Game 2/Round 2 for the Canes at PNC Arena.

I'm at PNC Arena where tonight Carolina and New Jersey will stage Game 2 of their Eastern Conference Semifinal Series. Hurricanes won Game 1 5-1. It was a thorough start to finish performance from the Hurricanes. We get kind of mesmerized at times by the scoreboard, but Carolina really was the better team, dominant first period.

From that point on, probably a little bit more even. I think Carolina got a little lucky at times, as you heard from a conversation with Rod Brindlemore, but I think we talked about it in the aftermath and on the podcast, Canes Corner Podcast, available wherever you get your podcast. You can certainly subscribe to it just as you can. The Canes Corner Podcast YouTube page, and we are live probably about 45 minutes after every Hurricanes game. We have the postgame show to do first, and then we probably about 15 or 20 minutes later, we jump on YouTube. So check it all out on YouTube, Canes Corner Podcast.

Just do that search and subscribe to it so you're always getting an alert when it's about to start because you can't miss it. Anyway, so we talked about just how close that game was and how lucky at times Carolina was to not be in a tighter game, but they basically had the big cushion throughout. They led 2-0, they led 3-0, then it was 3-1, and then they scored the next two goals to make it 5-1. But Carolina got good goaltending again. Freddy Anderson played well. The Devils pulled their goaltender, but I don't think it was because Akira Schmid wasn't playing well. They pulled him because their team was not playing well, and it kind of worked for a while.

The Devils kind of snapped back to it. Anyway, we talked to Tripp Tracy before every game, and I thought this would be a great time to let you hear me and Tripp talk about it. And I started with Tripp Tracy, Hurricanes TV analyst, asking him who he'd go with in net for the Devils tonight. For me, my gut tells me that it is Vanaček.

You can make an argument both ways. From a Carolina standpoint, you don't know how it's going to go. That's the beauty of the game. I'd probably prefer to see Schmid. When I think about Vanaček, if it happens to be him, I thought Schmid, the Hurricanes chased him, but he had a lot of the same, you know, he's a young kid who played magically well in the first round at him. But watching him early in the first period when Carolina had a bunch of chances but didn't get rewarded before Pesci scored the first of three goals that ended his night. Same type of game plan as Ilya Sorokin in my opinion.

You've got to find the upper half of the net. That was my read on this very fine young goaltender. Vanaček, who played so well as you mentioned in the regular season, moves phenomenally side to side. You have to be able to get to the net for seconds and thirds because he does give up a lot of rebounds. Yeah, Schmid was low on the Jarvis goal and that leads me to Seth, who I think it was the best game I'd ever seen him play in all three zones. I thought he was excellent. He blocked shots. He was hard on pucks. I mean, I thought he and Aho looked like almost a defensive line. They were so good in that end. I believe you had him, you know, because you select your three stars.

You're the first star. I totally agree with that selection for a couple of different reasons. Number one, you know, extending the lead is so, so important and it starts at his own end. He gets out as a winger on the strong side point. It was Graves, the New Jersey defenseman, anticipates a puck.

He's got tight coverage. That leads to breakaway speed and a highlight reel finish, but that was just the beginning for me. He makes, as where you and I are standing, beginning of the second period, a goal-saving play, where it's a different type of play for a winger because help's needed, you know, in proximity to the crease, comes down, saves a goal, plain and simple. And right after that, Koki Niemi scores to make it 3-0. And then he makes another critical play, this one high in his own end in the third period before Shea seconds later scores the dagger.

So the complete nature of his game, certainly as good of a game as he's ever played and probably the most memorable because the stakes that are the second round of the playoffs. Go back four years, five years ago when Sebastian Ajo started killing penalties, how it took his game to another level. We've seen about, maybe for the last month, Jarvis at least be part of the penalty kill. He's not first or second group out, but sometimes he is. And I think that has maybe given him some confidence in that way. I think that's a really good point. When you think back to that first time that Tevo and Sebastian killed penalties, it was in right before Christmas, December of 2018, because it was the first time they wore Whalers jerseys and the way that their overall games took off.

Seth, you hope that the same thing is going to happen. And you need everybody. You and I spoke about Koki Niemi who scored in ages, who I thought had some definite building block moments in game one to be able to beat a team the caliber of the New Jersey Devils.

This is a fabulous individual development. And I also think on that line that you appropriately mentioned, that Steph Nason played to his strengths. Simple hockey. There were a couple transition chances where he had middle lane drive. You know, anybody that's ever watching, when you have numbers, especially a three on two, you need a guy to drive the middle. Nason knows what he is on that line. I know we think of him with regards to the power of play, but that line, I hope it continues to, if they stay together, because I think they've looked good.

Let me ask you about lines. I know when Rod split up Stahl from Martin, Hook, and Foss, and he put Koki Niemi there, he created two defensive, two checking lines for Hughes. So Stahl wouldn't have to deal with him for all three periods. The middle period basically went to Martin, Hook, Foss, and Koki Niemi.

Maybe it wasn't their best defensive period because New Jersey was really good in the second, but I think they were certainly good enough. And I think that gives Koki Niemi some confidence too. I am so happy that you asked me this question because, you know, I think about late in the regular season that, and you remember when Jordan Stahl missed, I can't remember who the opponent was the game for personal reasons, and Koki Niemi was tested there as a checking center.

And you know what it was? It was against Vancouver. And I know Vancouver won the game late, but Koki Niemi did a heck of a job. I remember.

So you're always, you know, experimenting to see if he can handle it. And when you have those two very capable wingers, you know, why not? And I thought Koki Niemi had a good Game 6.

I thought he was very solid, very solid in Game 1. The other element, I did speak to Rod about it yesterday, that I thought was a central factor in his decision with regards to the defensive pair. Now, Dougie Hamilton and Seigenthal are gonna play, Dougie's gonna play, you know, close to half the game, you know, depending on special team situations. But right from the opening faceoff, Martin, Hook, and Foss were out against Dougie Hamilton. And for a very, very good percentage of the night, Martin, probably had Carolina's best hit on Seigenthal in the second period. Hey, Dougie Hamilton's had a great year.

Sure. But you want to get in on the body on Dougie Hamilton. And I thought that with last change, I thought, now Rod's thinking about Hughes, just like you mentioned. But for me, and I had the conversation with him yesterday, I think having Martin, Hook, excuse me, with his speed and ability to be physical and be a past, I thought that was a very positive byproduct that Martin, Hook, and Foss along with Kokenyemi were on the ice for a lot of Hamilton's shifts. I always like to look for little turning points in the game that maybe flip it one way or the other. The penalty kill late in the second period when New Jersey was really in the middle of their best sequence of the entire game. For about 10 or 12 minutes, New Jersey was really the better team. But that penalty kill was suffocating. I think it turned it around.

Amen. Hammer right on the head. 4.26 left in the second period. Hamilton draws the high stick from Martin, Hook, a penalty killer. And you've just had a really good power play where you've hit one post and one crossbar where you could have delivered a dagger and gone for nothing. New Jersey playing well, building a game.

And back in whatever the date was in January, because you and I spoke about it at the time, you had a 3-1 lead. Terrellina and Aho teamed up on a short-handed goal. 3-1 lead late in the second period. New Jersey, Carolina took a breath. New Jersey scored two goals, 3-3. The Devils win it in the third period. I really felt like it at the time that that 4.26 segment, starting with that kill, was going to be the most critical piece with a 3-1 lead at the time to winning the hockey game. The kill was stellar. And then Hamilton, in the last 90 seconds, probably made two really sharp goal line-type penetrating saves. And getting to the intermission, I think, dictated the fact that they were going to win the game. So the kill portion of that, they didn't give up anything. So, so far, they'll get tougher tonight, but they've extended their elite short-handed play from the first round.

Final thing. Freddy Anderson, two games in a row. Maybe nothing spectacular, but a lot of good. Only two goals allowed in the two, and he's going to go again tonight. Yeah, I, again, I almost think you, you have to have experienced at whatever level being in goal to truly appreciate how hard it is when your team plays phenomenal hockey in the first period, and a shooter-tutor could be in there. And then you have to make, I'm going to say, three critical saves after Bastian scored New Jersey's goal. And then the ones I mentioned at the end of the second period, a few real good ones in the third period as well. That takes mental toughness.

That takes doing the things that you need to do physically when you're not in the flow of the game, along with the mental complement, to stay in the game. The other thing I want to just quickly mention, second period, Michael McLeod, who played very well at him, comes in. He's not pushed. Major contact with Freddy Anderson. I'm very happy that Freddy got through that healthy. I do want to see goaltenders protected, but I did, most importantly, for this series, that could have rattled Freddy Anderson, and it didn't. Because that, there was some significant contact there. The Devils, I'm sure, unless it's police, they're going to try to get to the front of the net.

I'm totally confident in Aunty Ronta. Why shouldn't we be? But I would love a situation where when you and I are talking before game three Sunday afternoon in New Jersey, that it still is Freddy Anderson's net. Because that will mean that he and his teammates have built off their last two wins.