NEWARK, N.J. — The Hurricanes were licking their wounds Saturday after a deflating double-overtime loss to the Devils in Game 3 of their first round series, but Carolina seemed ready to reset ahead of Sunday’s matinee Game 4 at Prudential Center.
1. Frederik Andersen has been everything the Hurricanes could ask for through three games of their first round series with the Devils, stopping 82 of 87 shots (.943 save percentage) and saving more than 10 goals above expected, according to MoneyPuck.com.
Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour suggested during Saturday’s media availability that he would be going back to Andersen in Game 4.
“If he feels good, there’s no reason not to keep putting him in there,” Brind’Amour said. “He’s playing really well. He gave us a chance yesterday to win that hockey game, and that’s what you need.”
Carolina benefited from the scheduling of Game 3, which allowed for two days of rest for the 35-year-old goalie after he allowed one goal in each of the series’ first two games.
Andersen made several key stops in Game 3, none bigger than his glove save on Timo Meier in the second period.
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Andersen has specifically stymied Meier, who has 16 scoring chances (10 of them high-danger ones, the most of any player so far in the playoffs, according to NaturalStatTrick.com) through three games but has been able to score.
2. Brind’Amour stuck with the same lineup in the series’ first three games and hasn’t yet decided if he’ll make any tweaks for Game 4.
“You always consider changes,” Brind’Amour said. “We’ve got guys that we want to get in there. It all comes down to we’ve got to make that final decision here. I don’t think we’ve made it yet, but yeah, there could be changes.”
The most likely change would be getting Mark Jankowski into the lineup. The trade deadline acquisition could help a fourth line that struggled in Game 3.
Jack Roslovic and Eric Robinson spent time with both William Carrier and Taylor Hall in Friday’s game, but they were outshot 8-3, were at a 5-2 disadvantage in high-danger chances and were on the ice for Simon Nemec’s game-winning goal in overtime.
Inserting Jankowski could also help on the penalty kill, where the Hurricanes could use another center when one is serving a penalty, as Jordan Staal did in Game 3. That said, Carolina is a perfect 10 for 10 with a shorthanded goal through three games on the PK.
“That’s one of his roles, but at the end of the day, our kill has been good,” Brind’Amour said of Jankowski. “So you don’t want to be messing with something that’s been working. … So everybody has a role, and (Jankwoski), that’s one of the things that he does well if he ends up going back in.”
3. If you had to build a graph of the things the Hurricanes do consistently well and the facets of the game people worry about, it would be pretty easy to create: No one ever questions Carolina’s 5-on-5 play, while everyone seems to be a critic of their goaltending and power play.
Those narratives have flipped in this series, with Andersen being the Hurricanes’ best player and the power play scoring three times in 10 chances, including twice in the third period Friday to force overtime.
But the Hurricanes know they need to get back to their bread and butter if they’re going to regain footing in this series and beyond.
“Speaking as a line, I think we just need to be more direct,” Hurricanes forward Seth Jarvis said of his line with Sebastian Aho and Jackson Blake. “I think we can get caught up in kind of trying to slow the game down and wait for plays to happen, and that doesn’t happen in playoffs. … I think going from there is just being a little bit more direct and being more intentional with our play.”
The underlying numbers have been relatively even through three games, though the home team has held an advantage in all three.
“Both teams are trying to do the exact same thing, and they got the better of us last night,” Brind’Amour said. “I thought we were good in spurts but not overall good enough to win. I give (my team) credit: We fought back and gave ourselves a chance. You’ve got to have more than that at this time.”
One area the Hurricanes haven’t capitalized on is being more physical toward the Devils’ banged-up defense, which was already without Luke Hughes and Brenden Dillon in Game 3 before losing Jonathan Kovacevic to an injury early that game.
When talking about Carolina’s forecheck before Game 3, New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe said the Hurricanes are “not a physical team, by any means.” The Hurricanes think they can do more to wear down the Devils’ D.
“We needed to probably do a better job on that,” Brind’Amour said. “We were at times. It’s just, I think, it needs to be more consistent effort all the way around to give ourselves a better chance at winning a hockey game.”
When I mentioned Keefe’s comment, Jarvis added, “I think you can always be more physical, like you want to up it in the playoffs. I thought we did a good job the first two games; maybe last game we got away from that a little bit.
“Obviously, if he thinks we need more physical, we should, and it’ll be fun next game.”
4. Blake said he’s playing in a seven-game series for the first time in his career, with the closest being a five-game series back in his USHL days. The rookie also said Friday’s double-overtime game was probably the longest game of his hockey career.
“In high school we went to double overtime, but those are only 17-minute periods,” he said. “So, yeah, it’s probably the longest one I’ve played so far.”
Blake told me he doesn’t usually eat anything during games, but Friday night, he had a couple of oranges and an energy bar to replenish on a night when he played 22:19, just 12 seconds shy of the career high he played against the Kings in February.
Brind’Amour said he’s aware of young players like Blake having to switch their mentality from a “lose-and-you-go home” mentality to the up-and-down nature of a seven-game series.
“They’re one of the guys,” Brind’Amour said. “We’ve treated them like that all year. I think in the back of my mind, I know, hey, this is new to them. But you certainly don’t make excuses. They’re in the lineup. They’ve earned a spot to be out there on the ice; you’ve got to go out there and do your job.”
Blake suffered a tough single-elimination loss two years ago while playing college hockey at North Dakota, losing in overtime of the Frozen Four to St. Cloud State. A tough OT loss Friday isn’t the end of the road; it’s just another ride on the playoff roller coaster.
“Obviously, college is single elimination,” Blake said. “So it’s just one game. You get one shot. I think best of seven, obviously you don’t want to have tough games like last night. But it helps that we can just kind of turn the page and focus on the next one. … It’s a seven-game series, so one game shouldn’t define us as a team.”
Jarvis said he’s learned to flush tough playoff losses, admitting he probably won’t ever suffer a “bigger heartbreak” than the four-overtime Game 1 loss to Florida in the 2023 Eastern Conference final.
“Obviously playoffs means a lot more, but being able to get over it is the biggest thing,” he said. “You don’t hold onto anything like that. And we have stuff we learned today — some stuff we did good, a lot of stuff we didn’t do great. And so knowing where we can improve is really the biggest factor moving on from that.”
5. The Hurricanes finalized the signing of top prospect Alexander Nikishin on Saturday afternoon. Carolina had come to terms with Nikishin’s North American agent, Quartexx’s Ryan Barnes, on a deal that would be tabled so Nikishin would be eligible to play in an AHL game.
The Chicago Wolves were eliminated from the AHL postseason Friday night, which took the option off the table, and the Hurricanes and Nikishin put pen to paper on the contract.
“We had agreed with his agents to keep the options open for Alex to potentially play a game in Chicago at some point,” GM Eric Tulsky said in a statement from the team. “But with their season now over, it makes sense to officially register an NHL contract for him, and we are excited for his future with the team.”
Nikishin’s Russian agent gave a scathing interview with Russian media accusing Carolina of “behaving incomprehensibly” in dealing with the defenseman, an assertion the Hurricanes seemingly disagreed with.
While Brind’Amour suggested there could be lineup changes for Sunday’s Game 4, don’t expect Nikishin to be among them — he’s the team’s No. 7 defenseman right now and is still learning the systems, and it would probably take an injury for him to be inserted into the lineup.
One side note on Chicago: With the Wolves being eliminated, expect Carolina to call up several players to serve as black aces for the rest of the NHL playoffs. It’s likely, however, those players won’t join the team until it returns to Raleigh after Game 4.
The most significant initial impact of that influx of players will be that Ruslan Khazheyev will be replaced as the No. 3 goalie with one of Spencer Martin or Dustin Tokarski.
