The King keeps these jerks quiet for a night
The gentleman generally believed to be past his prime who so rankled the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday was not, for a change, Brian Burke or Don Cherry. He is only 36 and certainly much more in touch with the wider world around him than either of those filibustering bloviators. Henrik Lundqvist may not be the supremely elite goalie he once was, but he still has his moments.
Tuesday was one of them, a vintage performance from the King at a royally bad time for the Hurricanes, who soundly outplayed the New York Rangers only to end up with a 2-1 loss. Turnabout being fair play and all, the Hurricanes scraped through wins over the Edmonton Oilers and Dallas Stars thanks to goalies Curtis McElhinney and Petr Mrazek respectively, then produced a better performance than either of those two games only to be stymied by Lundqvist. Maybe better than anything in a while.
“That was the best game we’ve played probably in the last seven or eight,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “It just didn’t work out.”
Justin Williams, scorer of many big goals recently, had the best chance to tie the score with the Carolina net empty during a wild late sequence, but couldn’t sneak the puck near-side between Lundqvist and his right post.
With that save, and 42 others, Lundqvist did a better job putting a damper on the Hurricanes’ postgame celebrations than either Burke or Cherry, the latter’s flatulent “bunch of jerks” rant on Canadian TV on Saturday in keeping with the retrograde xenophobia and phony macho tough-guy nonsense he has been spewing, enabled and unabated, for decades. Generally speaking, if professional grumps like Burke and Cherry think you’re wrong, you’re probably right. It’s a good rule of thumb.
The Hurricanes’ nimble pivot to selling “bunch of jerks” T-shirts reflects not only a team with increasingly strong social-media instincts but one with the cultural nous to recognize Cherry’s obsolescence made his blather ripe for ironic appropriation. It may not be “Whatever It Takes,” the postseason motto Peter Laviolette chose for the 2006 Hurricanes, but “Bunch of Jerks” will actually do nicely for a team that is increasingly lacking in jerks thanks to the ongoing purge of the dressing room.
Of course, it’s only a good postseason motto if you make the postseason, and your celebrations can only irritate easily irritated people if you win. The result Tuesday was frustrating on both fronts, although perhaps not as frustrating what goal-scorer Jordan Martinook revealed during a radio interview Monday night: The Hurricanes had a themed “Storm Surge” celebration in the hopper on Star Wars night. What art was lost to humankind with that loss?
One imagines Tuesday’s pre-choreographed celebration can be recycled after the next home win, which would be no earlier than next Tuesday against the also-ran Los Angeles Kings, but the real concern is over the two points dropped against another team looking up at the Hurricanes in the standings. This team has no margin for error, no cushion, and these are the games that deliver the retrospective sting if and when the season ends early.
“We have 22 games left,” Williams said. “We certainly don’t have the luxury of letting them slip away like we did tonight.”
Continuing to win, and continuing to celebrate afterward, would be an even better response to the critics than making T-shirts, but there’s not much the Hurricanes can do about Lundqvist at this point. He closed the jerk store early Tuesday night.
