Ex-Hurricane Erik Haula doesn’t see self as ‘a villain,’ but he has assumed that role
It’s easy to understand why Erik Haula might have a grudge toward the Carolina Hurricanes, who declined to extend his contract in 2020 before shipping him to the Florida Panthers in the Vincent Trocheck deal, the first and second of his five teams the past four seasons.
And then the Hurricanes eliminated Haula’s team in the playoffs in 2021. And again in 2022. And could again in 2023, if they can defeat Haula and the New Jersey Devils starting Wednesday night.
When it comes to familiar faces, it’s not just about playing the Devils for the fifth time in nine postseasons. The Hurricanes are on a three-year Haula streak. So far, they’re Haula-and-oh, although Haula comes into this series playing some of his best hockey in years.
“We get another series of him, hopefully the same result,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said.
None of that would seem all that significant — Dougie Hamilton and Brendan Smith are back as well, and no one seems all that concerned about them — if Haula hadn’t become the target of considerable fan enmity during that first-round series with the Nashville Predators in 2021, carrying on a running battle with Martin Necas, his former linemate, throughout the six games.
The boos carried on last year while Haula played for the Boston Bruins, and Haula — who said in 2021 that the “booing and yelling, all those things, honestly I love it” — clearly isn’t thrilled that he arrives yet again with that reputation, or the reception he gets in Raleigh.
“I played here. I gave them everything I had. It didn’t end up working out,” Haula said Wednesday. “There were a lot of things that happened family-wise off the ice. An injury that I was coming off of. Not really sure about that. I’m a competitor. I’m going to do whatever’s necessary in my mind to win. I don’t see myself as a villain. I play for my team. I give it everything I’ve got. I’m just here to compete and be the best version of myself.”
It didn’t seem like Haula was here long enough to ruffle any feathers, but the ongoing confrontation with Necas during the Nashville series certainly branded him as an enemy of the people, and that lingered last year, and is likely to linger again against the Devils.
But even as heated and prolonged as the Haula vs. the Caniacs rivalry has become, no one seems to know how it all began. Including Necas.
“I don’t know,” Necas said. “My first year, we played together. It’s nothing crazy. He just went after me a little bit. I went after him. Nothing too crazy. Seems like we’re going to play him every time in the playoffs every year. I’m excited for that and it’ll be a good battle.”
Either way, on a Devils team that doesn’t have a ton of history against the Hurricanes — unlike the two franchises, even if they’re meeting in the playoffs for first time since 2009 — Haula arrives with some prepackaged enmity that Hamilton and Smith do not, and the latter two figure to get a warmer welcome from the partisans Wednesday night, at least as warm as it ever gets in the postseason.
“He’s about the only guy that’s left here, it seems like, where that’s gone on,” Brind’Amour said. “I don’t know why. I don’t know what happened there.”
Which only reinforces how much of an outlier Haula has turned out to be. He may not see himself as a villain, but he’s certainly been one before. And could be again.
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