Stanley Cup finals that “the National Hockey League’s getting a black eye with their officiating this playoffs” among other comments about how the officials were favoring the St. Louis Blues after “the narrative changed after Game 3.” He was not fined.
Tortorella was fined $10,000 in January for these comments: “All this (expletive) technology, right? The technology and getting things right ... the stubbornness tonight, by the officials, and by the league and by Toronto, however it’s supposed to (expletive) work, screws us. It’s ridiculous.”
That was at least Tortorella’s 11th fine by the NHL. This was Brind’Amour’s first.
Asked if he had any reaction Thursday ahead of the Hurricanes’ 3-2 win in Game 2, Brind’Amour demurred.
“Nope,” he said. “Moving on.”
Afterward, he declined to answer a question about an unsuccessful challenge of a disallowed Hurricanes goal.
In and out
The Hurricanes made a host of changes in Game 2, one by necessity. Joel Edmundson was “unfit to play” after taking a hard hit in Game 1. Jake Gardiner and Nino Niederreiter were healthy scratches as Justin Williams and Sami Vatanen returned to the lineup after missing Game 1 and Trevor van Riemsdyk saw his first action of the playoffs.
James Reimer got the start in net in the second game of the back-to-back, as was the routine against the Washington Capitals in the last round. And Warren Foegele took Andrei Svechnikov’s normal spot with Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen, with Svechnikov dropping to the third line with Vincent Trocheck and Martin Necas. Necas ended up with a pair of assists, setting up the Hurricanes’ second and third goals.
Reimer stopped 33 of 35 shots for his second win of the postseason, running his save percentage to a sterling .952.
The Bruins were without star winger David Pastrnak, who appeared to injure himself celebrating the Bruins’ double-overtime game-winner Wednesday night.
Fleury flying
One of the positives for the Hurricanes in Wednesday’s 4-3 double overtime loss in Game 1 was the play of 24-year-old defenseman Haydn Fleury, the seventh overall pick in 2014 who has spent most of his NHL career on the Hurricanes’ third pairing when not exiled to the press box. But Fleury has steadily improved throughout the playoffs and even saw time against Boston’s powerful top line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and Pastrnak during Game 1.
“He was a high pick and we have a lot of high hopes for him and I think you’re just starting now to see kind of what we expected when we picked him up,” Brind’Amour said. “It’s been tough for him because we haven’t been able to use him as much over the last year and a half. He’s been a healthy scratch just because of the numbers. We’ve got some pretty good defensemen ahead of him. But he’s handled it really well. He’s taken this opportunity to show he belongs.”
Fleury’s unexpected goal — a long-range score from the blue line — was his first postseason point. He has scored four goals in 132 NHL regular-season games.
No defense
Bergeron’s game-winner was the second goal of Game 1 for his line. The first came off a set faceoff play to Petr Mrazek’s net that the Hurricanes were unable to defend — and not because they didn’t know what was coming, Brind’Amour said.
“Everybody knows they’re coming. That’s the hard part,” Brind’Amour said. “You actually know they’re coming and you still can’t defend it. That’s what happened on the one. We knew exactly what the play was and how we decided to cover it. It wasn’t a blown coverage. That’s all they need. That’s why they’re elite.”
Tailwinds
Aho extended his point streak to five games with a first-period assist Thursday. … Eight Hurricanes players set new highs for ice time in Game 1, but not Jaccob Slavin, whose game-high 37:03 was still 84 seconds shy of Game 7 against the Washington Capitals last season. … Fleury and Edmundson became the first pair of defensemen to score in the same game for the Hurricanes since Aaron Ward and Frantisek Kaberle in the Stanley Cup-clinching Game 7 against the Edmonton Oilers in 2006.
This story was originally published August 13, 2020 at 12:56 PM.
