The Carolina Hurricanes face a tall order in their first playoff series since the 2009 Eastern Conference finals. As the Eastern Conference’s first wild card, Carolina will open its first-round series Thursday in Washington against the Metropolitan Division champion Washington Capitals.
The Capitals, of course, come into the series battle tested. Washington won the Stanley Cup last year and returned a good chunk of its championship roster.
“They’re the best team for a reason,” said Canes head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “They get you any which way. So for me, the impressive thing about their team is that they’ve learned how to win. They’re comfortable being uncomfortable. They’re comfortable in the games that are 1-1, 1-0. It doesn’t matter how many chances they’re getting. They’re comfortable in playing their game because they know it wins.”
For the Canes, this will be new ground for a lot of this year’s roster. The team’s active roster for game one features 12 players who have never played in a Stanley Cup playoff game.
That doesn’t mean Carolina is bereft of playoff experience. Team captain Justin Williams has won three Stanley Cups, including one with Carolina in 2006. Forward Jordan Staal won a cup in 2009 with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and forward Teuvo Teravainen and defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk have won with the Chicago Blackhawks.
That prior experience will be key for Carolina’s younger players to lean on as they go into their first playoff games.
“I think it’s all important,” Brind’Amour said. “We have the older guy that’s been here, done it to show the younger guys, but then we have young guys who have tasted it too, so I think that helps, for sure, to have all different kinds of experiences in playing at this time of year. It’s a whole other kind of level of play. The more guys that have experienced it, it’s certainly helpful.”
And while the team knows making the playoffs for the first time in a decade is a major accomplishment, it’s far from satisfied.
Carolina’s goal all along was to get into the playoffs and make some noise. Step one is taken care of.
“We’re certainly expecting more,” Brind’Amour said. “This isn’t what we signed up for. We all understand it’s a huge task, but we’re not going into this series not expecting to win, that’s for sure.”
Step two is now underway, and that starts with the Capitals. Carolina is familiar with Washington as a divisional opponent, with the teams squaring off four times in the regular season.
While Carolina finished the season series 0-3-1 against Washington, all four games were at least close entering the third period, and two were decided by one goal. The Canes know it’s a matter of finding that extra edge against a top opponent.
“They’re a veteran team,” said Williams, who played in Washington for two years. “The games that we lost this year were tight checking games that they found a way to win, which is what good teams do. We can learn from that. We can look at that and say we were right there, which we were, and playoff time’s a whole new animal. Their stats are down to zero, our stats are down to zero and away we go.”
In order to have a shot in this series, Carolina will need to play a tight game against a top-tier offensive team. Washington finished the regular season averaging 3.34 goals per game, good for fifth in the league and third in the Eastern Conference.
As always, Washington’s offense starts with forward Alex Ovechkin, perhaps the best pure goal scorer of this generation. Ovechkin tickled the twine 51 times this season en route to his ninth career Rocket Richard Trophy as the league’s leading goal scorer.
Ovechkin also demonstrated his playoff prowess during Washington’s cup run last season, posting 15 goals and 27 points in 24 games while on his way to winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Stanley Cup Playoffs MVP.
Shutting Ovechkin down is probably too much to ask, but Carolina needs to find a way to contain him. A key player in that role will be Staal, a two-way forward often tasked with shutting down the opposition’s top players.
Staal will be able to draw on his experiences during Pittsburgh’s run in 2009, when he faced down Ovechkin in the Capitals in a second-round series.
“He was the same old Alex Ovechkin,” Staal said. “Obviously a dangerous player, a fast player, a powerful player and a guy that can score from a lot of different areas of the ice that most players can’t do. A player that you’ve got to be on top as you can. The little time and space he does have, he’s going to make the best of it, so you’ve got to take away as much as you can.”
Of course, the Caps’ threats don’t stop with Ovechkin. With 74 and 72 points, respectively, during the regular season, Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov form one of the best 1-2 punches at center in the league. The likes of forwards TJ Oshie, Tom Wilson and Jakub Vrana bring secondary scoring, and John Carlson is an offensive threat from the blue line.
The Canes will need their deep, talented defense corps to be in top form, from the goal-scoring threats in Justin Faulk and Dougie Hamilton to shutdown blueliners Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce.
“We know it starts with Ovechkin and guys like Backstrom, Kuznetsov,” Pesce said. “Their first to fourth line, they have so much skill. We know that; we have to game plan for it. It’s a big challenge. It’s exciting to have the opportunity to face them and try and shut them down. As a defenseman, that’s the first thing I take pride in.”
Carolina’s also going to need good goaltending. Fortunately, the combination of Petr Mrazek and Curtis McElhinney have been up to the task all season.
Mrazek, in particular, enters the playoffs on a roll, having won 11 of his last 13 starts. Mrazek should be up to the task in the postseason, with a .927 save percentage and 1.98 goals-against average in 10 career playoff starts.
“I think the pressure’s high, the thing that you play for every game matters big time,” Mrazek said. “It’s been fun. All factors that should put you in a better position to be a better goalie.”
On the offensive side of the puck, Carolina will need all hands on deck against Capitals goalie Brayden Holtby. Holtby had a fairly pedestrian regular season with a 2.82 goals-against average and .911 save percentage but knows how to get it going in the playoffs. He went 16-7 with a .922 save percentage, 2.16 goals-against average and two shoutouts in Washington’s title run last year.
So, the Canes need to click on all cylinders. That starts with leading scorer Sebastian Aho, who set a career high with 30 goals and 83 points in the regular season. Aho, however, slumped down the stretch, with no goals and six points in his last 14 games.
Playing the Capitals could be just what the doctor ordered for Aho. Over his career, he has eight goals and 17 points in 12 games against Washington, his most against any team.
“Obviously you want to produce some points, but it’s all about wins this time of year,” Aho said. “That’s all that matters, and if we can get those wins, I’m happy.”
Joining Aho on the top line is forward Nino Niederreiter, who put up 14 goals and 30 points in 36 games since joining Carolina via a trade with the Minnesota Wild in January.
Rounding out that trio is Williams, who Carolina will be counting on big time after a 23-goal, 53-point regular season given his experience. Williams has 36 goals and 94 points in 140 career playoff games, and has earned the nickname “Mr. Game 7” for his penchant for scoring clutch goals in the postseason.
“If you’re looking at the old ‘We’re underdogs; we’re this,’ obviously we’re underdogs,” Williams said. “We’re playing against the defending Stanley Cup Champions. But do we feel like we are? No. We’re going to work our tails off and see how good we can be.”
Carolina will also be relying on Teravainen, who set a new career high with 76 points this season, to help lead the way, and the likes of Staal, Faulk, Hamilton and forwards Andrei Svechnikov, Micheal Ferland, Lucas Wallmark, Jordan Martinook and Brock McGinn to provide depth scoring.
While this is a tall task against Washington, Carolina has had a great year and is red hot coming into the playoffs. The Canes have the needed ingredients for playoff success and shouldn’t be counted out.
It’s a tough challenge, but it’s one these Hurricanes are ready to meet.
“Playoff series, it’s unlike any other thing,” Williams said. “We know who we’re going to see for the next two weeks. We know who we’re going to play. We know what kind of team they are. It’s just, at the end of the series, you either want to really, really make them earn it, or you want to be able to push them out of it. By saying that, at some point, somebody’s going to give and say it’s too hard. We’ve got to make sure it’s not us.”
The best-of-seven series will start Thursday at Capital One Arena with a 7:30 p.m. puck drop. Game two is Saturday at Capital One at 3 p.m. Games three and four at PNC Arena will be Monday, April 15 and Thursday, April 18 respectively. Game five* would be Saturday, April 20 in DC, game six Monday, April 22 and game seven Wednesday, April 24 in Washington.
*If necessary
