3. Dougie Hamilton is a top tier defender
Petr Mrazek looked to imitate his teammate Curtis McElhinney, who after giving up an early goal against Montreal, kept the Carolina Hurricanes in the game long enough for them to find the back of the net and tie the game up, forcing an OT where they won in spectacular fashion. After giving up the early goal, he locked down the net long enough for another defender to find space around yet another Vezina winner.
Dougie Hamilton has been a steady force on this Carolina Hurricanes offense. The tiebreaker last night was his 15 goal in the season. He is starting to heat up with two in his last five games. He is only two away from matching his career high of 17 and with six games left in the regular season, he just might set a new one.
Amongst all defenders in the league, he is tied for fifth with Roman Josi of the Nashville Predators. With a little bit more puck luck that he might be a bit higher in the rankings. It has been several seasons since he has gone though a game without registering a shot on goal. Last night might have seen him get hot again as a shot of his gave the puck eyes:
𝗗𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗶𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁! pic.twitter.com/3sPLZW3fFP
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) March 27, 2019
Unfortunately for Hamilton his efforts were glossed over because of the loss. While he gave the team more life, the rest of his teammates could not generate another goal to support the great work in net from Mrazek. Everything finally broke down in the third and the rest, as they say, is history.
The bad new was that both the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Montreal Canadiens closed the gap for the first wild card. The good news for the Carolina Hurricanes is that they get a chance to rebound against this same team tomorrow and put that same distance back between them and the competition.
Question for CC Readers: What do the Carolina Hurricanes need to do to avoid a similar outcome on Thursday against the Capitals?