Two big wins and two very loud messages sent: Canes gunning to be East’s Alpha team
It’s just January. It’s just one (or in this case, two) of 82 games. Nevertheless, it’s hard to shake the very distinct feeling the Carolina Hurricanes are suddenly in the message-sending business.
For the second straight game, the Hurricanes put on a clinic against a potential playoff opponent. After dismissively dispatching Brad Marchand and the Boston Bruins on Tuesday, the Hurricanes did the same to the New York Rangers on Friday. It wasn’t as close as the 6-3 final, and only a brief lapse in the third period kept it from being a total blowout.
“It’s a long season and we know what kind of team we have,” said Tony DeAngelo, who had a goal and two assists in his first game against his former team. “I think we’ve proved it the last couple games. These are really good teams too, a lot of firepower. You’ve got to bring it every night.”
Whether it was Andrei Svechnikov flattening Ryan Lindgren directly in front of the Rangers’ bench or Jesperi Kotaniemi jumping in to defend Teuvo Teravainen the Hurricanes did most of the pushing around Friday, at least when they weren’t scoring with ease.
At one point, Sebastian Aho outfought Adam Fox for the puck on the rush and left Fox literally spinning in his wake as he skated in to set up Seth Jarvis for a tap-in with a pass through Lindgren’s wickets. Svechnikov faked a lacrosse move behind the net to set up Nino Niederreiter for another tap-in. The whole game was kind of like that.
The Rangers weren’t anywhere near the Hurricanes’ level for most of this night. Neither, for that matter, were the Bruins three nights ago. And as much as it’s still midseason, it’s also not too early to plant seeds that could sprout in April and May. Someone’s got to be the alpha dog. There’s never a bad time to make that clear.
If it looked like the Hurricanes shattered whatever mojo the Bruins had over them in October, they left no doubt Tuesday. Marchand’s social-media spat with everyone from Vincent Trocheck to the Hurricanes’ Twitter account emitted distinct pheromones of fear and respect. Marchand, perhaps the NHL’s best antagonist, knows better than to waste time beefing down. The Hurricanes didn’t waste time responding, either, up 5-1 after the first on their way to a 7-1 win.
Enter the Rangers, an upstart rather than an established power like the Bruins, one of the NHL’s surprise teams this season. The Hurricanes went into their first meeting of the season Friday chasing the Rangers in the Metropolitan Division. They exited it in first place, with four games in hand.
It wasn’t 5-1 after the first Friday, but it was 5-1 after the second. The Hurricanes outchanced the Rangers 16-0 in the first. Frederik Andersen made a huge pad save on Artemi Panarin moments after the Rangers scored to make it 3-1. Ten different Hurricanes recorded a point.
To their credit, the Rangers made a push and the Hurricanes got sloppy in the third, and Rod Brind’Amour called a timeout after two Rangers goals made it 5-3 to reinforce the message in no uncertain terms. His gum somehow remained in his mouth, in a mild upset.
As the saying goes, there’s a lot of hockey left. And the regular season only matters so much when the postseason begins. The Hurricanes won four more games against the Washington Capitals in the first round in 2019 than they had all season. The Rangers swept the Hurricanes pre-COVID in 2020, and the Hurricanes swept the Rangers when it mattered.
No one wants to talk about the bigger picture now.
“There’s no message being sent, that’s for sure,” Brind’Amour said.
But the way the Hurricanes are playing right now could leave an impression on future opponents that lingers. Making the playoffs long ago ceased to be the goal; the Hurricanes have gone from the hunters to the hunted, and rather than offering encouragement they’re dishing out discouragement.
This story was originally published January 21, 2022 at 10:07 PM.
