Rod Brind’Amour: ‘We’ve already prepared for both teams’

While the Carolina Hurricanes have been sitting pretty since their three-game sweep of the New York Rangers, other teams have slowly begun to fill out the remaining playoff spots. One big question still lingering though, is who will be Carolina’s opponent.

Sunday is the final day of the qualifying round and round-robin games and by the afternoon, Carolina will know who it’s playing of either Boston or Washington

Head coach Rod Brind’Amour spoke to the media over Zoom Sunday morning.

On how the past week has gone: I think the downtime was the big concern coming into this type of format. When you’re playing the games and there is that routine, I think for the guys it feels pretty normal. But then just staying in a hotel and not knowing when you’re going to play has been a challenge. Our guys are doing the best they can and we’ll get back at it again today with a little more intense practices and try to ramp back up.

On figuring out the blueline if Dougie Hamilton is fit to play: It’s kind of the same issue we had coming in. Number one, we don’t know for sure if he’s gonna play yet, so there is still that question lingering out there. We’ll see over these next couple of days and then we’ll know more. If he’s ready to go, then he’s going to go. He’s one of our top players. Then we’ll address the who comes out question. It won’t be an easy decision, but we’ll cross that when we get to it.

On what kinds of scouting has gone on: We’ve known for a little while that it was one of two teams. They play at noon today and by the time we’re done our practice, we’ll know who we’re playing. We’ve already prepared for both teams. This afternoon, when we get back, we’ll know who it is and we’ll take a better look at it. We know both those teams pretty well, so I don’t know if there will be a lot of preparation on getting to know the other team. It’s always about worrying about getting our group up to speed and making sure we are at our best. That’s always the focus.

On Brett Pesce: He’s still a ways away. When, and if, he gets into the bubble, then you’ll know he’s getting closer. Until that time, he’s still a ways away. Probably really doubtful that we’ll see him in this series. That was the plan all along anyway. We didn’t expect him to miraculously be ready this early in August. It’s more a long term plan and if we’re still playing after this series, we can start asking or answering those questions.