Playoff Notebook: Pesce 'Likely Out' For The Rest of Round 1

RALEIGH, NC. - The Carolina Hurricanes are planning to be without defenseman Brett Pesce for the remainder of the opening-round series against the New York Islanders.

Pesce went down during the second period of Monday's Game 2 win, suffering a non-contact lower-body injury, and following Wednesday's practice, Rod Brind'Amour shared the tough news.

"He's a big part of what we're doing, so it's a big blow," the head coach said after the team wrapped up a 50-minute skate at PNC Arena before flying to New York.

Pesce played in 70 of the team's 82 regular season games, with eight of his absences coming due to a lower-body injury he sustained back in October.

With trusty #22 on the sideline for the foreseeable future, the door opens for Tony DeAngelo, who worked alongside Pesce's usual partner, Brady Skjei, at today's practice.

"It's never good when you lose one of the best players on the team and a big part of our team.  Hopefully, I can come in, pick up what he's been doing, and help the team win," DeAngelo shared of the situation.

A healthy extra for most of the season, DeAngelo skated in just 31 regular-season contests.

However, the team sees it as a positive that the right-handed defenseman has a plethora of experience with the team, including playing in all 14 postseason games just two seasons ago.

"We know what he is.  It's certainly nothing new to him," Brind'Amour continued of DeAngelo.  "[He's] certainly a quality player and we have a lot of faith in him."

Brind'Amour was also quick to reference that #77 played in the team's final three games of the regular season, a benefit in comparison to having him come back into game action cold after several months in the press box.

"You need depth all the way throughout the lineup and outside of the lineup for a playoff run. You're going to run into injuries," Captain Jordan Staal said.  "Obviously, it's a big hole for us, but we've got a very capable d-core and have guys like Tony who can step in and play well for us."

Fast Remains Out, Doubtful To Travel...

Following practice the Canes flew to New York and Brind'Amour said it wasn't likely that Jesper Fast (upper-body injury) was scheduled to be on the flight.

The winger went down during last Tuesday's regular-season finale in Columbus and has not skated with the full group since.

Don Waddell said on Friday that Fast would be out "a matter of days", but with a 2-0 series lead, it is likely that the team is taking the cautious approach, given that there's not an urgent need to usher him back into the lineup.

Reinforcements Arrive...

With Fast still not an option, Carolina made its first "Black Aces" recalls on Tuesday night.

Bringing up Dylan Coghlan, Max Comtois, and Antti Raanta from the American Hockey League, Coghlan and Comtois were on the ice for the skate this morning.

The pair played in the aforementioned regular season finale last week, with Comtois registering a point in his team debut.

Here's how things looked on Wednesday:

Guentzel - Aho - Svechnikov

Teravainen - Kotkaniemi - Necas

Martinook - Staal - Jarvis

Drury - Kuznetsov - Noesen (Lemieux)

Comtois

-

Slavin - Burns

Skjei - DeAngelo

Orlov - Chatfield

Coghlan - Morrow

-

As is the case with DeAngelo now, and was last year with Mackenzie MacEachern on Long Island, you never know who you're going to need this time of year.

Noesen Playing An Important Role...

One man who has stepped up in a major way for the Canes over the last few days is Stefan Noesen.

Scoring in Game 1 and then bringing the physicality in Game 2, the hard-nosed forward fought Kyle MacLean and then threw down known enforcer Matt Martin as temperatures rose to end the affair.

"This type of hockey at this time of year, those kind of guys really shine.  The value ramps up in the little things," Brind'Amour said when asked of him.  "He does a lot of little things that all add up."

Noesen scored twice in last year's Round 1 series against the Islanders and prior to that was a major contributor on the way to a 2022 Calder Cup for the Chicago Wolves (AHL), producing 25 points in 18 games.

Carryover From Game 2?

After the Islanders allowed five unanswered goals to end the second game of the series, the final minute was filled with nine misconducts and 102 penalty minutes.

Are the Canes expecting to see more of that in Game 3?

"No, I mean, that's just part of it.  They were frustrated.  Rightfully so," Staal answered.  "It was a tough game for them and I wouldn't expect too much carryover beyond the obvious physicality and what comes as a part of the playoffs."

Martin, who was a part of the shenanigans for the Islanders, did not practice on Wednesday, per Andrew Gross of Newsday.com.

Sorokin To Start Game 3 For New York...

Additionally, out of Long Island, Islanders head coach Patrick Roy shared following his team's practice on Wednesday that he will turn to Ilya Sorokin in net.

Semyon Varlamov was largely strong in Games 1 and 2, but with the results not going in favor of their team, a change is being made.

Sorokin played 56 regular season games for the Isles, seventh among all NHL netminders.  However, since the mid-January coaching change in New York, Varlamov has had the better numbers of the two.

Dating back to March 1, Sorokin was 6-6-1 with a .907 save percentage (SV%), while Varlamov was 8-1-1 with a .930 SV%.

The Next Few Days...

• Thursday, April 25 - Game 3 (7:30 p.m. ET) - Bally Sports South, ESPN2, SN360, TVAS (Road Game HQ at Carolina Ale House - Downtown Raleigh)
• Friday, April 26 - Practice (12 p.m. ET)
• Saturday, April 27 - Game 4 (2 p.m. ET) - Bally Sports South, TBS, TruTV, Max, SN, TVAS (Road Game HQ at Carolina Ale House - Downtown Raleigh)

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