Why Hurricanes are better equipped for Rangers and possibly beyond this postseason

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RALEIGH, N.C. — If you have any prayer of knocking off the New York Rangers, you're going to have to go toe to toe with them.

They are one top-heavy team with star power up and down their lineup. They can come at you in waves with their depth. They can make your life miserable if you take penalties. They can torture you in all three zones because of one of the best blue lines in the NHL.

Oh, and they've got this all-world goalie named Igor Shesterkin coming off a stellar Round 1 performance.

"What don't they have?" Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour wondered aloud Tuesday night after his Hurricanes advanced to play the Presidents' Trophy winners with a 6-3 deciding victory and five-game first-round triumph over the Islanders. "The Rangers are the best team in the league."

Of course, under Brind'Amour's guidance, few teams in the NHL can boast more consistent success than the Canes. Two conference finals, six consecutive playoff berths, six consecutive years of advancing past the first round … if you consider the qualifier during the pandemic's bubble the first round.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Carolina hasn't reached the pinnacle with Brind'Amour, an offseason free agent, incidentally, as coach. The Hurricanes did in 2006 when he was their captain, but not yet with him behind the bench. And as hard as it is to win playoff series over and over the way Carolina has under Brind'Amour, he made clear Tuesday night "That's not what we're shooting for."

The hope going into this second-round series against the Blueshirts is they're better equipped offensively than last postseason when they advanced to the Eastern Conference final against the Florida Panthers but ended up being swept after scoring just six goals.

Remember, Don Waddell went into last year's trade deadline and decided against entering the fray of the Eastern Conference arm's race as the Devils added Timo Meier, the Rangers added Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko, the Maple Leafs added Ryan O'Reilly, the Bruins added Tyler Bertuzzi and Dmitry Orlov and the Lightning paid a massive price for Tanner Jeannot.

Waddell added Shayne Gostisbehere, who made an impact on the power play, but Waddell, even though he investigated moves, decided not to pay the big prices it would take to add pending free agents.

Heck, it made sense because the Canes were rolling along quite nicely … until the worst timing imaginable when they lost young star Andrei Svechnikov to a torn ACL soon after the deadline and there was no further way Waddell could respond with an external move.

At this past trade deadline, Waddell remembered all of that and decided to add two proven playoff performers in Stanley Cup champions Jake Guentzel and Evgeny Kuznetsov. Plus, Svechnikov is back, which is massive if you're going up against the Rangers because he was sorely missed last postseason.

Andrei Svechnikov quickly doubles the Carolina lead to 2 on the power play!#CauseChaos pic.twitter.com/VLBfwSeCTY

— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) April 30, 2024

As Seth Jarvis said after a dominant Game 5 Tuesday night and a terrific series, these are three "dynamic" players who "thrive in big moments."

We saw that Tuesday when Kuznetsov pulled off his patented slow roll shootout move during a penalty shot late in the first period where the Canes struck twice in the first 3:13 of the game and outshot the Isles 21-4.

From the time Kuznetsov first approached the puck at the center-ice faceoff circle to the instant he flicked his wrists and whizzed that puck into the back of the net, it took 10.6 seconds.

For Isles goalie Semyon Varlamov, it must have felt like 10.6 years.

Any hockey fan knows by now that Kuznetsov loves to tip-toe during his regular-season shootout attempts. He skates at a glacial pace, and that crawl irritates many, especially goalies. But in a lot of ways, Kuznetsov has become automatic in recent years as he altered his speed from cheetah-like to turtle-like.

So naturally, why not try it on a penalty shot …  in the playoffs?

Technically, Brind'Amour could have chosen any player who was on the ice when Islanders defenseman Alexander Romanov covered a puck in the crease. But even though Kuznetsov was actually 0-for-2 with the Canes in shootouts using that move after being traded from Washington, of course you're going to go with the guy that's scored 29 times at a 43.3 percent success rate in his career and actually beat the Canes with that shootout move this past regular season.

Plus, it was Kuznetsov who first noticed the infraction and alertly sprinted right up to the ref to make sure he spotted it, so he earned this chance.

He came in so leisurely, that the NHL's tracking monitor on the back of his jersey clocked him at between 4 and 7 mph. It was so downright obnoxious, an antsy Varlamov finally couldn't wait any longer, bit first and attempted a poke check. That was a fatal decision. Kuznetsov was waiting precisely for Varlamov to make that first move, then suavely ripped home the 29th penalty shot goal in NHL playoff history and the second in Carolina history.

Evgeny Kuznetsov brought out his signature slow penalty shot ⏰

🎥 @BR_OpenIce pic.twitter.com/2FRcLzJ2He

— The Athletic NHL (@TheAthleticNHL) May 1, 2024

The bench erupted with Jarvis even emulating Kuznetsov's signature Bird Celly.

"We know how nasty he is," Jarvis said. "He's done it to us a few times. So to see it work for us, and in a moment like that, was absolutely massive."

It took gusto, which is why Waddell brought guys like him and Guentzel in. And if the Rangers are going to be ousted by the Canes, they're going to need the type of performances we saw from Guentzel when he burst onto the scene during a dominant postseason with the Penguins in 2017. And they're going to need continued tremendous play from Svechnikov, who was a force throughout this Islanders series even though it took until Tuesday for him to score his first goal of the series.

"Hard to believe," Brind'Amour said because he felt Svechnikov "was phenomenal."

The Islanders pushed hard in the second period and rallied to tie the score at 3-3 going into the third after Frederik Andersen hit a rut, lost an edge and toppled over to give Casey Cizikas an open net for the equalizer.

But the hockey gods must be Caniacs because the Isles were victimized by two of the unluckiest bounces you'll ever see eight seconds apart … or less time than it took for Kuznetsov to pull off his penalty shot goal.

First, Brady Skjei's pass to Jack Drury took a fortuitous carom off Romanov's skate, bounced by other Islanders and right onto Drury's blade for his first career playoff goal and ultimate game-winner. After the ensuing faceoff, Skjei's dump-in hit the corner boards so awkwardly it centered to the front of the net with Varlamov caught out of the net expecting to play the rim.

Canes net-crashing extraordinaire Stefan Noesen pounced and thought, "Don't f— it up, and I almost did," as Varlamov sprawled back into the net and actually got his paddle on the puck.

Stefan Noesen tucks home the ridiculous carom for the second Hurricanes goal in just 8 seconds!#CauseChaos pic.twitter.com/aixhYehhCb

— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) May 1, 2024

But as Brind'Amour always says, you need puck luck and you need everybody to contribute in order to win a playoff series, and the Canes got plenty of that Tuesday night and throughout the first round, a series in which Carolina outscored the Isles 10-1 in the third period.

That must continue if they've got any shot of knocking off Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider and the Rangers' long list of established studs. Oh, and they're going to need Andersen to be on point just like he was after returning in March from a scary medical malady. He could use this rest after playing five games in a row following a strict rotation with Pyotr Kochetkov after his return.

"The Rangers are the best team in the league," Brind'Amour said. "We know what they are all about. They've got immense talent and coached really well and (have) good goaltending. We know it's going to be a tough matchup, but it would be anywhere. You get into the final eight, they're all going to be tough."

But you can bet the Rangers won't take the Canes for granted. This is a good hockey team, and the fans that packed PNC Arena, who tailgated like usual before the game, who serenaded the team with "Sweet Caroline" and "Wagon Wheel" in the final minute and long after the handshake line, there is a sense that this team could do something special.

As Brent Burns told The Athletic as he took a break from working out after Tuesday's victory, "This is a fun team, a good team, and my favorite time of year."

(Photo: James Guillory / USA Today)