Hurricanes got away from what made them successful. They have one shot to get it back
Since the moment Rod Brind’Amour was handed the keys and told to do his thing, this entire Carolina Hurricanes operation — and all of its ensuing success — has been built on foundations anchored in solid bedrock.
From God, to Brind’Amour, to Justin Williams (initially), to Jordan Staal and now Sebastian Aho, the tenets of this team have been passed down like gospel. They do what they do, they do it consistently, and they do it well. They play vertically, relentlessly, moving with speed, forechecking with intent, putting opposing defensemen in difficult positions.
This is what we talk about when we throw that word “identity” around, concepts rooted in the shared belief, unchanging.
So when Staal looked around in the third period Thursday, as the game crumbled around him and his teammates, his appraisal of the situation was as damning as it ever could be.
“It wasn’t us,” Staal said afterward.
And if the Hurricanes don’t have that, they have nothing.
Which is how they find themselves playing for their season Saturday, hosting Game 7 against the Boston Bruins, trying to get back to the identity that earned them that home ice in the first place.
In a sense, that’s easier after a loss like the one they suffered in Game 6, 5-2 after a second-period special teams breakdown and third-period even-strength collapse, than it would have been after a hard-fought last-second or overtime loss.
There’s nowhere to hide from this one.
“It’s not how we normally do things,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “That’s what you get. We got down and instead of just sticking with it we tried to do too much. Playing a team like that, they’re going to make you pay if you make those kinds of mistakes.”
Even in their worst moments in Boston, right through the first period Thursday, the Hurricanes could still recognize themselves in the mirror. Until Game 6, they had thoroughly dominated at five-on-five, upended on the road instead by a lack of discipline and a propensity for patronizing the Bruins’ potent power play.
They opened the door for the Bruins’ savvy veterans to impact the game, and Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand left a mark. The Hurricanes failed to capitalize on the Bruins playing without their top two defensemen in Game 4, and that left a mark as well.
But the concepts on which they have relied for four seasons now remained as reliable as ever, intact. It wasn’t like they flipped a switch at home; their game remained relatively consistent, without the same results.
That changed Thursday, and now, to keep playing, the Hurricanes have to get back to playing the game that got them here.
“We’ve identified the way that we play,” Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin said. “We’ve had a full season of doing it the right way. There are lapses throughout the year so we can’t have lapses like that, especially during the playoffs. We know our identity as a group and our structure and we got away from it.”
The failure to convert on four second-period power plays, including almost a full minute of five-on-three, was catastrophic. But it was less worrisome than the way things fell apart in the third period.
“That’s just not trusting our game, that it works,” Staal said. “Really trying to do too much at times. Trying to push for a goal, trying to make that extra little play you think might be the difference. That changes quickly against a team that kind of thrives off of that going the other way. It’s a little bit of that. Obviously, we trust our game and we’re all about and how we play, and that wasn’t it.”
And now the most critical moment of their season has arrived, at a time when they need to recapture everything that got them here. This series has been a home-ice whiplash, veering from one blowout to another, but that all goes out the window now.
The Hurricanes spent an entire season — four seasons, in essence — building the foundation they hope to rely upon now. Anything can happen in a Game 7. No matter what happens, the Hurricanes just have to be themselves.
Never miss a Luke DeCock column. Sign up at tinyurl.com/lukeslatest to have them delivered directly to your email inbox as soon as they post.
This story was originally published May 13, 2022 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Hurricanes got away from what made them successful. They have one shot to get it back."
