Evgeny Kuznetsov uses hilarious analogy to describe Hurricanes-Rangers Game 5

Evgeny Kuznetsov and the Carolina Hurricanes are once again down to their last loss in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs — and this time, they’ll have to take care of business at a hostile Madison Square Garden to keep their Eastern Conference second-round series with the New York Rangers alive for at least another 48 hours.

And ahead of Game 5 — the Canes’ most important contest of the 2023-24 campaign — the Russian shared a spot-on analogy about the Metropolitan Division’s two best teams.

“Yeah, we are kind of against the wall right now, but all I want to say is it’s just going to be a dogfight tomorrow,” the Stanley Cup champion said on Monday, according to NHL.com’s Shawn P. Roarke.

“There is one bowl of food, and two dogs [are] going to compete [with] each other. There’s not a lot of tactics or skill plays. It’s just about compete and the dogfight. That’s all I can say.”

Well said, Kuzy. Despite the lopsided score in the series, all four games have been decided by one goal — with both Games 2 and 3 needing overtime to decide. The Rangers won both of those contests, as well as Game 1, to put the Hurricanes on the ropes in Game 4.

But Rod Brind’Amour’s team would not be swept for a second time in three series, instead utilizing a late powerplay goal from Brady Skjei and timely goaltending from Frederik Andersen to earn a victory at PNC Arena on Saturday.

And Kuznetsov sent a warning ahead of another monumental tilt on Monday — don’t let the Hurricanes bring the series back to Raleigh.

“They know they don’t want to come back here,” asserted the 2018 playoff leading scorer. “They know it is going to be h**l here. They want to finish over there and what we are trying to do is just put the pressure on them a little bit and play our game.”

There’s no doubt that Carolina is still very much in the series despite trailing 3-1, especially due to how close each of the first four contests have been. But it’s going to be a very difficult task to silence a powerhouse Rangers team with an opportunity to advance to the Eastern Conference Final for the second time in three years — on home ice.

Hurricanes once again facing elimination — this time at MSG