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Rod Brind’Amour didn’t leave much to interpretation on Friday night.
“The power play cost us the game,” the Hurricanes head coach said after his team lost Game 3 of its first-round playoff series to the Islanders, 5-1. “That was clear.”
Since Carolina scored on its first two power plays of the series, the Islanders have killed off 11 of the ensuing 12 penalties, the one exception being a fluky own-goal that took a bad bounce off Sebastian Aho’s stick during Game 2.
Especially given their own struggles on the power play, which is 2-for-27 dating back to March 24, the more the Islanders can make this first-round series about five-on-five play, the better. And that means doing everything they can on the penalty kill.
“It’s just buying into what we need to do,” Casey Cizikas said following Game 2.
