Hurricanes-Rangers playoff series is a generational grudge match for the Drury family

Jack Drury was still a couple weeks away from his 9th birthday when his uncle Chris came to Chicago with the New York Rangers. On other visits, Jack got to skate with the Rangers in the morning, a precocious kid among the scratches and extras and injured players. On this visit, in January 2009, Chris Drury promised him a celebration.

Drury scored in the second period, but was mobbed by his teammates before he had a chance to show off for his nephew. On a day the Rangers were perpetually short-handed, the prospects of a second goal seemed dim. But Chris Drury scored the overtime winner to beat the Blackhawks and Jack Drury got his celebration.

The stakes may not have been very high in that game, but those are the kind of clutch heroics Jack Drury was born into. And not only his uncle, the Little League World Series hero turned NHL captain and overtime specialist, including against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of the 2006 Eastern Conference finals, but his father Ted, one of Harvard’s best-ever players and a 414-game NHLer in his own right.

And now, coming off a critical goal for the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 5 to help eliminate the New York Islanders after being promoted to the second line, Jack Drury runs up against the team his uncle has propelled to the top of the standings as general manager for the New York Rangers.

These kind of things tend to happen in the close quarters of the hockey world, and at closer range than uncle against nephew. Fathers and sons. Brothers and brothers. Howes, Staals and Sutters. The difference this time is who’s watching and who’s playing.

“I grew up going to a lot of his games,” Jack Drury said. “So it’s kind of full circle now.”

And given there’s only one person actually playing, it’ll probably be harder on Ted and Chris than it will Jack.

“I think it’s going to be fun,” Ted Drury said. “It’s different just because Jack’s going to be on the ice and Chris won’t, in some ways a bit removed. But I think it’s going to be fun and I’m excited.”

It’s also the first collision of the next generation of the Drury family with the previous one in the postseason, and a chance for Jack Drury to build on a strong first full NHL season — 27 points in 74 games — by being an impact player in the second round.

After starting the Islanders series on the wing on the fourth line, Drury was elevated to center the second line with Jordan Martinook and Martin Necas for Game 5 as Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour shuffled his lines in an attempt to generate more five-on-five offense.

With the score tied 3-3 early in the third period, after the Hurricanes squandered a two-goal lead and let the Islanders back into the game, Drury winged a shot from the left circle past Semyon Varlamov and gave the Hurricanes a lead they would not relinquish, especially after Stefan Noesen scored eight seconds later.

“I’ve liked his year,” Brind’Amour said. “It started out, he was probably not in that role as much, and he earned it. I guess that’s the simplest way to put it. Every time you put him there, good things happen, and again the other night. We know what we’re getting. You’re getting that consistent effort, and he can make plays. This time of year, it’s all about that. That consistency. At the end of the day, he’s earned the ice time.”

It only gets tougher against the Rangers, when the relative strengths of the two power plays increase the likelihood the series between two of the NHL’s best teams will be decided at even strength — and along with that, some Drury family bragging rights.

As for the brother-to-brother communication?

“We’ll check in,” Ted Drury said. “It’ll depend how it goes. We’ll see.”

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