The Carolina Hurricanes pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the post-season last year, knocking off the Stanley Cup Champion Washington Capitals in seven games.
The rivalry between the Metropolitan Division teams doesn’t run deep like, say, the Penguins, but it’s starting to get pretty noteworthy.
While the pre-season isn’t the place where rivalries are made per say, it definitely can set the stage for upcoming meetings.
Sunday saw the two teams square off in their respective final pre-season games. In a rather chippy affair, both clubs used their final tune-up to ramp up the intensity before the regular season kicks off this week.
During the second period, a scrum started in front of the Hurricanes bench. While it wasn’t surprising to see Tom Wilson involved, eyebrows raised when Wilson was engaged in some verbal warfare with ‘Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour. Wilson racked up 14 PIMs, including a 10-minute misconduct, two minutes for roughing and a two-minute unsportsmanlike for going at Warren Foegele, who ended T.J. Oshie’s year in the playoffs by breaking his collarbone with a cheap shot against the boards.
As heated as Wilson was, it was the Hurricanes bench boss who set him off the most, as Wilson took out his mouthguard and let the trash-talking fly as he was escorted away from the officials while receiving a shove from Hurricanes backup James Reimer.
Wilson didn’t directly mention Brind’Amour, but he did talk about coaches getting involved in the chirps.
"I was pretty calm until some words came from their bench and it wasn't the players so we'll leave it at that. He's clearly an emotional guy but I don't think, you ask anyone around the league, coaches chirping players is appropriate."
Capitals coach Todd Reirden had Wilson's back and believes it's inappropriate for coaches to engage verbally with players on the opposite team.
“That’s something that I strongly, strongly disagree with is a coach talking to the players from the other team,” Reirden said. “I had some comments for their bench as I walked off between periods. You don’t get a chance to play anymore as a coach so you shouldn’t be talking to someone who is playing. To me, that’s off limits. That’s something I’ve always believed as a player as a coach.
“No coaches should be yelling at players from other teams because you have no chance to do anything about it,” Reirden added. “Hockey’s a special game, in respect to the battle and the compete and the enthusiasm and all the passion out there, but it’s for the players, but when coaches get involved, that’s wrong.”
Mark your calendars for October 5th, as the two sides will renew acquaintances early on, and there’s a good chance the fireworks will continue to pop off.
