The Carolina Hurricanes have had some nightmarish games in the past against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden, where little went right.
But not Tuesday.
Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored twice as the Canes ignited for five first-period goals, defenseman Jaccob Slavin finished with a goal and two assists and goalie Frederik Andersen picked up his 20th win of the season in a 7-1 victory.
Five takeaways from the Canes win:
— Slavin has to be a freak of nature. The defenseman goes on the NHL COVID-19 list, sits out five days in quarantine and misses two games, then jumps back into practice Monday and plays Tuesday like he was rested and ready, not rusty.
Slavin found Teuvo Teravainen open in the left circle with a sharp cross-ice pass for the Canes’ first goal, and had the blast from the point on Kotkaniemi’s redirect. He was on the ice often playing against the Patrice Bergeron line and getting sticks on pucks, once knocking the puck away from Brad Marchand to spring Sebastian Aho for a breakaway.
Slavin, who had a plus-4 plus/minus rating in the first period, then scored in the third for a 6-1 lead.
— There have been many games when the Canes couldn’t find an answer for Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask, especially in the 2019 playoffs. But with Rask making his second start of the season, the Canes crowded him. They went to the front of the net and jammed.
Kotkaniemi twice scored in tight, on a redirect and then stuffing in a rebound. Derek Stepan scored from the low slot off a Jordan Martinook pass from behind the net. Teravainen showed off his quick release for the Canes’ first goal of the and Seth Jarvis displayed his speed in scoring in the five-goal first period. All in all, it ended Rask’s night after one period and 12 shots.
— In an otherwise flawless first, the Canes did have one blemish: allowing a power-play goal. Carolina’s streak of 35 consecutive penalty kills, one shy of the club record, came to an end in the first when a David Pastrnak shot glanced off Bergeron’s skate and past Andersen.
The Canes answered — decisively. The Canes scored 13 seconds after Bergeron’s goal for a 3-1 lead as Kotkaniemi got a piece of the Slavin point shot. Then, in the second period the Bruins had 1:08 of a two-man advantage after penalties on Aho and Ian Cole, but the Canes killed off both as Andersen stopped three shots and the Canes blocked three.
The Canes, in turn, got power-play goals from Tervainen and Andrei Svechnikov.
— Canes center Vincent Trocheck seemed a bit bemused Tuesday morning when asked if his playing style was similar to Marchand’s “in an agitating kind of way.”
“Are you calling me a rat?” Trocheck asked, referring to one of Marchand’s nicknames.
That found its way to Twitter, to which Marchand decided to chime in. The Bruins winger used his Instagram handle to respond, “This is like comparing a Lambo to a Prius” and posted comparison career stats. He later deleted the post.
The Canes’ play in the first had some tweeter asking which team was the “Prius.”
— A pregame ceremony for Willie O’Ree at TD Garden was as moving as his work for the sport has been impactful. O’Ree, 86, was not able to come to Boston to see his jersey number retired but spoke remotely from his home in Sacramento, Calif., and spoke of his efforts to make hockey an inclusive sport.
Both teams were on the ice by their benches for the lengthy ceremony. When the puck dropped to start the game, the Canes were quicker off the mark and stayed that way, often beating the Bruins in transition and making the most of their offensive chances.
