Carolina Hurricanes: Eliminate Flyers From Contention
1. Mrazek is our Starting Goalie
Incredible. That word doesn’t begin to explain the turn around in the netminding for this Carolina Hurricanes team. When Don Waddell announced that the team was going to sign Petr Mrazek for a year to compete with Scott Darling for the rights to own the net, I was not convinced that it was the right choice.
Fast forward to early January and I do not know if I could have predicted that a tandem of a one year free agent signing and a waiver wire pickup were going to be the two men that would propel this team to a postseason berth. Today, I am more than confident that the two men would lead the Carolina Hurricanes to a deep run through April and perhaps beyond that.
If I had to choose one of the two to lean on while we make this run, It is definitely Mrazek. Their tale of ice and fire is still the kind that will propel this team forward regardless. But when it comes to starting hot out of the gate, they definitely need the fire that is Petr Mrazek.
It’s not the saves that are needed to keep this game within check or to maintain a lead that is impressive. It is how he makes those saves, with a fire that builds an aura around the crease that players and the puck have a difficult time getting through. Just look at some of the most ridiculous saves he made last night:
PETR PETR PETR PETR PETR pic.twitter.com/peraaGPItt
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) March 30, 2019
That fire he brings to the table turns into energy that his teammates can feed off of and take with them down the ice. When he kicks the puck out of his crease, when he quite literally says NO to an opposing player, he does it with a purpose. The kind of purpose that sends the puck careening out of the zone and turns into a breakaway chance down the other end of the ice.
Mrazek plays with such a ferocity that it becomes a problem for his counterpart in the other net. While he did get an assist last night, it is incredulous that he does not have more on the season. Perhaps last night was just a start. Once his defense in front of him starts playing a little better like they just did, it will happen more often.