NHL divisional play appears to be breeding contempt between Canes and opponents

Does familiarity breed contempt, as the old saying goes?

It does in the NHL, circa 2021, after the decision to go to four divisions during the pandemic and have the teams play each other eight times apiece in a 56-game regular-season window.

“Any time you’re around or playing the same teams, you start hating each other more and more,” Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said on a media call Sunday. “That’s just the nature of it.”

The Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers have played just twice in the Central Division and already tempers have flared, cross-checks have been thrown and some contempt formed. The latest came in the third period of Saturday’s game at BB&T Center that the Canes won 4-3 in a five-round shootout.

With a little more than nine minutes left in the third, Florida’s MacKenzie Weegar gave Canes forward Jesper Fast a shove from behind in front of the Panthers net. Canes forward Andrei Svechnikov skated in and went chest-to-chest with Weegar and sticks soon were high.

It didn’t end there.

Panthers forward Frank Vatrano popped Svechnikov three times, once on the side of the head. Defenseman Aaron Ekblad aimed a right hand at Svechnikov but missed, falling to the ice. No gloves were dropped.

It didn’t end there.

With about 80 seconds left in regulation and the score tied 3-3, Canes center Jordan Staal bumped aside Patric Hornqvist in a puck battle along the boards, then turned to go to the net. Defenseman Radko Gudas tied up Staal and held his stick with his left arm while Hornqvist cross-checked Staal from behind.

Referee Wes McCauley, standing to the side the net, took it all in without calling a penalty.

Only just beginning

And just think, this is a third of the way through the season. There could be some real unpleasantness and madness in March, then some April hostility as the intensity continues to build and the same players see each other over and over.

“Obviously, as the year goes on the games are going to get tighter and the points are going to be squeezed out more and more,” Staal said Sunday.

Staal said having fans in BB&T Center — Florida had a listed attendance of 4,281 for Saturday’s game — added to the intensity in the game.

“It definitely had some atmosphere,” he said. “It was fun. It was a good battle.”

The Canes had just completed four games in a row against the Tampa Bay Lightning, a bit of scheduling overkill by the NHL as it looks to make adjustments for COVID-related postponements. In Thursday’s game, which the Lightning won 3-1, Staal was cross-checked by Blake Coleman so forcefully that Coleman broke his stick on Staal’s back. Again, no call.

The Canes and Lightning each had five power plays in the game, so it’s not as if the whistles were put away by the referees most of the night. Brind’Amour said after the game, “We probably could have had five or six more power plays, to be honest. It was weird how that worked out.”

That was a subtle jab at the refereeing in the game, possibly with the Coleman cross-check in mind.

Only going to escalate

With teams playing almost every other night, the physicality, along with the glares and snarls should escalate as teams try to position themselves for the Stanley Cup playoffs. Players will be fatigued and could easily become edgy. They will reach a boiling point more quickly.

As Brind’Amour put it earlier in the season, there will be a lot of “banging heads.” Even Canes defenseman Dougie Hamilton has dropped the gloves this season, trading punches with Detroit’s Sam Gagner in Hamilton’s first fight since 2016.

In another game Saturday, St. Louis Blues goalie Jordan Binnington was lifted after giving up four goals. Binnington shoved three San Jose players, including goalie Devan Dubnyk, as he angrily left the ice in a game the Blues won 7-6.

One final note: the Canes and Panthers play again Monday.

Carolina Hurricanes vs Florida Panthers

When: Monday, 7 p.m.

Where: BB&T Center, Sunrise, Fla.

TV: FSCR.