Carolina Hurricanes: Three Takeaways from Intense Game One Win

1. Penalty-Kill Good, Power-Play Not So Good

The Carolina Hurricanes killed off every penalty they took in this game. They took five minor penalties and the Islanders being on the power-play four times and a 4-on-4 for two minutes as well. Jordan Staal took two penalties and they were stilled killed off without one of this team’s major penalty-killing centers. In Game 7 of the first round, they also killed off every penalty and tallied a shorthanded goal.

As noted in the Keys to Game 1, the Islanders like to play a cycling offensive game, especially on the powerplay. The Hurricanes have played well against the mechanics of the Islanders powerplay and make the possession time of the Islanders very limited and they do not give them lots of time to think, forcing turnovers and even shorthanded rushes.

This penalty-kill has proven to be deadly many times so far in the playoffs and it’s always improving.

The penalty-kill is excellent, in fact perfect in this game and the last. The powerplay, however, is not good, and the last time they scored anything near a powerplay goal is in Game 6 of the first round with Warren Foegele scoring seconds after the powerplay ends, technically still a man up.

In Game 7 of the first round, they scored more shorthanded goals than they did powerplay goals, one to none. In Game 1 against the Islanders, they scored zero goals on the powerplay on four of their opportunities.

Although, it may seem the Hurricanes have found alternatives to make up for their abysmal powerplay, with five-on-five and penalty-kill performances, if the powerplay was good as well, they could win future games that rely on one or a few more goals, they can build offensive momentum, that is needed against this stellar Islanders defensive core.

Perhaps Rod Brind’Amour needs to change up the powerplay units or the players on those units currently just need to change the way they approach the powerplay.

2. Defense Stands Tall

Although the defensive play of the Hurricanes was not at all perfect in this game, it was satisfactory, it was enough to get the win, and it was enough for a competent offensive performance to take the win in overtime. The Hurricanes dominated in defensive play in basically the first half of the first period and for multiple shifts in the other periods.

When Petr Mrazek would give up a bad rebound or face a flurry of shots in the slot, the Hurricanes defense would quickly force their way to the puck and flip it into the neutral zone to get quick line changes and give Mrazek backup. That is the teamwork and the intelligent plays that are required from this team and they delivered in Game 1.

The Hurricanes blue line has continued to contribute offensively, as they have all season and in the playoffs. The transitioning and rotation of forwards and defensemen on this team has been impressive. If a defenseman pinches, a forward plays back, and it has paid off. The Islanders were not able to force that many odd-man rushes due to the effort this team has in back-checking and defensive awareness in the event of an offensive zone turnover.

The Hurricanes play such a tight neutral-zone trap that the Islanders just can’t seem to force their way and have to resort to dumping and chasing. Which actually isn’t that inefficient for the Islanders as they have their forwards play tight to the boards and lots of space down the middle where they dump it off the corner to retrieve on the other side, rather than dumping it all the way around the boards.

The Hurricanes neutral-zone trap is efficient and battling the Islanders dumping and chasing strategy off the corner should be the next step to shutting down the Islanders’ forwards.

3. Mrazek. Second. Shutout.

Petr Mrazek has played his role well with the Hurricanes this season, in the regular season and in the playoffs. He registered a shutout in Game 3 of the first round against the Washington Capitals where the team in front of him could get lots of that credit for only allowing 18 shots on goal, but this game was completely earned by Mrazek. Mrazek saved 31 shots out of 31 shots.

Mrazek has been on fire and saves what he’s needed to save, he would rob Josh Bailey, who had the second most points in the regular season and third most points in the playoffs so far for the Islanders on the breakaway. Islanders fans are having nightmares of Mrazek tonight and Petr “the great” Mrazek will be happy to continue being their monster.

https://twitter.com/NHLCanes/status/1121921230985203713

Mrazek has his first road shutout of the playoffs and Mrazek looks comfortable in net, especially for a road game. This is a start of more good things to come if Mrazek can keep the same confidence he gets from the past three wins. The Hurricanes have momentum rolling after three wins and Mrazek has contributed heavily in all three of those wins, the confidence keeps rolling and winning keeps coming.

This game could’ve gone the other way depending on referee calls, but the Hurricanes have the official lead in the series, 1-0 in the series with a 1-0 win. The Islanders will be looking to improve their game and the Hurricanes should be ready to adapt to whatever the Islanders throw their way in the remaining games. Three more wins to go and for now, the Hurricanes can celebrate this win with some ice cream in Brooklyn and see if it’s better than Washington’s ice cream.

Question for CC Readers: How much ice cream does this team owe to Petr Mrazek for Game 1?