Timing is right for Hurricanes, Penguins to meet, with the Metro Division on the line
Nearly three weeks into February, the Carolina Hurricanes and Pittsburgh Penguins finally are facing off.
All it took was an NHL COVID-related rescheduling to have Sunday’s game.
Go figure. Good timing, though.
The Hurricanes have 70 points — and the best point percentage (.729) in the Metropolitan Division. The Penguins also have 70 points, having played three more games than the Canes — not that Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour is keeping count or has a close eye on the standings.
“Pretty much zero, because it’s so irrelevant at this point,” Brind’Amour said Saturday. “I mean, I’ll look at it when we get down to the end but right now you’ve got to go play your game, win your game. If you win enough of them, your points don’t really matter.”
Under the NHL’s initial schedule for 2021-22, the Canes and Pens were to have played their first game even later — March 4 at PNC Arena. That was before the Canes had seven games postponed because of the COVID-19 issues affecting the team and the league.
The NHL rescheduled the postponed games for February after the decision not to allow its players from competing in the Beijing Winter Olympics. And in a curious move, the league also shifted the April 29 Carolina-at-Pittsburgh game to Sunday.
The Canes (33-11-4) were to have closed out the regular season with the game at Pittsburgh (31-12-8). Instead, they’ll have a home game against the New Jersey Devils.
“It’s kind of weird how we’ve gotten most of the Western (games) over with,” Canes forward Jordan Martinook said Saturday. “There’s going to be a lot of divisional games the rest of the way.”
Hurricanes have history with Pittsburgh
The Canes last played Pittsburgh on March 8, 2020, just before the pandemic shut down the NHL and nearly everything else. The two did not meet during the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs in the Toronto bubble, nor during the condensed 2021 season when the Canes won the newly formed Central Division and the Pens finished first in the East Division.
Nine of the players in the Carolina lineup that day in 2020 will not be in it Sunday afternoon for the 1 p.m. start. That includes former captain Justin Williams, who has retired, and defenseman Jake Gardiner, who is on Long Term Injured Reserve for Carolina.
Williams scored twice and Gardiner had a goal as the Canes took a 6-2 win at PPG Paints Arena. But the star that day for the Canes was rookie forward Morgan Geekie, who had two goals and an assist in his NHL debut. That helped make a winner of another rookie, goalie Alex Nedeljkovic.
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Geekie was taken by the Seattle Kraken in the 2021 expansion draft and Nedeljkovic traded to Detroit after last season. Also playing for the Canes that day: Haydn Fleury, Joel Edmundson, Warren Foegele and Trevor van Riemsdyk.
Team connections
One player who was in the Canes lineup will be in Pittsburgh’s lineup Sunday: Brock McGinn. It should be an emotional game for the forward, who was drafted by Carolina in 2012 and developed into a reliable NHL player, but left after last season to sign a four-year, $11 million free-agent contract with the Pens.
“I’m excited to play against him but I also know what kind of player he is and I know it’s hard to play against him,” Martinook said. “It was tough to see him leave but I’m so happy he’s doing well there. That’s a lifetime friend there.”
The Pens’ Sidney Crosby and the Canes’ Jordan Staal are longtime friends and won the Stanley Cup together in 2009. Crosby scored his 500th career goal, a huge personal milestone, Tuesday against the Philadelphia Flyers and has 21 points (nine goals, 12 assists) in his last 14 games.
“It’s always fun playing against the top players, no matter who it is,” Staal said Saturday. “He’s a player who can do a lot of dangerous things very quickly to make you look foolish.”
Vincent Trocheck update
Brind’Amour was not sure Saturday if center Vincent Trocheck would be able to play in the back-to-back that includes a Monday game at Philadelphia, saying he was “hopeful.” Trocheck, a Pittsburgh native, was injured Friday in the Canes’ 5-3 win over Nashville and did not practice Saturday.
Jesperi Kotkaniemi moved up to Trocheck’s spot on the second line centering Steven Lorentz and Martin Necas. Kotkaniemi scored his 10th goal of the season Friday in the win over the Predators.
“He played well and we needed that obviously when ‘Troch’ went down,” Brind’Amour said.
Carolina Hurricanes at Pittsburgh Penguins
When: Sunday, 1 p.m.
Where: PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh.
TV/RADIO: Bally Sports South, WCMC-99.9 FM
This story was originally published February 19, 2022 at 2:31 PM with the headline "Timing is right for Hurricanes, Penguins to meet, with the Metro Division on the line."
