The Carolina Hurricanes suffered a third-period collapse Wednesday night at Lenovo Center, losing 4-2 to the Florida Panthers in their second preseason contest despite outshooting them 49-16.
It was clear that the Hurricanes outclassed the Panthers' NHL regular-less roster through 40 minutes, but the Canes decided to start packing it in early after going up 2-0 and you can't really do that.
After the game, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour along with Nikolaj Ehlers and Sebastian Aho spoke with the media. Here's what they had to say:
Rod Brind'Amour
On his first impressions of Nikolaj Ehlers in game action and on the top line: I thought they were good early. Had some buzz and then as the game went on, it kind of wasn't great. But I think it's tough to play in these games, I get it. But you can see that they generated a bunch early. Hopefully that will continue.
On Bradly Nadeau: He had some chances, one near the end Svech set him up. Again, he's a young kid still trying to figure it out. We'll keep giving him opportunity.
On it being a community game: I think it's very important. The fanbase and the Hurricanes, we have a good relationship and I think anything we can do to show our appreciation is special, so I'm glad that we do it.
On Givani Smith: There's not much not to like about the way he's played. You always want to know when you ask about a player, 'What does he do and what can he provide?' and it's pretty obvious if you watch.
On seeing Dominik Badinka and Ivan Ryabkin in game action for the first time: They did fine. For a young kid, it wasn't NHL players they played against, but it's still men and I thought [Ryabkin] did well and Badinka isn't much older. He's a young guy too. The key is to not look out of place, right? If you can fit in and then all of a sudden, they did. They looked right at home there. So I think that's real positive.
On if he considered giving Frederik Andersen the full 60 minutes: Nah. Really, I think originally we were thinking maybe just go half, but it didn't feel like he even had to make a save. But it's not really about that either. It's more like, 'Okay, we got through it without any incidents, let's get him out of there.' That's kind of what the decision was.
On Mike Reilly: I thought he was good tonight. Again, those are guys that could be really, really important at some point or maybe even right away. You don't know how it's going to shake out. Those guys that are new like that, I think it's important for them to get acclimated to what we're doing. Now we have clips and things we can teach off of to get everybody up to speed even more so.
On having a learning moment from how the game ended: It sucks to play a game like that and then lose, but there's a reason we lost too. We could have walked out of that game 5-2 and still didn't have a very good segment in there, but now it's obvious. So we can hammer home the point a little more. It's great that the game doesn't count, let's put it that way.
Nikolaj Ehlers
On his impressions from his first game as a Hurricane: I like the way we played in the first two periods. We put a lot of pressure on them, gave them nothing. I've played against this team enough to know that that's the identity of this team and we did that for 40 minutes.
On the impact of game action over practice: You want to lay a foundation in practice, but ultimately, it's the games that you find that chemistry in and where you learn how to play with each other. I think we did a lot of good things today, but there were also a lot of shifts where there was really nothing happening at all, but that's a part of playing in the NHL. We got some work to do.
On putting on the jersey for the first time and playing in front of the Lenovo Center crowd: It was really cool. The jerseys were looking pretty nice. Lots of fans out there, which is always nice. You want to play in front of a lot of fans. Felt good. Obviously it sucks to lose, always does, but it was a good first game. Got some game legs in you, but there's a lot better in this room.
Sebastian Aho
On the team's performance: Obviously a brutal third period, but at least we got a lesson on how not to play hockey. Obviously this time of year doesn't really matter, but I guess the good thing is we can get some clips and talking points out of the third period, but obviously we had plenty of chances to put the game away, but obviously that last... You play a real game, you do whatever you can, the last little step to put the puck in. But I guess it was a good day to miss all those and save them for the regular season and the real games.
On building chemistry with Nikolaj Ehlers: I think that's the good part about the preseason. You bring a new guy in and there's probably a thousand little details that you have to soak in all at once and then when you play a game, you really see and feel how each situation goes. I know already that we're going to build a lot better chemistry just buying in and doing the little details the right way. Every team has different tendencies and like I said, that's why the preseason is good when you're trying to learn a new system and new guys and all that.
On getting reps with the full PP1 unit: Obviously when we start in a couple of weeks, that's a big part of hockey right now. Special teams, a lot of times, dictate how the games go and obviously we did some good things and had some good looks. We'll build here in the preseason so we can be as sharp as possible when we start.
Recent Articles
Logan Stankoven Starting At Center To Open Hurricanes Training Camp
Cayden Primeau Excited About New Opportunity With Father's Former Team In Carolina
Olympic Aspirations, New Teammates and Rising Stardom: A Q&A With Seth Jarvis
Mike Reilly Provides Hurricanes With The Veteran Blueline Depth They Lacked Last Season
Stay updated with the most interesting Carolina Hurricanes stories, analysis, breaking news and more! Tap the star to add us to your favorites on Google News to never miss a story.
