RALEIGH — The return of playoff hockey to PNC Arena on Monday night, after a ten-year hiatus, began with an electric, standing room only crowd, many of whom had only heard stories about what a Carolina Hurricanes home playoff game was like. It was euphoric, a cathartic release of ten years of pent-up frustration and disappointment.
Midway through the first period of what eventually became a 5-0 railroading of the Washington Capitals, those fans got a brutal taste of the dirty underbelly of those playoff runs of old.
Put Andrei Svechnikov on the list, next to Shane Willis, Ron Francis, Erik Cole, Jeff Skinner and countless others.