Fresh off consecutive sweeps, Carolina embraces a long hiatus. The Canes are prioritizing mental recovery and high-intensity practices to maintain their competitive edge for the Eastern Conference Final.
So far this postseason, the Carolina Hurricanes have spent more time not playing than they have playing.
Through two rounds of the playoffs, the Canes have pulled off back-to-back sweeps over the Ottawa Senators and Philadelphia Flyers.
So that makes eight game days and now over 21 off days and it's still going to be over a week between games by the time they drop the puck at Lenovo Center for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final.
The Hurricanes are awaiting the winner between the Montreal Canadiens and the Buffalo Sabres, who will play in Game 6 on Saturday, and really the only thing they've been able to do to fill the time is to practice.
"It's out of our control," said captain Jordan Staal. "What we can control is practicing hard and staying sharp and that's what we're trying to do."
"We're just working on things to keep ourselves sharp," said netminder Frederik Andersen. "That's obviously important and we've been a group that's been pretty good at that. I think Roddy is very focused on what we can do today to get better and so on."
The Hurricanes have done well off of an extended break already these playoffs, coming out hard against the Flyers and again sweeping following a six-day break.
There was never a noticeable lag in their game following the long rest and that Game 1 might have even been one of their best outings of the postseason wit a 3-0 victory.
"Obviously we were happy with the way things went last time, so we're gonna try to kind of do similar things and stay consistent with that," Staal said. "It's just really about being a pro. Making sure your body is right, healing those bumps and bruises and just being sharp for that Game 1."
"During that break, we really tried to keep our foot on the gas and stay full throttle," said defenseman K'Andre Miller. "Whether it was coming in for practices or coming in and doing a workout, conditioning, whatever we could do to stay sharp."
Since the Game 4 victory, the team has been alternating between practice days and off days as they try to strike the balance between staying sharp, but also not ramping up too much or too soon.
It was the approach they took between Round 1 and Round 2 and they're hopeful it'll produce similar results heading into Round 3.
"I think what we did worked," said Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour. "It's important for the guys to stay physically sharp, but I think mentally, it's okay to kind of get away from it for a little bit because the playoffs is a grind mentally and physically. So I think the mental rest is actually probably better for us than the actual physical rest."
A lot of people try to bring up how too much rest may be a detriment to a team that isn't staying actively engaged in the battles of playoff hockey night after night, the ol' "rust" argument, but the benefit of rest just simply feels too great to take for granted.
"It's always good to get that rest," Miller said. "Recovery in playoffs... you just don't get that luxury all that often, so anytime you can get away from the rink and put up your legs and get your mind away from the ice and the stick and the puck is nice and it's going to be beneficial in the long run."
The biggest challenge for the team so far though has been not knowing when they're even going to be playing, but at least now with the NHL releasing two potential options, the Hurricanes have some target dates that they can work finally work toward.
"We try to practice hard every day, but that's why we give them some time off," Brind'Amour said. "We definitely have a plan here moving forward, but we are going to start giving them more stuff off ice and getting prepared."
As Brind'Amour put it, the team isn't trying to "reinvent the wheel" with these practices, but they have to make sure they're continuing to build on good habits and hammer down on the small details.
"Obviously we have to get better at everything we're doing, so we're gonna focus on that, but I don't think you really want to deviate too much from what you're doing," Brind'Amour said. "We always say, 'Sharpening the knife.' We have to keep razor sharp on what we do well."
And while the coaching staff has been preparing video on both potential opponents, they're not going to start going over that with the team until they know for sure who they're playing.
The focus instead is on their own team and how they can be better.
"You gotta prepare for both groups, but until we really know who we're playing, we're not going to give too much to our guys about who we're playing," Brind'Amour said. "At the end of the day, it's about getting your team playing at its best and at this time of year, you have to."
The Canes have indeed started to ramp up their practices here as of late, with two straight days of increased competition featuring some short 5v5 scrimmages as well as some 2v2, small-ice games.
"We're kind of itching to get going, so you have to find ways to create competition," said alternate captain Jordan Martinook.
"They picked it up a little bit here today," Brind'Amour said on Saturday. "It's getting closer, so that's what you want."
While the Hurricanes certainly would have liked to have gotten going already, they're not going to complain about the bonus recovery time and regardless, they feel like they'll be ready for Game 1 of the ECF whenever that may be.
"We'd love to be playing and get going, but we'll wait as long as we need to," Brind'Amour said.
"When we go back into it next round, we're going to come into with everything we've got and continue to push," Andersen said.
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