‘It’s like gladiators out there.’ Hurricanes say they’re having fun in the playoffs
Hockey players say it all the time, and Jordan Staal and Jesperi Kotkaniemi said it again Saturday: The Stanley Cup playoffs are fun.
Fun? Getting bashed into the end boards, as Canes defenseman Brady Skjei was Friday, is fun? Taking a stick up high and needing stitches to stop the bleeding is fun? Getting hit after the whistle is fun?
Winning a game in the playoffs is a good thing. That’s fun. But there is a price to pay, as the Hurricanes have learned the past five years under their coach, Rod Brind’Amour.
“This is real hockey for sure,” Kotkaniemi said Saturday. “Everyone is flying out there, elbows high, sticks high. That’s what everyone loves.
“It’s a grind. It’s a long stretch and you have to be ready for that.”
So what’s to love about that?
“It’s awesome,” Kotkaniemi said, smiling. “It’s like gladiators out there. It’s fun.”
The Hurricanes won the first two games of their first-round series against the New York Islanders. Playing at PNC Arena, they basked in all the noise and excitement that Canes fans can produce, soaking it all in and taking two victories.
Jesper Fast’s overtime winner won Game 2. The building rumbled. That was fun for the Canes and certainly a part of the thrill of the playoffs.
But the series moved to UBS Arena for Games 3 and 4. The Islanders were the team being cheered by a packed house, breaking open a close game in the final four minutes of Game 3 to earn a 5-1 win.
Staal is one of three brothers caught up in the cauldron of the playoffs. Older brothers Eric and Marc Staal are trying to help the Florida Panthers find a way to beat the Boston Bruins, who have not been beaten much this season by anyone and lead 2-1 in that series.
Jordan Staal said his father, Henry, has been back and forth between the two series and given him a report on the games.
“My brothers are grinding and enjoying it, too,” he said.
Jordan Staal won the Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009. Eric Staal helped the Hurricanes raise the Cup in 2006. As for Marc Staal, he has yet to get his hands on the Cup in celebration but has seen it when Eric and then Jordan brought it home to Thunder Bay, Ontario.
In 2006, Brind’Amour, then the Canes captain, likened winning the Cup to climbing Mount Everest, noting it was long, arduous and physically demanding each step of the way -- the proverbial slippery slope.
That hasn’t changed.
Jordan Staal was blindsided by the Isles’ Matt Martin in Game 2, taking a hit from behind and then having Martin, listed at 6-3 and 220 pounds, land on him.
Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?
“It’s definitely a grind,” Staal said Saturday. “It’s part of the reason I enjoy it so much. It’s not easy. Every game, every little play, matters.
“You’ve got to stay focused, willing to fight through the grind, willing to fight through adversity. Having that feeling of coming out on top is what we all play for.”
Staal left Game 2 in pain after the Martin hit, soon returned and set up Fast for the winner in overtime. He had a team-high six hits in Game 3 and again had the primary assist as Fast scored shorthanded off the rush.
But that was the only goal the Isles’ Ilya Sorokin allowed in Game 3. The Canes will need to make things more uncomfortable for the goalie, at even strength and on the power play, which Brind’Amour said was rushed and ineffective in Friday’s game, calling it “out of sync” and not producing good looks.
But Brind’Amour said Saturday it was time to have a “short-term memory.” It’s on to Game 4. It’s the playoffs.
“If we continue to play our style and get as much (shot) volume as we can, and keep creating chances and playing in their end, I like our chances,” Staal said.
The chances of winning, that is. That’s the fun part.
Tervainen surgery called successful
The Canes said Saturday that forward Teuvo Teravainen underwent successful surgery on his left hand Thursday and will be sidelined indefinitely. The team said the surgery was performed by Dr. Harrison Tuttle of Raleigh Orthopaedic.
