‘I know my job’: What makes Stefan Noesen so important to the Carolina Hurricanes?

In the first four games of the Stanley Cup playoffs, Stefan Noesen of the Carolina Hurricanes has screened a goalie to set up a goal, scored a game-winner, forced the dumbest penalty of the series, won a fight with a big takedown and scored a power-play goal that forced overtime.

Other than that, the forward has quietly gone about his business against the New York Islanders.

Asked recently about battling the Isles’ Kyle MacLean mano a mano in Game 2, Noesen smiled, saying, “I don’t do it much. You’re asking the wrong person.”

Excuse me? Noesen is not a guy you want to mess with on the ice. A year ago, forward Erik Haula of the New Jersey Devils was acting up a little too much. Noesen dropped the gloves and then dropped Haula. That playoff series, in effect, was over.

“Sometimes, it’s just close your eyes and throw,” Noesen said, grinning again. “I’m not the biggest fighter in the world. I know how to do it and will if I have to.”

The Hurricanes will take a 3-1 series lead into Game 5 on Tuesday at PNC Arena. Noesen’s power-play goal got the Canes to OT in Game 4 and gave them a chance to close out the series, but the Isles’ Mat Barzal ended it with a tip early in the second overtime.

Every player enjoys the playoffs — the so-called “fun time” of the season — when the hits are harder, open ice harder to find and scoring chances ever precious. That includes Noesen, who is a whatever-it-takes kind of player who checks his ego to help the team win, making him the kind of player teammates love, coaches appreciate and opponents dread facing.

In talking about the appeal of playoff hockey, Noesen said, “It’s about intensity. Everything you think you can do, you can do to a whole different level. All the things that you built up through the season, that you trained for, everything just gets heightened.

“Everyone brings their best. You give it everything you have until you can’t give it anymore. And even when that happens, you always have a little more left to push.”

Stefan Noesen grows into his role

Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour can count on that effort and that “little more” from Noesen, who said he took no “easy roads” in getting to the NHL. A former first-round NHL draft pick, the native Texan played in the AHL and has been placed on waivers, having to earn every minute of his NHL ice time along the way.

Signed by the Canes in 2021 to a one-year, two-way contract, he was an integral part in the Chicago Wolves winning the AHL’s Calder Cup championship in 2022, leading the league with 48 goals in the regular season. Thirteen were game-winners.

The past two seasons have seen Noesen, 31, earn a spot on the Canes roster, sign a two-year contract, become a fixture in the lineup, and get used on every line.

“Everybody has roles and if you can fit and the coach trusts you …” Brind’Amour said. “Certainly he knows what he does well and we (see) it all the time, being around the net and stuff. He’s carved out a good niche for himself here.

“If you play hockey at this time of year, those kinds of guys, I think, shine because the value really ramps up in the little things. And he does a lot of little things that all add up.”

‘Always in front’

Noesen has been around the “net and stuff” in the first round of the 2024 playoffs. Ask Islanders’ goalies Semyon Varlamov and Ilya Sorokin. No. 23 is always around the cage, always a nuisance.

“I’m always in front,” Noesen said.

In Game 1, Noesen’s screen on Varlamov helped Evgeny Kuznetsov score the first goal of the series. Later, Noesen outfought defenseman Ryan Pulock in front of the crease and backhanded a rebound past Varlamov as the Canes won 3-1.

In the next game, Noesen had the PNC Arena crowd roaring with his dustup with MacLean. They traded punches until Noesen body-slammed him to the ice. Noesen skated to the penalty box asking for more noise. He got it.

That dumb penalty? Varlamov, believing Noesen was encroaching in the crease, reached out his stick and tripped him.

The Islanders had a 3-0 lead in the second period of Game 2. The Canes’ Teuvo Teravainen then scored on the power play after the Varlamov penalty for the first of five unanswered goals by the Canes. The roof would totally collapse on the Islanders late in the 5-3 loss.

Game 3, Noesen said, was a “muck and grind” kind of game, the Canes winning 3-2 on Long Island in the Isles’ first home game. Playing with Jack Drury on a line centered by Kuznetsov, Noesen said “muck and grind” perfectly fits the style of the two wingers, although not a center whose creativity and unpredictability with the puck can be challenging — for the other team and at times his wingers.

“It’s a very different dynamic,” Noesen said. “You see the brilliance of it and you also see some minor hiccups in general because we’re still getting used to playing with each other.”

Playing on the edge

There was another look at Monday’s practice: Noesen and Jesperi Kotkaniemi the wingers on the Kuznetsov line. Drury was at center with Jordan Martinook and Martin Necas.

The Canes lost forward Jesper Fast to a neck injury in the final game of the regular season and will not have him back in the playoffs, Brind’Amour said. That already has taken one valuable player out of the lineup, and defenseman Brett Pesce also has been sidelined, although he could return at some point in the playoffs.

Noesen is quick to say he believes in the guys in the room, what they’re able to accomplish and what he is willing to do to help them accomplish it.

“You play my game, you’re always asking for it one way or the other, right?” Noesen said. “I always play on the edge.

“That’s what you need in the playoffs. Everybody has their own role. I know my job.”