Eric Engels

He was forced into it.

He made a mistake.

He had much more egregious ones in Game 7 against Buffalo.

But even in that game...

Because of those moments in the game that are so extreme to the eyes, you could easily miss what he's doing defensively and how hard he is to play against.

He was so good last night.

His game was so strong despite starting on that note.

And it speaks to his mental resolve that he could start with a turnover that ends up in the back of the net 30 seconds into a game that they really want to win, obviously, to get –

I would have told you that before Buffalo series, before the Tampa series, winning game one was not as essential.

in this one, it was really essential.

Like if the Canadians could win game one, that would be a big part of the recipe of them potentially getting to the Stanley cup final because they had to plant some sort of seeded out early for the goalie who is the most likely to be affected by the rust situation, considering how well he played in the first two rounds for the hurricanes themselves who haven't faced any adversity at all.

Um,

And now all of a sudden, they're not leaning into the Russ thing as an excuse, but I almost feel like they should because if it's not Russ, then it's about them.

And if they're not themselves in game two, then it's really even more about them and their history of losing game after game in the conference finals.

This shit matters, and it matters more and more

in a series like this where the national media is descended on Carolina and there's just that much more attention on it.

If, you know, I don't think they'll feel as bad if they play their game and lose in game two.

But there's no way they're going to feel good if they lose playing their game.

And they're definitely going to feel a lot worse if it's the Canadiens game that once again prevails and they get knocked out of their own barn going to Montreal.

All that history and the pressure and the fact that they can't escape it with all of us around asking about it, it can be suffocating.