CAROLINA HURRICANES NEWS CLIPPINGS • March 31, 2021 Blackhawks survive rocky start, hold off Hurricanes, 2-1 By Chip Alexander The Canes had been behind just three times this season after 40 minutes before Tuesday. For the fourth time, they The Carolina Hurricanes ended what has been a strong could not make a third-period comeback as the Blackhawks month of March with a loss that coach Rod Brind’Amour hunkered around Lankinen, looked to clog the neutral zone described as “weird” and “gross.” to stymie the Canes and blocked shots -- Chicago had 19 The Canes were beaten 2-1 by the Chicago Blackhawks, blocks in the game. who turned two early goals in the second period and 31 “They did a good job of making it a tough game on us,” Skjei saves from rookie goalie Kevin Lankinen into a grinding said. “it was definitely a more controlled game then the victory Tuesday at the United Center. previous ones.” The Canes (23-8-3) could have moved into first place in the Goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, in his 13th game, took the loss for Central Division after the Tampa Bay Lighting lost Tuesday the Canes, who had center Vincent Trocheck return to the for a third straight time in regulation. But the loss dropped lineup after missing eight game with an upper-body injury. Carolina (49 points) to third after the Florida Panthers won to tie the Lightning with 50 points. The Blackhawks (17-15-5), in Trocheck, called the Canes’ best player Tuesday by fourth, kept pace with Nashville, which also won Tuesday. Brind’Amour, had an assist on the Svechnikov goal. “It was a weird game.” Brind’Amour said. “We didn’t generate “I felt pretty good from the start,” Trocheck said. “I just any offense and we gave up two goals. it was that simple, in needed to get a few hits and feel the game a little bit.” my opinion. We just handed them two. Lankinen might have won the game in the first period, when “There really wasn’t much happening in that game. It was the rookie stopped 13 shots as the Canes stayed on the kind of a gross hockey game, to be honest with you. We attack. Strome then beat Nedeljkovic with a shortside shot on didn’t fight hard enough to get Grade-A’s (scoring chances). the first shift of the second. It wasn’t like we gave up much but we didn’t do enough to win the game.” DeBrincat’s goal came after Patrick Kane stole the puck from defenseman Brett Pesce, who was trying to clear the zone, The Canes dominated the first period but couldn’t score and fed DeBrincat for a tap-in and his 19th of the season. against Lankinen, only to have the Blackhawks score twice in barely first four minutes of the second. Dylan Strome scored “We gave them two right away to start the second, said, 29 seconds into the period and Alex DeBrincat on a power ‘Here you go, here’s two goals,’” Brind’Amour said. “Very, play at 4:02 after a Patrick Kane steal in the Canes zone. very frustrating. It’s one thing to make them earn it but we said ‘here you go.’ It’s not like we played a poor game. We Andrei Svechnikov’s tip of a Brady Skjei shot late in the just had a couple of hiccups there that cost us.” second accounted for the Canes’ only goal. Canes defenseman Dougie Hamilton had his 14-game point streak, The Canes had a 32-16 edge in shots and 23-11 advantage the longest in the NHL this season, come to an end. in scoring chances but those metrics meant little by game’s end. Carolina finished the month of March 10-2-2 and will begin April with another game at Chicago on Thursday. CAROLINA HURRICANES NEWS CLIPPINGS • March 31, 2021 A hot take on the Hurricanes’ trade deadline strategy, Dougie Hamilton’s contract and more: Bag of Jerks By Sara Civian Did you find anything concerning with Dougie’s response to his contract talks the other day? Or just Dougie being It might not be the most eventful trade deadline szn of all Dougie? — James F. time, but April 12 is quickly approaching, and we might as well enjoy it. I’m glad you bring this up, James, because I thought the general reaction to what he said was a little overblown. Hurricanes general manager and president Don Waddell recently told The Athletic that while the team won’t go out of He said: “I haven’t really been thinking about it too much. their way this season to acquire a rental player like it might Just trying to play hockey. We had lots of time to talk already have in the past, there are a few possibilities on the table. so it is what it is at this point. It’s not really on my mind. We’ll figure it out after the season. I wasn’t part of it the last couple What might they look like, and what else is up with the of months. I’ve just been trying to focus on hockey and Canes recently? winning games and that’s what I’ll keep doing.” Welcome to the Extra Special Trade Deadline Bag of Jerks. Yeah. That’s been the plan. Don Waddell has said he’s looking for hockey trades like It’s not like he walked into the Zoom interview delivering this Brady Skjei and Vincent Trocheck. This probably means as an opening statement. He was asked about it, and what salary out for salary in, as well as looking at someone with he said sounded reflective of a normal big contract term. So with that in mind and the possibility of three negotiation to me. To my knowledge, both sides decided to hopefully pretty good goalies, what do you think a player like table these talks until the season is over. Again, that’s very that might look like? (Btw I’m not sold on acquiring RHD normal in this situation, especially for a Cup contender when we have multiple players that can play there) — Matt #inapandemic. M. I’m not saying a deal is anywhere close to done, and I’m not Where’d you hear that, Matt? First of all, yes, Waddell guaranteeing that it will get done. But Hamilton’s comments said he doesn’t think the Canes necessarily want to be in the didn’t raise any red flags to me. rental business this season due to revenue uncertainties. That said, at the right price, I don’t think they’d totally rule it Looking back at trade deadline moves from the past few out closer to the deadline. That’s why, as The Athletic’s Stanley Cup champions, What did they do (or not) that Pierre LeBrun reported, they discussed potentially going worked out for them? Can you provide some historical after former captain Eric Staal. context? — Ross P. He’s off the table now, traded to the Canadiens, and let’s The NHL is a copycat league almost to a fault, so it’s always assume the Canes really aren’t in the high-price rental fun to go back a few years at the deadline and reflect on business — so someone like Taylor Hall would be out. Also, what worked and what didn’t. Trocheck returned to the lineup Tuesday night, and the You just made me remember when I was covering the Bruins Hurricanes and their league-best power play had been doing and they acquired Rick Nash at the deadline. Everyone was fine even without him, so I think they will look at him as an so excited and wanted it to work out so bad, but “own-rental” on offense — and I’d agree that’s the best unfortunately, he sustained another concussion that would course of action unless a truly irresistible deal came up for eventually lead to his retirement, and the Bruins were adding scoring help. ultimately left empty-handed. Now, as for the right-handed defenseman, I agree the Obviously, you can’t predict something like that, but that’s Hurricanes don’t urgently need one. And, as Waddell said, the understood risk you take every time you take on a pricier “It’s not like (we’re) going to trade Dougie Hamilton at the rental at the deadline. That risk is even higher this season deadline.” But this Hurricanes squad is built around defense, with no promise of extra playoff revenue and with lost money you can almost count on losing a defenseman in the in general, so I’m not necessarily expecting teams to go as expansion draft after the season, and Hamilton’s contract big as usual, but you don’t have to look back far to find negotiations could go either way at this point. So if we’re evidence of a move that worked out: Tampa Bay acquiring going for likelihood over personal opinion, I do think this is Blake Coleman last season from the Devils for prospect what they’d look to acquire, a bigger-name right-handed Nolan Foote and a 2020 first-round draft pick. defenseman. That was an ideal trade deadline acquisition, to me, and I’ll That said, HOT TAKE ALERT: I think it would be prudent to tell you why: It subtracted nothing from the actual locker basically keep this group together but be open to anything room and didn’t add too much, either, but added enough of that could give them an extra punch in any position.