Hello Old Friend
The Devils and Hurricanes have become quite the adversaries over the years, stemming from meeting twice in the past three seasons in the playoffs. Carolina won both playoff series and has won the opening two games of this current regular season.
When asked if the Hurricanes have the Devils number, Keefe responded with: “I think Carolina is an elite team. I think there's probably a lot of teams who would describe it that way. With that said, we beat Carolina three times in our building last season.”
For defenseman Brenden Dillon, who is relatively new to the Carolina rivalry, winning a game is just as important as beating a certain team.
“We want to build momentum. We want to continue, no matter what team's coming in, we want to win, and we want to play well,” he said. “But the fact that it's Carolina and, I've only been here for a year and a half, but I feel like there's this long history. Whether it's playoffs or we start the year there this year, we just want to play well against them. And I think when we are at our best and we're playing with speed, we're able to take the whole records and how they play against us out of it.”
Regardless of the current situation or circumstances, the Devils know exactly how Carolina is going to play.
“You know what to expect out of them,” Dillon said. “You know it's going to be a hard game. You know that you're going to have to bring your best and be competitive, whether that's net front or getting pucks out at the blue line. They keep you to an honest game.
“But we talked about it, and I think it's now for us to continue to play the right way, is not to worry about the opponent, and keep in the back of our minds, yeah, we did lose last time in here. Those were two important points that we let slip away. So, a big match that we will hopefully be ready for.”
For Jesper Bratt, there is a mental aspect as much as winning two points when it comes to Carolina.
"They're the perfect type of opponent for us to play now," he said. "For us to bring that hunger of wanting to beat them more than they want to beat us because of the past couple games and last year's playoff run. I think is a perfect physical and mental challenge tonight."
