PHILADELPHIA -- The Carolina Hurricanes' brooms are getting a workout during their historic start to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
After sweeping the Ottawa Senators in the first round, the Hurricanes completed a second-round sweep of the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night with a 3-2 overtime win. It marked the first time that a team has gone undefeated in the first two rounds of the playoffs since the NHL's four-round, seven-game series format was established in 1987.
Only one other team in NHL history has swept two seven-game series to start the playoffs: The St. Louis Blues in 1969, when the NHL had a three-round tournament. Carolina became just the fifth team in NHL history to start the playoffs with eight straight wins. Yet center Logan Stankoven doesn't believe his team is anywhere close to peaking yet.
"I honestly think we have another level to get to. I still think our start wasn't great again tonight," he said. "We're playing well and it's great to get the sweeps, but I think we do have another level to get to and I'm sure if you could ask any of the guys they'd agree with me."
Defenseman Jaccob Slavin agreed that Carolina is just getting started and that they won't read too much into their early round supremacy.
"You take the win, you take the rest. We're got to do all eight wins again just to get to the end," he said.
While the Hurricanes dominated Game 4 in shots (40-17) and shot attempts (84-39), the Flyers jumped on the board on a Tyson Foerster goal at 7:50 of the first period and later tied the game at 5:52 of the third period on a goal by forward Alex Bump. Goaltender Dan Vladar (37 saves) was great again but was unable to catch a Jackson Blake shot in overtime that bounce over his glove and into the net.
"I blacked out, honestly," said Blake, whose line with Stankoven and Taylor Hall continues to be one of the best in the playoffs, factoring in on all three Hurricanes goals. "I was just happy that we could get the win and go home and get a little rest."
In the short term, Carolina is happy to have earned a break. The loudest roar emanating from the Hurricanes dressing room after the game was when one player bellowed "two days off!"
But a quick series means serious down time for Carolina's players and coaches. They went a week between games after eliminating Ottawa and starting against the Flyers. They might have an even longer downtime before the Eastern Conference Finals. The Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens are tied 1-1 with Game 3 scheduled for Sunday. Game 7 between those teams wouldn't be until May 18.
"It's a good thing, but it can also be a bad thing. I don't want to have too much time off," Stankoven said.
Coach Rod Brind'amour was just happy to be in the NHL's final four again," saying "whatever how long we've got to rest or be off, we'll do it. I think the good part is we just literally had the exact same thing [happen] and we had a plan. Clearly it was OK, so we could follow that and run with it." Hall said that preparation is the key to keeping any rust off this Hurricanes juggernaut.
"We get our footing pretty quickly," he added. "I think the big positive is that we're onto the third round, relatively unscathed and healthy. You don't want to see injuries per se, but we hope these series go far and these teams have battles. That's the advantage that we're going to have."
This is the second straight trip to the Eastern Conference Finals for the Hurricanes and the third trip in the last four seasons. The team that eliminated them in those series is sitting at home: The Florida Panthers, who didn't make the playoff cut.
Blake has now made the conference final in each of his first two full NHL seasons. He said that Hall, a 16-year NHL veteran, told him that "what you're doing right now is not normal" when it comes to playoff success.
"The culture and the group we have this year, it's another level I think from even last year. I think last year we had a great group and we were really tightknit, but this year just feels a little different," Blake said. "I don't know what it is, but I like the way we're rolling."
