RALEIGH — The Hurricanes open their second round series Saturday against the Flyers at Lenovo Center, ending a weeklong break after sweeping the Senators to open the postseason.
1. The series will be a reunion of sorts for a few people in the Hurricanes organization. Way back when, GM Eric Tulsky was blogging about the Flyers at SB Nation’s BroadStreetHockey.com, and his “What it costs to trade up?” article is still a handy guide to draft pick value.
Much more recently, Nicolas Deslauriers was playing for Philadelphia, which traded the enforcer to Carolina ahead of this year’s NHL trade deadline.
“I would have never thought this was going to happen, but good on them,” Deslauriers said of the Flyers reaching the playoffs after a strong stretch run. “I think we’ve got business to do here, and I’m on this side now.”
Flyers coach Rick Tocchet had nothing but praise for Deslauriers following his team’s morning skate Saturday.
“He’s just a terrific guy,” Tocchet said. “He’s a team guy, and just not in sticking up for his players. Even practice, even on the road, taking the young guys out for dinner and stuff like that. So there’s a reason why Carolina picked him up for his leadership.”
Hurricanes defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere played parts of seven seasons in Philadelphia, finishing second in Calder Trophy voting in 2016.
“I’ve still got a few of my buddies on that team,” Gostisbehere said of the Flyers. “So it’s definitely … a full-circle moment, for sure. It’s been a while, but I’m excited to play.”
2. There’s plenty to unpack about coach Rod Brind’Amour’s long connections to the Flyers, but those emotions will be highest when the series moves to Philadelphia for Games 3 and 4. Still, Brind’Amour didn’t mask the love he still has for his old team and their fans.
“I’m actually happy for that whole fan base, to be honest with you, because that’s a great sports town,” he said Saturday morning. “And they deserve a good team, and they’ve got one.”
3. Hurricanes defenseman K’Andre Miller didn’t participate in Saturday’s morning skate, but Brind’Amour said his top-scoring blueliner from the first round would play in Game 1. Nikolaj Ehlers, who missed Game 4 against the Senators with a lower-body injury, is also ready to go for the start of the series.
The one question mark is Alexander Nikishin, who suffered a concussion in the final game of the Ottawa series but shed his no-contact jersey Friday.
“I think (Nikishin has) still got a clear test today, so we’ll see on that,” Brind’Amour said.
Two of the team’s defense pairings were shuffled in the morning skate with Miller absent — Nikishin skated alongside Sean Walker, while Mike Reilly was opposite Gostisbehere.
4. Sebastian Aho finished the first round with three goals, but two were into an empty net at the end of Game 4, while the other came just as Carolina finished killing a penalty. At 5-on-5 against the Senators, his line with Andrei Svechnikov and Seth Jarvis finished without a goal in the sweep.
Following Game 4, Brind’Amour made a point of saying that line needs to be on the scoresheet going forward — “and they will.”
If you know Aho, however, what shows up next to his name in the box score means nothing, and he made that clear Saturday morning when I asked him if he enjoyed the challenge of meeting those expectations.
“I like the challenge to try to win a hockey game,” Aho said. “That’s literally all that matters right now. This time of year, you play to win the game. And don’t get me wrong, everyone wants to be on the scoresheet, and I know we’ve got some better hockey in us. I’m confident in our line and all that. But having said that, that stuff, it’s so secondary — it’s not even secondary; it’s irrelevant, to be quite honest, who scores. It’s you playing to win a hockey game, and that’s it.”
5. The Hurricanes had their hands full at the faceoff dot against the Senators, winning a Round 1-low 41.5% of the draws against the NHL’s No. 2 team in the circle.
This series should be a fairer fight: Carolina was 16th in the regular season at 50.1%, while Philadelphia ranked 18th at 49.5%. The Flyers won 52.6% against the Penguins — who were 24th at 48.2% in the regular season — in their six-game series.
Unsurprisingly, Sean Couturier led Philadelphia at 73.6% in the first round, but Tocchet also had praise for the improvement Noah Cates (53.3% against Pittsburgh after winning 45.3% in the regular season) has exhibited.
“Eye test-wise, he’s getting better at. … It’s something that we’re going to continue to work on,” Tocchet said.
For how good of a series Logan Stankoven had against Ottawa, he regressed to a 36.2% success rate in the circle against the Senators. Jordan Staal will continue to take the bulk of Carolina’s draws — his 106 faceoffs against Ottawa were twice as many as Aho’s second-place 53 — but the Hurricanes should aim to at least get back to 50% against Philadelphia.
