Canes need to be physical on the Lightning, Cedric Paquette says. ‘They don’t like it.’
There’s no one in the Carolina Hurricanes dressing room who knows the Tampa Bay Lightning better than Cedric Paquette, who was lifting the Stanley Cup with that team less than nine months ago. His recipe for success in Game 2 on Tuesday: Get physical with the Bolts, because “they don’t like it.”
“Put more pucks deep and go forecheck, spend time in their zone, build below the circle, make them work and get them sort of frustrated a little bit,” Paquette said Tuesday morning. “Obviously, play physical. We need to be physical on them. They don’t like it. They get frustrated.”
That’s an interesting comment coming from someone who is only a few months removed from being a part of that team, and it dovetails with the Hurricanes’ post mortem from Game 1. In that 2-1 loss on Sunday, the Canes turned the puck over too much in the neutral zone and didn’t get it behind the Tampa defense where they could grind the Lightning down in their own end. But it’s also a personal challenge: Paquette’s line with Steven Lorentz and Warren Foegele is one whose job is specifically to make things difficult.
“It always comes down to puck battles and playing in their end more than you play in your end,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “That’s where we’ve got to make it tougher, harder on their guys.”
While the Hurricanes considered changes to their lineup, they planned to send the same group out for Game 2 against the Lightning, starting with Alex Nedeljkovic in net and with Nino Niederreiter still unavailable.
For Paquette, that means another shot at his former team, which wasn’t what he expected when he started the season with the Ottawa Senators, before the Hurricanes acquired him in January for Ryan Dzingel. Paquette missed the final six games of the regular season with an injury and did not play in the first round against the Nashville Predators.
“It’s not something I envisioned when I first got traded, but I’m happy to be back in the playoffs and compete for the Cup again,” Paquette said. “It doesn’t matter who I played for, I want to win the Cup and I want to do it with this team this year.”
From Canes defenseman Brett Pesce
“It’s obviously a big deal, Game 1, the fact that we dropped that one. I personally thought we played well enough to win the game.” -- Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce
Tampa caught off guard by Carolina’s penalty kills
While the Hurricanes gave up a goal to Tampa’s potent power-play Sunday, the Lightning still found itself caught off guard by the aggressiveness of the Carolina penalty-killers. That was a big focus for Tampa Bay at Monday’s practice. The Lightning finished the game 1-for-3, which is actually down from the 40% clip that unit was connecting in the first round.
“You have to make one play at least to break it up and it’s usually a dangerous play into the middle,” Alex Killorn said. “They’re coming so hard.”
The Hurricanes were third in the NHL during the regular season (85.2 percent), including 19-for-22 against the Lightning, and are 25-for-29 through the first seven games of the playoffs (86.2 percent, third in the NHL). Two of the goals allowed during the first round were five-on-three goals.
“They’re taking the gamble you can’t make plays under pressure. We’re saying we can,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “Sometimes that works and sometimes it ends up in the net like it did (Sunday) night. The thing is, they do it really well. There’s a reason they’re one of top penalty-kills in the NHL. They’ve got a plan. It’s not run-and-gun and hope the other team screws up. They pressure you hard. They know where they’re going and when they’re going.”
While the Hurricanes were no less aggressive up the ice than they usually are in Game 1, Pesce said the Lightning poses some unique challenges once they get set up in the Carolina end because of their ability to shoot quickly (and accurately) from either side.
“Obviously on those two flanks with Kucherov and Stamkos, you’ve got to know where your one-timers are on the ice,” Pesce said. “You’ve got to anticipate before the puck gets to those guys.”
Tailwinds
Injured Lightning defensemen David Savard and Erik Cernak both participated in Tuesday’s optional morning skate. .... Going into Tuesday, the Hurricanes had played five straight one-goal games, four of those ending in overtime. That’s tied for the longest stretch in franchise history with games 2-6 of the 2006 first-round series against the Montreal Canadiens. … Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy was named a Vezina Trophy finalist on Tuesday for the fourth straight year. … The Hurricanes allowed the first goal in six of their first seven playoff games.
Lightning at Hurricanes
When: 7:30 p.m., Tuesday
Where: PNC Arena, Raleigh
Watch: NBCS
This story was originally published June 1, 2021 at 1:45 PM.
