The Canes finally got the better of the Bruins in their budding rivalry, and did it naturally
In a world of manufactured rivalries intended to engage disinterested — or bored — fan bases, those that grow organically remain the best of all of them.
Anything among the Original 6 — and especially Bruins-Canadiens and Canadiens-Leafs — remains the gold standard in the NHL. Several others — Avalanche-Red Wings comes to mind — have come and gone, fizzling when one or the other team (or both) fall from playoff relevance.
Given recent offseason shenanigans between Carolina and Montreal, it’s not hard to understand why, at least among fan bases, Canes-Habs might be heating up.
But based on the way the teams have played one another this season, a better budding rivalry for the Canes is Boston.
Bruins fans may not quite understand why the Canes and Canes fans would consider this a budding rivalry. It’s possible that the B’s faithful have taken it for granted the Bruins have walked past the Canes in consecutive (non-realigned) playoff appearances, embarrassing Carolina in a 2019 sweep while outscoring the Canes 17-6, and dispatching the Hurricanes 4-1 in the first round of the bubble playoffs in 2020.
But Canes fans get it. The Canes themselves get it.
After practice Wednesday, while preparing to face the Bruins, Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour told the media that facing the Bruins would be “the big test.” The Bruins, Brind’Amour said, are “a team that knows how to win and gets it and does it right.”
“I think everybody else, there are so many teams like ourselves still trying to figure that out,” Brind’Amour added. “We haven’t got there and these guys have.”
Both teams have seen massive turnover the past couple seasons. On Thursday alone, Carolina had seven players on the bench — six playing — who weren’t on the roster last season. Boston also had six. Both teams have even more short-timers, players who weren’t around for those playoff meetings.
But there was still plenty of animosity to go around.
It started from the opening faceoff. Seconds after the puck caromed off the ice for the first time, Ethan Bear stepped up from his blue line position and flattened notorious B’s pest Brad Marchand, eliciting a roar from the still-arriving crowd at PNC Arena.
It continued at 2:20 of the first, when Vincent Trocheck was flattened in front of Bruins keeper Jeremy Swayman while looking for a tip from one of the Canes’ other skaters, who’d taken to circling the B’s zone like vultures looking for an opportunity to strike.
At 8:28, the first real skirmish at home of the season developed after Sebastian Aho rubbed David Pastrnak into the boards near the Canes blue line. In his follow through, Aho’s hands went high to the back of the Bruins forward’s head and popped his helmet off, causing the perennial All-Star to turn quickly to face Aho, drawing a crowd of players from both teams.
As the seconds ticked down in the first, Martin Necas carried the puck into the Bruins zone on the left wall, saw Brandon Carlo approaching and stiffened up, delivering a reverse hit on the hulking Bruins defender, causing him to pause and collect his balance.
No fights, but by far the most physical of the Canes’ 16 periods of hockey to that point, with the teams combining for 42 hits in 20 minutes.
In the second, Brad Marchand got his, ahem, nose wet, coming in late to two-hand Nino Niederreiter in the back while the Canes forward was down along the half wall in the Boston zone. Niederreiter retaliated, and the game saw its first pair of penalties, though neither team benefited from a power play.
Niederreiter again drew a penalty at 5:36 of the middle frame, and this time he kept his hands to himself after Mike Reilly caught him in the face with a glove, putting Carolina on its first power play of the game.
The jostling continued into the third. Charlie McAvoy tried to lay into Necas, instead clipped the Canes forward’s leg with his knee and drew a crowd — and a penalty call.
This wasn’t a fight-filled affair — those days are long gone — but the air was thicker Thursday.
Even the more frequently thrown legal hits were a bit harder; the players took fractions of a second longer to get up, or peel themselves off the dasher.
Most importantly for the Canes, though — as with any rivalry, natural or manufactured — the night ended with a record-setting sixth consecutive victory to start the season with a 3-0 win, and at least for one night in October, the Hurricanes vanquished a foe against which they’d long suffered.
The best part?
They came by it naturally.
