Hurricanes coach thinks Bruins are targeting Carolina’s goalies originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour gave a pretty emphatic answer when asked after his team’s Game 2 victory Wednesday night if the Boston Bruins were targeting Carolina’s goalies.
“What do you think? It can’t get any more obvious,” Brind’Amour said.
The Hurricanes lost their starting goalie Antti Raanta in the first period when Bruins right winger David Pastrnak collided with him during a Boston power play. There didn’t seem so be any intent by Pastrnak to injure Raanta at all. He just couldn’t get out of the way. The referees agreed by reviewing the play and assessing only a two-minute minor penalty for goalie interference.
Bruins need more from David Pastrnak after awful Game 2 performance
Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy had a strong take on the incident, too.
“It’s David Pastrnak. We’re on the power play,” Cassidy explained. “He’s trying to chase down the puck. Do you think his intention is to (run over Raanta)? That’s why they changed it from a five to a two. His foot caught his pad. He’s trying to block the clear, but get out of the way. I don’t think there’s any intent there at all. That was a freak play.”
Raanta’s exit threw Hurricanes rookie goalie Pyotr Kochetkov into the mix.
Kochetkov got into an altercation with B’s left winger Brad Marchand late in the second period. The Russian netminder slashed Marchand on the back of the leg, so the Bruins star turned around and slashed him back. It was a foolish play by Marchand to take himself off the ice when the Bruins badly needed an offensive jolt, but it’s not like he just slashed Kochetkov out of nowhere. It was a retaliation move.
The biggest collision in the game happened in the second period when Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov caught Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm with a massive hit. Lindholm was shaken up, left the game and didn’t return. Cassisy said Lindholm is “not doing well”.
“You never want to see guys get hurt,” Brind’Amour said of the Lindholm hit. “I don’t like seeing our goalie get taken out, either. But one was legal, one’s not, if you really want to break it down.”
The third period Wednesday night was super physical, and we should see a similar intensity right from puck drop in Game 3. The Bruins are facing an 0-2 deficit and need to be more physical to turn the series around. But the B’s have to do it in a disciplined manner — taking 13 penalties, like they did in Game 2, is not a recipe for success.