Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce back on ice ahead of Game 5
As the Carolina Hurricanes head to New York to attempt to keep their season alive in Game 5 against the New York Rangers on Monday, injured defenseman Brett Pesce skated with a small group of players at PNC Arena on Sunday.
Pesce has been out since Game 2 of the first-round series against the New York Islanders with a right leg injury suffered when he made a tight turn in his own zone.
“He was out there today, which is good,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “I haven’t talked to him since he got off. I would say very doubtful still.”
Brind’Amour said Pesce would still have to go through a full-speed team practice before he would consider putting him into a game, which is standard for most injured players.
“A real kind of flow thing,” Brind’Amour said. “He has to give us the green light. We’re definitely not going to push him into something he’s not comfortable with.”
While the Hurricanes typically have not skated on game-day mornings on the road, and were scheduled to have meetings and media availability at their New York hotel on Monday, a morning skate that would potentially give Pesce that opportunity wasn’t entirely ruled out Sunday.
Before the series against the Rangers, Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell left the door open to Pesce’s eventual return.
“If everything goes as expected, he will play games in this round, Maybe not right away,” Waddell said.
The Hurricanes are down 3-1 in their second-round series against the Rangers after Saturday night’s 4-3 win in Game 4.
Pesce was on the ice with the fourth line from Saturday’s game — Evgeny Kuznetsov, Stefan Noesen and Jesperi Kotkaniemi — along with goalie Pyotr Kochetkov and a handful of other extra players.
This story was originally published May 12, 2024 at 12:21 PM with the headline "Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce back on ice ahead of Game 5."
