The Carolina Hurricanes took a trio of games into overtime over the past week, and they were able to pick up two big wins thanks to a certain handful of young players.
The Carolina Hurricanes, now 3-0-2 since the trade deadline, needed a good week in order to keep themselves in the playoff race in the Eastern Conference.
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The club exiting the week with a 2-0-1 record, including overtime wins against the Ottawa Senators and Boston Bruins. As it stands now, the Hurricanes sit five points out of the final wild card spot, which create a tough mountain to climb for the team over the 13 games of the season.
Despite making the playoffs still being a tall task, the Hurricanes have put themselves in a situation where it is still a possibility, and they were led in a big way by three players over the past week.
Here are the three stars of the week.
A big week for Hurricanes rookie Noah Hanifin included a big home coming when the Canes visited the Bruins on Thursday.
Hanifin, a Boston native, tallied two assists, including a key breakout pass on the game-winning overtime goal, against the Bruins in front of 50 family members and friends. That was just his second multi-point game in the NHL and his first since December 8.
He followed up a wonderful performance in Boston with another impressive outing in Buffalo. He stood out as an excellent defensive presence for the Hurricanes, despite the team’s 3-2 overtime loss.
Carolina’s hottest scoring line of Di Giuseppe, Rask, and Skinner had another big week.
Skinner brought the offensive drive, but it would all be for not without the tough and consistent play of Di Giuseppe.
Di Giuseppe had the highlight of his career in Boston on Thursday, tallying the game-winning goal on a rebound in overtime, effectively keeping Carolina’s playoff hopes alive and extending his point streak to three games in the process.
The rookie forward followed up that performance with another goal in Buffalo, once again following up a shot from Skinner. The goal extended his career-most point streak to four games. He has netted a pair of goals and has five total points over his last four outings.
Di Giuseppe continues to impress. He is a fast, physical presence who is competitive and knows how to drive to the net. With every successful player like Jeff Skinner, you need a player like Phil Di Giuseppe to bring physicality and open up space.
The star of the week, without a shadow of a doubt, was Jeff Skinner, who showed off many facets of his game in Carolina’s 2-0-1 run.
Skinner netted a pair of goals on Tuesday against the Ottawa Senators, including a goal with just .2 seconds to go in regulation to tie the game at three goals apiece.
The Hurricanes went on to defeat the Senators in a shootout thanks to goals from Riley Nash and Jaccob Slavin, a pair of players that came close to being on this list of three stars of the week.
Jeff Skinner is, once again, becoming the game changer that this team needs. He is coming up big in situations where the the club truly needs it, and that is a thing that only stars can do.
Is this just another hot streak for Skinner that will be followed with silence? Maybe, but this time he is doing things the right way, playing from his own end out. He is adapting extremely well to Bill Peters’ system, and he is growing as a hockey player.
This hot streak may be the one that lasts for a very, very long time. If it does, you will see the Carolina Hurricanes win a lot of hockey games.
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The Hurricanes are set to play three games this week. They’ll travel to D.C. and play the Capitals on Tuesday, then go to Pittsburgh for a big divisional matchup on Thursday, and then they’ll round it out with a trip to the North Star State for a date with the Minnesota Wild.