Carolina Hurricanes: Three Takeaways from Game Two

Gotta be Good to be Lucky

I don’t think there is any doubt amongst Canes fans that watched yesterday’s contest that the Hurricanes a bit of luck on their side in the final moments of the game. The Isles were pushing hard and rattled a few pucks off the crossbars and posts that sat behind McElhinney.

Am I saying that is ht only reason the Canes pulled out the victory? Not at all. The old saying goes “gotta be good to be lucky, but lucky to be good”, and the Canes were both yesterday.

In order for luck to be on your side, you have to put yourself in the position to win the game in the first place. Obviously, the Hurricanes did just that. They played a very gritty and patient game all game long, only surrendering one goal, which took an unfortunate bounce off the stick of Jaccob Slavin.

This sort of play kept them around until the early third period where they scored two goals within 48 seconds of each other, by way of a Warren Foegele snipe and a Nino Niederreiter deflection, his first goal of the playoffs.

So, that being said the Canes were good enough to have luck on their side in the form of the posts by way of their all-around gutsy team performance throughout the game.

One can only think that the Isles are frustrated at this point, as their only goal of the series was that aforementioned deflection off of Slavin’s stick. They will come out very hungry, as they have no choice being down 2-0 in the series and heading to a very rowdy crowd back in Raleigh.

https://twitter.com/NHLCanes/status/1122614762670632962

The Islanders have to be feeling a burning sense of urgency at this point. Dropping two games at home and having to head to Raleigh with the threat of being swept cannot be very comforting. I still believe there is work to be done for the Canes if they want to continue their success.

This brings us to the next point that the Hurricanes have to find their offense, and they might just get that extra boost they need to do so.