3 Things to Watch: Hurricanes at Senators, Game 4 of Eastern Conference 1st Round

(1M) Hurricanes at (2WC) Senators

Eastern Conference First Round, Game 4

Hurricanes lead series 3-0

3 p.m. ET; TVAS, SN, TBS, truTV, FDSNSO, HBO MAX

OTTAWA – The Carolina Hurricanes have no interest in letting the Ottawa Senators back into this series.

The opportunity to play another day, another game, fuels hope, and hope is currency in the postseason.

So, the Hurricanes have no plans to rest on their laurels, needing to win one of the next four games in this series to advance to the second round.

They want to snuff the torch of the Senators as soon as possible, preferably in Game 4 at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday.

“It’s the same as any other day,” center Sebastian Aho said Friday. “This time of year, when it is go time, you don’t think about that stuff. You just put everything you got (on the ice), work your butt off and go from there.”

Carolina defenseman Sean Walker said the Senators will be looking to build on positives in Game 4. It’s Carolina’s job to limit those, just as it did in a 2-1 win in Game 3 here Thursday. The Senators rarely had life in a low-event game.

“You have to go into the game with the same mindset you have for the first three,” he said. “They are going to be desperate. Their backs are against the wall. We have to come and match the intensity, if not have our best game that we have had all series.”

Ottawa doesn’t have to look far for hope. Last season, they lost the first three games of their series against the Maple Leafs in the first round. They found a way to win the next two and put a scare into their provincial rival.

If they want to look further back, forward Claude Giroux made the journey from despair to delight in 2010 when his Philadelphia Flyers erased a 3-0 series deficit to the Boston Bruins in the second round and advanced to the Stanley Cup Final.

Four teams have done it in the history of best-of-7 series play in Stanley Cup Playoffs history. 

“When we were in that position a long time ago, we just had a belief in the group that we could come back in a series," Giroux said. "You don’t think you are going to win the series, but you want to get back and give yourself a chance. The momentum changes. … For us it is Game 4 and that is all we are worried about.”

Extinguishing that belief is the Hurricanes’ task in Game 4.

“I said since before the series started, we all know what a great team they are,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “They have played hard every game and they are going to do the exact same. The only chance we have to be successful is if we play as hard as we can and do things right. Otherwise, it’s not going to go well.”

Here are 3 things to watch in Game 4.

1. Goalie change?

Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen has been brilliant in this series. He has stopped 80 of 83 shots in the first three games, and his 0.84 goals-against average and .964 save percentage each leads the playoffs (minimum two starts).

But the 36-year-old is no longer a workhorse and there have been durability concerns all season. In fact, Brandon Bussi, a waiver wire find at the start of the season, led Carolina with 39 starts in goal compared to Andersen’s 35.

Game 4 would be a fourth game in eight days for Andersen, including a double-overtime affair in Game 2. Plus, with the afternoon start time, puck drop is 41 hours after the end of Game 3.

Could we see Bussi, who has never appeared in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, for Game 4?

“We haven’t really made a decision on that yet,” Brind’Amour said Friday, a day in which his team did not go on the ice. “We will talk to (Andersen) today and see where he is at. Obviously, he has played well so he has given no reason to think about giving him a rest.

“But if that is what he feels he needs, we will make that decision.”

2. Power outage

Neither team has done much on the power play. Ottawa is 0-for-12. Carolina is 1-for-10.

The Senators say the inability to score on the man-advantage is a primary culprit for the situation they find themselves in. Coach Travis Green said frustration with the foundering power play has bled into the 5-on-5 game.

The Senators have three goals in the series.

Video work and identifying tendencies can go a long way toward blunting the effectiveness of power plays.

The Hurricanes killed 88 seconds of a 5-on-3 in the second period in Game 3, not allowing a shot. It was a turning point in the game.

“We are coached very well and having everyone on the same page is huge,” Walker said. “We are very aggressive and we take away their time and pace. If one guy is going, everyone is going. I think that has been key all series.”

3. Tired legs

The Ottawa defense corps is at its breaking point.

The top pair of Jake Sanderson and Artem Zub is injured, Zub since the second period of Game 1, Sanderson in the second period Thursday. Neither will play Saturday.

Thomas Chabot is playing 32:23 per game, the most in the playoffs. Jordan Spence is playing 27:43, seventh most in the League.

Jaccob Slavin leads Carolina with 25:50.

There’s no question which team’s blue line has heavier legs. It’s going to get worse for the Senators in a win-or-go-home Game 4.

“Losing a guy like (Sanderson stinks), but we can’t dwell on it,” Spence said. “We have to focus on the next game. It’s next-man-up mentality.

Hurricanes projected lineup

Andrei Svechnikov -- Sebastian Aho -- Seth Jarvis

Taylor Hall -- Logan Stankoven -- Jackson Blake

Nikolaj Ehlers -- Jordan Staal -- Jordan Martinook

William Carrier -- Mark Jankowski -- Eric Robinson

Jaccob Slavin -- Jalen Chatfield

K’Andre Miller -- Sean Walker

Shayne Gostisbehere -- Alexander Nikishin

Frederik Andersen

Brandon Bussi

Scratched: Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Nicolas Deslauriers, Mike Reilly, Pyotr Kochetkov

Injured: None

Senators projected lineup 

Brady Tkachuk -- Tim Stutzle -- Drake Batherson

Ridly Greig -- Dylan Cozens -- Claude Giroux

Warren Foegele -- Shane Pinto -- Michael Amadio

Nick Cousins -- Lars Eller -- Fabian Zetterlund

Thomas Chabot -- Nikolas Matinpalo

Tyler Kleven -- Jordan Spence

Lassi Thomson -- Cameron Crotty

Linus Ullmark

James Reimer

Scratched: Kurtis MacDermid, Stephen Halliday, Hayden Hodgson, Graeme Clarke, Arthur Kaliyev, Xavier Bourgault, Oskar Pettersson, Tyler Boucher, Carter Yakemchuk, Leevi Merilainen, Dennis Gilbert

Injured: Artem Zub (undisclosed), Jake Sanderson (upper body)

Status report

Neither team practiced Friday. ... Sanderson, a defenseman who sustained a concussion and left in the second period of a 2-1 loss in Game 3 on Thursday, will not play. ... Zub, a defenseman, is also out for Game 4. ... Thomson and Gilbert, a defenseman, each could enter the lineup after being a healthy scratch Thursday. ... Yakemchuk, a defenseman who played four games with the Senators this season, could draw into the lineup as well.