MONTREAL — For the majority of players on the Carolina Hurricanes’ roster, Friday’s Game 5 will be the biggest moment of their lives.
Their coach has preached the same message in his eight seasons behind the bench: Win the day and success will follow. Rod Brind’Amour isn’t concerned that the magnitude of the moment — the chance to silence their critics and reach the Stanley Cup Final — will be a roadblock to his team giving itself a chance to move on.
“I think you can’t look at the big picture, and I think we’ve done a really nice job of focusing in on what’s important, which is now going to be tomorrow,” Brind’Amour said Thursday at the team hotel, one day after Carolina put on a clinical performance in a 4-0 Game 4 win that has them one win from eliminating the Canadiens and moving on to face the Vegas Golden Knights. “Going about figuring out how to win that day. I think that’s sort of the businesslike approach: Show up, do your job and then worry about the next day.”
Carolina has evolved and changed as it has added more talent to its roster, but the message has remained the same: Put in the work and be rewarded.
And right now, the Hurricanes are firing on all cylinders — so much so that captain Jordan Staal even referred to the team as if it were some kind of hockey T-1000.
“We’ve called it the machine before,” Staal said Thursday, his thick playoff beard, to his surprise, free of rust … er, grays. “And we’ve just kept it running, and it didn’t stop.”
And a machine can’t worry about what tomorrow will bring. It’s just concerned with the task at hand.
“We’ve done a nice job of not getting ahead of ourselves and just focusing on, ‘OK, we’ve got business to take care of,’” Brind’Amour said. “That’s what we still have to do here.”
The Hurricanes have, to put it lightly, overwhelmed the young Canadiens the past three games.
After a dismal Game 1 performance that saw too-rested Carolina bumble its way to a 6-2 loss, the team’s first loss of the postseason, the past three games have been a lesson in efficiency and effectiveness.
Montreal totaled 43 shots in those games, the same number the Hurricanes managed in Game 4 alone. Goals came from up and down the lineup.
The top line, stymied much of the postseason, has scored game-winning goals in consecutive games. The second line, the heroes of the opening two rounds, has dominated possession and started to produce again.
Staal and Nikolaj Ehlers have combined for three goals in a shutdown role, while the fourth line has manhandled the Canadiens — be it a head-to-head matchup with Montreal’s fourth line or minutes against coach Martin St. Louis’ best players.
K’Andre Miller has emerged as a star, while Jaccob Slavin shook off an uncharacteristic Game 1 to again be, well, Jaccob Slavin.
Staal again evoked “the machine” when talking about how his team will handle the pressure that comes with trying to close out an opponent with a chance to reach the NHL’s final two on the line.
“When you get into this groove, it’s just kind of a machine,” he said. “You just kind of want to keep it running and keep doing what you’re doing. I don’t think the guys will waver too far from the next shift, the next play, the hyperfocus that we’re on.
“But if we do, we’ll try to just reconfirm that, and that’s what you have to focus on, and that’s the best way to stay in the moment and focus on that next play.”
Opponents have wavered against the Hurricanes, looking for something — anything — that will throw a wrench in the machine. The desperation has led to mistakes that Carolina can feast on to satiate the robot it has become.
“Sometimes you’ve got to find the body blows to get to the head and open up the head,” Logan Stankoven, center on the Hurricanes’ dynamic second line, said after Game 4. “So I think when you can stack shifts and then set up the other guys for success, good things will continue to happen.”
Carolina has stacked shifts — and wins. Brind’Amour’s team improved to 11-1 in the postseason Wednesday, a 12-game stretch that would deserve attention at any point in the season, forget about the playoffs.
“To be honest, it doesn’t feel like 11-1,” defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere said after Game 4. “We take it a one-game-at-a-time approach. I know it’s cliche, but you’re not looking at an overall record, just the next game.”
Gostisbehere is the perfect embodiment of a cog in “the machine.” While Miller, Slavin, Jalen Chatfield and Sean Walker have all earned their keep in the NHL as blueliners who are two-way or defensive defensemen, Gostisbehere has carried a different label.
A power-play specialist, Gostisbehere’s commitment to defending has never been top of mind among observers. But as Carolina built toward the playoffs this season, Gostisbehere’s play in his own end was nearly as important as what he’s capable of in the offensive zone.
After Carolina scored twice in 68 seconds to jump to a 2-0 lead in the final five minutes of the opening period of Game 4, Montreal appeared ready to answer.
Lane Hutson, the emerging star defenseman whose rookie year last season looked a lot like the first of Gostisbehere’s career a decade ago, got the puck in the high slot at the top of the circles for a chance to halve the Hurricanes’ lead. Gostisbehere — cross-checked to the ice in front of Frederik Andersen — scrambled to his feet and threw himself in the shooting lane.
Not only was Hutson’s shot blocked, but also the puck bounced to Jackson Blake, sending him and Stankoven on a two-on-one that the latter finished to turn a potential one-goal lead into a 3-0 score.
“What comes to my mind is the Ghost (Gostisbehere) block. … You block a shot, pay the price at one end to get rewarded at the other end,” Slavin said.
Gostisbehere’s response when asked about the play was most telling.
“For me, it was my time,” the well-traveled 33-year-old said. “I didn’t have a choice.”
The time is Friday for the Hurricanes to check off another of their goals to continue on their way to their ultimate one.
“We haven’t accomplished anything,” Brind’Amour said Thursday morning. “We still have a lot of work ahead of us.”
And the machine will try to keep on running.
