Quick hitters
–Somewhat like game 3, the Hurricanes found a higher gear and attacked in the second period. Once that happened, the Hurricanes were the better team, and that showed up on the scoreboard.
–For the second straight Canes series win, Sebastian Aho had his most productive game of the series. His goal was an own goal by the Isles defenseman, but Aho still deserves credit for getting the puck to the net and following his shot. He also collected a second assist on the pretty tic-tac toe passing play that ended with Teuvo Teravainen’s goal.
–Great to see Greg McKegg rewarded with a goal. He has been a consistently solid foot soldier throughout the playoffs. The fourth line was arguably the team’s best in game 3 and continued to play well in game 4, so it was a just reward to see the line finally net a goal.
–The Canes defense was the story of this series. Especially playing with a lead, the Hurricanes gave the Islanders very little in terms of scoring chances. Slavin continues to be the team’s best player, but the blue line group in total is the team’s greatest strength right now ranking just a tiny bit above the forecheck simply because the defense has proven capable of holding the fort during gaps in the forechecking effectiveness.
Game recap
With a 3-0 series leading entering Friday night, the Hurricanes had mostly made themselves exempt from any pressure. But in situations like this good teams have a killer instinct and press to finish things off without offering even the slightest bit of hope to an opponent down on their luck. As a young team, the potential was definitely there for this game to become a learning experience.
My hope was that the Hurricanes would pick right up where they left off in dominating the third period of game 3. That did not happen. The Hurricanes were not horrible, but the Islanders were the better team out of the gate. Early in the game, the Isles were buzzing in the offensive zone, and Curtis McElhinney seemed to be just blocking shots with no ability to control rebounds. A couple Islanders chances went by the wayside early, but then Andrei Svechnikov took a minor penalty to give the Islanders an even better chance. Sure enough, the Isles capitalized when Mathew Barzal banged home yet another McElhinney rebound. But the resilient Hurricanes answered back when Sebastian Aho was credited with a power play goal when an Islanders player scored an own goal on his rebound. The positive in the first period was the Hurricanes defense’s ability to hold the Islanders at bay despite the fact that the Canes were on their heels a bit in the first period.
Then somewhat like the third period of game 3, the Hurricanes did some combination of finding a higher gear and/or just opportunistically finishing plays in the second period. The surge started with a pretty passing play only 2:11 into the period when Sebastian Aho fed Warren Foegele from the end line to the slot and Foegele quickly wired a pass to Teuvo Teravainen who finished into half of an open net before Robin Lehner could get across. That makes consecutive games in which Foegele made heady passes to trigger a go-ahead goal. Barely over a minute later, Greg McKegg was finally rewarded with a goal when Lehner could not find a rebound and McKegg pounced to score from the crease. The second period scoring surge concluded with a Justin Williams goal seven minutes later. By the midway point of the period, the Hurricanes had the game in hand at 4-1 which is how the period would end. In this bizarre alternate universe, the Carolina Hurricanes are now one of those teams that can just hang around for awhile and then strike suddenly with precision and win a hockey game with a short burst of attack.
The front part of the third period was maybe too much of what one might expect with a three-goal lead. The Hurricanes mostly made safe plays to clear pucks out of their own end or push pucks back behind the Islanders net. And to their credit, the Islanders did not quit but instead pushed. But as had been the case all series, the Islanders getting the upper hand did not really translate to offense. The Hurricanes defense did a decent job of giving up the minimum and McElhinney made most of his best saves in the third period as the sand in the hour glass on the Islanders 2018-19 season sifted away. The Hurricanes ultimately pushed to 5-1 when Justin Faulk fed a streaking Andrei Svechnikov for a goal. The final was 5-2 after an odd bobble of a goal by the Islanders in the waning moments of the game.
If I were to summarize the series in terms of level of play, I would say that the series was much more evenly played than the 4-0 sweep would indicate. Each of the first two games in New York was a 50/50 game. Most of games 3 and 4 were even two, but the Hurricanes did rightfully come out on top by virtue of one huge period in each game. The biggest difference was opportunistic scoring. Whereas the Hurricanes seemed to have a knack for generating and finishing chances, the Isles just did not.
Player and other notes
1) Warren Foegele
In the Caps series, Foegele stepped up and scored a batch of ugly goals when the team desperately needed them to climb back into the series. Against the Islanders, he generated goals with nifty playmaking plays. He is rapidly building a reputation as a player whose game steps up a couple notches in the playoffs.
2) Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen
His ups and downs in the playoffs are well-documented, but for the second time in a game with a chance to eliminate the opponent, he had a productive night with a goal and an assist. Teuvo Teravainen also had another two-point night. I think Teravainen is becoming the Jaccob Slavin of the forwards in that he is playing really good hockey but in a fairly quiet way and is collecting a decent amount of points, again without fireworks, in the process. Teravainen’s six goals in eleven games ranks first on the team and is an impressive 44 goal pace prorated over 82 games.
3) The blue line
Whereas I thought the forecheck was the story of the Capitals series, I think the defensive play by the blue line was the story of the Islanders series. Regardless of whether the Hurricanes were winning or losing in terms of puck possession and offensive zone time, the defense was solid and gave up very little. The result was that an Isles team that does not have a ton of high end scoring talent was forced to earn each and every chance and goal. The result was very few of those. Give Jaccob Slavin the series MVP, but do not forget to give credit to each and every other defenseman too. Justin Faulk had another strong game and led the team with 27:07, and Brett Pesce put forward another yawner in which it seemed like nothing exciting ever happened on his end of the ice in the defensive zone.
4) A much-needed break
There are pros and cons to anything past about three days off during the NHL playoffs, but I think the Hurricanes will mostly benefit from layoff in front of them. With the Bruins and Blue Jackets tied at 2-2 and scheduled to play Saturday, Monday and then Wednesday if necessary, the Hurricanes will have 4-6 days off before their next game. I think that will be beneficial in terms of recharging for the second half of the Stanley Cup push. Though the Hurricanes deserve credit for resiliency and finding away, I thought the peak version against the Capitals was higher than the peak version against the Islanders. A couple days off should do wonders for the team to recharge and heal any minor bumps or bruises. In addition, the time off would seemingly make Micheal Ferland and Petr Mrazek available again and also reach very close to when Saku Maenalanen could return. That would get the Canes back to a full roster at forward and in net with only Trevor van Riemsdyk still out on defense.
5) Help for the Checkers
The series sweep will also be a big win for the Charlotte Checkers playoff push. The Checkers should now get Alex Nedeljkovic and Jake Bean back for at least a couple games. Especially Nedeljkovic should make a more permanent return assuming that Mrazek is in fact healthy and ready to go when the Canes return to the ice.
The ‘next up’ is uncertain obviously. The Bruins and Blue Jackets are tied up. The range for a next game should be Wednesday through Friday. Wednesday or Thursday should happen if the Bruins/Jackets finish in six games on Monday. If that series pushes to seven games, then the start would likely push back to Friday. In addition, the Hurricanes would have home ice advantage against the Blue Jackets and start at home but would start on the road against the Bruins.
Go Canes!
I am just so dang proud of this team! I am also proud of the way Mike Maniscalco pinch-hit as PBP man on 99.9 FM. I think he did a great job with Tripp! I am also glad to see Svechnikov seems to be back to his old self, without any lingering problems.
Kind of fitting that Mike would be back on 99.9 in good times after his extended run there that cemented him as part of our hockey community.
I have said elsewhere that Mike’s PBP call on the radio surpasses that of Forslund in his simulcast if you are a radio listener (and I listen to the PBP when I am at the arena).
Couple thoughts:
1. I feel like there should be more mad of Patrick Brown. Realize he hasn’t registered a point, but he hasn’t been a story and for a guy who hasn’t played on this team AT ALL that’s a story in itself.
2. Aho is starting to register points! That’s huge going forward.
3. If this lay-off allows Petr and Ferland to get healthy and get Marty 100% ohhh boy!!
Go Canes!
Agree on Patrick Brown. He is EXACTLY what you want in a #14/#15 forward. In Charlotte, he is a great leader for the future of the team, and at the NHL level he knows his role and is capable of filling in.
Though Brown was not rewarded, it was great to see Greg McKegg notch a goal in Friday’s win.
The way Vellucci talks about and relies on Brown he is a major contributor to the organization. I am thrilled to see “Brownie” get his time in on NHL playoffs and make such a difference with his play.
The Carolina Hurricanes are going to the Eastern Conference Finals!!!
I do not think that is going to sink in until game 1 of that series for me.
Yeah, I’m in a state of shock. I’ve been thinking this team would turn the corner soon for years now and it has finally happened.
Not only that but the Checkers and Everblades are doing well. The present and future is very bright for the good guys.
The boys have been taking it a game at a time, so it is hard to digest that we went from almost last place to conference finals in this calendar year. It is a testament to the management, coaches, and players to buy-in and achieve. And now the fans are doing their part too.
It feels like a magical season.
I hope this time off will be really good for Aho. Whatever has been nagging him has really hurt him in the face off circle, I think he had an 0-fer last night. There will be more opportunities to “just find a way” if he is closer to 100%.
Greg “the rabbit’s foot” McKegg got rewarded for his hard work last night, that was rewarding to see. Very happy for him.
The biggest danger with this time off is staying focused on the next game. As RBA said you think about the big picture only after the season is over. While it is fun for fans and media to speculate, the team has to double down on next game. Practices need to be comprehensive, spanning skills, strategy, and conditioning, so the guys are more ready for the next game than they were the last game.
Mentally refresh but don’t go mentally idle. Next game is going to be a big one.
1. The past two games it was pretty obvious that having Martinook and Svechnikov in the lineup makes the team both more physical and more offensively dangerous.
2. Foegele surprised me with his assist on the Teravainen goal. He was just off the bench yet had awareness to find the right spot and make a perfect pass. While it was a pretty simple pass it was the type of play he didn’t make much during the regular season.
3. Finally, I think there is a stronger case for Pesce being the MVP of the series. He and Slavin both had 3 assists, but Pesce had the play that got things off to a winning start. Pesce was more evident in this series getting off shots, which was needed given that Hamilton only registered one point after his big Washington series.
Over at Canescountry there was an analysis of the scoring play in the overtime of the first game. In the comments section it was pointed out that on the lone goal in game 1 Pesce made two outstanding offensive plays–the last time he had the puck he caused three Islanders to move and it was pretty much the only time in 70 minutes where the Islanders system broke down. That play alone gave Pesce a big lead in series value. When you consider that the power play was non-existent until last night, then the much maligned +/- actually becomes a more meaningful statistic. Pesce was +6 (Slavin +4), one behind Teravainen’s +7 which led the team.
Slavin is a great playing playing even better in the playoffs–that doesn’t mean we should overlook that Pesce had a better regular season and in the Islanders series had the key play in game 1 while playing his usual role as a wall defensively.
Sometimes I think that Brett Pesce is destined to forever be somewhat underappreciated. As long as he stays off the power play, his scoring totals will be somewhat capped and more than that his game that leans more toward steady and solid than dynamic is quiet in its excellence.
As ctcaniac said, I think Pesce was the team’s steadiest defender over the course of the full 2018-19 regular season. (It is important to note that I thought the blue line in total had a strong 2018-19 season, so that is not to slight the others.) And to boot, his 29 even strength points are second only to Dougie Hamilton on the blue line.
I watched with interest Roddy’s statement last night after the game. He was asked how it felt that the Canes were among the last four teams still in competition for the Cup.
I have been angry at the condescension shown to my beloved Canes by virtually every media type. Roddy exposed his anger last night.
No. He didn’t pound his fist on the podium. He didn’t swear or even raise his voice. He is far too classy for that.
He just made some simple statements. He reminded everyone that our first game of the season was against the Islanders. We lost in OT. We registered 40 shots on goal. The media said “nothing’s changed”. Nothing’s changed? Everything had changed.
We didn’t start the season with making the playoffs as our goal. We didn’t start the season hoping to make it to the conference championship. While Roddy didn’t say that we had the Cup as our goal directly, he said that the team agreed before the season that we were buying into a way of playing the game that we all believed in. We were going to play our game each game until we win it all.
He said when things were not going well on the scoreboard or in the stats, the team knew it was working. When criticized for not trying a plan B, they persisted because they knew it was working. And then he said, “And here we are.”
They believe they can take it all. So do I.
What a bunch of jerks! Eh?
Great blog from the
Tampa Bay blogger, things that the Lightning players should learn from the Canes:
https://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Sam-Hitchcock/Lessons-the-Bolts-Can-Learn-from-Canes/255/99320
good points about puck management and zone breakouts.
This is a magic ride!!!
The Original Flying Burrito has a “Bunch of Jerks” taco flight on their menu now, next time I go there I may take a pic for posting.
Maybe one of our off-day posts could be listing Canes related celebrations we’ve noticed.
Great article – thanks for finding and posting!