Carolina Hurricanes: Cardiac Mail for Eastern Conference Finals!

The Carolina Hurricanes are facing off with the Boston Bruins in the third round for the right to play in the Stanley Cup finals. We answer your questions for this week.

The Carolina Hurricanes are back in the Eastern Conference Finals after an almost decade long wait. The Boston Bruins already took game one thursday night on a come from behind win in the third period. Next game is tomorrow and Carolina is looking to even things up before coming home to Carolina.

The Boston Bruins are not an easy team. Neither have the New York Islanders or the Washington Capitals. While we swept the Islanders, winning the first two games by a margin of one goal and ending things at home, this series against Boston is more reminiscent of the Capitals series in the first round.

The Carolina Hurricanes are going against a recent cup winner that have a feverishly proud fanbase and feel that it is their right to easily move past Carolina to the next round. And just like in round one, the Carolina Hurricanes lost a game in which they were in control of for the most part and the opposition feel justified because they have the hot goaltender:

Tuuka Rask has been more than a burning brick wall in his last few games. The Finnish netminder is most likely the only reason Boston is where it is. Without him they wouldn’t have gotten past Toronto or Columbus, even with the stellar offense they have.

Rask was instrumental in shutting down the Blue Jackets in game six of the second round, earning himself a shutout to clinch boston the trip the Conference finals. Thursday night, the Carolina Hurricanes were treated to a just how hot he was as he held on to the game as long as he could for the Bruins to come back in the third and further shut the game down.

If Carolina wants to get past Rask on a consistent basis and cement their place in the Stanley Cup finals they will need their offense to get creative. Both goals thursday night against him were unique goals that came from the blue paint. Sebastian Aho redirected a wonderful shot and Greg McKegg simply bullied the puck on a race to crash the net.

The Carolina Hurricanes will need more of that from their forwards, including a forward who just got back from injury earlier in the playoffs:

It has not been make or break for any player to be playing for the Carolina Hurricanes this post-season. That can be said about Micheal Ferland too. It’s not a hit on the powerful forward who saw limited minutes on thursday night after coming back from his injury. It’s more of a testament of how Rod Brind’Amour can win games with anyone in his roster, unlocking their full power.

No player has played while being less than 100%. Even Petr Mrazek who has been an absolute monster for the first eight games of the playoffs was told to get healthy and allow for Curtis McElhinney to complete the sweep. So while Ferland is back on the roster against the Bruins, he will not be a “make or break” contributor. That’s because no one is.

Which is critical against an opponent like Boston. Rod Brind’amour knows alot about the bruins. After all the last time these two teams faced off in the playoffs he was the team Captain. Speaking of the the last few times these two teams matched up, there is something funky about it:

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It really wouldn’t hurt if Hockey went the way of both Baseball and Football and had conferences that weren’t reliant on which side of the North American continent you were closest to. Perhaps with Seattle and maybe a few more teams added into the mix that might actually happen. In that case it may be very possible that these two teams meet in the SCF to fulfil the prophecy.

In reality however it is just a very interesting statistic to how little these two teams meet in the playoffs. The Hartford Whalers on the other hand consistently played against Boston in the postseason with boston taking virtually every single series. The Carolina Hurricanes on the other hand have been another story. In 2009 they beat Boston to punch their ticket to the ECF against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

A big thanks to everyone who asked us questions this week. Do you want your question answered in the next Mailbag? Simply use the Hashtag #CardiacMail on Twitter or post the question to our facebook page using the same Hashtag! Let’s go Canes!