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.