A Hurricanes sweep would be more than a luxury for a team already looking to the end

Dmitry Orlov watched from the bench in a sweatshirt and shorts as eight of his teammates practiced in an empty UBS Arena on Friday, only four of whom even participated in the Game 3 win that put the Carolina Hurricanes up 3-0 in the first round.

Time off is a commodity in the playoffs, same as goals and wins, and the Hurricanes are already stockpiling it, less than a week into what they hope is a journey of many weeks.

Which is why sweeping the New York Islanders with a Game 4 win on Saturday is not aspirational, not a luxury. If the Hurricanes are going to go as far as they hope to go, it’s practically a necessity.

And yes, it’s beyond obvious to say the Hurricanes want to win. Of course. But there are benefits to closing this out now that reverberate far beyond simply advancing.

The old hockey rule is the fourth win is the hardest, based on the difference in motivation between a team that has three chances to close out a series and a team that has only one chance to avoid closing out its season.

That goes hand-in-hand with Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour’s belief that the first round is always the hardest of the postseason, because everyone is full of energy, enough to try to finish every single check, and still harbors the legitimate hope that this is their year.

All of which is to say that no one expects it to come easily, even if the Hurricanes have yet to lose in this series. The Islanders were the better team in Game 1, had a 3-0 lead in Game 2 and did everything but score on Frederik Andersen in the third period of Game 3. The aggregate scoreline, 11-6, doesn’t reflect the way the series has been played.

“Our mindset is we know it wasn’t our best in Game 3 and Freddie bailed us out, but we’ve just got to play a great Game 4,” Hurricanes forward Jack Drury said. “We know how we have to play. One game at a time.”

Still, for the Hurricanes, the interest in a sweep is less about winning the first round — while never a foregone conclusion, the odds certainly lean heavily in the Hurricanes’ favor at this point — than what it could mean for rounds beyond.

If this is merely the beginning of two months of hockey for the Hurricanes, then every hit taken, every mile skated, every day practiced instead of rested adds up. There’s only so much tread on the tires, and in what is annually a war of attrition, powder kept dry now can make the difference in June against a team that’s run a similar gauntlet.

With Jesper Fast apparently lost for the season — although he will be reevaluated in four weeks — and Brett Pesce out for this series and indefinitely beyond, and Seth Jarvis and Jalen Chatfield both getting banged up in Game 3, the damage is already accumulating.

So as well as Andersen played in the third period Thursday night, does it make sense to rest him Saturday in Game 4, especially with the short turnaround to a 2 p.m. start? Or would playing Andersen to give the Hurricanes the best chance at a sweep pay the greatest rewards down the road?

Brind’Amour admitted Thursday that Andersen’s workload is “a consideration,” especially considering Thursday was the first time he’d started three consecutive games all season. It would be hard to rotate back to Pyotr Kochetkov coming off three straight wins, but there’s certainly a case to be made.

“Wear and tear and last night was a busy night for him,” Brind’Amour said. “We’ll obviously make that decision here shortly, but that’s what’s holding up going to him right away. We’ve got to make sure he’s ready to go.”

If this is just the beginning, the Hurricanes have to be thinking about getting to the end now. Whatever that means for Saturday, there’s no question a sweep would do more than get the Hurricanes through to the second round. It would leave them in better position for rounds beyond.

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