He won the Stanley Cup with the Lightning. Will he get to play against them as a Hurricane?
The Carolina Hurricanes practiced with their core group on Saturday, the 20 players who played in Thursday’s Game 6 win over the Nashville Predators plus Cedric Paquette, Jake Gardiner and Maxime Lajoie.
Of that extra trio, Paquette is the only one who has yet to play in the playoffs, and now faces the team he won the Stanley Cup with last fall in the second round. Paquette was acquired in part for his postseason experience with the Tampa Bay Lightning, but was hurt at the end of the regular season and has yet to crack the lineup in the playoffs.
The Hurricanes listed Paquette as injured throughout the Nashville series but Brind’Amour said Saturday the fourth-line center has been available all along and could play in Sunday’s Game 1 if needed.
“You want to get him in, because I know he’s effective, but who are you taking out?” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “At this point, we’re playing pretty well. I like how the group’s going. Right now he’s just kind of the odd man out. There’s a good chance he’ll get in here. The way things go, very rarely do you get through a couple series without guys getting nicked up. He’s ready if we need him.”
It looked Saturday like Paquette’s opportunity might have arrived when Nino Niederreiter left the ice in the middle of practice but Brind’Amour said he didn’t think Niederreiter had a significant problem.
“Nino, I don’t know, he did a little something,” Brind’Amour said. “I don’t know how serious that is. I don’t think it’s an issue.”
Will PNC Arena be the largest house in the NHL?
The official PNC Arena capacity for Games 1 and 2: 16,299. The Hurricanes announced Wednesday that the additional ventilation equipment they installed to meet NHL standards would allow them to increase attendance to 15,000 or more. Barring any unannounced changes in Boston or Denver on Saturday, that will be the largest crowd to see an NHL playoff game this season.
The Nashville Predators have the most so far, 14,107 to see the Hurricanes close out the series in Game 6 on Thursday with a 4-3 overtime win. Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell said Friday there was still a chance the building could be full at some point if the Hurricanes advance through the playoffs.
“This building, as we all know, when it’s full it’s one of the loudest buildings, I think, in the league,” Waddell said. “Even with our 12,000 crowds in the first round.”
Still waiting on Svech
Andrei Svechnikov finished the Nashville series with only the one empty-net goal in Game 1 but did emerge from that series as the Hurricanes’ best five-on-five player, analytically speaking. At the same time, Svechnikov was also eighth on the team in xG (expected goals) per Natural Stat Trick which suggests that his shots haven’t been coming from dangerous enough places on the ice.
“I think he’s been getting chances and playing well,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. “He’s another elite player and when the puck starts going in for him, look out. He’s one shot away from really helping this squad. He does a lot of other little things that really help us throughout the game anyway. But he’s a guy that obviously wants to score goals. I’m sure they’ll go in for him really soon.”
Scouting Tampa Bay
It’s not like the Hurricanes needed much of a scouting report after eight regular-season games against the Lightning, but Alex Nedeljkovic said he did watch some of Tampa Bay’s first-round series against the Florida Panthers, which was scheduled on the Hurricanes’ off nights against the Predators.
“Here and there, sometimes,” Nedeljkovic said. “It’s good to get away from the rink a little bit. Reset, refocus and recharge.”
Hurricanes vs. Lightning
When: 5 p.m., Sunday
Where: PNC Arena, Raleigh
Watch: NBCSN
This story was originally published May 29, 2021 at 1:10 PM.
