Three Takeaways from Return of Carolina Hurricanes Hockey Roundtable

Television play by play announcer John Forslund of the Carolina Hurricanes  (Photo by Gregg Forwerck/NHLI via Getty Images)
Television play by play announcer John Forslund of the Carolina Hurricanes  (Photo by Gregg Forwerck/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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Carolina Hurricanes Head coach Rod Brind’Amour  (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
Carolina Hurricanes Head coach Rod Brind’Amour  (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /

The Importance of the Mental Factor

The Mental Factor is important for the Carolina Hurricanes

The trio discusses the all-important mental factor with the new playoff circumstances.

The mental factor in hockey is one of the guiding principles that rule the game, the most important among them being crowd presence. A crowd can make or break a team’s confidence and create a true home advantage.

Tripp Tracy believes that the lack of home ice is going to be a deciding factor for both teams. What this comes down to is the ability of each team to “find desperation without fans.”

While we have seen the Canes struggle with this very issue, the last few games of the season told the story of a team that had recommitted to chasing each puck and finding the back of the net.

As I echoed in a previous article, Tripp Tracy believes that head coach Rod Brind’Amour “is the perfect guy to be able to motivate the hockey club to put that chip on their shoulder”.

I think that this will be the defining narrative of the series. Finding that desperation will be important because it may also provide an edge over one of the top seed teams who will not be going directly into the second round, unlike those teams who win the qualifying series.