The Carolina Hurricanes will try to bounce back from their most one-sided loss in more than two months when they face the Montreal Canadiens in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals on Saturday evening in Raleigh, N.C.
The Canadiens, who reached the conference finals by winning two seven-game series, also handed the Hurricanes their first loss of these Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 6-2 victory in Game 1 on Thursday night.
“We’ve faced adversity throughout the year and we’ve always been able to bounce back,” Carolina defenseman Jalen Chatfield said.
After the Hurricanes scored 33 seconds into their first game since May 9, the Canadiens answered 27 seconds later and then scored three more times in the first period to take a 4-1 lead.
“We had a couple of breakdowns, gave them a couple of goals and they came out and they were flying,” said Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin, who finished with a minus-4 rating. “Personally, I think I handed them the game, so I’ve got to be better.”
Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said the Hurricanes just need to flush that performance and get ready for Game 2.
“I hate that at this time of year that’s what we’ve got to do, but there wasn’t really much to grab on to there,” he said. “Clearly, we were not ready for that pace. I’m not going to give the (11-day) layoff as an excuse, but we weren’t ready to play playoff hockey.”
Montreal forward Juraj Slafkovsky, who had two goals and an assist in Game 1, said winning the series opener in such a one-sided fashion is good for his team’s confidence going forward.
“I would say we haven’t been the best in these playoffs 5-on-5, but that’s why the hockey team has 20 guys, because if you’re not at your best, someone else is probably doing really good as well,” Slafkovsky said. “We help each other out, and I’m happy with the way we played (Thursday). We’ve just got to keep it going, or do it better.”
Carolina forward Taylor Hall said the Canadiens played well from top to bottom, and it’s up to the Hurricanes to give them less time in their zone.
“In the first two rounds, they didn’t have as much offense as they did (Thursday) night,” Hall said. “You think that’s probably on us a little bit. Just forcing them to defend, I think if those guys are in the offensive zone with the puck on their stick, they’re going to do good things and they’re going to be feel good about themselves, but if we put them on their heels and make them defend more than we did (Thursday) night, I think it’s a different story.”
Logan Stankoven, who leads the Hurricanes with seven goals in the playoffs, was a minus-3, and Hall, who leads Carolina with 12 playoff points (three goals, nine assists), was a minus-2.
“That was obviously not our best,” Brind’Amour said. “I didn’t think we were very sharp, to put it bluntly. Our top guys had tough nights. That’s not going to work this time of the year.”
