RALEIGH, N.C. — There was pure fury percolating from the visiting locker room Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, where just moments earlier Vincent Trocheck scored a power-play goal for the Rangers in double-overtime to send his former team, the Hurricanes, back to Raleigh in a 2-0 series hole.
One by one, Carolina players huffed as they chucked their enormous hockey bags onto a cart to be loaded onto their team bus.
The weight of the excruciating defeat was clearly the heaviest thing they carried.
Game 2 saw a quintessential Hurricanes performance, and it still wasn’t enough to top the Blueshirts — who remain undefeated this postseason after picking up their sixth straight victory.
Memory, however, should serve the Rangers well.
The home team won the first six games the previous time these clubs met in the playoffs two years ago, before the Rangers became the first to defeat the Canes on home ice that postseason with a dominant win in Game 7.
“You always can say those things, but at the end of the day, we know what we have to do to win,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said of how the 2022 series went. “We’re going to have to just find a way to do that. You can draw on anything you want, but at the end of the day, they know. They believe in there. I know it, they’re the ones playing the game, but I think they understand what we got to do and I think they feel capable of it.”
Forget desperation, the Hurricanes are livid.
Tuesday was a game that truly could have gone either way, and the Canes just did not do enough with the opportunities they had.
Carolina captain Jordan Staal all but accused the Rangers of diving, while Martin Necas said everybody knows what kind of player Jacob Trouba is when asked about the Rangers captain’s elbow just missing the Hurricanes’ forward in a soaring hit attempt.
As hard as the Hurricanes worked to win Tuesday, there’s something to be said about the way the Rangers never let the game get away from them.
Of course, 54 saves from goalie Igor Shesterkin made it a bit easier, but they consistently stayed within striking distance despite some overpowering stretches from the visitors.
Game 2 of Round 2 was the first time the Rangers allowed two goals in a row this postseason. It was also the first time they trailed after a period since the playoffs began.
And yet, the Rangers rode what was a roller coaster of a game — as put by head coach Peter Laviolette — before it was time to bring it to an end.
So the Hurricanes took down the two banners they brought with them to make the halls of the MSG visiting locker room feel like home.
One of them read: “Cause Chaos” — and they did, but to no avail.
Now they head back to their real home, pissed off and stirring.
The storm has brewed, and the Rangers are flying right into it.
“I think we believe in each other,” Barclay Goodrow said. “I think we have a lot of confidence in our teammates and the system we play. The group has been together for a while now. I don’t know where the belief comes from, but we’ve built it. It started right from Day 1 here and kind of just continued. I think it just comes from having a lot of trust in our teammates.”
