RALEIGH, N.C. — Mitch Marner, who has done a little bit of everything in these playoffs, received plenty of praise for his shot block in the dying seconds of Game 1.
Mark Stone and several others skated straight to Marner at the final buzzer, before heading towards Carter Hart for congratulations.
“I think he was just kind of in the way, that’s why we got to him first, so I had to stop and say, ‘Thanks, good job,’” chuckled Stone.
“I mean, you do whatever you can to keep the puck out of the net, and Mitch kind of got picked there off the draw, and just kind of sold out (to make the block). He’s come as advertised; he’s done anything he can to help this team win. It just shows the buy-in that he has.”
If the Hurricanes can rally to win four of the next six games, brace yourself for a series of adorable photographs: newborns nestled in the bowl of the Stanley Cup.
You’ve already seen the clip of defenceman K’Andre Miller cradling his brand-new son, Kashton, on the bench following Carolina’s Game 5 victory over the Montreal Canadiens.
Kashton was born before Carolina’s Round 2 sweep of the Philadelphia Flyers. A few days later, Sean Walker (Miller’s D partner) and wife Taylor welcomed daughter Quinn to the world.
And while Miller was on that bench, soaking in his trip to the Cup Final, a third Hurricanes defenceman, Jalen Chatfield, was rushing to the hospital to witness the birth of another child.
“Thankfully, it worked out perfectly. Didn’t have to miss the birth or anything,” Chatfield said of his very unique post-game celebration. “I guess around 7:30 (my wife Drew) went to the hospital, texted Brownie (team services manager Mike Brown) and said: ‘Don’t tell him until after the game.’ So, I had no distractions. It worked out perfectly. I was able to get a police escort and get there with a couple of hours to spare before he was born, so it was perfect.”
Welcome to the newborn club, Rhodes Chatfield.
Half the D corps became dads just in time for Father’s Day.
“Lot of kids flying around,” Seth Jarvis said. “Thankful they’re not mine.
“They’re all enjoying it. It’s a big moment in their lives. Obviously tricky timing, but they’ve been there for the birth of their kids, and that’s incredible.”
Has Jarvis been asked to babysit yet?
“No one’s trusting me with their kid.”
John Tortorella said he would not be content leaving Carolina with a 1-1 split.
“You win one, you want to win the next one. That, to me, is common sense,” said ol’ Torts, whose team has already stolen home-ice advantage with a 5-4 win in Game 1. “You don’t want to let any momentum slip away. That’s not extraordinary to me. That’s just getting ready to play your next game, try to win.”
Teams that take a 2-0 series lead in a best-of-seven Final go on to lift the Cup 91 per cent of the time (50-5 series record), including 83 per cent who took that lead on the road (10-2 series record).
Stankoven, Blake go way back
Growing up as kids, the two were fierce rivals in annual spring hockey tournaments. Blake played on a team from Minnesota, while Stankoven repped B.C. The two bring up those childhood battles occasionally. Funny how life works.
“He was always shifty and crafty, like he is now,” says Stankoven, generously listed at five-foot-eight. “He was actually smaller than me, if you can believe that. But he was always feisty, and he was always one of the best players on the ice.”
Stankoven looks to his right, over at the five-foot-11 Blake.
“Now we’re teammates, and obviously he’s grown a lot,” Stankoven says. “It’s funny, going back and looking at those tournaments, playing against each other, it was always competitive games.”
Vegas will look to keep its franchise-record seven-game winning streak alive, which includes four straight road wins.
With a record of 20-4-1 since Tortorella took over, is it safe to say the Golden Knights are playing their best hockey of the season?
“Obviously, it’s the best hockey we’ve played. It was a bit tumultuous there for a lot of the regular season. It seemed like we were either on a four or five-game win streak or on a four or five-game losing streak. This is the time of year where you need to be playing your best. But hopefully our best hockey is yet to be played, and we want to try and get better every game, and that starts tonight.”
On the flip side, it has been more than six months since the Hurricanes suffered consecutive home losses, and nearly as long since they had back-to-back defeats of any kind — trends they will look to continue in Game 2.
Carolina last dropped consecutive games from Jan. 12-13 — both on the road (at DET and at STL) — and has suffered consecutive home defeats only twice this season.
Canes contemplate line changes
No matter how ineffective Rod Brind’Amour’s top line has been of late, the Hurricanes aren’t going to make a panic move after suffering just their second loss of the post-season.
But that doesn’t mean the coach hasn’t considered line tweaks to spark Jarvis, Sebastian Aho, and Andrei Svechnikov.
“We just really haven’t had the need to do it. I mean, we’ve got to get some guys going, so maybe we’ve got to flip things. Everybody else, the results have been there,” Brind’Amour said.
“I’m not gonna overreact on really one bad period of hockey here. We gotta just let it materialize a little more. And then obviously you’re making adjustments when you have to.”
Both teams survived Game 1 healthy and project to ice the same lineup.
Carolina’s Game 2 lineup:
Svechnikov – Aho – Jarvis
Hall – Stankoven – Blake
Ehlers – Staal – Martinook
Carrier – Jankowski – Robinson
Slavin – Chatfield
Miller – Walker
Gostisbehere – Nikishin
Barbashev – Eichel – Dorofeyev
Howden – Karlsson – Marner
Hertl – Sissons – Stone
Smith – Dowd – Kolesar
McNabb – Theodore
Hanifin – Andersson
Coghlan – Lauzon