Carolina Hurricanes: Three keys to beating the Oilers

The Carolina Hurricanes return home to PNC Arena tonight, and face the Edmonton Oilers with one eye firmly on a wildcard spot. A victory would put the Canes right on the cusp of a playoff spot – but how will they defeat the Oilers?

How long have we been saying that the Carolina Hurricanes are three points out of a wildcard spot for? It feels like forever, and we’re here yet again on game day saying the same thing. Luckily for us, we are welcoming home our Canes from one of their best-ever road trips in franchise history – and we see them going up against the Edmonton Oilers, a team the Canes defeated 7-4 back on Jan. 20th.

We look at three ways the Carolina Hurricanes can win this game:

1. Keep the power play going

Any team facing the Edmonton Oilers knows they’re going to get power play time. They give away slightly more power plays on average than the Carolina Hurricanes – and have the league’s second-worst penalty kill, with a measly 75.43% success rate. If the Canes want to give themselves the best chance at winning this game, their 23rd-ranked power play needs to feast on the Oilers’ PK.

If you look at who’s playing the big minutes on the Oilers’ PK, it’s easy to see why they’re getting scored on so much. Outside of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who leads their forward in shorthanded TOI, we’re going to see the likes of Kyle Brodziak, Tobias Rieder and Zack Kassian attempting to shut down Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravainen and co. That’s a matchup I quite fancy us to win.

Win the battle of the special teams, and those two points are as good as ours.

2. Shutdown the Oilers’ top line

I know, it’s super-mega-obvious. But if you can shut down Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, the Oilers have next to nothing offensively. Only four of their players have scored more than eight goals this season, and only three have 30 points or more. Contrast that with the Carolina Hurricanes, who have seven players with more than eight goals and four with more than 30 points, and it’s clear that we’re scoring by committee, not by stacking the top line.

Jaccob Slavin will likely get that plum assignment tonight. Who else could Rod Brind’Amour ask to to stop McDavid and Draisaitl from winning yet another game on their own? I fancy his chances, as the Oilers are their own worst enemies and they lack the depth to score enough goals to win games if their top line doesn’t tally.

Team Jaccob FTW!

3. Pepper their goalie with shots

You can’t win hockey games without shooting the puck, right? It might not take many shots past the Oilers’ poor goaltending options. The recently-extended Mikko Koskinen – you know, the guy whose extension was the final straw in the Peter Chiarelli era – leads Oilers netminders with a decidedly average .908% save percentage and 2.86 GAA, while now-backup Cam Talbot is having a nightmare season with his .893% save percentage and 3.36 GAA.

If the Carolina Hurricanes can continue to do what they do best – shoot the puck from all angles – then a win is surely a foregone conclusion. The Canes still lead the entire NHL in shots taken, and if they get pucks on whoever starts for the Oilers, a win is there for the taking.

The Carolina Hurricanes are home after their season-long road trip. They continue to sit three points outside a wildcard spot, but they have a crucial run of games this week – starting with a win in a very winnable game would be the perfect start to the playoff run-in. This is a team we should be beating, and then looking to take advantage of in trade talks. Let’s start with a win and go from there.

Prediction: Oilers 2-5 Hurricanes