Hurricanes injury update, Game 3 NHL playoff preview: Will Teuvo Teravainen return?

The Carolina Hurricanes’ players and coaches, dressed in business casual attire, arrived at RDU in twos and threes Thursday, ready for a team flight to New York.

Left behind: forward Teuvo Teravainen, who suffered a broken left hand Wednesday in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs against the New York Islanders.

Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said after the game, a 4-3 overtime victory for Carolina, that Teravainen would need surgery and would miss the rest of the first-round series.

Brind’Amour wasn’t any more optimistic Thursday about a Teravainen return. Brind’Amour said Teravainen would undergo surgery Thursday afternoon, saying pins would be inserted into the hand.

“Is he going to get back? Very, very doubtful. Certainly not anytime soon,” Brind’Amour said.

Brind’Amour was angry and disgusted about the injury after Game 2, saying Teravainen took a “tomahawk chop” to his hand. No penalty was called. Had slashing been called, it would have given the Canes a 5-on-3 power play late in regulation with the score tied 3-3.

The Canes did not get the call, but did get the win. Jesper Fast scored off the rush five minutes into overtime to give Carolina a 2-0 lead in the series, which continues Friday with Game 3 at the Islanders’ UBS Arena on Long Island..

Just the latest injury

Losing Teravainen presents yet another challenge for the Hurricanes, who have had to overcome Max Pacioretty tearing his Achilles — twice — and then a knee injury to forward Andrei Svechnikov in March.

“When you’re losing big pieces to your team, it’s hard,” Brind’Amour said Thursday. “But we’ve done it all year and found ways. We’re just going to have to put somebody else in there and pick up the slack.

“The good part about that is we’ve done it all year, had big pieces out for long stretches. Now it’s just more of the same.”

Teravainen, a crafty playmaker and underrated defender, has been on the Canes’ top line with center Sebastian Aho and winger Seth Jarvis, and also has been an important part of the power play and penalty kill.

“When you lose a top guy there’s a lot of minutes there, so somebody has to fill it and it’s probably not just one guy,” Brind’Amour said. “But other people get more opportunities, so we’ve got to make the most of it.”

Potential stopgaps

Brind’Amour could turn to Jesse Puljujarvi to replace Teravainen. The Canes traded for the Finnish forward in a Feb. 28 deal with Edmonton, but Puljujarvi was generally ineffective in his 17 regular-season games with Carolina and was a healthy scratch the first two games against the Islanders.

Another potential option is forward Mackenzie MacEachern, recalled Thursday from the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League (AHL).

MacEachern, 29, played in five career NHL playoff games with the St. Louis Blues in 2020 and has 115 games of NHL experience. The Canes signed MacEachern to a one-year, two-way contract in July 2022.

Brind’Amour didn’t rule out using MacEachern, who he said was injured much of this season but looked “really solid” when he was in the Wolves lineup.

“He looked like he could jump right in. He might have to,” Brind’Amour said.

Game 3 peek

Looking to Game 3, defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere said he anticipated the Islanders to play with heightened urgency. The noise level in the building, he said, “Could be off the charts.”

“We’re you’re down 2-0, obviously there’s a little desperation in their game,” he said. “Going back to their home, obviously it’s going to be a tougher game. The game they want to play is obviously more physical. But I think we’re up for the task.”

The Canes were 0-6 in playoff road games in two rounds last year, a winless record that will hang over them until they’re able to change it.

“We don’t need to change much,” defenseman Brady Skjei said Thursday. “We’ve been playing well so far, and I think if we bring that game on the road, we’ll be fine.”

Brind’Amour said he could “hardly remember” last year, saying much of it was a blur. He said this year’s team has the opportunity to “do something different.”

“Obviously, we want to win some road games,” he said.