After an impressive road win against the Washington Capitals on Friday night, the Carolina Hurricanes return home to face a New York Rangers team that also played and traveled on Friday night in a match up of two teams building toward the 2018-19 season.
The Rangers have done an admirable job of tanking in the second half of March with only one win and a 1-4-2 mark in their past seven games. At least recently, the Hurricanes have regained their footing and won four out of five games.
But even with the recent burst of wins, the Hurricanes are very much a team focused on building for next year which is the focus of my watch points for Saturday’s game.
‘What I’m watching’ for the Carolina Hurricanes versus the New York Rangers
1) Sebastian Aho’s day
I misspoke in my game preview for Saturday in saying that Sebastian Aho would be featured in Friday’s television broadcast. That is in fact Saturday night, so if you are attending the game or otherwise occupied, you might want to DVR the game to indulge in a bit more Sebastian Aho goodness before the 2017-18 season rides off into the sunset.
In addition to being a television star on Saturday, the game also has the potential to see him reach 30 goals if he can net two to get from 28 to 30 in a hurry.
Saturday night's @CanesOnFSCR broadcast will spotlight @SebastianAho all game, including:
* Iso cam at all times on Aho, who will be mic'd up
* Sit-down interview
* Off-the-ice feature
* All in-game reports and teleprompter analysis
* Intermission interviews with linemates— Mike Sundheim (@MikeSundheim) March 29, 2018
2) The rest of Aho’s squad
While Sebastian Aho might be the headliner especially on Saturday, his line mates have also been good of late. Now six games into his NHL audition, Valentin Zykov has three goals and three assists and has scored in four of those six games. Teuvo Teravainen also continues to be productive in a Robin role to Aho’s Batman. The trio is arguably the best thing going right now in terms of fun watch points for the rest of the 2017-18 season.
3) Haydn Fleury!
I’m calling it. After 62 games at the NHL level without a goal, I am going out on a limb and predicting that Haydn Fleury will notch his first NHL goal on Saturday. I am so confident in this prediction that I will be be picking up celebratory ice cream on Saturday, so I am prepared for a jubilant post-game celebration.
The puck drops at 7:07pm at PNC Arena.
Go Canes!
Can Aho hit 30G/70P this season?
Can Teuvo go 25G/70P?
Both would be impressive.
I would love to see Slavin get two more goals to reach 10 – which will put him in the same spot as Hanifin.
And it would be great to see Brock pick up 3 more – who would have thought he was a potential 20G scorer.
We are once again at the silver lining stage of the season. No way we are basing offseason plans from beating lottery teams and a disinterested Capitals squad the past 10 days. We might even beat NYR tonight, but that shouldn’t change the offseason plan.
Similar lessons were learned in seasons past, therefore I would anticipate a bit of turnover in leadership, a top 6 forward, a top 4D and goaltending. Might not be the elite pickups, but ones that can serve in a top role until the Aho’s/Lindholm’s/Darlings’s, etc prove they can overtake. I just wouldn’t anoint these guys as #1’s for next season… we did this year and look what occurred. That said, I think we should continue to build around the young guys while adding solid veteran presence and leadership.
I find these games downright frustrating. Why does the team go on a meaningless run against teams that have nothing to play for, either because they’ve clinced or tanked. They can’t tank properly but go on runs so that the management and coachin perspectives end up hugely skewed towards the positive during the off-season, and downgrade their first round pick by 4 to 6 places in the process.
The only real test in the last 6 games was New Jersey and we lost that game, albeit in a typical canes fashion when we practically had the game in hand.
But at least the canes are playing at home, so they can try too woo the crowd a bit and can avoid being swept by the Rangers.
I can’t say I find the game particularly interesting, and the player perspective (on Aho) is something that I have found embarrassing to watch, except when chad Larose was micked up in a game against the Rangers about 7 or 8 years ago, the soundbites from that recording when he was chirping Sean Avery were absolutely freakin hilarious.
The canes won that game 3 0.
But since I am stuck at home watching 4 kids 12 and under, I think I will at least keep the game on and a beverage handy, it’s either that or work, and I should try to void work on Easter eve.
Players (and teams) don’t tank. Organizations do – witness the Rangers’
fire sale at the trade deadline.
Player are playing for pride and, in some cases, contracts – with the Canes or not – for next year. Don’t expect them to play to lose.
Good comment that, my frustration is more that the players didn’t play their best when it mattered. Why did they fail the test, again, and then excel when the opposition doesn’t give a damn. I guess it’s a pure sign the players we have are not good enough, or the coaching isn’t good enough, because it succeeds when nothing is at stake but fails whenever something important is on the line.
At least I am a lot more genuinely optimistic for the next season than in the last 2 or 3 years, though that optimism includes the expectations that key additions will be made.
I think what Breezy is alluding to is that it’s frustrating we win 5 of 7 meaningless games down the stretch. I highly doubt anyone is suggesting we tank, flip side we are worsening draft position over meaningless games. The past 4 years this exact path has been taken and skewed offseason motivation to make moves, which we desperately need if we want to be realistic in 2018-19.
We need to bring in guys who can play top roles while reinforcing the leadership, but on the premise the additions may end up as 2nd line type guys if the kids prove worthy. This is the direction I would advise for the offseason.