Hurricanes Morning Throughts: Brind’Amour, Slavin, & Orlov Meet with Media

The Carolina Hurricanes enter tonight’s game up 1-0 in their First Round series against the New Jersey Devils, and will look to head to Newark, NJ, up 2-0. After their Game 1 win, the Hurricanes seemed in control of the series and will try to carry that momentum into Game 2. On Tuesday morning, Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour, defenseman Jaccob Slavin, and Dmitry Orlov met with the media to discuss what is next for the team.

Rod Brind’Amour

When asked about Taylor Hall and what he brings to a locker room that already has great leadership, Brind’Amour told THW, “I think he’s coming in and just fits in and not trying to actually do too much. Not trying to say, ‘I’m a former MVP of the league.’ It’s more so of trying to fit in and do his part. I think that’s been the key to it all, and just go play. It’s valuable to have a guy like that with experience.”

Hall has been there and done that in the playoffs. In 2022-23 with the Boston Bruins, he had eight points in the first round. He had two assists in Game 1 and has been one of the best forwards on the Hurricanes, outside of Logan Stankoven’s two goals.

The second line of Hall with Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Andrei Svechnikov could take the team far. He’s also on the top power-play unit, which managed a 33.3% success rate in Game 1. Brind’Amour also noted not to expect any changes to the lineup.

Jaccob Slavin

Slavin was asked how the team and assistant coach Tim Gleason expect to maintain their defensive structure in the playoffs and noted, “We just keep the hammer down, and we don’t really change much. I think we just emphasize more and more what we do as a d-core. If making sure we’re tight through the neutral zone, keeping tight gaps and making sure reads are right, whether we’re pinching in the o-zone. Because there are a lot of times in the regular season you can get hosed if you have a bad pinch. Doing it during the playoffs, you just can’t have those types of reads, so just making sure mentally we’re all checked in and just emphasizing how we play as a d-core even more.”

The Hurricanes managed to limit the Devils’ chances in Game 1. Goalie Frederik Andersen faced 24 shots all game, while the Hurricanes locked down Jesper Bratt and Nico Hischier for the most part – the Devils only scored one goal. The Devils will come out with their hair on fire as they look to even up the series before they head back to New Jersey.

Game 1 had plenty of chippy play, especially towards the end, so expect more physical play from both sides on Tuesday night, maybe even more than the 90-plus hits combined in Game 1.

Dmitry Orlov

When asked about mental toughness to stick to their game and not get involved in extracurriculars, Orlov stated, Just being strong in your mind. Believe in yourself and your teammates, trust in them and help them out. It’s experience, and you know how to handle certain things. Just make sure you calm down in your head, and you should be focused and not lose confidence.