WASHINGTON -- Alexander Nikishin took the ice helmetless for warmups prior to Game 5 of the Carolina Hurricanes' second-round series at Washington and skated the customary solo lap for a player making his NHL debut.
While it meant bad news of injured defenseman Jalen Chatfield not being available, Nikishin got to go from playing in Russia all season to jumping into the middle of the playoffs. The organization's top prospect skated 10 1/2 minutes as Chatfield's replacement on the blue line and drew strong reviews from teammates and coach Rod Brind'Amour for how he handled the situation.
"I don't know that there's a tougher spot to throw a kid in, especially when there's such a language barrier," Brind'Amour said. "I thought he did all right. We got a little fortunate on the one that was offside because he turned that one over and had it on his tape, but he hung in there. And you can see he's going to be a good player for us, and he's got a bright future."
Nikishin was spared of being on the wrong end of a Capitals goal because it was taken off the board on a coach's challenge for offside. He was steady in most of his 16 shifts Thursday night.
"I thought he was great," veteran defenseman Sean Walker said. "He's a big body, he skates well, he shoots the puck well. He really ended some plays in the D zone and in the O zone you see he can get a pretty good shot off. It was great to see."
Brind'Amour and Walker credited Dmitry Orlov and the Hurricanes' other Russians for helping the 23-year-old new to North America adjust as well as possible. Nikishin left the KHL earlier this spring and signed his first NHL contract last month.
"I was so nervous whenever a Russian guy comes and starts playing, but I tried to give him a couple advices and I think he did a great job," said Svechnikov, who scored the go-ahead goal in a series-ending 3-1 victory. "I couldn't imagine just coming from Russia and playing a playoff game. It must be so hard. But he did a great job. I'm very proud of him."
Chatfield appeared to tweak something late in Game 4. The team announced early in warmups that Chatfield would not play in Game 5 because of an undisclosed injury.
"That was just a huge guy to have out," Brind'Amour said. "Hopefully he can recover in however many days that we have here."
Carolina will face either Florida or Toronto in the Eastern Conference final. Walker, Orlov, Jaccob Slavin, Shayne Gostisbehere and Brent Burns played some extra minutes in Chatfield's absence Thursday night but would love to have him in the lineup for the opening game of the third round.
"We really miss Chatty," Walker said. "He's a big part of our D corps back there, so we'll be excited to have him back."