Carolina Hurricanes: Three Takeaways from the PLAYOFF CLINCHING WIN over New Jersey

1. The Hurricanes Won

Okay, let’s not get too emotional. We still have some hockey to talk about.

Get another cup of coffee, this is a long one.

The game began okay. The Hurricanes seemed a little jumpy or something and the Devils scored first.

The Hurricanes recovered and got the better of the chances for the remainder of the first period. Five minutes after Andy Greene scored for the Devils, Warren Foegele scored for the Hurricanes, on a truly beautiful feed from Dougie Hamilton.

The play really brought the entire season full circle. In October, the Hurricanes came out of the gates quickly, starting the season 4-0-1. Foegele was also playing extremely well and was an early Calder Trophy favorite. He was even getting decent first line minutes. He then went into a little bit of a funk and didn’t score for a while.

He has seen a resurgence in the last few weeks and capped that resurgence off with a fantastic breakaway goal last night.

Dougie on the other hand as turned into quite the offseason acquisition. He started off relatively slowly. He and Tripp Tracy have stated he was dealing with nagging injuries. I, personally, would struggle to adjust to life moving from Calgary to Raleigh, so that might have a little something to do with it. But since then, and since he has been on the first pairing with Jaccob Slavin, he has scored almost at will and has really been a spark on offense. He also plays defense pretty well.

The Devils took two penalties in the dying minutes of the first, giving the Hurricanes a brief 5 on 3 advantage to start the second period. After the first penalty was released, Justin Faulk took a slapshot from the point to give the Hurricanes a 2-1 lead.

Justin Faulk was drafted 37th overall in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. 2010. Two-thousand-and-ten. He played one year in the NCAA for Minnesota-Duluth, where he won a national championship. He has yet to play in a postseason game since.

Justin Faulk has seen tremendous highs in a Hurricanes uniform and terrible lows. He has been, sometimes rightfully, sometimes not, seen as a scapegoat for all the rough times the Hurricanes have seen. After a brilliant 2016-17 campaign, Justin Faulk was named co-captain, along with Jordan Staal, by then coach Bill Peters, and had a pretty rough 2017-18 campaign.

He struggled offensively, which seemed to directly impact his defensive game, which in turn, struggled. The fact that he wore a C on his jersey, at least every other game, on a team with Jordan Staal and Justin Williams, it was tough for some Hurricanes fans to swallow. He has been in trade rumours basically ever since.

For him to come back, after all that, after every question everyone has asked him. Surely after every tweet he saw with a trade rumour about himself. To score the playoff clinching goal on the power play is simply too much. It is surreal to describe it to you know.

Absolutely nothing has sunk in yet.

The Devils kind of took over after that. Many of the Hurricanes players, after the game, stated how hard this New Jersey team works. Tripp Tracy also made the point that the Devils play a very similar game to the Hurricanes. They had already beaten the Devils twice this season. The Devils overtook the Hurricanes in the shot chart.

But Petr Mrazek was in goal.

Mrazek was traded at the deadline last year from Detroit to Philadelphia. He did not play well in Philadelphia. He signed a one year deal with the Hurricanes in the offseason to prove to the NHL that he has the talent to be a starter in the NHL again. He has done that and more.

The Hurricanes’ front office has been tight-lipped regarding any offseason movies, particularly with the goaltender situation. But we’ll have plenty of time to discuss that this summer. After the playoffs.

After the early goal, Mrazek was lights out the entire game. He received the first star of the game and was vividly fired up in his postgame interview. It was amazing.

Nino Niederreiter added the last goal of the game to give the Hurricanes the 3-1 lead and eventually the win. Nino was traded for Victor Rask in the middle of the season. Victor Rask sliced his hand open in the offseason making sweet potatoes in his kitchen. His game never recovered. Nino was also struggling in Minnesota.

The trade seemed lopsided at the time and even more so now. Nino immediately fit right in with the Hurricanes and has scored 14 goals since switching conferences. To get the game-sealer that pushed his new team into the playoffs for the first time in a decade was really too much.