Saturday night’s overtime in Toronto against the Maple Leafs was a microcosm of the Carolina Hurricanes’ unforgettable previous 10 days.
First, when the 3-on-3 started, Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour had to check himself. He could send his usual top skill players over the boards, from Sebastian Aho to Martin Necas to Andrei Svechnikov. But as Brind’Amour recounted later: it struck him all of a sudden that he had a bunch of new toys to choose from. Jake Guentzel was an option. So was Evgeny Kuznetsov. The Hurricanes, not typically big-time buyers in the middle of a season, changed their behavior this March and made two big-ticket trades for top-six forwards. Brind’Amour thus had to recalibrate his brain for all the new possible lineup permutations.
“It’s like Christmas, right?” Brind’Amour said.
But when Guentzel got sent over the boards in overtime, he did what the new kid in class never wants to do: immediately get sent to the principal’s office. He took a slashing penalty and had to sweat it out. He was nervous as hell. The last thing he wanted to do was blow his team’s late comeback, from down 4-2 with 1:32 to go, by taking a bad penalty in his third game with them after being traded from the Pittsburgh Penguins March 6. To his relief, the Canes killed it off, and, rather poetically, it was Guentzel, one of Brind’Amour’s new weapons, tapped to take a potentially clinching attempt in the shootout. Guentzel converted, Carolina snatched a win from the Leafs, and his teammates mauled him.
The transition hasn’t necessarily been easy for Guentzel and Kuznetsov, Brind’Amour said. Both come from Metro Division rivals and have faced the Canes dozens of times in their careers. Guentzel has been finding his legs coming back from a lower-body injury that cost him four weeks, while Kuznetsov is searching for his old swagger after ending his 11-season tenure as a Washington Capital with a stint in the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program. Both players have been stars for much of their NHL careers, and both own Stanley Cup rings, but Brind’Amour still sees some timidity early on.
“It’s gonna take some time for these guys to feel comfortable,” he said. “I can see they’re still a tad hesitant and not quite sure what to do, but I think it’ll only get better.”
The key to getting Guentzel and Kuznetsov up to speed: the Canes dressing room, which is known to be among the league’s most cohesive groups. It includes a core contingent of lifelong Hurricanes with five or more years of service, including Aho, Necas, Svechnikov, Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce. Youngster Seth Jarvis and greybeard Brent Burns bring some of the funniest, warmest personalities in the game.
“You’re a new guy, and hopefully guys try to take you in, and this group’s been unbelievable with that so far, so I’ve been pretty lucky,” Guentzel said.
The Canes aren’t used to making adjustments of this magnitude to their chemistry during the season, so they’ve made a conscious effort to execute it correctly, Aho explained.
“You go to dinners. Get to know him. These road trips actually help a lot,” Aho said of his new linemate Guentzel. “We spend a lot of time together and it’s usually a very fun group to be a part of. If he has anything to ask, you try to help, but more just be there for him and just hang out, you know? Make him comfortable.”
“I don’t have to worry about that: We’ve got a great room,” Brind’Amour said. “They wanted these players. So they’re going to do everything they can to make sure these guys feel good and get up to speed as quickly as possible.”
So far, the efforts seem to be working. Guentzel has a goal and five points in his first four games as a Cane. They tilt the ice as well as any team in the league, and that hasn’t changed a bit with him out there. Per Natural Stat Trick, in 5-on-5 play, they’re outscoring opponents 4-0 and outchancing them 34-19 when he’s on the ice. Guentzel’s ice time still fluctuates as he finds his rhythm coming off an injury, but in Saturday’s game, his third as a Cane, he topped 20 minutes. The trust from Brind’Amour is growing quickly.
“It’s been great. He’s just an unbelievable guy, unbelievable coach, you learn a lot from him,” Guentzel said, smiling ear to ear. “Whenever you can play a good amount of minutes, he makes you feel good. I feel like I’m getting better each game, and the adjustment’s been pretty good so far.”
Kuznetsov has a pair of goals and four points through six games with the team. At 5-on-5: the Canes outscore opponents 5-1 and outchance them 41-21 with him on the ice. The fit thus seems pretty seamless for both new additions. Not that the longtime Canes players expected anything less.
“Both have been unreal. Great personalities. Both positive guys, work hard,” Aho said. “Definitely, we all know how great of a player ‘Guentz’ is. He’s done it for many many years, and obviously won a Stanley Cup, and Kuzy as well, the skill set he has, doesn’t get much better than that, right? So the additions were really good and definitely gave us a little life in the room. But having said that, we’ve been able to keep the work ethic and all that together. That’s a huge part, too.”
Hurricanes GM Don Waddell finally understood it was time to get aggressive. His team has knocked on the door of deep playoff runs every season since Brind’Amour took over, never posting a points percentage south of .596 in any of his five completed seasons behind their bench. The lack of a game-breaker has been the knock pretty much every time Carolina fell short in the playoffs. Now they have a player in Guentzel who led the playoffs in goals during a Cup-winning season and a player in Kuznetsov who led the playoffs in points during a Cup-winning season. It’s no wonder the vibes in the dressing room feel so giddy at the moment. The Canes have won six of their past seven games.
The exciting additions don’t guarantee Carolina finally breaks through, especially considering the volatility of Kuznetsov’s troubled career arc. But Waddell has done everything he can to put a championship team on the ice in 2023-24. That isn’t something we’ve been able to say about his team since perhaps 2020, when he landed Vincent Trocheck and Brady Skjei on trade deadline day.
So it’s understandable why Brind’Amour feels like he’s unwrapping presents under a tree in his living room in December.
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