Let’s watch some playoff hockey!
Scroll down to the comments to discuss Thursday night’s game.
Eastern Conference
Florida Panthers at Carolina Hurricanes – 7 p.m. CT (TNT)
Pick a narrative!
Hey, did you know Matthew Tkachuk was almost a Hurricane?
Get ready. You’re going to hear about it every single game, multiple times a game. And Carolina would have sent Martin Necas over in the package and blah, blah, blah. Yes, the Hurricanes were on Tkachuk’s short list when he asked out of Calgary last summer. Does that have any affect on any of the games being played now? No. So why will everyone insist on talking about it? It’s low-hanging fruit and easier to speak on than doing any actual analysis.
The former Blackhawks factor.
This one is probably only interesting to most of us. After having his hand broken in round one versus the Islanders, it appears as though our Sweet Prince Teuvo Teravainen is close to re-joining the Canes, possibly even suiting up in Game 1. The Florida side is far more “what could have been” with Gustav Forsling manning their top defensive pairing with Aaron Ekblad and Anthony Duclair skating on their top line with Alexsander Barkov.
Staal vs Staal vs Staal
Yes, all three ‘still in the NHL’ Staal brothers (poor Jared) are facing off against each other. Jordan (the only one who matters and is still good) is the Captain of the Hurricanes and is coming off a strong series against New Jersey where he put up four points in five games while playing his usual shutdown, third line role. Eric and Marc are both on the Panthers, they’re basically cooked and the last time they did anything of notice was when they decided they were comfortable being whiny, bigoted homophobes in public.
*in tears* they…they told me it was skittles night https://t.co/yc79kVH1qS
— horse massacre (@torqpenderloin) March 24, 2023
A good, old Offense vs Defense battle.
Carolina is one of the best defensive teams in the league. Florida is one of the best offensively. The Panthers score about a half a goal more per game than the Hurricanes, but the Hurricanes give up about half a goal less per game than the Panthers. Something’s gotta give, and whether or not that thing is Florida goalteder Sergei Bobrovsky is probably what decides the series.