Joel Edmundson still out for Game 4, joined by Andrei Svechnikov on injured list
It’s clear the Carolina Hurricanes are going to be without Andrei Svechnikov for a while, although perhaps not as long as they feared after he suffered a gruesome-looking right leg injury Saturday after tangling with Zdeno Chara in front of the net.
“The initial look at his knee, or his injury, it’s not as bad as maybe it looked on TV,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said on the Fox Sports Carolinas pregame show Monday night. “Certainly it looked terrible. We feared the worst. I think maybe we dodged that bullet. He’s still in rough shape.”
Brind’Amour may have said knee, but television cameras caught Svechnikov watching the game during the second period of the Hurricanes’ 4-3 Game 4 loss in Toronto on Monday with his right ankle in a walking boot while seated with his right knee bent.
Less has been said about Joel Edmundson, who has been out since Game 2 of this series against the Boston Bruins. Edmundson and Brady Skjei were a dynamic pairing during the qualifying-round sweep of the New York Rangers, and the physical element Edmundson brings has been notably missing against the Bruins over the past two games.
“‘Eddie’ I would say he’s definitely closer to be playing, obviously, than ‘Svech,’ but both those guys won’t be there tonight,” Brind’Amour said earlier Monday.
Ryan Dzingel, a healthy scratch in Game 3, replaced Svechnikov in the Hurricanes’ lineup, while Jake Gardiner drew in for Trevor van Riemsdyk in a shakeup on defense. Jordan Martinook took Svechnikov’s usual spot (although not lately) with Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen while the other three lines were scrambled as well.
James Reimer got the start in net, his third of the playoffs. He was the winning goalie in Game 3 of the qualifying round and Game 2 of this series.
There were changes on the power play too, with the Hurricanes loading up their first unit in Svechnikov’s absence, moving Vincent Trochek into that group.
“We’re a little bit fluid in everything we’re doing here tonight,” Brind’Amour said.
The Bruins, meanwhile, were without star winger David Pastrnak for the third straight game. Anders Bjork has struggled in that spot alongside Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron but got another shot there in Game 4. Bjork took three penalties in the first three games of the series.
“The message is, ‘You’re not going to replace ‘Pasta,’ you’re not going to be what David is to us now,’” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. “(Pastrnak) is much farther along in his development, although he went through some of this too, at a younger age.”
Game 4 fortunes
In Hartford Whalers/Hurricanes franchise playoff history, the Hurricanes are 8-1 in Game 4s when trailing a series 2-1 going into Monday. That includes the Miracle at Molson in 2002 and Martin Gerber’s shutout cameo in Buffalo in 2006. The loss was against Detroit in the 2002 Stanley Cup finals.
Brind’Amour played in four of the wins (and the one loss), scoring the game-winner in a pivotal Game 4 in Montreal in 2006, not that he thinks it matters to anyone but him.
“When you bring up the past, it’s the past,” Brind’Amour said. “There’s not even many guys who even can relate to those moments. You know how pivotal this game is. Going down 3-1 is tough. You’ve got to get back into the series and you’ve got to have this game. I don’t think it needs to be said. We understand it. I don’t know there’s much to be taken from the past. None of these guys were around.”
It’s not entirely the past: The Hurricanes won Game 4 against the Washington Capitals last year after falling behind 2-1 in that series (and losing Svechnikov to a nasty-looking injury in Game 3).
Draft pick turns tables
Matt Filipe (third round, 2016) was one of four unsigned draft picks the Hurricanes let walk as free agents Sunday, including second-round defenseman Luke Martin (52nd overall in 2017). Filipe, a Massachusetts native who scored nine goals for Northeastern as a senior, on Monday signed a two-year deal with his hometown Bruins.
The Hurricanes liked Filipe’s size — 6-foot-2, 205 pounds — but didn’t think his college production justified a maximum entry-level contract. The Bruins gave him that, a two-year deal with a $92,500 signing bonus and $925,000 cap hit per season at the NHL level.
NHL teams occasionally don’t sign high draft picks because of contract disagreements — Filipe falls into that category, as did current Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Frederik Andersen, a seventh-round pick by the Hurricanes in 2010 who chose to go back into the draft rather than sign with the Hurricanes — but Martin is a little different. It’s rare to whiff so badly on a second-round pick that he’s not deemed worth signing.
That’s more common in later rounds, as was the case with Wisconsin forward Max Zimmer (fourth round, 2016) and Yale forward Luke Stevens (fifth round, 2015), the other two draft picks who became free agents.
Tailwinds
The Hurricanes were outshot in four straight games heading into Game 4. That only happened once in the regular season, Feb. 6-14. … Only 12 Hurricanes players have appeared in all seven playoff games. … Without Svechnikov, the Hurricanes’ second-leading scorers behind Sebastian Aho — the NHL leader going into Monday with 10 points — are Teuvo Teravainen and Martin Necas, both with four points.
This story was originally published August 17, 2020 at 1:41 PM.
