NEWARK, N.J. — The Carolina Hurricanes took care of business at home with two wins in Raleigh, but now their series with the New Jersey Devils shifts to Newark, starting with Friday’s Game 3.
1. While the Devils will have the home crowd behind them Friday night, the bigger advantage may be New Jersey dictating the matchups with final change.
“It’s always one of the things that you’ve got to consider when you come on the road if that’s something you really put a lot of weight into,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said after Friday’s morning skate. “And I think both teams probably do. So we’ll see how that goes.”
Devils captain Nico Hischier got a heavy dose of Carolina’s top checking line and defensive pairing in the seres’ first two games. In 23:34 of five-on-five play, Hischier — who started the series playing with Jesper Bratt and has since centered Timo Meier and Ondrej Palat — played more than 17 minutes against Jordan Staal, Jordan Martinook and Logan Stankoven and 16-plus minutes against Jaccob Slavin and Brent Burns, according to NaturalStatTrick.com.
The Devils will surely try to get away from that group on Friday.
“That’s what home-ice advantage is in the playoffs,” Meier said. “It’s obviously tough to win on the road — it’s tough to win at home too, but you have that luxury of having the last change.”
New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe said he’s been looking more from his depth forwards, and being at home should “reduce some of the load on some of our top guys.”
The burden of containing New Jersey’s top line will likely shift to lines centered by Sebastian Aho and Jesperi Kotkaniemi, but neither expects their games to change based on the matchups.
“You play your game, try to do the best job you can and go business as usual,” Aho said. “It doesn’t really change how we approach the game or any of that.”
Brind’Amour thinks it’s even more important to get his preferred defensive pairing out against other teams’ top players.
“Everyone gets caught up in the forward matchups,” Brind’Amour said, “but I think it’s the D matchups against guys like that. … You’re trying to get those D matchups more than maybe even the forward matchups.”
2. Brind’Amour has had a bit of change in rhetoric now that it’s playoff time. In the regular season, the coach is quick to shrug off boxscore numbers and instead preaches the process.
Brind’Amour acknowledged that Kotkaniemi’s line with Andrei Svechnikov and Taylor Hall has played well in the series’ first two games (75% Corsi For, 85.82% expected goals, though no goals for nor against), but now that it’s the postseason, he’s looking for results.
“They haven’t really been on a score sheet,” Brind’Amour said Thursday. “So that’s what it’s about this time of year.”
The line had created 13 high-danger chances through two games while allowing none at 5-on-5, according to NaturalStatTrick.com, and Kotkaniemi thinks it’s just a matter of time before his line breaks through.
“We had our chances,” he said Friday. “It’s not going in right now — a couple goal line stops in the last game. They’re probably going to start falling in, eventually, hopefully. So we’ll just keep pushing the same way, and hopefully the puck finds the net.”
3. The Devils will still be without Luke Hughes and Brenden Dillon, who were injured in Game 1 and missed Game 2, but New Jersey expects to get Jonas Siegenthaler back for Friday’s game.
“He’s feeling good, and we’re optimistic that he’ll be able to play tonight,” Keefe said after the morning skate.
Keefe said Siegenthaler, who hasn’t played since early February, is fully healed, but his conditioning is still a concern. He’s slotted to play alongside Simon Nemec on Friday and will have a limited role.
Brett Pesce, meanwhile, was borderline heroic in Game 2, but he’s also battling an injury. He didn’t skate again Friday morning but will play his off side with Dougie Hamilton on the top pairing.
“He hasn’t skated here the last couple days. He’s not at 100%,” said Keefe, who added that Pesce was injured in Game 1.
The longtime Hurricanes defenseman played more than 23 minutes for New Jersey in each of the series’ first two games and had six blocked shots in Game 2. He also played literal last line of defense several times in Tuesday’s game, clearing pucks off the goal line to keep the game close.
“You saw him, the way that he played in Game 2,” Keefe said. “So he’s able to push through it, and those are the kind of efforts, the determination that you need this time of year. So he started leading the way in that regard, and we’re going to need more of that.”
4. Frederik Andersen was the only player not to participate in Friday’s morning skate, but he’ll get his third straight playoff start.
In 2023, Carolina held a 2-0 series lead after holding serve at home only to lose 8-4 at Prudential Center. Andersen lasted just under 21 minutes, allowing four goals on 12 shots, but Pyotr Kochetkov took the loss because he gave up the game-winning fifth goal.
So Andersen is still perfect in his career against the Devils in the playoffs — 6-0, all with Carolina, with a .953 save percentage and 1.15 goals-against average in those games.
The other player to watch is Hall, who seems to be battling a lower-body injury but hasn’t missed any recent practices or games.
Hall’s Hart Trophy season came with New Jersey, so he’s probably associated with the Devils more than any other team, which makes it interesting that Friday will be just his third career playoff game at Prudential Center.
The good news for Carolina? He’s on a two-game point streak. In New Jersey’s first round loss to the Lightning in 2018, Hall had a goal and two assists in Game 3, the Devils’ only win in the series, and then had a power play assist in Game 4.
Another good omen for Hall: He has points in all seven of his career Game 3s, scored in six and totaled 12 points.
5. William Carrier was entrenched on Carolina’s checking line with Staal and Martinook before he was injured in early January. Since returning to the lineup with four games left in the regular season, he has played on the fourth line and opposite Eric Robinson on a line centered by Jack Roslovic in the first two games of the series.
Carrier conceded after Friday’s morning skate that he’s still getting his legs under him as he works back into shape, saying it feels “like it’s mid-October” after being out more than three months.
“He’s been out for almost half the year. That’s a tough task,” Brind’Amour said of Carrier. “He’s, I think, done well. I think you always ask about a guy, what does he do? If you watch his game, it’s pretty clear. And even though he’d been out for a long time, I thought he’s still been impactful. And I think he’s getting better too.”
It also helps that playoff hockey is made for someone like Carrier. He has eight hits through two games, and that line has thus far won the battle against New Jersey’s fourth line.
“It’s weird how hockey just changes in the playoffs and everyone just plays a north game,” Carrier said. “They know it’s all about scoring chances, and sometimes it could be one lucky goal, one bounce, anything — go to the net. Goals are normally not pretty this time of year.”
His line was on the ice for the first goal of the series, a Jalen Chatfield point shot that snuck past both Carrier’s net-front screen and Devils goalie Jacob Markstrom. And it could certainly have more through two games.
“If Robby keeps getting breakaways, I’m sure one goes in,” Carrier said, adding that he also has a shot off the post.
“I like that we’re responsible defensively. We’re playing good in our zone, blocking shots and making sure. And on the other end, we had a big goal there in the first game, and we’re trying to be plus one every night.”
