Rested? Rusty? Only the result will tell for Canes-Isles
It’s one of those things that all depends on perspective and you can make the case either way – and when Game 1 of the Carolina Hurricanes’ second-round series against the New York Islanders is over, broad ex post facto conclusions will be drawn based entirely on the result.
Will the Islanders, 10 days removed from their sweep of the Pittsburgh Penguins, be fresh or stale?
Will the Hurricanes, 43 hours removed from their double-overtime win over the Washington Capitals, be on their game or out of gas?
Some or all of that will be true Friday night, probably mixed in equal portions, but it’ll be a black-and-white issue when it’s over. The winner will have benefited from the short/long gap between games, and the loser will have paid the price for it.
The reality is, there’s a little from column A and a little from column B, as things always are, and a great deal to recommend both sides.
No team coming off a sweep has ever beaten a team coming off a Game 7, but there are only three examples in the past 32 years, so it’s impossible to draw any conclusions. Thursday night, the sweepish Columbus Blue Jackets lost in overtime to the sevenish Boston Bruins, but the home ice was the inverse of Friday, with the fresher team on the road.
The Hurricanes would like to think their momentum will carry over from Wednesday’s late-night, double-overtime win, but they won’t have laced a skate ice from the time of Brock McGinn’s goal until warmups Friday night. They had already placed a premium on rest in the Washington series; that’s about all they have done to prepare for this one, other than a video breakdown of the Islanders.
Motivation shouldn’t be an issue. It’s just a question of what they have left in the tank.
“It’s pretty easy, right? I’d rather be playing hockey than doing exit interviews,” Hurricanes captain Justin Williams said. “It’s easy to get up for it. We haven’t skated. We haven’t been on the ice since Brock scored. But we have good memories of being out there. It’ll be fine.”
But there’s also a tacit acknowledgment that some of that is just spin. Williams joked that Islanders coach Barry Trotz, his former coach with the Capitals, probably enjoyed watching the Hurricanes-Capitals series drag out into the middle of Game 8 more than anyone else.
For a team that may or may not get Andrei Svechnikov back, that lost Trevor van Riemsdyk (briefly) to an ankle injury in Game 7, that has Jordan Martinook playing through a chronic problem, time off would be a welcome luxury, not to mention a little more time to process the emotional crescendo of McGinn’s goal.
“That’s a concern,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “I’d be lying if I said it’s not on my mind. But again, you never count our group out, how they compete. Let’s put it this way: I’d rather have had the time off.”
But even Brind’Amour can turn that around quickly: While the Islanders will need to reintroduce themselves to the rigor and intensity of playoff hockey after trying not to bump into each other for a week, the Hurricanes have been playing do-or-die games every other night for a week. The opponent may have changed, the circumstances, essentially have not.
“That’s the way you flip it, that’s how we’ve talked about it, how we’re selling it to our guys,” Brind’Amour said. “You’ve got to go play the game. Put our best foot forward, that’s how we’ve always talked about it.”
When it’s over, everyone will have decided. The time off either hurt or helped the Islanders. The quick turnaround was good or bad for the Hurricanes. Everyone will be an expert Saturday. No one has a clue on Friday.
This story was originally published April 26, 2019 at 3:19 PM with the headline "Rested? Rusty? Only the result will tell for Canes-Isles."
