2023-05-23 22:36:55
SUNRISE – The story doesn’t say if the ‘coach’ wakes up in the night all sweaty thinking about it, but Rod Brind’Amour has ‘flashes’ of Dominik Hasek in 1998 seeing Sergei Bobrovsky multiply the prowess against his troopers of the Carolina Hurricanes in the final of the Eastern Conference.
“I remember that series against the Buffalo Sabers that I played, and Dominik Hasek made me feel exactly the same way,” Brind’Amour said on Tuesday, recalling the first-round series that the He and Philadelphia Flyers lost in five games to the Sabers and Hasek 25 years ago.
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The Czech had been fabulous in posting a .949 save percentage. Bobrovsky is doing even better this year in goal for the Florida Panthers with his stellar .978 save percentage through three games – 132 saves on 135 shots.
“It shows, goalkeepers who leave on the momentum of the genre, continued Brind’Amour. No matter how hard you try, they stop everything. You end games thinking you could have scored four or five goals, but you don’t have any. »
It’s the same feeling of helplessness that drives the Hurricanes less than 24 hours from trying to save their skins for the first time. If they succeed, they will have to do it three more times. Faced with a goalkeeper at the top of his game, the task seems simply illusory. For the record, no team has overcome a 3-0 deficit in the Conference Finals in NHL history (0-for-46).
“He is incredible, we have to take our hats off to him”, could only concede the young Hurricanes striker Seth Jarvisspeaking of Bobrovsky.
“Our group of attackers must make it more difficult for him by invading the front of the goal more. Any goalie in the world can’t stop shots he can’t see. The puck can hit a pad or anything, or cause a return. »
At FLA Live Arena on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; TVAS, CBC, SN, TNT), the Hurricanes will face the same situation as they did four years ago, trailing 3-0 in the Eastern Finals. In 2019, they folded in four games against the Boston Bruins.
“The two situations are not comparable,” argued the defender Jaccob Slavin. “In 2019, we were beaten by opponents who were clearly superior to us. This year, we have just played three very close matches. The first two required overtime and the third ended with a one-goal difference. We play good hockey. The feeling in the team is different because we are not downgraded. »
We wonder what bad luck has dogged the Hurricanes in the conference final since winning the Stanley Cup in 2006. could suffer a 12th defeat in succession.
“I’ve been around hockey long enough,” Brind’Amour said. No matter who you talk to or the words of encouragement and motivation that people around me send me, there’s nothing else to do but win a game.
“We cannot win four games in the same evening. You have to start with one. »
That’s exactly what Toronto Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe was saying when the Panthers had them in the 3-0 cables in the previous round. The Maple Leafs managed to save their skins for the first time, before surrendering at home in Game 5.
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