Rod Brind'Amour is back in Philadelphia with his Carolina Hurricanes, and this time he will stand behind the bench when Game 3 of the Eastern Conference second round opens Thursday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena. The puck is set for 8 p.m. ET, with the broadcast listed on HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS and CBC.
Brind'Amour said it has been more than 26 years since he last played for Philadelphia, and he has never been on the opposite side for a Stanley Cup Playoff game there. “It’s been such a long time,” he said, “but I’m sure I’ll get it.”
The moment matters because the best-of-7 series has shifted to Philadelphia after Carolina won the first two games in Raleigh, and Brind'Amour is not just revisiting a city where he once played. He is doing it as the coach of a team trying to keep control of the series against a Flyers club led by Rick Tocchet, a former teammate who knows the building and the pressure as well as he does.
That connection gives the matchup a different edge. Brind'Amour, 55, played 10 seasons for Carolina, captained its 2006 Stanley Cup championship team and retired in 2010. He has guided the Hurricanes to the playoffs in eight consecutive seasons since taking over as coach in 2018. Tocchet, 62, was selected by the Flyers in the sixth round, No. 121 overall, of the 1983 NHL Draft and later became one of the most productive scorers in club history.
Brind'Amour ranks 11th in Flyers history with 235 goals in 633 games over nine seasons from 1991 to 2000. Tocchet is tied with Mark Recchi for 12th in Flyers history with 232 goals in 621 games over 11 seasons, split between 1984 to 1992 and 2000 to 2002. They were Flyers teammates for less than five months during the 1991-92 season after the club acquired Brind'Amour and Dan Quinn from the St. Louis Blues on Sept. 22, 1991, in a deal that sent Murray Baron and Ron Sutter the other way. Brind'Amour had 49 points, including 17 goals and 32 assists, in 78 games the previous season with St. Louis, and a year later he was already on to Philadelphia.
Now they meet again, this time with no shared sweater between them. It is the first time Brind'Amour and Tocchet have matched coaching wits in a playoff series, and they never played against each other in the playoffs. Justin Williams, who knows both men, called them very similar and said they have a never-back-down, never-say-die attitude, the kind that makes every inch of ice feel like a fight. “Both teams are into the second round and have higher aspirations,” he said.
Tocchet said the respect remains, even if the contact is limited. “We have the coaches' general meetings in the summer, you give the hug and talk to him,” he said. “But I don't really talk to him too much, to be honest. But from afar, really respect him.” That is the backdrop for Game 3: two former Flyers teammates, now on opposite benches, with the series and the building both turning toward them Thursday night.
