RALEIGH, N.C. — Twice within the Lenovo Middle press field, I obtained pity texts.
One in every of them: “Is that this as ugly in particular person as it’s on TV?”
Very imply! Not a pleasant factor to say about any hockey recreation, actually, not to mention one that includes two of the Jap Convention’s finest groups. The Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes have been doing their jobs. They have been feeling one another out. “That is the best way issues go as soon as we get into mid-Could” is the place I landed. Not every little thing goes to be Sport 7 between the Stars and Avalanche. Not each recreation could be a monitor meet. In the event that they have been all good, none could be nice. Each bag of path combine has some raisins.
However yeah, to reply the query, it was ugly. Objectively ugly. There’s sport for the aesthetically minded; there may be sport for the informal observer; after which there was no matter Capitals-Hurricanes, Sport 3, delivered to these of us who watched it play out on Saturday evening.
Carolina, after all, will take it; after a 4-0 win, it holds a 2-1 collection lead. Rod Brind’Amour’s workforce — much less involved with type factors than the common on most days, let’s say — wanted to cease Washington’s hard-earned ahead momentum earlier than it was one thing greater, and the Canes wanted to retain the home-ice benefit they gained at Capital One Area. Executed and achieved.
And now, the temptation is perhaps to show this end result right into a neat little brief story that sums up Hurricanes hockey. If you make shot quantity and tenacious forechecking your inventory and commerce — when you could have that stapled to your brow, like Brind’Amour’s groups have appeared to at occasions during the last decade or so — it may be simple to overlook that individually nice performances aren’t a luxurious. They’re a necessity.
Brind’Amour, after all, is aware of this. He’s coping with a story based mostly no less than partially on comfort. We all know the Hurricanes play a sure means. We all know what he values. And too typically — particularly for the hockey media at massive, who watch Carolina’s dependable regular-season dominance from afar, then parachute in when the video games get powerful and the margins get slimmer — it turns right into a little bit of a suggestions cycle. The Hurricanes are good as a result of they’re deep they usually’re deep as a result of they’re good.
That’s what made Sport 3 extra essential than you would possibly’ve thought as you watched it; this wasn’t the Hurricanes’ hive thoughts. This wasn’t them as a monolith. This was a workforce seizing management of a collection on the backs of its most proficient ahead and its beginning goaltender. All these shot makes an attempt helped. On Saturday, although, they weren’t the present.
It began with Frederik Andersen, who needed to exit Carolina’s first-round win over the New Jersey Devils in Sport 4 after a net-front collision with Timo Meier. Pyotr Kochetkov took over for the Sport 5 clincher, however in Brind’Amour’s good world, he’s the backup.
The issue for Andersen, now and over the course of his profession, is that accidents are part of that world. He missed about half of the common season with a knee harm that required surgical procedure. In 2023-24, a blood clotting situation saved him out till April. That type of factor, nearer to the rule than the exception, mixed with a relative lack of emphasis on the place in Carolina — no workforce technically wants its goaltender much less — makes Andersen too simple to disregard.
On Saturday, he took away that choice, snuffing out the Capitals’ 9 first-period pictures and eight high-danger scoring possibilities. The previous is a big quantity for this collection; the latter is a big quantity for any collection. It began early, too, when he stopped Tom Wilson — a game-wrecker not fairly like some other — in shut proper after puck drop.
There have been extra, although. Jack Roslovic is aware of it.
“If it weren’t for Freddie, it might’ve been completely different,” mentioned Roslovic, who put Carolina up 2-0 with a power-play objective 63 seconds earlier than the second intermission. “He saved my ass a pair occasions.”
Roslovic wasn’t alone. We’d seen that from Capitals goalie Logan Thompson already on this collection — the kind of play that buys a workforce time and provides it hope. Now it was Andersen’s flip. This wasn’t system goaltending. This was one thing extra.
“He saved us within the recreation,” Brind’Amour mentioned. “I believed we obtained to it a bit bit within the second half of that recreation, nevertheless it might’ve been loads completely different if we have been chasing it.”
Carolina’s push began within the second interval. Washington, after two video games’ value of prelude and progress, had lastly outplayed the Hurricanes at five-on-five for a full interval. Capitals coach Spencer Carbery, for days, has mentioned his workforce wanted to seek out one other degree. It was now not hypothetical. It wasn’t about luck or timeliness. The Caps have been, on steadiness, the higher workforce.
Brind’Amour shuffled his strains in response, most consequentially transferring Seth Jarvis again up alongside Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov, and it labored. Carolina began to see its zone time improve and its shot try edge return. The ice started to flip. It was Svechnikov who punched by.
And Svechnikov could be a powerful participant to speak about. Combos of velocity, ability, skating, dimension and physicality like his are uncommon, and the bundle is a blessing till it’s not; to look at him, at occasions, is to really feel such as you’re watching one of many 10 or 15 most gifted hockey gamers on the planet. The manufacturing, although, has by no means fairly adopted; accidents are the first trigger. Brind’Amour’s system, although, would possibly play an element, too. What would a free-range Svechnikov seem like, precisely? We could by no means know.
After an uneven common season, he was one of the best participant on the ice towards New Jersey. In Spherical 2, he’d come shut, hitting two posts and gently reminding reporters on Saturday morning of that reality. A number of hours later, after Brind’Amour’s line modifications actually began to take, he lined up for an offensive zone faceoff to the correct of Aho. Washington’s Nic Dowd gained it backward and Svechnikov pounced, leaving Capitals defenseman John Carlson flat-footed, gathering the puck and snapping it over Thompson’s shoulder.
“To be sincere, it wasn’t deliberate,” Svechnikov mentioned. “I simply noticed the puck type of free.”
Andrei Svechnikov opens the scoring for the @Canes! 🚨 #StanleyCup
🇺🇸: @NHL_On_TNT & @SportsonMax ➡️ https://t.co/4TuyIATi3T
🇨🇦: @Sportsnet or stream on Sportsnet+ ➡️ https://t.co/4KjbdjVctF pic.twitter.com/VsN1A7bljF— NHL (@NHL) May 10, 2025
Brind’Amour mentioned the identical.
“Svech was on his toes and the puck simply occurred to go there,” he mentioned, “however then you definately’ve obtained to make the play.” He had the chance to provide extra credit score for the objective, had he needed, to the zone time that arrange the faceoff. He handed.
“Typically you want these particular person efforts. We had that tonight. This one, extra for me, is what it was about tonight.”
The following one would possibly name for one thing completely different. It’d ship one thing prettier. But when we get one other 60 minutes of strong tactical play laced with bits of brilliance, it gained’t be all dangerous.
(Photograph: James Guillory / Imagn Pictures)
