CAROLINA HURRICANES NEWS CLIPPINGS • May 21, 2021 How the Canes’ Alex Nedeljkovic is making the most of his playoff shot. ‘He was a stud.’ By Chip Alexander Nedeljkovic, wearing a black shirt with “Prove It” on the front, gave it the “just-another-game” kind of treatment afterward in Alex Nedeljkovic dipped his head as the Carolina Hurricanes his media interview, but the 25-year-old from Parma, Ohio, starting lineup was being announced Wednesday at PNC knows better. In a season that began with the goalie being Arena, his long, black hair tumbling down below his chin. For placed on waivers by the Canes, and not claimed by anyone, a few seconds, he was a young man alone with his thoughts there he was Wednesday sitting on the bench, named the in the crease. game’s first star as Canes fans chanted “Ned! Ned!” After the national anthem was played, the head jerked back. Two playoff starts, two playoff wins. And the second a So did the flow. On firmly went the goalie mask, like a shutout? That’s more than “another game.” medieval knight positioning his helmet for battle. Nedeljkovic has confidence The guys they call “Ned” was ready. Bring it on. “His confidence sticks out the most for me,” Skjei said. “He’s Some in the NHL probably have scoffed when it’s said not cocky or arrogant. He just carries himself with that Nedeljkovic should be a strong candidate for the Calder confidence you need to be a goalie. He’s playing great right Trophy as NHL rookie of the year. Many of those skeptics — now.” and there are many — might have been watching Wednesday as Nedeljkovic turned back all 32 Nashville In truth, there were many “first stars” Wednesday for the shots for the Canes in a 3-0 shutout of the Predators in Canes, who will take their 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Game 2 of their Stanley Cup series. series to Nashville for the next two games. With defenseman Jaccob Slavin a scratch because of a lower-body injury, the “He was a stud tonight,” defenseman Brady Skjei said. “He minutes were many for Skjei and defenseman Brett Pesce, was phenomenal.” who each played about 28 in the game. In the Canes’ practices leading up to the start of the first- “There were a lot of sacrifices,” Nedeljkovic said. “Guys were round series, Petr Mrazek appeared to the goalie working the blocking shots, guys were diving to make plays, to get pucks so-called starter’s crease. But when the time came to name out. It wasn’t our best but it was a really gutsy effort.” a starter for Game 1, it was Nedeljkovic. There were seven Predators power plays, and the Canes did Nedeljkovic appeared to fight the puck early in Monday’s all the necessary penalty-killing work, starting in net with game, even though he would later dispute that assertion. But Nedeljkovic. by game’s end, he was the winner with 22 rather mundane saves in the Canes’ 5-2 victory. “You can tell he has confidence between the pipes,” said Aho, who scored the first goal in Game 2 on a first-period Back in the net Wednesday, Nedeljkovic has never looked power play. “Obviously, we talked about the PK, and the calmer or more positionally sound. He wasn’t fighting defensive game overall, and it starts with the hot goalie. anything. He made the hard saves and the easy ones as the We’ve got the confidence to put the pressure on their Preds pressed, and stopped shots that might have looked players. We know if they make a play, Ned will bail us out.” harmless unless you’re the guy with the mask on working the crease. The Canes have the 2-0 lead in the series but it will be different the next two games. They’ll be in Bridgestone With the Canes leading 1-0 five minutes into the third period, Arena, with a loud crowd urging on the Predators, who have Nedeljkovic flashed his glove to snatch a bullet of a shot from been a combative bunch but now have tested Nedeljkovic the slot by the Preds’ Luke Kunin. It stayed 1-0 until the final with 56 shots in two games and gotten two pucks past him. minute of regulation, when Sebastian Aho and then Warren Foegele scored for the Canes to ice it. “It’s huge when you have a hot goalie,” Aho said. “It’s just fun to watch him play right now.” “There’s nothing like a close game, a tense game, the whole time from the first puck drop to the final buzzer,” Nedeljkovic Carolina Hurricanes vs Nashville Predators said. “Everybody was on the edge of their seat. The next shot, you never know what could happen. It could be a hit, it What: Game 3, Stanley Cup playoff first-round series. could be a broken stick, just whatever could change the tide When: Friday, 7 p.m. of the game. That’s the beauty of the game.” Where: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tenn. TV: BSSO (Bally) CAROLINA HURRICANES NEWS CLIPPINGS • May 21, 2021 How did the Predators’ Erik Haula become Public Enemy No. 56 against his former team? By Luke DeCock Finnish center has certainly embraced the role of pantomime villain in the series. Erik Haula started Game 2 the way he finished Game 1: Resuming a running debate with Martin Necas after the “I must be doing something right,” Haula said. whistle, then later drawing a retaliation penalty on Sebastian Aho to give the Nashville Predators one of their seven power As Brind’Amour said earlier this week, “(Haula) can handle plays Wednesday night. that. I think he likes that.” Whether Haula intended to go into this series as the *extreme chuck amato voice* discipline Predators’ primary antagonist against his former team or not, While there was no question the Predators goaded the that’s the way things have turned out. For chunks of the officials into two of the seven penalties that went against the Carolina Hurricanes’ 3-0 win, Haula was booed not only Hurricanes and led to Nashville power plays on Wednesday, when he had the puck but merely when he stepped on the Brind’Amour was unhappy that the Predators goaded the ice. Hurricanes into those kinds of retaliation plays at all. “That booing and yelling, all those things, honestly I love it,” In the NHL, as in fights between siblings, it’s always the Haula said after Game 1. second guy that gets caught. But now that he has, it’s worth looking back heading into “We don’t want to get involved in all that stuff,” Brind’Amour Friday’s Game 3 in Nashville at Haula’s departure from the said. “It opens up, whether you think they’re penalties or not, Hurricanes last season, and where all the acrimony -- on embellishment or not, it opens up to have that be called. both sides -- that has bubbled to the surface on the ice in this You’ve got to take a cheap shot. You just have to. We didn’t series actually arose. tonight. We wanted to give it back and those were the ones “There’s a big reason Erik Haula was traded,” Bally Sports getting called. You can’t get engaged in that kind of stuff. It South analyst Shane Willis said during Wednesday’s just doesn’t help.” broadcast. “It’s not because of his skill. I’ll leave it at that.” Still, there was clearly some frustration over an 18-12 penalty A trade acquisition during the summer of 2019, Haula had a differential in favor of the visiting team through two games, productive start to his Hurricanes career before he was not the way it usually works in the postseason. That remains slowed by a persistent knee injury. As the trade deadline an area to watch because there have been times where the approached, and Haula’s ice time dwindled, the Hurricanes Hurricanes let concerns with the officiating affect their focus, made it clear they were not interested in offering the at times during the Washington Capitals series in 2019 and impending free agent a new contract. The circumstances led certainly in both of the recent series with the Boston Bruins. to at least one shouting match in a back hallway of the They maintained their composure in Game 1 against dressing room during a media access period. Nashville; they were less successful in Game 2. Amid concerns over Haula’s fit in the dressing room, the Man disadvantage advantage Hurricanes included him in the deadline trade with the Then again, none of that mattered thanks to the penalty kill Florida Panthers for center Vincent Trocheck, a flat-out steal that is now 10-for-10 in the series and, while shorthanded, of a deal that in recent history ranks only behind the grand outchanced the Predators’ power play Wednesday night. larceny that was Nino Niederreiter for Victor Rask. Haula That’s not out of the norm for an attacking, aggressive PK ended up signing with the Predators this season on a cut- unit that ranked third in the league and scored seven short- rate $1.75 million, one-year deal. handed goals in the 56-game regular season. In an interview Thursday, Willis elaborated on his comments The Hurricanes nearly had their first of the postseason but about Haula, whose skill level Willis said he admires. Juuse Saros was able to stop a Aho breakaway and deny “I always go back to what Rod (Brind’Amour) wants in the Trocheck on a two-on-one.