Get it done: Why the Hurricanes should now work extra hard to bury Ottawa quickly
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Carolina holds a 2-0 lead after a 3-2 double-overtime win over Ottawa.
- Canes and Senators combined for 190 hits over the two games.
- Carolina has not swept a best-of-seven series during its eight-year playoff run.
They’ve been here before, these Carolina Hurricanes.
This is the eighth consecutive season they’ve been to the NHL playoffs. Saturday marked the Canes’ seventh consecutive win in a postseason opener, and Monday they made it 7-for-7 going 2-0 to start the playoffs, though this Game 2 took a game and a half.
After nearly eight periods of hockey over three days on home ice, the Hurricanes hold a 2-0 series lead after a 3-2 double-overtime win over Ottawa.
Now, it’s imperative that Carolina comes home from Canada next weekend with two more wins.
As a team that prides itself on hard, physical play, the Hurricanes will inevitably suffer their share of nicks, scratches, scrapes and injuries, especially against a team that identifies similarly, like Ottawa.
“They’re going to forecheck hard, and we’re going to forecheck hard,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said after Game 1. “There’s going to be a lot of hits.”
As a top seed and favorite to reach the Stanley Cup Final, risk of injury — those hits — are exactly why it’s even more imperative for the Canes to put the hammer down on this first-round series.
No mercy. No holds barred. Sweep the leg.
The less time the Canes can spend on the ice against a team that helped combine for 190 hits over two games, the better off it will be in the long term.
A two-goal shutout win in Game 1 on Saturday afternoon was a good start.
An overtime win Monday was a good encore, and a necessary one.
While the game opened up more quickly Monday, it wasn’t for lack of physicality. In addition to Logan Stankoven’s second goal in as many games and 23 combined shots, the Hurricanes and Senators still found time to dish out 36 combined hits — 23 by Ottawa. At 8:49 of the first, Andrei Svechnikov went to the penalty box for roughing after the first of multiple goalmouth scrums after he took exception to a gaggle of players poking and prodding Andersen after the whistle.
Those extra jabs, while most of the time aimed at dislodging the puck, still hurt. Composite carbon fiber at high velocity does not jive well with thinly gloved fingers or flesh exposed by shifting pads.
“It’s playoff hockey,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said after Game 1. “It’s the first round, and everybody has all the energy in the world.”
Contact adds up over the course of a series of games, though, and early energy is often replaced by willpower and grit.
This time of year, extra games matter. Extra periods matter. Extra shifts matter. For the goalies, extra shots matter. More rubber. More red welts. More aching muscles.
For all the Canes’ playoff success the past seven years, for all of their dominance to open every series in that stretch, only in the wacky COVID-induced play-in series in 2020 did they sweep a series — and that was only 3-0.
And only once during its current playoff streak has Carolina led a best-of-seven series 3-0 (First round, 2024 vs. Islanders), then falling in double-overtime in Game 4 before finishing the series off in Game 5.
On top of the physicality, whatever air of invincibility — perceived or otherwise — disappeared Monday. The Senators finally solved the Frederik Andersen puzzle midway through the second period Monday on a fortunate bounce, and then snuck a leaky one through his pads later in the frame to knot the game at 2-2.
No one was expecting a clean sheet for the series, as tightly contested as this series has been and will continue to be. But Ottawa now has tangible proof that, at the very least, Andersen is beatable.
Now the series shifts to Ottawa. The Hurricanes have enjoyed incredible home ice advantage in the postseason during their run, but their record on the road in the playoffs has been average. In four of the Canes’ previous five first-round series, they lost Game 3 after a 2-0 start. They’ve not swept a seven-game series during the current eight-year playoff run.
If people felt the Canes bore any added pre-playoff pressure to perform into the late rounds this season — they did — that’s nothing compared to the pressure that’s going to start creeping into the locker room, coaches’ room and boardroom if this series starts to get any closer than it already is.
The Hurricanes are the better team in this first-round playoff series. For the most part, they’ve played like it. Now, they need to finish it and move on — quickly.
This story was originally published April 21, 2026 at 12:01 AM.
