So, that game was a little weird but I’ll take it. Thoughts:
I warned you guys that Garrett Rank sometimes loses his mind and he did just that last night. Popping Roddy with a bench minor without a warning is a clear sign that he’s ready to wrap up his post season involvement. He also got hot mic-ed telling several players to eff off after the whistle. Wizened veterans can get away with that crap from time to time, but you’re Garrett Rank so knock it off. Otherwise the complaining about the sheer number of penalties called is a little confusing to me. I really didn’t see a problem with most of the whistles, at least not until things got really weird late. In fact, they may have gone a little light, refraining from calling a lot of secondary crap like Konecny’s mugging of Jarvis that led to his high stick following an obvious hold on Drysdale. Philly is stuck in a rough spot, trying to slow Carolina down with a lot of hooks and holds and also trying to physically agitate because they’re frustrated and that’s what you do in the NHL when you’re getting your ass kicked. That’s absolutely guaranteed to lead to a bunch of penalties, which is what we’re getting. If they think they’re so much better 5v5, then Tocchet can call off the dogs and “just play hockey.” I don't think he’s gonna like the outcome any better.
Old friend Luke DeCock keeps reminding me that, in a lot of ways, this Canes team has managed to become the kind of team the early Brind’Amour teams lost to in the playoffs. Yeah, they don’t goon it up as much as Boston used to and they don’t have a Kucherov performing surgery on the power play like Tampa, but they do have that general thing of knowing what works for them and being very good at just getting down to it every night. They have become frustration itself for opponents.
Nice to see Svech get one to drop. He visibly relaxed when that puck went in and the first line badly needed it. You’re OK with either him or Aho being super frustrated out there, but when it’s both of them they tend to leave a trail of sawdust on the ice. Freeing that line up is probably the key to getting where the Canes want to get from here.
Nikishin was a little unsure of himself at times, but getting that pairing back to standard was a huge for the Canes. Philly had been jumping Reilly like a lost sheep in Times Square in the 70s, and it took Ghost way out of him comfort zone in Game 2. Last night, that pairing was solid enough and Niki will only get better from here.
Slavin was good last night, especially on the kill, but Miller was a beast all over the ice. When he’s on his game like that, you basically have two shutdown pairings and that’s VERY frustrating to play against.
On to Game 4. Let’s get this done before anything stupid happens.