Game 1 Recap: Canes Fall to Bruins in Double Overtime

TORONTO - Scotiabank Arena played host to the fourth-longest game in National Hockey League history on Tuesday night, a five-overtime epic that bumped Game 1 between the Carolina Hurricanes and Boston Bruins to Wednesday morning.

Go figure, then, that the Canes and Bruins would stage a multi-overtime thriller of their own, with the Bruins coming out on top, 4-3.

Patrice Bergeron potted the game-winner for Boston at the 1:13 mark of double overtime.

Here are five takeaways from a rescheduled Game 1.

1. No Excuses

The Hurricanes hadn't played in over a week. They were ready to drop the puck last night, even if it would have been as late as 11 p.m. They didn't have two players in their lineup - Justin Williams and Sami Vatanen, both of whom were game-time decisions and are "definitely a possibility" for Game 2, according to head coach Rod Brind'Amour.

But those are just a variety of reasons to explain away the result of Game 1, and the Canes aren't interested in any of them.

"It could be a lot of excuses you could bring up, but as a group, we didn't love our effort," Jordan Staal said. "We didn't do some of the things we're known for and what makes us a good, gritty team. I thought there were some shifts here and there, but they played a good game. We have to be better if we want to beat the best."

"Any time you lose in the playoffs, especially in overtime, it's obviously a stinger. It's what I thought was going to happen, unfortunately. I knew they were going to play a good hockey game and we were going to get the best of the Bruins. I thought they were really good. I was afraid we were going to be a little sluggish, and we were," Rod Brind'Amour said. "They played a better game than we did overall, but I thought we got back into it a little, but we weren't good enough to win that game."

Despite the stinging defeat, the Canes can be encouraged that, even though they didn't have their best, they still took the Presidents' Trophy winners to a second overtime - and they get right back at it a little more than 24 hours from now.

"I thought we did a good job preparing for the game," Staal said. "We've got a group that has to deal with adversity and enjoys that challenge. It's unfortunate we didn't come up with our best, but I could see it being a long series. These are two good teams, and hopefully we get the better of them next time."

2. Fleury Ties It

Through the first 40 minutes, the Canes had put just nine shots on Tuukka Rask.

That's not their game, which is centered on volume, possession and grinding opponents down.

"The way we get shots on net is just playing our style of game. We have to forecheck them, get pucks to our point and just crash and bang in front of the net," Brock McGinn said. "In the first couple of periods, we didn't get to our game at all. Halfway through that third period, we started to do that and creating opportunities."

David Krejci put the Bruins ahead, 3-2, 59 seconds into the third period.

Then, with just over 10 minutes left in regulation and the Canes down by a goal, Vincent Trocheck worked the puck up the near wall to Haydn Fleury at the point. Fleury walked the puck along the blue line to the middle of the ice, where he snapped off a seeing-eye wrist shot that cleanly fooled Rask.

"We finally got playing. The rust was certainly there. The pace of the game we weren't ready for. They grinded us down, and we weren't quite ready for that," Brind'Amour said. "I thought we got a little better as the game went on. I saw semblances of the way we'd like to play, but it wasn't there enough, and that's why we were on the short end."

3. Eddy Opens the Scoring

Joel Edmundson, who won a Stanley Cup ring with the St. Louis Blues in their seven-game triumph over Boston last year, opened the scoring in this First Round series.

The sequence began with a heady possession play by Warren Foegele, who won't show up on the scoresheet but is deserving of a third assist if there ever was one. While the Canes swapped forward lines, Foegele gained the zone and drifted to the near wall, where he attracted a group of Bruins and bided time for his teammates to join the play. Foegele then threaded the needle across the ice to Sebastian Aho, who dropped the puck off for Teuvo Teravainen. The Canes' shifty Finn surveyed the zone and laid off a pass for Edmundson, who torched a one-timer against the grain on Rask.

The league's leading regular-season goal scorer, David Pastrnak, evened the ledger before the end of the first period, finishing a pass from Brad Marchand off a set play from an offensive zone faceoff win.

4. Challenge Controversy

So, here was an interesting scenario. In the second period, Jaccob Slavin and Nick Ritchie both reached into the air to paw down the puck. Ritchie got to it, and the puck ended up in front of Petr Mrazek, who pounced on it with his glove. Anders Bjork, though, reached his stick under Mrazek's glove and pitchforked the puck out, right to Charlie Coyle, who scored a fairly easy goal to put the Bruins ahead, 2-1.

Mrazek and the Canes were, rightfully, befuddled by what had happened, and the Canes utilized their coach's challenge in an attempt to wipe the goal from the scoreboard due to a "missed stoppage of play."

Those plays, according to the rule change instituted prior to the 2019-20 season, may involve pucks that bounce off the protective netting (not being utilized in an empty building), pucks that are illegally high-sticked to a teammate in the offensive zone, pucks that have gone out of play but are subsequently touched in the offensive zone and hand passes - the last being the critical point the Canes contested.

The Situation Room ruled that Mrazek "controlled the puck" prior to the goal, which "nullified the potential hand pass."

That's all well and good, but then why was it not ruled goaltender interference?

Conceivably, the Canes could have challenged for goaltender interference instead of a missed stoppage of play, but the call on the ice was vague and unclear. Had it been more clearly communicated that the call asserted that a potential hand pass had been negated by Mrazek's control of the puck, the Canes would have challenged for goaltender interference - and probably won.

Instead, their challenge was unsuccessful, and they were assessed a two-minute minor for delay of game, as the penalty for a failed coach's challenge.

Double dagger.

In any case, on the ensuing penalty kill, McGinn raced down the ice on a shorthanded breakaway. He got Rask to bite hard on the forehand fake before roofing a backhander to tie the game at two.

Puck don't lie.

"That call was - I mean, forget the penalty - I still can't figure it out," Brind'Amour said. "[The shorthanded goal] got us back in the game and gave us a chance, anyway, to pull out a win. The penalty kill was good."

The kill was a perfect 4-for-4 against the Bruins' potent power play, which ranked second in the league during the regular season.

5. Dougie Returns

It had been 209 days since Dougie Hamilton last dressed in a game for the Canes, his All-Star season unfortunately cut short by a freak injury in mid-January in Columbus.

The Canes expected to have Hamilton back for the playoffs anyway, and then when the pause punted the postseason four months down the calendar, his return was an inevitability. Then, during Phase 3 training camp, he suffered another setback and was forced to sit out of the Cup Qualifiers.

Tuesday night's delay was yet another obstacle to his return, but Hamilton was finally back once the puck dropped in Game 1. He was paired with his partner, Jaccob Slavin, and was featured on the point on the first power-play unit, all familiar spots for the offensive-minded blue-liner who was having a career season.

Hamilton finished the day with three blocks in 26:48 of ice time.

Up Next

The Canes and Bruins will get back at it on Thursday at 8 p.m. - barring another one of the longest games in NHL history, of course.

"When you lose a game like that, you definitely don't want to marinate on it too long. We've got a chance to come back and play right away. That's good, especially since we've been sitting for so long. We'll try to shore up a couple of things and then get right back at it. That's what you want."