TORONTO - On Monday afternoon, a storm rolled through downtown Toronto, bringing thunder, lightning, a torrential downpour and some hail with it.
On Monday night, in the third period of Game 4, the Boston Bruins seemed to move through the Carolina Hurricanes with a similar ferociousness.
"I want to make people who support this organization proud of how we play. I think we've done that for most of the time I've been here, and today we didn't. That's the most disturbing thing for me," head coach Rod Brind'Amour said after the game. "We've got to pick the pieces up and make sure we put an effort forward that you can say, 'Hey, that's how it should look' and be proud of it. Win or lose, you've got to be proud of how you play, and that didn't happen tonight."
On Tuesday morning, the sun came out again.
A New Day for the Canes
Brind'Amour: 'We've got to win a game. That's the focus.'
"It's a new day," Brind'Amour said on Tuesday afternoon. "We have to start fresh."
So, that's what the Canes did. Instead of sitting around the Fairmont Royal York hotel all day stewing on what went wrong in that
dreadful third period stretch of six minutes and 51 seconds
the night prior, the Canes got back on the ice at Ford Performance Centre.
There wasn't much teaching to be done. Rather, it was an opportunity turn the page and have some fun.
"Nobody is proud of what we did yesterday. To give up a lead like that in the third period, up two in the playoffs is unacceptable," Vincent Trocheck said. "We kind of had to look ourselves in the mirror last night and think to ourselves, 'Did we do enough?' We'll put it behind us now and go to the next game."
Here's the reality of the situation: The Canes find themselves down three games to one in their best-of-seven First Round series against the Bruins and now face the unenviable task of winning three games in a row against the Presidents' Trophy winners.
They'll have to do so without Andrei Svechnikov, their leading goal scorer.
They'll have to do so, at least in the immediate future, without Joel Edmundson, who brings a sandpaper element and a championship pedigree on the blue line.
"That's a huge loss for us," Brind'Amour noted.
On Monday night, it seemed they also might have to do so without their captain Jordan Staal, a space-eater who muscles bodies around, shuts down the opponsition's best and kills penalties with aplomb.
The Canes got a dose of good news on that front, though, as Staal, who left Game 4 in the third period after absorbing a heavy body check from Charlie McAvoy, practiced with the team on Tuesday.
"We're looking at him now and evaluating where he is and how he feels," Brind'Amour said after practice. "It was a good sign that he was out there today."
The Canes picked up the pieces on Tuesday and looked ahead to Game 5, the next opportunity to go 1-0. If the Canes can manage that, they give themselves another opportunity to go 1-0 on Thursday and force a decisive Game 7.
"We've got to go win a game. That's the focus," Brind'Amour said. "You can't win three games tomorrow. We've got win one and then see what happens from there."
Anything less, and their time in the Toronto bubble comes to an unceremonious end.
Therein lies the added difficulty of the Canes' situation, too. While it's unmistakably playoff hockey, hockey in an empty rink with very little to no perceived home ice advantage is also unmistakably different. Not to mention, this tournament is being staged in a bubble, with players and staff isolated from the outside world; it's the only practical way to ensure the health and safety of everyone, but it also poses unique and challenging mental circumstances.
Just as the hockey is different, so too did it feel different being down 2-1 in a series, and trailing 3-1 seems nearly insurmountable. Why? It's only human to begin thinking about family and home.
"Time away from family is difficult, so the longer you're away from them, the harder it gets, but comfortability with being in the bubble and getting used to being here gets a little easier," Trocheck said. "At the end of the day, we're here to win a Stanley Cup. Everybody is on this team is focused toward that."
"That's the biggest thing that's probably not getting talked about enough," Brind'Amour said on Monday. "Everybody wants to play. Like I said, we'd play on the street if we had to. … Everyone that's here, they feel it. It's a long time to be away. We've been away now three weeks, and we've played three playoff games. Guys are feeling it. It's a long road. The team that can hunker down the best and mentally channel all your positive energy to why we're here is the team that's probably going to be able to hoist the Cup when it's all done."
What's ahead is undoubtedly an uphill climb for the Canes, but they're still climbing.
"We're the team with our backs against the wall. We've got nothing to lose at this point," Brind'Amour said. "We want to make sure we go down giving everything we have if that's what ends up happening."
"They have to win four. Right now, we don't have any leeway or fallback options. We've got to go, go, go. When your backs are up against the wall, that's when you learn what you're all about," Justin Williams said after Game 4. "It ain't over yet, and we're going to give it our best."
