Playoff Notebook: It Starts With One

SUNRISE, FL. -"Win or go home."

Well, the Canes are headed back to Raleigh following Wednesday's Game 4 no matter what, but only traveling home with a victory will prolong their hopes of playing for a Stanley Cup in 2023.

Electing to stay off the ice, holding team meetings instead on Tuesday, Rod Brind'Amour, Jaccob Slavin, and Seth Jarvis met with the media to share their thoughts on their current 3-0 series hole.

Keeping The Faith

No team will openly say they're going to roll over when trailing by three in a best-of-seven series, and the Canes were no exception to that today.

Leaning on their veteran leadership and examples of their resiliency that they've showcased all year, the group knows that it's a one-day-at-a-time approach from here on out.

"We've got a lot of belief in our locker room. It's going to be a lot of work, but it's work we're looking forward to," Jaccob Slavin started when taking questions at FLA Live Arena this afternoon.

Just over 12 hours removed from a third consecutive one-goal defeat, the consensus is that a bounce here or there could have this series looking vastly different than the current actuality of the Panthers being one game away from advancing.

"It's the toughest way to lose games. When you come back (post-game) and it's a play here or there that you didn't make. It's definitely frustrating. The key is that you can't let it change your mindset," Rod Brind'Amour shared when asked if it's more difficult to lose these games by such razor-thin margins, as opposed to having their doors blown off.

"We're still in the mindset that we need to win a game. That's the way we came into this series and it's the way we are right now," Brind'Amour continued. "We're not going to win four games tomorrow. We're going to try and win one. It's simple. It's boring. It's what you always hear, but that's the only way you can do it."

Stymied by a 32-save perfect performance from Sergei Bobrovsky on Monday, the group feels as if they've played well in each game of the series thus far, and that there's no need to push the panic button for Game 4.

"We're not going to be changing too much... It's tough to find fault in our game right now, but we do have to get a puck in the net," Brind'Amour continued of his approach for tomorrow, before reflecting on what's led things to this point. "If we were getting 15 shots, I'd be saying that we need to get more, but you have to give credit where credit is due, (Bobrovksy) is playing really well. We've had a lot of really good chances and we just have to keep trying to get more."

Comparing Bobrovksy's play in this series to that of Dominik Hasek's during the 1998 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Florida's 34-year-old Russian netminder has produced a remarkable .978 save percentage through three contests.

"He's playing unbelievable right now. You have to tip your cap," second-year Hurricane Seth Jarvis said of Bobrovsky. "As a forward, we have to get more bodies in front of him. That's what makes it tough for any goalie on the planet... We just need to do a better job of digging in as a forward group of getting bodies in front of him."

Carolina's forward group has yet to record a goal at five-on-five this series, a zero they'd like to squash tomorrow night.

"We've made adjustments every game. It's all little things that you're trying to do," Brind'Amour offered when asked of how he's trying to balance sticking with playing well and finding what it's going to take to earn a win. "You can't make massive tweaks at this point in the year. They'll make an adjustment on coverage or something, so you have (to make an adjustment). You have to be careful though, because if you start making a bunch of changes, now your game went from out chancing a team to it going the other way. Then we're really in trouble."

Any way you slice it though, Carolina has their work cut out for them.

A team of competitors has made clear all season long that an appearance in the Eastern Conference Final won't be enough to send them into their summers satisfied.

Their next mission on this step-by-step plan is inherently clear - win Game 4.

"What's done is done and so the reality is that we've got to win four in a row. We're focusing on tomorrow night and taking it one game at a time," Slavin said directly. "We just have to go out there and continue to put on our best effort and try to break through from there."

"We're against the wall, there's nowhere else we can go but forward," Jarvis followed with the same direct level of intent. "We just have to go out there and play as desperate as we can, because it's do or die."

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