Carolina Hurricanes Were Once Fighting For A Playoff Spot
May 15, 2009 – 10:15 am by Tas Melas
The ‘Canes are headed to the Eastern Conference Final. Exciting, yes, but it’s the manner in which they got there that is the real thriller. The two most exciting words in sports: game seven. Hockey teams absolutely hate each other after six games of grinding and digging and hating. There is so much tension in a game seven – I can’t necessarily rank it above a game seven in baseball or basketball, but it is most necessarily not below them. That’s the advantage these three sports have over single elimination sports. For instance, earlier in this Hurricanes-Bruins series, Scott Walker sucker punched Aaron Ward – like I’m talking a dirty, scummy shot to the kisser with his gloves dropped and Ward’s hands at his side. And, then, it’s only fitting that Scott Walker scores the winning goal in game seven to send the Bruins home. That is high drama. If only I loved hockey like other Canadians do. Scott Walker, Eric Staal, Cam Ward, and Head Coach Paul Maurice joined WRAL to discuss the series-clinching goal, game seven overall, why the ‘Canes had an advantage, and the upcoming series vs Pittsburgh.
Scott Walker on his game-winning, overtime goal:
“Shift before, I went down and didn’t shoot the puck, and Ray (Whitney) gave me trouble for not shooting it. When he had it wide, I knew he was gonna shoot it and I just went to the net and tried to bang it in… This is the greatest thing I’ve ever been through hockey-wise… It’s just a bunch of guys that love each other and wanna play.”
Eric Staal felt like score didn’t do the game justice:
“We liked the way we were playing, even when we fell behind 1-0, we knew we were gonna get rewarded. It didn’t feel like a 2-2 game going in to overtime, it felt like we deserved a little bit better but sometimes that’s the way it goes when you’re playing a good team. We stayed with it and got the job done in overtime.”
Head Coach Paul Maurice on an advantage they’ve had over the front-running Bruins:
“If you go and take a look back at the 1-goal games that we’ve been in, we were in those games from January on, maybe earlier than that. That mentality, you get used to it, you get to live in it. I think that we felt, just the stats say, if we could keep Boston under four (goals) we’d beat ‘em… They give you so few opporunities, the tighter that game was, the better it was for us.”
Cam Ward feels like the Penguins will be a challenge:
“They’re gonna be a huge challenge. I even watched quite a few of their games just because it was on off nights for us and what an entertaining team they are – obviously, they possess some of the best players in the game… (Re: Sidney Crosby) With Crosby you know what you’re gonna get every single shift, he’s a player that elevates his game when it matters most. It’s gonna be tough for us to shut them down but we’re gonna be up for it…”
Listen to Scott Walker, Eric Staal, Paul Maurice, and Cam Ward on WRAL
Tags: Boston Bruins, Carolina Hurricanes, hockey, NHL, NHL Playoffs, Pittsburgh Penguins
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