TORONTO – Perspective is everything, isn’t it?
The same worldly night that can feel “dull at times” for the losing goaltender can feel like the light at the end of a gruelling seven-month tunnel for the defenceman who unleashes a not-so-dull game-winning clapper clean over his left shoulder and under the bar.
Where Grandma keeps the victories.
“It’s been a long time for me since I played hockey. For seven months you’re thinking about that stuff — playing the game, scoring a goal, what it feels like. That’s kinda what fuels you when you’re in those tough moments in rehab. Feels great,” said Dougie Hamilton, after ending the Carolina Hurricanes’ five-game playoff losing skid to his former club, the Boston Bruins.
“It’s my grandma’s birthday today, so I think that one is for her.”
To be certain, Carolina’s 3-2 Game 2 win, which knots the first-round series at a game apiece, did not feel like an exhibition game to Grandma Joan.
Let’s get Tuukka Rask’s post-loss comments out of the way.
“To be honest with you, it doesn’t really feel like playoff hockey right now. There’s no fans. It feels like playing an exhibition game,” Rask said, matter-of-fact.
Oh? You don’t say…
“When you play at your home rink, you play at an away rink, and there’s fans cheering for you or against you and that creates another buzz around the series. There’s none of that, so it just feels dull at times.”
The emotions that come packed into 19,000 nervous bodies in a cold rink are most certainly missed, so the onus falls on the players themselves to summon sort of reasonable facsimile.
For the Hurricanes — suddenly turning this thing into a series with legs after getting swept by Boston in the 2019 Eastern Conference Final — all they had to do was glance up behind them, to the man running the bench.
Rod Brind’Amour — the ripped, shirt-optional poster boy for “players’ coach” — went to bat for the guys after Game 1’s loss, partially turned on a Petr Mrazek gloved puck that Boston jabbed lose for a goal.
“This is why the league’s a joke, in my opinion, on these things,” Brind’Amour told The News & Observer. “That one is a crime scene.”
The coach was swiftly dinged a $25,000 fine from the league, and the Hurricanes cut the cheque, adding a $17 tip like a bunch of jerks:
A series of iffy calls or non-calls did not fall Brind’Amour’s way in Game 2. Charlie McAvoy ripped off Jordan Staal’s helmet, which should be a minor by letter of the book. Boston’s Brad Marchand tied the game 2-2 on the power-play with three seconds left in the second period and Teuvo Teravainen in the box for a disputed interference call:
Then Brind’Amour, severely on tilt, unsuccessfully challenged a third-period Carolina goal nixed due to goalie interference, thus forced to kill off a subsequent delay-of-game penalty.
“I loved it. Loved it. There’s a lot at stake,” Brind’Amour said. “A lot of adversity and things happen in the game, and you have to be willing to adapt and kinda fight through it.
“It definitely brings you that much closer. Although, I don’t know how much closer this group can get. It was just one of those nights I felt good things were going to happen to us.”
Had Hamilton not bulged the twine, Brind’Amour might’ve doubled down and gone for $50,034.
When the coach stepped to the podium, his first questioner offered to spare him any officiating questions.
Brind’Amour pursed his lips, nodded and said, “Thank you.”
No stranger to playoff gamesmanship, Brind’Amour’s “crime scene” rant came with a degree of calculation. Even if it didn’t pay off in an extra call his way (penalties were even, four per side), it paid off in inspiration for his troops.
“When he said that, we wanted to win for him and rally for him,” Hamilton said. “We want to play hard for him, and we respect him so much.”
“Rod, he’s very dedicated, and he’s going to have them prepared. I mean, he works, and that’s the motto of their team,” Marchand said. “The teams that are in the best condition and work the hardest, with the ice conditions, that’s just going to pay off. So, we knew they were going to push. They’re resilient.”
In this back-to-back — perhaps the first of two back-to-backs in the series — Hamilton logged a team-high 51:08. This after not playing a hockey game since snapping his left fibula on Jan. 16.
Were it not for the pandemic, no chance the mid-season Norris candidate would be available for the playoffs. Let alone swinging all his slapshot weight on a recently broken leg.
“All that layoff, the rust factor you think would be there. But he was special,” Brind’Amour praised. “A huge goal tonight. But the minutes he’s putting up there, that’s something we didn’t really expect. He’s obviously answered the bell.”
Clapped it. Top shelf.
Ring, ring.
We have ourselves a series.
“It was a pretty good shot, I guess,” Rask said.
You know, for an exhibition game.
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