The Carolina Hurricanes begin a five-game road trip tonight in the City of Steel against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The trip will be vital for the team’s playoff hopes – the most important stretch of the season starts tonight.
The Carolina Hurricanes are coming off of a tough loss on Super Bowl Sunday in a game where there was almost more points scored than the football game. If you’re like myself, watching literally every former Cane on the Calgary roster besides Bill Peters score a goal left a very bitter taste in my mouth – and I am sure the Hurricanes feel similar. Let’s hope they are able to relieve some of that taste tonight against the Metro’s second placed team, the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Pens are first on the slate of five road games, and happen to be the only team on this trip that is currently in a playoff spot. This, of course, by no means makes for an “easy” schedule – as there is no such thing in the NHL. It should, however, mean a decent amount of hope for Caniacs. The games are all definitely winnable, and could give the team a nice confidence boost if they can collect 7/8 points on the trip. And while the trip definitely won’t make the season for the Canes, as there is still a decent amount of ground to make up, it could very easily break it if they come out with minimal point gain.
On to tonight, and the Hurricanes and the Penguins see each other for the second time of four meetings. The first game was flat-out painful to watch as the Canes were shutout 3-0 – remember that phase where it seemed the team was shutout every night? For the sake of my sanity, I am glad that is the rear view mirror, as the Canes have scored 3 or more goals in 11 of the 18 games since being shutout by the Penguins on December 22.
The Pens are having a pretty decent yea, as they sit in second place of the Metro – but their 62 points are only 6 better than the Canes’ 56, which shows just how close the playoff race is. Pittsburgh is still trying to find their post-All Star Game break stride, sitting at 2-2 since resuming their campaign. That being said, fans can expect to see a pretty high-flying game tonight as both teams are looking to avenge losses to a couple of the NHL’s best teams.
The importance of tonight cannot be stressed enough. A win gives the team a whole new mojo on this trip – and likely relieves a bit of pressure for the remainder, allowing the team to play loose. My infamous crystal ball says that the Canes need 7 or 8 points out of the possible 10 on this road trip to remain playoff-hopeful, as any less could put the team in quite a pickle.
Carolina Hurricanes fans should be excited for this game, and for this trip. I definitely am, as I expect a lot of fast-paced hockey to come from the Hurricanes and, hopefully, a lot of wins as a result. The key? Back to that statement about scoring 3 or more goals in the games. The Canes are – and ready yourself for this – *23-2-3* in games when they score 3 or more goals this season.
That is an insane stat and it just speaks for itself. I like the Canes to get rid of that aforementioned bitter taste and avenge their embarrassing loss from the first matchup with Pittsburgh. They score more than 3 goals – thus getting a win – and will look to get more scoring from Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravainen and Nino Niederreiter to help topple the Pens.
Prediction: Hurricanes 4-2 Penguins