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The Hurricanes will look to do something that’s been a struggle for them this season on Monday night, and sweep a two-game set against the same opponent on the road when they battle the Central Division-leading Panthers.
The lineup will be the same as Saturday, with Alex Nedeljkovic in net, Rod Brind’Amour said Monday morning. Brind’Amour spoke to the media about the upcoming matchup and more; here’s a full breakdown of everything he had to say:
On beating the same team back to back: I think it’s just the NHL. I think any time you’re playing teams, it’s just tough to win two in a row any time, but especially against the same team. I don’t think there’s a bunch of adjustments. I don’t think it’s that, because we’re all making the same adjustments. I just think the parity in the league makes it tough.
On if he has an update on Petr Mrazek and Teuvo Teravainen: Not really. Petr practiced yesterday with us for the first time. He kind of came in and out. He’s getting closer, for sure. That’s a question for him. When he feels ready, he’ll be ready. [Teravainen], he’s obviously in Raleigh. So I’ve heard he’s been skating and things are getting better, but I’m not really sure.
On Andrei Svechnikov’s slump: Any goal scorer gets frustrated when they don’t score. You actually get more frustrated when you have chances that don’t go in. He’s had quite a few good looks. I think it’s just a matter of time. We talked about [Dougie Hamilton], same kind of situation where he’s had some good looks, they just haven’t gone in. I think it’s just a matter of time for those guys, and they’re competitive. They want to score, so they get naturally frustrated. I think that’s normal. You just don’t want that to bleed into their other areas of their game where they’re starting to look for the offense at the expense of playing good hockey. And they haven’t done that. So that’s part of it, and I think they’ll both start scoring.
On last year’s league-wide COVID shut down: I don’t think anyone thought we’d still be talking about it. When it initially happened, I don’t think everyone knew the gravity of what was going on. We kind of all felt like, ‘Oh, OK, we’ve got to cancel the game, go home and regroup. Hopefully in a few weeks get back to something.’ It obviously spring boarded into what we’ve dealt with this last year. So certainly had the foreshadowing of all this. But it is what it is, and I think we’ve all adapted and done the best we can.