With a Pittsburgh Penguins loss earlier in the day, the Carolina Hurricanes stepped onto the ice needing only a win to move into playoff position.
Following a formula that was nearly identical to Friday’s win, the Hurricanes did just that with a 3-0 lead over the Dallas Stars. Just like on Friday, the win featured a couple goals early, stellar goaltending throughout and a ‘meh’ effort in total.
In a complete reversal of roles, the Hurricanes have taken to being outplayed sometimes and just relying on stellar goaltending and clutch scoring as the shots pile up against them. And with this new ‘find a way’ kind of fun, the Hurricanes climbed into playoff position on February 16.
Game recap – repeating Friday
On Saturday, the Hurricanes were aggressive early and just like on Friday were able to capitalize on a couple errors early by the Stars. The Stars seemed to start slowly on defense. First, Lucas Wallmark had a breakaway that was thwarted by goalie Anton Khudobin. The Stars had issues sorting things out a couple other times. At the 5:09 mark, the Hurricanes capitalized when Sebastian Aho fed Justin Williams a cross-ice pass on a 2-on-1 rush to put the Hurricanes up 1-0. Just over three minutes later, the Stars failed to clear their zone twice with the second try being a bad pass right to Justin Faulk at the blue line. Faulk did well to one-time a pass on a rolling puck right to Brock McGinn in front of the net. McGinn also did well receiving a rolling puck and deftly depositing it into the net. With an aggressive start, generous defensive play by the opponent and some opportunistic finishing, the Hurricanes were quickly out to a two-goal lead. But the Stars seemed to wake up at that time and were the better team for the rest of the first period. But Petr Mrazek was sharp. His best sequence was a couple point blank saves that saw him react emphatically as the whistle blue and the game went to a television timeout. When the first period ended, the Hurricanes had been out-shot 15 to 8 but led by a 2-0 margin.
Also following Friday’s formula, the second period was a slog through the mud for the Hurricanes. The team had trouble moving he puck cohesively and mostly turned it back over after winning it. The shots on goal totals were 11 to 4 in favor of the Stars. The Hurricanes did a reasonably good chance of defending under duress such that they did not give up much for grade A chances in front of the net. But Mrazek still had to make a couple of great saves and a couple tough ones on deflections and caroms. The second period was a very forgettable one from a Hurricanes standpoint, but the good guys still exited it with the 2-0 lead still intact.
The third period was somewhat better from a Hurricanes perspective. Aho’s line was pretty good at winning the puck and then playing shifts in the offensive zone. But by and large the other lines spent too much time hemmed in their own end. But Mrazek was stellar and had an answer for anything and everything and the Hurricanes plodded through the front part of the third period still with a 2-0 lead. The Canes would seal the win with a power play goal with less than five minutes remaining in the game. A nifty Andrei Svechnikov pass found Ferland in front who quickly got the puck on net and through Khudobin. At that point, the Hurricanes smelled blood and dialed things up a notch. The Hurricanes did not score again, but they dictated play until the end.
The storm surge was a fun take on the limbo using a hockey stick which was made even more enjoyable by more backlash (Don Cherry this time) from hockey dinosaurs.
Player and other notes
1) Petr Mrazek
For the second night in a row, the Hurricanes stellar goaltending was the difference. The Hurricanes did a reasonably good job of not giving up breakaways or leaving players open for point blank chances, but the shot volume was fairly high and Mrazek saw more than his fair share of odd deflections and other shots that changed direction. But the telltale sign for Mrazek is his anticipation. He was sharp in that regard seemingly being a quarter of a second ahead of the play and where the shot was coming from. His emphatic body language on the couple consecutive saves in the first period said a lot about where this game was headed.
Not sure how one could check it quickly, but I have to imagine it has been a long time since a goalie was the first star for the Canes in consecutive games.
2) A reversal of fortunes
What is striking about the pair of weekend wins is how un-Canes-like they were. As noted above, goaltending led the way. In addition, the Hurricanes were out-shot by a decent margin especially when the game was being decided. But the Hurricanes overcame shot volume with opportunistic finishing.
That is the exact opposite of years of struggles. Winning with goaltending? Giving up more shots but winning with finishing? Ideally, the Hurricanes can get back to a bit stronger level of play, but until then this idea of winning anyway is fun.
3) A willingness to pay the price
The biggest equalizer was Mrazek, but the Hurricanes also made up for not having the puck by willing to jump in front of pucks. In addition to 33 shots on net by Dallas, the Hurricanes also blocked a whopping 25 shots. Faulk led the way with six shots blocked and Slavin was right behind him with 4. The blue line in total had six blocked shots. Again, better would be to resume outplaying/out-shooting teams, but the Hurricanes did demonstrate a willingness to do what it takes to win.
4) Jordan Staal
Though the team is winning without him right now which is impressive, I think the team misses Jordan Staal in games like this. As I noted above, Aho’s line was the only one that could consistently transition from defending to playing offense and spending time in the offensive zone. The result was too much time defending. Arguably Jordan Staal’s greatest strength is his ability to win pucks in the defensive zone and then get the puck efficiently into the offensive zone with possession. That skill set can go a long way toward balancing out play in games like Saturday’s.
5) Sebastian Aho
It was in an understated way, but I thought he had a strong game. He did just enough Jordan Staal to keep the Hurricanes from completely being hemmed in their own end, and as good players do, he made the most of a single favorable offensive situation when he fed Williams for his goal.
6) Results matter
When we look at the standings tomorrow, the Hurricanes will be in the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. That is a good thing!
Next up for the Hurricanes is the last of three games at home with a match up against the Rangers on Tuesday.
Go Canes!
Another game where the goalie won it for the team. The boys looked tired and generally played flat.
The Wallmark-Svech-Ferland PP goal was a thing of beauty – all three showed their offensive capabilities.
In the end, Mrazek was god. And when was the last time (or only time?) when the arena erupted in chants of one player’s name. He earned it and deserved it.
Also, for those keeping score at home, tonight was a pretty young redhead. 😀
A brunette for Tuesday’s home game would complete the tj hat trick this week!
Ha! I like that concept – I will work on it. 😀
Irony: I happened to be watching the NHL channel when Don Cherry said the post game storm surge made the team look like “clowns”. At the time he was dressed in garish royal blue sport coat decorated with gold dragons, striped shirt and a solid gold necktie that matched the dragons. It was like watching Red Skelton call the guy in the barrel at the rodeo out for horseplay. An impressive display of a total lack of self awareness. More irony: Don Cherry is making Tom Dundon look like a hockey marketing genius. Our fan base is reengaged with the team in a way not seen for a long time. Winning helps, but free nation wide publicity spreads the feel good story faster. Thank you Mr. Cherry!
Much of what Cherry says is a sounding board act for his audience. So it is not surprising his comments are parroted views of Canadians and northern U.S. markets…to them hockey is ‘their’ sport and celebrations are considered unsportsmanlike and unsophisticated. Thinking outside the box to grow other fan bases is silly in their eyes. In ways I think the celly’s are silly too, but it works for this young team. That’s the context Cherry and others miss. The team has not made the playoffs in a decade and is reconnecting their fan base. The opposing team is off the ice when it’s performed. No different than Vegas pre-game theatrics or octopuses or rats tossed on the ice…but he would never admit it or go so far to understand it. They just don’t like it, and to your point the more they complain the more Dundon looks like a smart guy.
Cherry has a carefully crafted lavish and garish tv persona that is to hockey as Liberace was to the Las Vegas strip. His calling out the Canes for clownishness is simply the height of self indulgence without an ounce of self awareness.
The Canes didn’t dominate. However, as Matt indicated they didn’t have any significant breakdowns after taking the lead. While not completely eliminating the other teams’ top lines, the Aho line with Pesce and Faulk on D are neutralizing the likes of Crosby, McDavid, Seguin. It is obvious the trust the team has in both goalies when the opponents do create scoring opportunities.
The other good news about the last few wins is that the special teams have both performed well. The power play has improved both tactics and execution. Even before the goal last night the first unit did a nice job of moving the puck and getting off dangerous shots. Then as tj noted, Wallmark and Svechnikov looked like Backstrom and Oshie rather than two rookies. An excellent passing sequence. The Canes will eventually get back to out-shooting most teams 5-on-5, if the power play continues to perform, that is a formula for continued success through April.
Friday morning Matt asked if anything was different from past teams that all faltered heading into the trade deadline. I am confident all of these apply:
Aho is an elite center who drives play and has an incredible will to win.
Williams is a veteran leader who has an incredible will to win.
Two goalies are playing with confidence and instilling that confidence in the team.
Four rookies are playing with incredible energy and improving just as the team needs another level from them.
The role players (McKegg, McGinn, Martinook) are playing like they heard TD when he told them their jobs were to make it too hard to find better options. Seriously, would any of us want to see a trade for anything other than a near-elite player?
The D is living up to preseason hype as one of the best in the league.
RBA is proving doubters (I was vocally among them) wrong.
Aho is certainly on the brink of elite, if not already there. He will be paid handsomely this offseason (if not before). I hope it’s before.
The game was non-typical in important ways (eg Matt’s reversal of fortune comment) but still a fun win.
Another way to view the last two wins (or all of 2019) is that the canes have become a team, RBA says they are playing for each other. They are having fun, everyone cares deeply, and anyone (or more accurately, everyone) may be difference makers on any given night.
On the scoresheet, 8 different players (on three different lines) had a point. So while Raz was the first star many others contributed, be it scoring, blocked shots, or little things.
Keep these guys together and see what they can do!
Yeah, I never thought the Canes would get close to the playoff cut line by the end of last year, and it took a pretty incredible surge to get there, but kudos to the team, they did it.
Also kudos to RBA, he needed time to learn head coaching and to bring his team together, but it’s been pretty remarkable in recent weeks.
There was a big shift in late December when he had the courage to shuffle up his lines and bring up guys from the AHL instead of doggedly sticking to what obviously was not working. That’s when the team started its transformation.
The last two games reminded me of Pit, especially the Pit team of 2 ears ago, when they won the cup while everyone, including their own blogger, agreed they didn’t deserve it.
They got remrakable goaltending and were opportunistic when they got scoring chances, thus winning a lot of games where the eye test did not favor them.
I’m not sayig the Canes will have that level of success, but it’s nice to see the reversal of fortunes, the Canes finally being the team that wins the game even if the eye test favored the opponent.
That style won’t last forever, and hopefully the guys can take it to a higher level on Tuesday but, man, it’s been good to be a Caniac in 2019.
I agree, only add top talent,, not trade for trade’s sake. I’m still hoping the team can pull something like adding Mark Stone, because it’s been wayytoo long since they just went all in and what better chance than now.
Duchene also wouldn’t be too bad of a second line center.