Hurricanes can thank defensemen for second-round success

The Carolina Hurricanes advanced to the Eastern Conference Final after beating the New Jersey Devils 3-2 in overtime in Game 5, but many didn’t think they could get this far after the injuries they’ve suffered to their forward group.

With Andrei Svechnikov, Teuvo Teravainen and Max Pacioretty all out for most of the postseason, Tyler Yaremchuk and Mike McKenna talked about what has been helping the Canes on this playoff run.

Tyler Yaremchuk: When I look at this series and how Carolina was able to pick apart the Devils as quickly as they did, goaltending was shaky at some points for the Canes, for the Devils you could say maybe at a lot of points although not in Game 5, but the thing that stands out for me is scoring depth.

Jesper Fast scores the OT winner. Jordan Martinook has 10 points in the round. They had 12 different players find the back of the net in this series. Scoring depth stands out for me, what about you?

Mike McKenna: Depth does, but I think so much of it was coming from the defense of the Hurricanes. Even last night with Slavin and Burns getting involved, just floating pucks in from the blueline, Pesce the other night. That’s important, because when you’re missing your top-end players, when Svechnikov is out, Teravainen, of course, Pacioretty wasn’t there for most of the season, you have to have people chip in.

Dougie Hamilton, what did he have in the series? One assist. I was pretty hard on him yesterday and it’s just how it came. He was -2 last night. I thought Timo Meier played really well and had a big one for the Devils.

And finally, it was a good hockey game. This game felt like it was going to go to overtime, it deserved to go to overtime, but I think the right team won. Carolina especially started to bring it as the overtime period came.

So for me, I don’t think it even matters who’s in goal for Carolina right now, I think that the Carolina Hurricanes just simply were that much better 5-on-5 than the Devils. The Devils will learn from this and be better next season.

But man, that depth. Martinook for Conn Smythe, book it now! I’m so pumped for this dude. We were teammates in Portland years ago, he’s an awesome guy, and it’s great to see someone who was on waivers at the start of the year leading the Canes with 10 points in scoring in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Yeah, it really is quite the story for the Alberta boy. Played some hockey in the AJHL, went up through the WHL. Second round pick of the Coyotes finds his home in Carolina, and what a second round he put together for them.

Is there a matchup between either the Panthers or Leafs that you think better suits the Canes now that they’re on?

Mike McKenna: Not really. The Canes just play so stifling defensively that I think they can handle either of those clubs. I think they’ll probably be a little bit more afraid of the recklessness that comes with the Panthers as opposed to the Leafs. I think tactically, the Hurricanes might line up a little better against the Leafs, but if you get to this stage, who knows? So much of it has to do with momentum, but the Canes are the one team that I think plays as structured as anybody left in the NHL.

You can watch the full episode here…