Will the recent rocking at PNC Arena end tonight?
Obviously, the Hurricanes dug themselves into a big hole by losing the first two games of the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs at home to the Lightning, who have the advantage of the championship Kool-Aide everyone in the Tampa Bay area is drinking these days.
Seriously, coming off a Super Bowl win behind Tom Brady and with an unsung baseball team that doesn’t seem to lose, the Lightning are just following the script. Win the first two games in Raleigh, make a dramatic comeback at home in Game 4 and close out the series in Game 5 or certainly in Game 6 back in Tampa.
With his team down 3-1 and on the brink of the season ending, Canes’ coach Rod Brind’Amour is insisting that elimination games are easier to play because there is no tomorrow, as the cliché goes. Trouble is his team has to win three straight elimination games.
What happened with a 4-2 lead in the second period of Game 4, taking some careless penalties and letting the Bolts’ deadly power play forge a comeback and 6-4 win that has put the Canes in this position?
Even the local media, which cheers them on along with the fan base, is saying they have to play a perfect game tonight at 6:30 to win and keep it going to Game 6 Thursday in Florida, where I guess another perfect performance will be required to force a Game 7 back in Raleigh Saturday.
Just shows you why making the playoffs in hockey is more important than whatever seed you draw. Look at Montreal, which barely had a winning record in the regular season, came back from a 3-1 deficit to stun Toronto and then swept favored Winnipeg, 4-0.
The Bruins were favored to beat the upstart Islanders in another second-round series. And after following the Hurricanes script of committing costly penalties, they gave up three power play goals in a 5-4 loss at home and now face elimination in Game 6, the last one to be played in old Nassau County Coliseum.
Boston’s task is equal to Carolina, which finished first in the Central Division and earned home-ice advantage all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals but blew that by losing two games at home.
The Lightning have won seven of their last 10 meetings against Carolina, are 7-4-1 overall against the Canes this season and 3-2-1 at PNC Arena, winning three of their last four games at the home of the Hurricanes.
But, as the coach says, it should be easier to win now since they must to keep playing.
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