How the Hurricanes are battling through adversity in the stretch run of the season
It’s on to Dallas for the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Canes are limping a little, feeling the effects of four physical road games against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers. But they’re still in first place in the Central Division with nine games remaining in the regular season.
The Canes (31-10-6) took away six of eight possible points from two-game sets with the Lightning and Panthers. Losing a two-goal lead in the third period Saturday and then losing in overtime 4-3 against Florida was a stinger, but they earned a point and remained in first.
“Coming in here with the injuries we have, we had great efforts from our top guys,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said after the game. “They gave us everything they had. (The Panthers) were better than us tonight for sure but somehow we managed to get a point out of it. That says a lot about this group.”
The back-to-back against the Dallas Stars that begins Monday will have the Canes playing the six games on their road trip in nine days. That’s a lot of hockey, a very condensed schedule. That’s asking a lot of the group.
Brind’Amour said Saturday morning that his lineup had a lot of “moving parts” and he wasn’t sure what it might be Saturday night. Defenseman Brady Skjei and forward Jordan Martinook were injured and out, and forward Jesper Fast then was a late scratch — “He didn’t feel right,” Brind’Amour later said.
Add in goalie Petr Mrazek missing some games after “tweaking something,” according to Brind’Amour, and forward Teuvo Teravainen not yet giving Brind’Amour a thumbs-up that he’s free of concussion symptoms and ready to play, and it figures to be an interesting nine-game stretch to the regular-season finish line.
The Canes dodged a few injuries, too. Martin Necas took a big open-ice hit against Tampa Bay and Andrei Svechnikov was hammered into the boards Saturday on a dangerous hit from Patric Hornqvist of Florida. Neither Necas nor Svechnikov was injured but both hits were scary for the Canes.
With Fast out Saturday, Brind’Amour moved Steven Lorentz from the fourth line to Sebastian Aho’s line. With Martinook out, Cedric Paquette was moved to Jordan Staal’s line. The fourth line had Drew Shore centering Morgan Geekie and Max McCormick.
Brind’Amour was going with three lines by the third period — Geekie had two shifts in the third and Shore and McCormick one each. And the Panthers, a strong third-period team against Carolina this season, kept coming, tying the score 3-3 and then winning quickly in overtime on Aleksander Barkov’s goal.
Brind’Amour’s decision to shorten the bench loaded up more minutes for others: Aho played more than 21 minutes, and Staal and center Vincent Trocheck almost 21. Then there were the defensemen: Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce both logged more than 51 minutes in the two games against Florida, a nice chunk of it penalty-killing.
Brind’Amour was asked again Saturday morning about the balance between trying to win games, get into the Stanley Cup playoffs and win the division while trying to have a fresh, energized team for the playoffs.
“It’s a concern, that’s for sure, and a consideration,” he said. “We’ve got to get in first and there’s only one way to do it and that’s the right way. It’s hard to sit here and go, ‘Oh, we’re not going to play these guys.’ Then you just pick up bad habits, do different things. Guys get out of rhythm.
“I think where you have an advantage is in a situation where a guy’s a little nicked up, maybe we don’t play him. I think that’s where we can afford to do. We’ve done it with the goalies, because we have three good ones. But I really think you’ve got to play it the right way.”
There will be no letup in Dallas. The Stars (20-15-12) are trying to climb into the fourth playoff spot in the Central, beating the Detroit Red Wings 2-1 in overtime Saturday. Dallas was two points behind the fourth-place Nashville Predators after Saturday’s games but with two games-in-hand on the Preds.
“We just need to play our game and be ready for every battle and every shift,” Svechnikov said Saturday.
Carolina Hurricanes vs Dallas Stars
When: Monday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: American Airlines Center, Dallas.
TV: NBCSN.
This story was originally published April 26, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
