It took the Carolina Hurricanes more than a week to get back on the ice and play.
The Canes, after a 4-3 loss Wednesday to the Boston Bruins in double overtime, will have one day to try and get over it and move on.
The Canes and Bruins played Game 1 of the first-round Stanley Cup playoff series at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, and Canes coach Rod Brind'Amour called it a "stinger" of a loss.
The question now: will the loss linger? Game 2 is Thursday at 8 p.m.
"That should benefit us, just get it out of our mind that much quicker," Canes forward Brock McGinn said. "You don't have to spend that extra day dwelling on the loss. Just get right back into it."
Patrice Bergeron's goal at 1:13 of the second overtime decided it for Boston, adding more misery to the Canes' quest to find a way to beat the Bruins in the playoffs. Boston swept the Canes in the Eastern Conference finals a year ago, with the versatile Bergeron playing one of the leading roles, and Wednesday's game had a continuation feel to it.
The Bruins' top line was better than the Canes' top line, again. Bergeron and David Pastrnak each had a goal and assist and Brad Marchand was his usual agitating, pesky self while chipping in a couple of assists.
Teuvo Teravainen and Sebastian Aho assisted on the Canes' first goal, by defenseman Joel Edmundson, but Andrei Svechnikov was quiet throughout the game. In the first overtime, Svechnikov had the puck behind the net and tried to load up for a lacrosse shot _ the kind of move he twice scored on this season _ but was denied by Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo.
Bergeron's winning goal came after Pastrnak skated between Edmundson and Brady Skeji up the slot and backhanded a pass. Bergeron was open in the right circle as Aho was slow getting back in the zone.
Good offensive chances were few for the Canes. McGinn scored a shorthanded goal in the second period to offset a questionable call by the referees _ and a debatable ruling after a review _ and Carolina had just nine shots in the first two periods.
"They played a good game. We have to be better," Canes captain Jordan Staal said. "There are a lot of excuses we can roll into that but we didn't have our best."
After impressively sweeping the New York Rangers in the qualifying round, the Canes had a week off. They then had Game 1 of the Bruins series postponed a day when the Columbus-Tampa Bay playoff game Tuesday went five overtimes before the Lightning won.
"We were chomping at the bit to get going," Staal said of the long Tuesday wait.
McGinn said the Canes in the first two periods "didn't get to our game at all" but finally settled in about halfway through the third. The Canes tied the score 3-3 on a blast from defenseman Haydn Fleury, who scored his first career playoff goal and also made his mark with a few big hits in the game.
For the first time since Jan. 16, defenseman Dougie Hamilton was in the Canes lineup. Hamilton suffered a broken leg and missed the last 21 games of the regular season, then was injured again in postseason training camp last month in Raleigh. That kept him out of the qualifier against the Rangers.
There was a surprise absence: Justin Williams. The veteran winger was ruled "unfit to play," which Brind'Amour called a game-time decision. Williams was replaced in the lineup by Ryan Dzingel, who did not play in the Rangers series.
Brind'Amour said there was a possibility that Williams, who watched the game at the arena, could play Game 2. Defenseman Sami Vatanen, another scratch Wednesday, also could return.
While the Bruins did not win a round-robin game in Toronto and finished as the No. 4 seed in the East, they did play Sunday. Brind'Amour believed the pace of the game and the grinding style of the Bruins had an effect, with the Bruins often keeping the puck in the offensive zone and crowding goalie Petr Mrazk around the net.
"I was afraid we were going to be a little sluggish and we were," Brind'Amour said. "But that's to their credit. They played a better game than we did overall. We got back into it a little but we weren't good enough to win that game."
Mrazek faced 40 shots _ Boston's Tuukka Rask saw 28 _ and made some sensational saves. He did allow a rebound early in the third that the Bruins' David Krejci converted into a goal. Boston's first goal came on a sharp pass from Marchand to Pastrnak in the first period.
Mrazek and Brind'Amour were steaming after the Bruins' second goal. The puck was batted out of the air beside the Canes net and Mrazek covered it. But it was knocked loose from under Mrazek's glove by Boston's Anders Bjork and Charlie Coyle scored.
Brind'Amour challenged it but the NHL ruling was Mrazek "controlled the puck" before Coyle scored, nullifying the hand pass. The Canes, by losing the challenge, were assessed a delay-of-game penalty.
"That call to get the penalty, I still can't figure it out," Brind'Amour said,
McGinn soon had the bench jumping with a breakaway and shorthanded score. Picking off a Bruins pass near the blue line, McGinn faked a forehand, then easily beat Rask with a backhander for a 2-2 tie.
"That goal I think gave our bench a little momentum and a little bit of spirit on our bench," McGinn said.
Brind'Amour, echoing McGinn, said it should help to quickly get back on the ice and go again.
"When you lose a game like that you definitely don't want to marinate upon it too long," Brind'Amour said.
