CAROLINA HURRICANES NEWS CLIPPINGS • May 12, 2021 Hurricanes’ home-ice advantage won’t be what it usually is against the Predators By Luke DeCock perhaps only a few weeks away -- it does seem like there’s room for rational relaxation under the circumstances, at least Home ice won’t be as much of an advantage as it usually is to the 50 percent mark which was the intent (if not the letter) for the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round of the playoffs. of the guidelines. Yes, the Hurricanes get to host a potential Game 7 against So it wouldn’t be playing favorites if the Hurricanes-uber-fan- the Nashville Predators, but they’ll be limited to around 6,000 governor found a way to get a few more of his compatriots in fans in PNC Arena when the series begins Sunday or the building, especially this close to June 1. Monday, while the Predators will be allowed as many as 14,000 at their home games. “The Governor is continuing to listen to and work with state health officials on pandemic response and the plan is to lift North Carolina’s COVID capacity restrictions are likely to be mandatory capacity limits by the end of the month,” a loosened June 1, Gov. Roy Cooper has said, but the state spokesperson for the governor wrote in an email. “We has rejected the Hurricanes’ request to allow more fans in understand that businesses and teams are eager to welcome the arena in the two weeks of playoff hockey before then. back more customers and fans and the state will continue to “We’ve spent a lot of money and a lot of time making sure we make decisions on the right path forward.” did it right,” Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell said. Is it actually a competitive disadvantage for the Hurricanes? “We think we can do it right if we increase attendance. From Maybe not. But it certainly can’t help. our customers, the only complaints we’ve gotten is when someone doesn’t have their mask on all the time and that’s After a season spent playing in front of anywhere from a few just going to be an ongoing thing anyway. hundred to a few thousand fans both at home and on the road, the crowd in Nashville is going to sound like a few “We’ve sent out surveys asking if people feel safe in the million. And while Hurricanes fans are famous for being loud building. We’ve got the cleaning crews going up and down during the postseason, there’s only so much 6,000 fans can cleaning the handrails. The restrooms are manned. We’re do in a building built for three times that many. doing everything we can to prove not only to the state but to our customers we have the best environment we can.” Unsurprisingly, the demand is there. The Hurricanes offered tickets to their core COVID group of 2,400 season-ticket The current state restriction limits indoor arenas to 50 holders last week, then put the rest on sale to other season- percent of capacity, which for PNC would be more than ticket holders with money on deposit with the team on 9,000, but state social-distancing requirements have limited Monday. They sold out Monday night, Waddell said. A few the Hurricanes to 4,987 since the latest loosening of hundred tickets blocked by the NHL could also become restrictions in late March. That’s up from a few hundred to available the day before Game 1. start the season, and 2,924 starting at the end of February. PNC Arena has the ventilation capacity to host as many as By utilizing more suites and creating bigger pods of fans 12,000 fans and still meet NHL standards without bringing in within the stands, the Hurricanes will be able to bump that to extra ventilation as Nashville and Florida both have. If the about 6,000 when the first-round series starts Sunday or Hurricanes are able to get past the Predators, they might be Monday, Waddell said. able to bring that many in for the second round. The team also looked into creating a vaccinated section, “They keep shooting for June 1,” Waddell said. “If everything Waddell said, but it would have unlocked only 120 or so goes well the rest of this month, that will open it up some seats while requiring considerable staffing and effort. more.” The need for capacity restrictions is obvious, even as we continue to emerge from the depths of the pandemic, but with the end in sight — and for arena attendance caps, CAROLINA HURRICANES NEWS CLIPPINGS • May 12, 2021 ‘We’re gonna flush it’: Why the Carolina Hurricanes took a pass on Game 56 By Sara Civian In that same vein, things were just accomplished behind the scenes tonight. We might look back on Brind’Amour’s The only good thing about Game 56 of 56 for the Carolina management of the situation in a few months in a different Hurricanes is that it technically meant nothing. Well, it also light. ushered in the end of pre-playoff SZN — aka the sneaky worst time to Be Online. One last regular season vibe check We knew what was going to happen going into this game. Please, no banner discourse in Nashville territory. The Canes benched Jordan Staal, Andrei Svechnikov, Dougie Hamilton, Brett Pesce, Cedric Paquette, Jaccob This was legitimately awesome. Have to hand it to Predators Slavin (day-to-day) and Brock McGinn (TBD), many of whom fans for that atmosphere, too. are varying levels of “banged up.” Steven Lorentz led all Probably the second-best take of the night, especially forwards in time on ice, and Joey Keane’s NHL debut almost because of the James Reimer recognition. cracked the 20-minute mark. Congratulations on the best take of the night. We knew that the Hurricanes already had clinched the No. 1 seed and that the Predators, who had just clinched the final And finally, one of my favorite GIFs: Central playoff berth against the Canes Saturday, had more News and notes to prove. • I’m glad folks brought up practice because the Canes are We knew all this, just like we all knew this was a scheduled actually looking forward to a week full of “tough” practices. loss. But it was still the worst performance of the year, it was They haven’t held a real practice in almost a full month after still a 5-0, chippy loss against the Canes’ opening-round the final stretch of the season consisting of at least a game opponent, and something about how awesome the every other night until this goose-egg conclusion.”We gotta Predators’ crowd was in response to the sentimental Pekka get the tempo up again,” Brind’Amour said postgame. “We Rinne shutout just drove it all home. haven’t practiced in a month, like a real practice, where I It’s OK if you felt bad about it for a second, for real. could push the guys and get going, get our pace back and you could see it tonight. For me, the last two weeks you But noted Jack Adams frontrunner Rod Brind’Amour brought could see it. Once we clinched, I could just see that we got us back to Earth when I asked what he’s actually taking off the gas a little. So, we need to get that back. … We’re away from the game. going to have some time to do that and get back to playing “Not much. We’re gonna flush it,” he said. “We played 56 the way we’ve got to play.” games, and 55 games we were in every one, then this is the • These practices will help everyone in different ways, but one game the whole year we weren’t in. It’s kinda flushed for none are more urgent than goaltending. “I wouldn’t say it’s me, to be honest with you. Obviously, we’re going to look at been answered,” Brind’Amour said about his goaltending some things system-wise, but overall we’re just going to plans for the playoffs. “I think we needed to get (Mrazek) move on.” these games to get a good evaluation on it (post-injury) then Brind’Amour had stated his objectives before the game, and hopefully have some good practices. The great thing is I feel none of them were actually winning the game. good wherever we go, whatever direction, there.” He wanted to get Jordan Martinook some reps in his first • The only thing that worries me after today’s game is the game since April 22, and Martinook got 17:10 TOI, with trend of the once-league-best power play falling off a bit. The some time on the power play and the penalty kill. Canes were 0-for-4 tonight, 0-for-1 Saturday, 0-for-1 Thursday, 0-for-3 Tuesday and 1 (1/3 of Sebastian Aho’s hat Brind’Amour hates losing, so I won’t say he wanted to do trick)-for-3 on Monday. Teuvo Teravainen has been on his this, but he knew he had to take this rare opportunity to rest own, unique shot-taking rampage so I’m not trying to come at some players. “We’ve got a lot of nicked-up guys right now him, but I do think part of the recent power-play woes is just dealing with a lot of stuff,” he told color commentator Tripp the adjustment period of getting him back up to speed with Tracy.