After a strong effort but disappointing result on Thursday night in Raleigh in the home opener, the Hurricanes were right back at it on Friday in Columbus.
The Canes started with a similarly strong push on Friday night, but unlike Thursday, the opponent pushed back. The Hurricanes were the better team out of the gate, but the Columbus Blue Jackets had their share of driving play as the period wore on. Jordan Martinook scored first on a nice centering pass from Andrei Svechnikov, but Columbus answered back to pull even at 1-1 which is how the first period ended.
The Hurricanes claimed a 2-1 lead when Aho whacked a backhand from a Ferland centering pass up over Bobrovsky for a 2-1 lead. The Blue Jackets pushed back through most of the rest of the second period, but Curtis McElhinney was whatever combination of steady and spectacular was needed to hold the fort. The team bought some breathing room in the third period shortly after a penalty kill ended when Aho revisited his days as a wing pulling up just inside the blue line to feed Ferland for a blast and a goal. The 3-1 lead held up, and Rod Brind’Amour his first win as a head coach.
Player and other notes
Curtis McElhinney
Newly-acquired Curtis McElhinney got the start in the second half of the back-to-back. Having spent more than three seasons in Columbus, the game was a bit of a homecoming for him. Going head to head against perennial Vezina candidate Sergei Bobrovsky, McElhinney matched or even beat him. With a nice combination of just being in the right place and scrambling a bit when necessary, McElhinney was stellar and offered reason for optimism in the goalie slot he currently occupies. The consensus would probably give the first star to Aho for his goal, assist and strong game, but I would actually give it to McElhinney. He was especially strong early and even better when Columbus pushed strongly in the second half of the second period after the Hurricanes took the lead.
Calvin de Haan
De Haan had an odd night. He had his share of steady even if maybe unspectacular defensive plays, but mixed in he managed to get caught too far up either in the neutral zone or at the defensive blue line. Faulk defended a 2-on-1 well to break up one play. McElhinney held the for on a breakaway. And the third break down was defused when back pressure caught up to the play quickly. Though the team survived on Friday, three break downs of that magnitude is about three too many.
Sebastian Aho
On a good hard-working play by his line mates, Sebastian Aho scored his first October goal in three seasons in the NHL. He went well past ten games before his first goal in each of his first two seasons, so getting him into the goal column in game #2 is significant. Report on the television broadcast was the Brind’Amour challenged Aho’s line to do more.
Justin Faulk
I tend to lean critical on Justin Faulk which makes it even more important to be objective and fair. I continue to like the higher level of physical play from Faulk both in preseason and now through two games of the regular season. And though I did not think he played well on Thursday, I thought he was solid on Friday on a night where his partner de Haan left him to do defensive zone triage a couple times. Maybe most encouraging is the fact that he had two plays where a forward with speed off the rush tried to beat him to the outside, but Faulk had enough wheels to get a shoulder into the rushing player before he could turn the corner. I am on record as thinking a key factor in Faulk’s struggles the past couple years has been a decrease in his mobility as measured by ability to accelerate for short three-stride races but also dealing with speed coming at him.
Micheal Ferland
Ferland had a big game and looked to be a good fit for Aho/Teravainen. What stands out is his ability to match pace in the form of a power forward who does not really need to play with the puck on his stick much to be effective. Inevitably, lines will change some as the season progresses, but one can see where the combination of a big body who can match pace and has enough puck skills to complement skill players complements what Aho and Teravainen already bring.
Blue line strength realized
When Brett Pesce and Jaccob Slavin matured ahead of schedule at the same time that Noah Hanifin was drafted, people declared the blue line as the strength that would lead the team back to the playoffs. But the problem was that the potential was yet to be realized. Hanifin was still a #5/#6 defenseman when he left, and the team had struggled the past two seasons to have a reliable second pairing.
But after a bit of a reset that saw the team go outside to add veteran top 4 defensemen Dougie Hamilton and Calvin de Haan, the blue line strength seems to be within reach. Inevitably, there will be a few bad plays and even a tough night like de Haan had in some respects on Friday, but the quality and depth of the group is just significantly more talented than what most teams can put on the ice. That depth and talent level puts the floor even on ‘meh’ nights really, really high with the current roster.
Because the group is so balanced with Pesce on the third pairing, the team can mostly just roll them in succession.
The compounding effect of pace is worth watching
What stood out in preseason and has carried over to the regular season is the aggressiveness of the forecheck and the forwards hounding the puck in all three zones. The pace is faster. And what is asked of the players is greater. And I think it even carries through to the defenseman. On Friday, the heart and effort was there, but a number of players looked gassed throughout the third period. That might simply be the first back-to-back with travel in early October, but I think it is worth watching. No doubt, Brind’Amour will dial up the conditioning level of the group. But also no doubt that very few players are capable (even if they train hard) of playing at the level he did. I would put this not under the category of being a problem or even a concern but rather something to watch as the season progresses.
Next up is the finale of the first three games in four nights of the season with the finale against the New York Rangers at 5pm at PNC Arena.
Go Canes!
The pace is impressive indeeed. And the offensive system that carries the puck into the o zone and gets the puck and players to the center of the ice is very very impressive.
Feast your eyes on this shot chart
http://www.espn.com/nhl/game/_/modifier/webview/platform/ios/gameId/401044334
We will have a very good year if we continue to work the puck to the high danger zones and generate shots like this. What the shot chart doesn’t show is that most of these shots are off the pass, with traffic in front, with the goalie having to move and/or make decisions.
This is going to be a very fun year.
asheville. Thanks for sharing the shot chart. I didn’t know ESPN did that, I will have to pay better attention. The shots between the face-off circles are what the team didn’t get last season. There were about a dozen last night including two goals.
Aho at center will increase those numbers all year. He does a great job of making the defense react which opens that area for his teammates.
As great as things look after two games, I will point out that management has probably cost themselves close to $1M per year by not signing Aho before this season. Even though it is super early, he is going to command the salary of a young 1C.
You mentioned RBA is rolling the D lines in succession. I had come here just to post about that as I noticed it in the TOI stats, which were remarkably even across all 6 players. The only real differences were on special teams. Like most of Canes Twitter, I’d prefer to see Hamilton on the top PP instead of Faulk, but it’s nice that the Coach can trust all three pairings against any opposing lines.
Rolling three pairs is a huge advantage in back to backs and on the road.
edbenson. It is an advantage, but also logical. I for one couldn’t definitively state after the preseason and two games who the best D-man is on the team. It could be Hamilton because of his offense, it could be Slavin because of his complete game, it could be Pesce because he is making plays all over the ice, I could even argue that de Haan is the most valuable in that he is bringing out a better Faulk.
The other thing that is worth mentioning is the assist by Svechnikov on the Martinook goal. The entire sequence was textbook. Both Martinook and Svech make aggressive stick checks in center ice. Then when Svech gets possession Wallmark drives toward the net causing a 3-on-2 which opens the center of the ice. Svech makes a no-frills pass to Martinook who is trailing. Svechnikov could have tried to blow past the defender as he did so often in juniors, yet he realized that the best play was the simplest and made a quick decision and precise pass.
Until Aho took over the last half of the game, the Martinook/Wallmark/Svechnikov line was probably Carolina’s best last night.
Agreed CT. The secondary rush is the most logical play in hockey. The primary rush draws the best defenseman and the attention of the goalie. Wallmark driving the neg accomplished this objective. Martinook could skate in with traffic in front and a distracted goalie.
Svechnikov could make the easy pass, and Martinook converted the high danger shot.
It is the easy way to be successful, a system that will produce good results repeatedly over time.
In contrast, BP favorite drill was 2 on 1. Since in this scenario, the D job is to take away the pass and the goalie job is to play the puck carrier, it is necessarily a FMUTIS scenario. First Man Up The Ice Shoot.
No traffic in front, no goalie moving, easy play for the goalie. On paper it may be a high danger zone, but in practice, it is the easiest play a goalie has to make.
In contrast, a secondary rush is the most difficult play a goalie has to make. The RBA system looks like it recognizes the math.
We played basically the same game as Thursday with one difference: the puck went in. If we can play a consistent brand of hockey with this much pressure in all zones, we are going to surprise a bunch of teams who won’t be ready for it coming from us. CBJ pushed back in the 2nd, but we controlled the majority of the play.
I liked how the entire team supported Foegele after Dubois slashed him. Ferland did play well with Aho/TT and I didn’t notice Zykov as much – maybe Zykov needs Aho/TT more than they need him. Something to watch.
There was plenty of offseason chatter about it after the Skinner trade, but I’m not that worried about generating enough offense this season. We are creating high volumes of quality chances and plenty are going to go in.
It’s going to be interesting to see what happens if McElhinney plays this well over the next two weeks. He will get reclaimed by TOR or someone else if sent down. That would be a happy problem to have.
So many people were jumping off the Ferland wagon just one game in… Now look at him tonight showing at least on this inexperienced team that he is definitely a top 6 forward here. Absolutely no chance Zykov takes away minutes from him – Zykov has talent and seems to be in the right place a lot of the time but he lacks that quick first few steps to keep up with the developing play. Ends up using his stick and reaching a lot…
I’m starting to think it won’t be too many more games before we see Svechnikov elevated in the lineup. I think possibly if he continues to play sound defense he will end up with Staal’s line allowing Williams to slide down to play with Necas.