How playoff experience, battle scars are fueling the Hurricanes’ NHL playoff run
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Martinook played 10 2019 games with a torn groin and will hit 84 games in Game 4.
- After beating Philadelphia in Game 3, the Canes seek their eighth straight playoff win.
- Several Canes, including Aho and Slavin, bring over 90 playoff games each.
Jordan Martinook won’t forget his first Stanley Cup playoffs, nor the pain and tears that went with it.
In the 2019 playoffs, the Carolina Hurricanes forward played 10 games with a torn groin muscle. Nothing, nothing, was going to keep him out of the lineup.
“A couple of times I went home after games, and I was in my closet, and I was crying.,” Martinook said later. “My wife was rubbing my back and she was like, ‘Why do you keep doing this?’ I was like, ‘Why? I don’t know how many chances you get at this.’
“I’ll play through anything if they let me.”
Martinook is still playing, still pursuing the Stanley Cup. When the Hurricanes face the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday in Game 4 of their second-round series, it will be his 84th career playoff game.
The Canes, after a 4-1 win Thursday at Xfinity Mobile Arena, will be seeking to finish off the Eastern Conference series in four straight games. They did that in the opening round against the Ottawa Senators, and will be after an eighth straight victory to start the playoffs.
Only one team in NHL history has won more: the 1985 Edmonton Oilers, who won their first nine playoff games — and won the Stanley Cup for a second straight season.
Hurricanes bear playoff battle scars
Martinook and many of his teammates bear the battle scars of playoffs past. Only captain Jordan Staal and winger William Carrier have won a Cup — Staal with Pittsburgh in 2009 and Carrier with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2023.
The rest have stacked playoff games and come up short. That has been frustrating, but the experience of all those playoff battles, good and bad, can’t be understated.
Center Sebastian Aho has 96 games of playoff experience and defenseman Jaccob Slavin 93. Winger Andrei Svechnikov, who turned 26 in March, has 73 games.
“Experience matters, but with that comes all the work, the compete, the consistency that goes with it,” Aho said. “That could be your edge. You can use your experience from past years and push through.”
A few years ago, winger Seth Jarvis, then a Canes rookie, was asked what he was expecting from his first playoff experience.
“I don’t know. You tell me, dude,” Jarvis said to the reporter, smiling.
Before the 2022 playoffs were over, Jarvis had taken a stick to the mouth and bent back some front teeth. He was leveled by Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time when a teammate blasted a shot, which hit him low and in a very painful spot. He suffered.
His thoughts after his first playoffs?
“It’s fun. A ton of fun,” Jarvis said then. “This is what you dream of, playing in the postseason.”
Carolina’s experience is showing
Some of the Flyers players are experiencing their first playoffs this year. Forward Porter Martone played college hockey at Michigan State this season before hopping into the Flyers lineup just before the playoffs. Forwards Denver Barkey and Alex Bump also are rookies.
The Flyers have eight players who are 25 or younger and the team’s average age is 27 — only the Montreal Canadiens (26) are younger among the playoff teams.
Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said Thursday that when his team failed to score on some good early chances in Game 3, then failed repeatedly misfired on the power play, some edginess surfaced. Guys got antsy.
“It’s inexperience,” Tocchet said. “And not just the young guys, the team.
“You can’t try to make a play out of nothing, I think we tried that a couple of times. The first period, we didn’t. We moved the puck well, we got it by ‘em. Against Carolina, as I’ve said, you’ve got to hit singles, and we hit singles in the first period. Then, we tried to hit home runs.
“And that’s what happens. They capitalized on that. They’re good at that.”
A measured approach
The Canes led 1-0 after the first period and 2-1 after the second in Game 3. Defenseman Jalen Chatfield had a shorthanded goal, and Staal and Svechnikov each had power-play scores as the Hurricanes dominated special teams play.
“Our third period was textbook,” Martinook said after the game. “It was exactly what we wanted to do, playing with the lead and kind of dictating the play.”
The plan for Game 4? One thing learned through the years, Aho said, was how to approach each playoff game, whether the first of the series or an elimination game.
“Don’t think about what’s happened in the past or what can happen in the future,” he said. “Just start on time and take care of business.”
The Hurricanes have been doing that.
