Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour mulls lineup changes without Andrei Svechnikov
Rod Brind’Amour isn’t typically one to tinker with this lineup unnecessarily. He did before Game 3, putting healthy scratch Nino Niederreiter on the top line. And even if he didn’t have to try to replace the injured Andrei Svechnikov, he’d still be tinkering ahead of Monday’s Game 4 against the Boston Bruins.
“We have to be fluid with the lineup,” Brind’Amour said Sunday from the NHL’s Toronto bubble. “We practiced with some different combos today. With ‘Svech’ being out, it puts us at a little disadvantage. I think we’ll move the lines around quite a bit tomorrow. We’re going to need everyone.”
Ryan Dzingel, a healthy scratch Saturday, is the obvious extra forward to draw into the lineup in place of Svechnikov, with AHLers Clark Bishop, Steven Lorentz and Max McCormick also in the bubble. On defense, Joel Edmundson remains out while Jake Gardiner has been a healthy scratch the past two games.
As for the Bruins, it’s still a guessing game on the playing status of David Pastrnak.
Pastrnak missed Games 2 and 3 after suffering an injury in the opening game of the series, apparently while leaping for joy after Patrice Bergeron scored the game winner in the second overtime. That bit of excitement has taken a 48-goal scorer this season out of the Boston lineup.
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said Sunday that the forward did some skating at the team’s optional skate but his availability for Game 4 still is unknown. “Fifty-fifty at best,” Cassidy said.
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Power off
The Hurricanes’ power play, such an asset and a threat in the regular season, has yet to click in the playoffs, especially against the Bruins.
While they went 1-for-5 on Saturday, the one goal was Niederreiter’s freebie thanks to Jaroslav Halak, and the Hurricanes not only failed to score with the game in the balance on fresh ice to start the third period but gave up a short-handed goal to Sean Kuraly that proved the game-winner.
After posting the eighth-best power-play conversion rate in the NHL during the regular season at 22.3 percent, the Hurricanes are 4-for-25 (16.0 percent) in six playoff games. (They’re narrowly outscoring the opposition 4-2 on their own power plays.) While that’s squarely in the middle of the pack among the remaining 16 teams — and better than the Bruins overall, if not during this series — in a series where each game has come down to a single goal, every missed opportunity has a price.
Especially Saturday, when the Hurricanes had their most man-advantage opportunities since Game 1 of the qualifying round against the New York Rangers.
“We were just sluggish,” Brind’Amour said. “We actually had a good one in the first period, hit the post. Our entries haven’t been crisp enough. Again, you’re facing one of the best teams for a reason. If you’re not sharp it’s going to look like that.”
Numerically, the Bruins haven’t been much better — 3-for-12 in the series and 3-for-21 in the playoffs — but they’ve converted when they’ve really needed goals.
“For me, it’s timely scoring on the power play,” Cassidy said. “Not necessarily the percentage.”
Halak to the rescue
Bruins defenseman Torey Krug was asked Sunday about Halak being able to laugh off his biggest mistake in Game 3: the pass from behind the net that Niederreiter batted down in the low slot, scoring the only Carolina goal.
Halak instantly became the Bruins’ No. 1 goalie when Tuukka Rask decided Saturday to opt out of the NHL playoffs and rejoin his family outside the bubble. For now, it’s his net.
“For Jaro to step up the way he did in those circumstances was huge,” Krug said. “It just shows the professionalism he shows, getting ready day in and day out and not knowing when his name will be called. Obviously he had to step into a tough situation.
“But that’s his personality, to laugh that off and get the next save. I think he wanted to do everything in his control after you make a mistake like that to make sure it doesn’t spiral out of control. He takes a lot of pride in that and he showed up big for us.”
Cassidy said there wasn’t much difference in his mind between Rask and Halak.
“We’re not going to change the way we play no matter who’s in net,” Cassidy said. “We’ve proven that with Jaro here for the last two years and now the playoffs. We know he’s a capable goaltender. The only issue for us is Jaro hasn’t played a lot. The only issue for us is we want to give him time to allow him to get back into game mode.”
This story was originally published August 16, 2020 at 2:51 PM.
