Duke basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski sounds siren for Hurricanes

The Duke basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski had the honor of ringing the Carolina Hurricanes siren prior to the team’s first playoff game.

It certainly isn’t a typical NHL Playoffs by any standard but the Carolina Hurricanes were back in action on Saturday afternoon.

As the National Hockey League is going with a different return-to-play format than the National Basketball Association, the NHL is jumping right into a playoff format schedule where teams will play in a Best-of-5 Qualifying Round.

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Despite a record worthy of making the typical playoff format, the Carolina Hurricanes did not have a Top-4 record in the Eastern Conference and must play in the Qualifying Round against the New York Rangers.

A major part of the Hurricanes’ home games is sounding the pregame siren, and it takes on a new meaning in the playoffs.

As the better seed and holding “home-ice advantage” in the NHL’s bubble, the Carolina Hurricanes wanted to provide its players with an experience somewhat similar to PNC Arena, and that included the famous siren.

In typical Canes fashion, a celebrity or deeply devoted fan is the siren sounder and on Saturday afternoon it was Duke men’s basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski.

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Krzyzewski sounded the siren from center court at Cameron Indoor Stadium in a Hurricanes sweater while wearing his mask in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

The official Twitter account for the Carolina Hurricanes tweeted a video of the Hall of Famer cranking the siren handle.

This is not the first time that Duke and the Hurricanes have paired up in the NHL Playoffs as last year former Blue Devil star Zion Williamson sent a hype video to Canes fans prior to Game 4 in the First Round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs against the Washington Capitals.

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Carolina defeated the Rangers, 3-2, and currently holds a 1-0 lead in the series with Game 2 scheduled for Monday, August 3 at 12:00pm EST, and fans can see the game on NBC Sports Network.