LAS VEGAS (AP) — Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour is wearing his poker face well in Las Vegas.
Brind'Amour has decided who will be in net Tuesday night against the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final.
He’s just not telling anyone.
“It’s always a suspenseful thing around here that I have to hold on to,” Brind’Amour said Monday after practice. “It seems to have taken a life of its own, so I kind of enjoy it.”
Vegas leads the
series 2-1 after a wild 5-4 double-overtime win on Saturday night. The teams split the first two games in Carolina.
Starting goaltender Frederik Andersen didn’t practice, which Brind’Amour described as a maintenance day, but backup Brandon Bussi was on the ice along with Pyotr Kochetkov. All three were in rotation over the first three months of the regular season.
Asked what the coaches were telling him about his chances of playing in Game 4, Bussi smirked: “You know, Rod’s our coach, right?”
Andersen was brilliant for the Hurricanes, playing every minute of their first 15 playoff games before Bussi replaced him after Vegas took a 4-0 lead after the second period of Game 3.
Bussi shut down the Knights until Shea Theodore’s game-winning shot caromed off the end boards and went in after the goaltender inadvertently deflected it with his left skate 5:38 into the second overtime.
Brind'Amour told reporters on Sunday he didn't anticipate “a lot of changes” to the lineup, but would “see how (Andersen is) feeling.”
On Monday, the coach quashed the notion that Andersen may have suffered a head injury when Ivan Barbashev’s left hip viciously collided with the netminder’s head. Andersen dropped to the ice face-first, where he lay flat with his arms sprawled out.
Bussi, who hadn’t played since April 14 before replacing Andersen, said his mindset doesn’t change on how to prepare for a game, whether as a backup or starter.
“It’s the same thing for me every day,” Bussi said. “I put my head down, I work hard. I just do the same thing every time. It’s easier that way.”
Meanwhile, the Hurricanes said they have confidence in whoever leads the team onto the ice inside T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday night.
“Freddie has been unbelievable, Bussi’s been unbelievable this year, and Koch, before he got injured, he was incredible,” Nikolaj Ehlers said. “So we got a ton of confidence. We want to play the same hockey that we know we can play. In the end it doesn’t matter who’s in the net, we’re going to do our best to limit their chances and give them less hard work to do during the games.
“It doesn’t matter. We have full confidence in all three goalies.”
Taylor Hall said the smaller intangibles to consider might be the goaltenders' styles of play and how to react when an explosive team such as Vegas is firing on net.
“Bussi plays an aggressive style, so I would say it’s more about taking away the other options around the ice a bit more so that he can just focus on that shot if we do give up a chance,” Hall said. “Where Freddie’s more patient, and he’s more of a, ‘let’s see what happens.’ He’ able to kind of save some backdoor plays and things like that.”
In other injury news, forward William Carrier skated at practice Monday after missing the third period and OT after appearing to injure his arm during a check on Jeremy Lauzon.
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