It was eerily reminiscent of his overtime winner in Game 3. Carolina was on a power play. There was a shot. There was a rebound. And there was Jussi Jokinen, in the right place at precisely the right time. He poked it home at 2:52 of the third period, putting his team ahead, 2-1. It was goal No. 6 of the playoffs, and it seems as if every one of them has been meaningful.
Carolina coach Paul Maurice stopped short of saying that he is ordering up these Jokinen goals, but he did confide that it's been a lot of fun watching the show.
"It is," Maurice said. "You're just watching a player grow in confidence. He's had so much adversity this year, you can't help but be anything but happy for him. I'm happy for us, too."
There is adversity, and there is Adversity. The small a adversity was twice being placed on waivers this season by the Lightning. The capital A Adversity was the death of his father, who died suddenly at age 51 in March. Jokinen returned home for the funeral, missing four games. He has not yet reached the point where he can talk about the ordeal.
The 5-foot-11-inch left wing is 26. A 2006 Olympian for the Finns, he came into the NHL as property of Dallas in the 2005-06 season, going 17-38 -55 as a rookie. Tampa Bay picked him up during the 2007-08 season, but he didn't accomplish a whole lot there, compiling 8-22 -30 totals in 66 games over a season and a half.
He was known as a shootout specialist with one sexy scoring move. Lightning coach Barry Melrose seemed to like him, but things changed when Rick Tocchet replaced the ESPN hockey guru - and not for the better. His playing time diminished.
The Hurricanes acquired him Feb. 7 in exchange for Wade Brookbank, Josef Melichar, and a 2009 fourth-round draft pick.
It's not as if people in the Carolina locker room were saying, "Goody, goody, we've got Jussi. The Cups is ours!"
