For the Hurricanes, the NHL playoff grind has arrived, and well ahead of schedule
There were ice bags strapped to bodies in the dressing room Friday night and bandages on appendages at the team hotel Saturday morning, visible signs of the invisible damage that inevitably accrues during the playoffs.
For every team, the NHL playoffs are a war of attrition. Staying healthy can be as important as staying hot on the power play. The Carolina Hurricanes started behind the curve, and in a physical series with the New York Islanders, they’re slipping farther behind.
They started without Max Pacioretty and Andrei Svechnikov, two players who have exactly the kind of goal-scoring ability that can make something out of nothing and unlock a tight-checking team like the Islanders.
Then they lost do-everything forward Teuvo Teravainen to a two-handed slash on the hand in Game 2, not exactly what a power play that was already struggling for confidence needed.
In terms of manpower, the Hurricanes are beat up like a team in the second or third round only three games into the postseason. While the Islanders and other playoff teams are still flying high on early playoff enthusiasm, the Hurricanes have settled deep into the grind.
“The grind is part of the reason I enjoy it so much,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. “It’s not easy. Every play, every game matters. But yeah, staying focused and being willing to fight through the grind, fight through the adversity and having that feeling of coming out on top is what we all play for.”
Jack Drury filled Teravainen’s spot Friday with Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis, but he isn’t the creator and distributor that Teravainen is, nor did the rest of the roster pick up the slack. Both that line and the Jesperi Kotkaniemi line were outchanced by the Islanders, and the fourth line gave up a backbreaking goal on a Derek Stepan turnover to open the scoring in the second period after the Hurricanes had an edge in the first.
“He was fine,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said of Drury. “He certainly wasn’t one of our worst players. We have some other guys who need to play a little better.”
But it’s also not like the Hurricanes have any other options. After losing three of what would be their top five wings, the next forward up is Mackenzie MacEachern, who didn’t play a game for them in the regular season. There’s no cavalry on the other side of the ridge. This is the group. It’s not getting any bigger, not unless the Hurricanes are still playing in six or seven weeks when Teravainen could possibly return.
“Clearly, we’re a different team without those key guys,” Brind’Amour said. “All that’s really happened is the margin has been cut right down. We don’t have the time to take an extra penalty. We’re not going to make up for it. We have to be at our best, probably every little part of the game in order to win, and we weren’t last night. That’s what happened.”
All of this has implications not only for this series — one in which all three games have been essentially decided by a single goal, and one the Hurricanes still have a chance to close out at home on Tuesday in five games if they can finally win a game on the road Sunday — but beyond should the Hurricanes continue to advance.
Brind’Amour is fond of saying the first round is always the most physical, because everyone’s full of vinegar and energy and belief, and in some ways, it’s more about survival than anything else, especially for the higher seeds, especially the ones that already expended copious amounts of blood and sweat in the regular season to establish themselves among the NHL’s best.
Every team goes into the postseason with a finite amount of energy and bones and ligaments that inevitably get worn away like brake pads as things drag on into May and June. Keeping powder dry now can pay off down the road, which is why the Hurricanes have every incentive not to let the Islanders fully back into this series — especially given the players they’re already missing.
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This story was originally published April 22, 2023 at 1:14 PM with the headline "For the Hurricanes, the NHL playoff grind has arrived, and well ahead of schedule."
