Hurricanes’ Tony DeAngelo moves past Game 4 vs. Bruins: ‘Just playoff hockey. All good.’
Tony DeAngelo of the Carolina Hurricanes was on the ice Monday at PNC Arena for a noon practice, smiling, joking around with teammates, running a power-play unit, shooting the puck.
The Canes were preparing for Game 5 of their Stanley Cup playoff series with the Boston Bruins.
Game 4 in Boston? History, as far as DeAngelo was concerned.
When last seen Sunday at TD Garden, the defenseman was angrily hurling his stick across the ice, trying to keep the Bruins’ Brad Marchand from scoring an empty-net goal. It was the end of a mostly frustrating day for DeAngelo and the Canes, who were beaten 5-2 as the Bruins tied the series 2-2.
DeAngelo was asked Monday if he allowed his emotions to get the best of him in Game 4.
“No,” he said.
And his run-ins with Marchand during the game?
“Nothing. Just playoff hockey. All good.”
But his emotional outburst ...
“I don’t know what emotions you’re talking about,” he said. “It’s playoff hockey and you’re losing the game. ... We’re trying to win a series here. So if you don’t have any fire you’re not going to win. So I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing. I’m not concerned about what anybody thinks.”
Except the referees, of course. DeAngelo has to be concerned about that. The Canes were called for enough penalties in their two losses in Boston. It’s safe to say they don’t need DeAngelo’s temper to lead to more.
“He’s got to control his emotions,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said Monday. “He understands that.”
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Throwing his stick, for example, at the puck on Marchand’s empty-netter with 35 seconds left in regulation. That was a mostly petulant move.
“It was going to be a goal anyway,” DeAngelo said. “It counts. If it knocks off his stick it’s going to count as a goal anyway, so would you rather see it go in the net or go wide?
“It is what it is. It doesn’t bother me very much.”
Nor does it particularly bother his defensive partner, Jaccob Slavin, who said he tries to help DeAngelo “keep his head” by being the cooler head.
“It’s an emotional game,” Slavin said Monday. “It’s the playoffs and everyone’s a bit emotional. Some guys wear it on their sleeves pretty hard and some guys don’t.”
DeAngelo’s encounters with Marchand on Sunday, and there were a few, were reminiscent of the 2019 playoffs at TD Garden. Marchand got the best of Justin Williams, then the Canes captain, in Game 2 with some on-ice antics that Marchand further inflamed by taunting Williams by using his fingers to make a “C” on his jersey.
The Bruins won Game 2 of that 2019 series — Williams memorably called it a “poop sandwich” by the Canes — and went on to a four-game sweep in the Eastern Conference finals. The question now is whether the Canes can regroup, collect themselves, overlook any other histrionics by Marchand or anyone else and get back to winning games.
Top priority for the Canes: stay out of the penalty box. It’s that simple.
“We’ve just got to be disciplined,” DeAngelo said. “I thought we did a real good job in Games 1 and 2 of being disciplined but they (refs) are calling it, in all the playoffs and not just our series, a little tighter than I guess the playoffs would normally go. We’ve got to make sure we don’t give them a reason to give us one.”
The Hurricanes believe they have had the better of the 5-on-5 play but have had too little of it the past two games because of their penalties. They also need to be more threatening on their power plays — the Canes are 2-for-22 in the four games.
“They’ve got a good (penalty) kill,” Brind’Amour said Monday of the Bruins, “They’ve done a nice job but our execution is poor.”
The Bruins switched to goalie Jeremy Swayman after the first two losses with Linus Ullmark in net. Swayman had the better of the goaltending play in Boston against the Canes’ Pyotr Kochetkov and then Antti Raanta the past two games.
Brind’Amour had no update Monday on goalie Frederik Andersen, who has been out since April 16 with a lower-body injury. It’s up to Raanta and Kochetkov this series.
The Canes pressed hard all season to win the Metropolitan Division and gain the home-ice edge in the playoffs. The best-of-seven series now has become a best-of-three. If it goes to a Game 7, it would be at PNC Arena.
“There’s no panic in our locker room,” DeAngelo said. “It’s a 2-2 series and we’re back in a much louder building than was in Boston, so we’ll be fine.”
This story was originally published May 9, 2022 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Hurricanes’ Tony DeAngelo moves past Game 4 vs. Bruins: ‘Just playoff hockey. All good.’."
