How much of a role will goaltending play in the Hurricanes/Devils series?
Nick Alberga was joined by Mike McKenna to discuss the Carolina Hurricanes and New Jersey Devils second round series on the latest episode of Daily Faceoff Live.
Nick Alberga: I don’t know about you but I was feeling the road Devils in game one, I was proven wrong again by the Carolina Hurricanes. You want to talk about under the radar type teams. I actually said this a month before the playoffs started, don’t sleep on the Carolina Hurricanes. The Canes love the structure of their team, we all know who coaches them too.
Mike McKenna: Yeah, it’s Rod Brind’amour jeez, you watch how passionate he is in any post game interview. His eyes are getting all buggy and wild like he’s got the passion and fire. Here’s the thing, I picked the Devils in five games I probably should have picked the Devils in six games because I didn’t take into account how quick of a turnaround the Devils would face the Hurricanes after defeating the Rangers.
The Hurricanes had four days of rest going into game one. Here’s the key part for me, it’s not just rest like if you’ve ever been in the room for these things, you have days to prepare tactically. I understand that Carolina didn’t know they were playing against New Jersey until two days prior but they had already done their homework. So then they had a day and a half to dig in, while Jersey’s playing catchup quickly to face Carolina.
I think that’s real, I think the Devils didn’t have their legs. Akira Schmid is going to start game two from what we’ve seen. He was pulled in game one, I didn’t think three of the goals that went in were his fault so I think he has been the better option for Lindy Ruff in New Jersey. But Carolina was unbelievable right off the bat last game. Devils didn’t have a shot attempt in the first seven minutes, the only shot in that period from New Jersey was from the neutral zone, Nick.
Even with Teravainen and Pacioretty out of the lineup for Carolina. Svechnikov is scoring and Skjei and Pesce got goals last game from the defense. So if the defence can keep chipping in for Carolina I like their look too.
Nick Alberga: Yeah, the Devils really got ambushed and I was playing the rest versus rust card. They’d been off since Friday since beating the New York Islanders and again people can have this conversation about how much home ice can factor into the Stanley Cup playoffs and maybe this year is a one off where every road team seems to be winning. I think there’s one team that takes pride in being dominant on home ice in the playoffs and you see the betting odds reflect that.
It’s the Carolina Hurricanes.
Mike McKenna: They’re deep right, they were top of their division for a reason it’s just I didn’t believe in the Canes because of their lack of scoring and I didn’t know if they could grind it out. I still don’t think their goaltending has been tested and that’s what I wonder, if the Devils really wake up and start revving it up through the neutral zone, even though it’s hard to get past Carolina. If you get clean shots from the top of the circle or in close on Raanta or Andersen you’ve got a chance. So, that’s what I think the Devils need to do. They’ve got to push the goalies in Carolina, because right now goaltending doesn’t matter in this series for me, the Devils have to make it matter if they want to win.
You can watch the rest of the episode here…