Brind'Amour says Hurricanes must be smarter about retaliation - ESPN

RALEIGH — Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said his players have to be smarter about retaliating against the Florida Panthers' trademark agitation.

«We know that's how they do things,» he said on Wednesday, after Florida took a 1-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals with a 5-2 win. «Find a way not to let that get to you. Stick to what is going to win us games.»

At issue for the Hurricanes in Game 1 was center Sebastian Aho's roughing penalty against Florida's Anton Lundell at 6:59 of the first period, which negated a Carolina power play and led to Carter Verhaeghe scoring the first goal of the game on a Panthers' power play. Aho took a swing at Lundell after the Panthers center cross-checked him. The referees whistled the retaliation but not the initial stickwork that provoked it.

«I mean, the first penalty is bad call, right? You're going to have those. But that's my thing: Retaliation penalties are not going to get it done,» Brind'Amour said. «We did a pretty good job with [retaliation], but it just takes one. That's my point. You can't have that one, because that really puts you behind the game and now it's different.»

The Hurricanes are 5-0 when scoring first in the playoffs and 3-3 when they don't. Carolina's penalty kill had stopped 14 of 15 power plays at home and 28 of 30 overall in the playoffs until Game 1, when Florida went 2-for-3 with the man advantage.

«They made us pay. It's a good team that knows how to score goals and finds way to win games when you make mistakes,» Carolina captain Jordan Staal said. «We've got to limit those mistakes.»

Another example of the Hurricanes' retaliation, though a less costly one for Carolina, came in the third period when defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere