Game 7 Eve: The Final Preparation

RALEIGH, NC. -Two of the most important words in all of sports - Game Seven.
For one side of tomorrow's Boston Bruins and Carolina Hurricanes matchup, they'll enjoy an off day on Sunday as they prepare for either the Pittsburgh Penguins or New York Rangers. For the other, it'll be locker room clean-out day.

It's almost unfathomable to think that the Canes, a team that guided the Metropolitan Division for almost the entirety of the 2021-22 regular season, could now be in this situation so soon in their postseason journey. However, as the Stanley Cup Playoffs remind us each year, anything is possible and this is the battle of the best teams in the National Hockey League.
"You know you have to play your best. You don't win a Game 7 unless you play your best," Rod Brind'Amour remarked after a full team skate at PNC Arena for the team Friday afternoon. "There's nothing different in the game, it's just that obviously if you don't win, you're done."
Through six meetings this series it's become easy to decipher that Brind'Amour's group is at their best when disciplined and executing on special teams.
There's also the fact that the home team has been the one on the successful side of the outcome in each game, however, the head coach isn't reading too far into that.
"I don't put a lot of stock in it," Brind'Amour returned when asked why he feels the hosting side has been the victorious one through the first six. "I mean, the games are closer than the scores - all of them, in my opinion. Last night we got a couple going off the [posts] and if they go in, it would have been looking like a different hockey game. They had chances here early in games. Sometimes it just goes that way."
Referencing last night's first power play attempt, where both Seth Jarvis and Nino Niederreiter beat Jeremy Swayman but had their efforts glance off the iron, the reigning Jack Adams Award winner's perspective does shed light to an area that may be being overlooked thus far. For example, would the Canes have had the success they did in Game Five if Brad Marchand scored in the opening minutes when he was all alone on Antti Raanta?
Then again, the Canes have scored first in five of the six games, but have only been victorious in three, so how much does getting the first one matter? Or is it more of a matter of momentum swings?
"I think it all comes down to special teams," Antti Raanta provided as his reasoning. "Every game has pretty much gone to whoever gets their power play going. Yesterday was a crazy example. We had a five-on-three and then a five-on-four and we couldn't use our chances, then Boston got theirs and they scored right away."

Carry The Confidence

Carolina's special teams, the power play specifically, struggled in the three games in Boston, however, two glimmers of hope can be found entering tomorrow's Game 7.
First, after going 0-for-15 in their first 15 tries at TD Garden, Andrei Svechnikov cashing in during the final moments of Thursday's Game 6 may not be as irrelevant as it may have felt at the time.
"For anybody, when you're scoring, you're more confident," the 22-year-old forward shared after the skate. "That's the case for me right now and I'm going to try and keep that confidence tomorrow in the game."
The late-game power play tally was the second of the night for Svechnikov, who gave the Canes some life early in the third with a snap shot on a setup from Seth Jarvis.

In addition to the team burying on their final power play chance of the series in Boston, the crew has also experienced more success on the man advantage at PNC Arena this series. In two of the three games that have taken place in Raleigh, they've produced multiple power play goals.
What it will ultimately boil down to is a willingness to make quick decisions and execute the team's game plan, which they spent time focusing on at Friday's practice.

Phenomenal Father Finn

Special teams. Discipline. Confidence. Scoring first. It's easy to get lost in dissecting the elements of the series that have caused turmoil, but something, or rather someone, deserving of praise for his role in the series thus far is Antti Raanta.
Lest we not forget the panic that ensued for some on Sunday, April 24, just four days before the team's regular season ended, when Raanta went down amid the team's game on Long Island. Or then again just minutes into Game Two when he was run over by David Pastrnak.
For never having made a playoff start prior to last Monday, it would be hard to ask for more out of a netminder in this situation than what Raanta has provided.
"He was good all year. Obviously he didn't play a ton, but in the circumstances that he's been dealt, he's stepped up and has been really good," Brind'Amour said of the presumed Game 7 starter.
Having turned away 126 out of 136 shots faced in the series thus far, perhaps what is most impressive is that he's stopped 27/30 when his team is shorthanded. Of goalies that have played in five or more games in Round One, only Jacob Markstrom (CGY) and Louis Domingue (PIT) have allowed fewer than three power play goals against.

Loose Pucks

Worth A Click:
Recap: Bruins Force Game 7 With 5-2 Victory
Staal's Road To Becoming The Perfect Leader For The Canes
Canes 2022 Playoffs Merch