If you missed it yesterday, a similar lengthier article recapping Friday’s 4-1 win over St. Louis can be found HERE.
On Saturday afternoon, the Hurricanes prospects played their second of three round robin games against the Blackhawks. The game started inauspiciously with the Hurricanes largely hemmed in their own end against an aggressive forecheck and struggling to advance the puck. But Jake Bean single-handedly relieved pressure to some degree and a couple power play opportunities and a 5-on-3 goal for seemed to right the ship. But the Hurricanes never really did shake off the sloppiness, played too much of the game under duress and ultimately fell 5-2.
The story of the game was the fact that the Hurricanes had little answer for an aggressive foreceheck. The combination of turnovers and just spending too much time in their own end eventually did them in.
I had to check out at about the midway point of the third period, so my comments are based only on about 50 of the 60 minutes of hockey.
Quick player notes are below:
Andrei Svechnikov
He picked up two points in the opener on Friday, but I actually thought Saturday’s game offered a better glimpse of his future in a Hurricanes uniform. He fired a laser of a wrist shot into the net for his first goal against opposition in a Hurricanes sweater. He also hit a post on another shot also from the vicinity of the right face-off circle. Looking forward into 2018-19, could be be a right wing sniper on the right side of Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen? It is too early to project how quickly he will develop and adjust to the NHL in 2018-19, but he projects to be exactly the type of player that could convert that into a high-end scoring line.
Julien Gauthier
As I said on Twitter, it is meat and potatoes, non-fancy stuff, but Julien Gauthier has now scored power play goals from right in front of the crease in each of the first two games. At 6 feet 4 inches tall and a chiseled 230 pounds, he is mostly immovable when parked in front of the net. With good hands and finishing ability, goals could be there for him. Also, as has always been the case, he looks good ambling down the right wing with the puck on his stick. Overall, he has been good through two games. I guess the one thing that leaves me wanting more is more plays that make plays for his line mates and more frequent plays that use his size to be disruptive defensively.
Jeremy Helvig
His line of four goals against is not nearly as impressive as Friday’s one goal against, but I would not call Saturday a lost cause in his regard. He faced a high number of quality shots and made a number of good saves. The 5-2 result was more the result of the team being outplayed than a tough game for Helvig. That said, he was beaten cleanly from the vicinity of the same face-off circle twice in the second period, once on the power play and once off the rush. But in addition to giving up goals on a couple shots that were likely savable, he made a number of high-end saves again too.
Jake Bean
His strength moving the puck up the ice was on display at times in this game. When the blue line group in total struggled mightily to get the puck past an aggressive forecheck, Bean was the only one who seemed to have any kind of answer, especially early in the game. I continue to have my reservations about the defensive part of his game, but in today’s NHL where moving the puck is priority #1, Bean has that skill set.
Luke Henman
I continue to like Luke Henman’s game. His game leans more offense (hopefully), but he reminds me a bit of a young Brandon Sutter in the sense that he makes a lot of good decisions and small plays that push the needle more positive even if only by a small amount. Examples include chipping pucks out of his own end to relieve pressure, knowing when/how/where to support the puck when line mates have it and just generally making good decisions consistently. At 150 pounds, he will need to add size and strength to play at the NHL level, but maybe encouraging is that he can hold his own at his current level already. So if he matures physically to be 185 or 190 pounds in 3-4 years and adds a bit of speed and acceleration in the process, just maybe the Hurricanes have a good find with Henman as a mid-round pick.
Saarela/Roy/Gauthier
I wrote above that I have been reasonably happy with Gauthier’s play, but his two goals are both on the power play, and most of his other goodness has simply been the occasional time he has the puck on his stick on the rush. But in total, this line has been disappointing offensively. While maybe not as high-powered as the headliners line with Necas and Svechnikov, both Saarela and Gauthier’s paths to the NHL come from offense and scoring. So especially as older players in this tourney, I would have expected more from this line at even strength. Saarela has been close to invisible. It is hard to say if maybe Roy’s limitations offensively are the driver, if it is lack of chemistry or whatever, but I would have expected more scoring chances from this group.
Who else watched Saturday’s game and has thoughts and analysis to share?
Go Canes!
A few things that I noticed in the game.
1. Sluggish is an apt description that has been described.
2. Helvig played well. Only one goal that I saw was one where I thought he could have had it.
3. You can tell the difference between the first pairing d and the invites. Clearing the zone was a challenge for most of the d.
4. Finally the number of penalties was not good. It seemed there was a rotating door to the box in the second period. Tough to win when a man down for so long.
Some positives-
Necas can skate. Sometimes you can get awestruck by an NHL skater during a game. There were two times at least where I was like wow- 88 is impressive.
Svechnikov has an amazing wrist shot. He is not afraid to drive the net. He may be 18 but I don’t think anyone on the current NHL Hurricanes is better driving and shooting in high danger areas.
Kuokkanen looked solid to me. I think he has put on some weight. I could be wrong but he looked like an adult while many of the players still have some maturing to do.
We have sent some of our best supposedly high end talent to Traverse City. Some of the players according to all the preseason gab were supposed to make the Canes this year and play big roles. Based upon what I have seen in watching both games in their entirety, we are NOT going to get much help from anyone who is at Traverse City other than POSSIBLY Svetchnikov, Nwecas, and Gauthier. Including these three, the team has looked lackluster when playing essentially against scrubs when compared to NHL talent IMO. Before the tournament Vellucci said he was looking for tenacity, grit, hard play on the boards, winning puck battles, etc. I have seen very little of any tenacity, grit, hard play on the boardsor winning puck battles. The only out I can give the forwards is maybe the low quality defensemen we have who can’t get the puck, make a good first pass, etc. to get the puck out of the defensive zone is a huge factor in their lack of offensive productivity.
In summary, outside of a couple of plays in each game, no one on the Canes looks ready for the NHL. Of all the players, Svetchnikov has the best chance IMO.
Just an opinion, but if these guys can’t get up to playing 60 minutes with several NHL jobs available, then something is wrong. Where’s the fire to compete?
I wouldn’t be so down on these guys. Playing two days in a row is tough, even for youngsters. These guys haven’t played a real hockey game in months. They are getting their legs back and they have to play several days in a row. Not easy. This isn’t the playoffs. They aren’t getting all jacked up. It’s a long season and you can’t do that for 82 games plus training camp, plus a rookie tournament. What’s cool is we will get to see a body of work from these guys over the next month.
I hope you are right.
RR- I agree with your previous observation about lack of “jam” but I have a different thought on that. I would think the number one priority is everyone leave the tournament healthy. No need for the kids to get hurt. One way for sure they won’t make the team is if they are injured. Every team I hope shares that philosophy.
As far as players standing out to make the team in Raleigh it’s about right. Necas and Svech have stood out. Other players probably need at least another year in Charlotte.
What guys have been good /bad, or mediocre?
I ask because I didn’t get to see either game.
Helvig – has he enough talent to compete soon?
How about Kuokkanen, others?
Thanks in advance!
I think we are unreasonably high on our prospects, because we don’t have much else to be excited about, and we’re putting a lot of pressure on them to perform.
I also agree that there is some level of caution involved in this tournament. Sure, they can dazzle and move up the ranks, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they are adviced to avoid injuries.
Also we see Chicago, a team with supposedly pretty limited prospect pool beat the Canes, and te canes beat the blues, so the tournament is a bit of a crapshoot, which makes sense given the rust and new time to practice.
Matt, what did you think of Necas’ performance in game 2. You didn’t mention him and he didn’t show up on the scoresheet, but some commenters noticed his speed.
It’d be positive if the goat emerges from this camp with a tryout in Raleigh. we need more of a powerwinger presence and a guy who parks in front of the net on the PP.
I suspect it’ll be competition between the Goat and Zykov.
ne