Sometimes hockey can be a game of momentum, and the Hurricanes entered Tuesday’s game against the Florida Panthers with a bunch of it.
The Hurricanes picked up where they left off on Sunday playing well and doing bunches of little things right. But the team also continued to seemingly get rewarded left, right and center. Just 6:48 into the game a seemingly harmless point shot by Jake Gardiner eluded the player in front of him and headed toward the net. As has very regularly been the case this season, the Hurricanes had not one but two players camped out in front of the net. Instead of heading wide of the net to the end boards, the puck caromed off of a Florida shin guard making for a perfect pass onto Jordan Staal’s tape and quickly into the back of the net before Bobrovsky could react. Shortly thereafter, a similar play saw Haydn Fleury do a nice job getting the puck around a defender and to the front of the net where again two Hurricanes were camped in front. This one saw Teuvo Teravainen with a deft spin-o-rama tip which again beat Bobrovsky who had no chance. The Hurricanes would score again when Andrei Svechnikov was thwarted on a breakaway attempt but retrieved his own rebound and fed a lurking Dougie Hamilton who finished into the top corner of the net. The Hurricanes would finish up a busy first period of scoring with Ryan Dzingel infringing upon Erik Haula’s office intercepting another pretty pass from Teuvo Teravainen (I really think it was again intended for Haula) and finish on the power play. The Hurricanes were good but not as dominant as the first period would indicate in the first period, but right now everything they touch is coming up gold.
The Hurricanes would continue pouring it on when Dzingel scored his second of the night on a rebound on a Martin Necas’ shot only 1:31 into the second. Just when it seemed that maybe the Hurricanes were off to the races, the fifth Hurricanes goal seemed be the smelling salts needed to wake up the Florida Panthers. From that point forward the Panthers pushed and back and ultimately were the better hockey team by a margin that increased until the end of the game. The Hurricanes did muster a decent volume of shots and chances intermittently but more than anything the second and third periods were the Panthers dictating play and firing at will with the Hurricanes mostly just leaning on James Reimer to make the 5-0 start stand up without much help. Mackenzie Weeger would score on a goal mouth scramble after Reimer made a couple desperation saves to get the Panthers on the board early in the second period. The Canes would survive the rest of the second period and head into the third period still with a 5-1 lead despite a clear turning of the tide early in the second period.
The Panthers would scratch for two power play goals in the third period and have a couple more unsuccessful bids to pull to within a goal before a Sebastian Aho empty-netter would seal the deal at 6-3. The game was very much a tale of two different hockey games. The first period plus saw an opportunistic and hot finishing Canes team sprint out to a 5-0 lead. The last two periods saw them take their foot of the gas and be outplayed.
At the end of the day, the Hurricanes are perfect 4-0 heading into a home back-to-back on Friday and Saturday that should have PNC Arena hopping.
Player and other notes
1) James Reimer
He has now played a leading role in wins in both of his two starts. I had him in my watch points. After a tough 2018-19 season, Reimer’s rebounding and getting his feet quickly underneath him again with the Hurricanes has the team on a good path to be two deep at the goalie position again in 2019-20 which is critical to having a chance to win every night and not wearing out a #1 goalie over the course of a long NHL season.
2) Haydn Fleury
Giving credit where it is due, Haydn Fleury had a strong game. He did a nice job getting a shot by the defender in front of him and to a place where the Canes net front players had a chance to make a play. Sure enough, Teravainen made a skilled play to finish. Fleury added another assist later in addition to playing a strong game defensively. Florida’s first goal came on a goal mouth scramble. If you watch that play closely, Fleury actually did a very good job boxing out his man who would likely have been first to the puck. The play ended badly only because Gardiner lost his stick and was unable to tie up the second Panther player. All in all, the game was a solid one for Fleury.
3) Andrei Svechnikov
He is still yet to post a goal, but he added two assists to get to six already. He also had two power forward rushes to the net with the puck on his stick, so he also seems to be on the path to a first goal soon. In addition, he continued to bang bodies and dial up the physical component in his game.
4) More traffic
One huge underlying theme of the Hurricanes success is the team’s propensity to have one and often even two players positioned near the top of the crease where goals and goalie distractions happen. I read two things into this. Obvious and first is that the Hurricanes two a man are making a concerted effort to get to the front of the net. The second goal saw Aho and Teravainen who are not stereotypical crease crashers parked in front of the net to capitalize when Fleury played the puck to the front. The other more subtle thing going on is the Hurricanes ability to gain clean entry to the offensive zone and maintain clean puck possession. When constantly battling for the puck on the walls, often all of the forwards who could maybe head to the net are instead occupied with trying to win or keep the puck. If it takes three forwards battling on the wall to win the puck and then send it to the point, there is no one left to be at the front of the net. So while I do think the forward group deserves credit for the effort and commitment to go to the front of the net, I think a key to this success is how well the Hurricanes are controlling the puck in the offensive zone through four games.
5) Too many penalties
The Hurricanes continued a trend of taking too many sloppy penalties, and on Tuesday the penalty kill was unable to just cover it up. Florida scored twice on the power play in the third period. Cleaning this up has to be near the top of Brind’Amour’s list of things to discuss and work on.
6) Jordan Staal
In a somewhat understated fashion, I thought Jordan Staal had his best game on the young season. Even in the middle of a chaotic second and third period, he had a strong game neutralizing a highly skilled Florida forward group.
Next up for the Hurricanes is a home back-to-back with the Islanders visiting PNC Arena on Friday and then the Blue Jackets on Saturday.
Go Canes!
Reimer was the story of this game. He played a solid game with 47 saves, many being of the difficult nature. Game was a thing of beauty in the first period and then we took our foot off the pedal against a very good Florida team and gave Florida a chance to get back into it.
My three stars: (1) Reimer (2) Dzingl (3) Staal
Reimer was outstanding, and very well could have saved us from a brutal loss. It was all Florida the last 40 minutes, and they very well could have stunned us if not for some outstanding saves. Mrazek needs to step it up, because while I don’t think Reimer will be likely to outright take the “starter” job (and knowing that the canes are going to at least for the most part split the workload), if the trend of the first four games continues it wouldn’t surprise me to see Mrazek become much more 1B than 1A.
Svechnikov is on another level. The power move he made that he nearly scored on was gorgeous, though I realize it was Barkov defending him one-on-one, dropping the shoulder and using his speed to just completely dust him was really impressive. And the passing ability… sheesh. He didn’t show off this facilitation much last year, and it’s been fun to watch. Eventually when defenses start to key on his multidimensionality, it’s going to open him up even more to use his skill and shot to score more goals. I’m starting to wonder if this kid isn’t going to take a gargantuan leap forward already as a 19 year old, and maybe put up a 70+ point season. It’s a long season, and guys run hot and cold (hello, Fishy), but the way he’s looked here early… I’m starting to think it’s a very real possibility. Especially on a team that looks crazy deep and loaded with firepower.
And lastly, Necas had another very, very good game. He was awesome against Montreal, and while he wasn’t bad, he wasn’t as noticeable the last two games. Tonight he was flying. The speed and passing ability are off-the-charts good. In some ways he reminds me of skinner, except while skinner was obviously pure sniper, Necas is pure playmaker. They have the skating ability and hands, and have questionable away from the puck/defensive play with bouts of inconsistency. Sounds about right, no? But tonight he saved a goal with an outstanding backcheck, I believe when it was still 5-1 or so. He’s still learning the pro game and still very young, but I’m very, very encouraged by his start to the year. Kid’s going to be a player.
Overall, this team is finding different ways to win. A few years ago I don’t think the Canes win any of these games, they’d very likely be at best 1-1-2 or so. Adversity will hit, we’ll lose a few games before long, but starting off with 8 of 8 and having the entire league looking up at us… feels pretty damn good.
Reimer played really well. The save prior to the FL first goal was amazing. It’s too bad we lost a stick and allowed that as it was quite a save. I know Mrazek was penciled in as the starter but I feel much more comfortable with Reimer in net. It’s not just the numbers, it’s the eye test. He is in better positions. Mrazek was not good his last game. He was not seeing anything and if not for the D totally shutting down TB it would have been a disaster. RBA plays who earned it. I know who I feel is our best goalie, at least now. I am very happy is we do the 1A/1B. It keeps our goalies rested. That recipe worked great last year.
Our goalies are giving us enough to win and that is what matters. FL owned the last two periods but it is human nature to back off a bit when you have a huge lead. I would be happy to take that every game. As I said before, Hayden is not playing bad. It would be an absolute waste to trade him and not let him continue his development. Aho was blasting away last night. No worries about him or NN. The effort is there, just a matter of time. What I like so much is they never stop. Svech gets stoned on a breakaway but does stop and feel bad, he gets the rebound and zips a pass to Hamilton. It’s not just him, the whole team is keep moving. Only thing bad is we did take the foot off the gas with the big lead. We are winning and the mistakes are still fixable. Amazing start.
Correction, penciled in as #1.
This game was a tale of two cities. The first period was the team’s best this season and the last two periods were the team’s worst.
While I understand why teams hang back – it is good for the league for the home team to have something to cheer about – it is terrible for the canes players. That style gets ingrained in muscle memory.
While a 15-0 score may damage Florida attendance for years to come, it would be better for the Canes players to have that objective.
Reimer has been very good. Against two teams with a lot of skill up front, he saved at a .940 clip in both games.
I agree with the icecobra that Reimers positioning is very good. Some think the herky jerky movements are unattractive… for example as Roddy said “sometimes it isn’t pretty, but the results are good”.
My vote is to change our definition of pretty. Pretty = .940 save percentage. The season is young and lots of things may change but I like what I see so far.
It looked like Haula had the most ice time in the forward group last night. That is a vote of confidence and recognition of his body of work this season.
Did anyone see what happened with Wallmark? Why he got a penalty? All I saw was a person grab him from behind and slam his head into the ice, causing him to have to leave the game. Somebody else had to serve his time in the box. Was the head slam retaliation for a preceding foul from Wallmark?
Great to see lots of players contributing and getting on the score board. This is a very skilled group in a good system – when driving possession and generating scoring chances.
We continue to be magnificent. Our Haydn is giving his detractors reason to think we might have to dine on crow with dessert being a huge slab of humble pie. Not yet. But maybe soon. He is really something to behold.
I was and am concerned with the Wallmark incident. I can see someone being angry with Fogele or Nino or Marty. I can see someone hurt and wanting to retaliate against the likes of Edmondson or Svech. I can understand why someone might want to neutralize a scoring threat like TT or Haula or Dzingle. But Wallmark? I replayed what little they showed of it. It was an obvious intention to injure Wallmark. Why roughing calls against both players? Tripp started to talk about it but stopped. Will we ever know? Doubtful.