FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — It was about 12:30 Sunday afternoon when a reporter mentioned to Brent Burns that the Carolina Hurricanes players are guaranteed only 36 more hours together. That’s what happens when you’re facing elimination going into an 8 p.m. start the next night.
The reporter wanted to know what the conversations are going to be like amongst the players in the time before and during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena (8 p.m. ET; TNT, truTV, MAX, SN, CBC, TVAS) on Monday.
Burns, the Hurricanes’ 40-year-old defenseman who is in the final year of his contract, sort of laughed at the idea of the 36-hour countdown. He even made a reference to the show “24.”
But Burns also made a cogent point about how the Hurricanes have to handle the hours before Game 4, especially after getting wiped out in Game 3 on Saturday, when they allowed five goals in the third period, lost 6-2 and fell behind 3-0 in the best-of-7 series.
“We know it hasn’t been good enough for us, obviously, but if you have that mindset, then the countdown [really] is on,” Burns said. “You can’t have it. Hockey is a game of reaction. It’s a game of feeling. Yes, there’s all the other things, the game plan and stuff, but you also have to be feeling good, so you have to get rid of the nerves, get rid of all the tightness in you. We’ve got to have our best game. Just come out and play together and play our game. We know we can be tough to handle if we’re all playing together.”
He’s right. Ask the New Jersey Devils, who Carolina eliminated in five games in the first round. Ask the Washington Capitals, who were delivered the same fate as the Devils in the second round.
And for the Hurricanes in this situation, having been outscored 16-4 in the first three games, having lost seven consecutive conference final games to the Panthers since 2023, 11 in a row under coach Rod Brind’Amour since 2019, and 15 straight as a franchise since 2009, the only thing they can do is try their best to be themselves because they know when they are they’re a pretty darn good hockey team.
“We’re playing against a really good team, they don’t beat themselves, but there are a lot of times that we are doing what we need to do,” Burns said. “We just need to do it for longer and believe in that.”
The Hurricanes can look at the second period of Game 3 for inspiration.
“That was definitely one of the better periods for us in this series,” Burns said.
It’s the only period they’ve won.
The Panthers outscored the Hurricanes in the other eight, but in that one it was the Hurricanes all over the Panthers, forechecking, pressuring, cycling and getting pucks to the net. Shift after shift they did it. They earned a power play. Forward Logan Stankoven scored to make it 1-1.
It stayed that way into the third period. They should have been comfortable with that.
“On the road in their building and with some of the young guys we have playing that’s good for us, that’s where we want to be,” forward Taylor Hall said. “Really, that’s our focus [Monday]. We’re thinking about winning the game 1-0. We’re thinking if it’s close then we’re in a good spot.”
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