2. Consistent Discipline
The Hurricanes have shown bad discipline in Game 1 and 2, untimely penalties that punished them. Whether or not the officiating was good, the Hurricanes need to test early on what type of game the officials will call. A strict game where weak calls will be called or a “playoff hockey” type of game.
Once the Hurricanes get a penalty and seeing the severity of it, the Hurricanes need to take that lesson and not continue to take penalties, stay out of the box. If the Hurricanes stayed out of the box in the third period of Game 1, it’s likely they win that game.
Officiating in this season’s playoffs have tended to favor the home team, because the referees like to hear the cheers of a call on the road team. The first round was clear enough of this, the officiating in the Washington-Carolina series, the Tampa Bay-Columbus series, and the San Jose-Vegas series.
Our @NHLCanes will regroup and come home to get even at PNC. The Caniacs can pull them through because we’ve been here before and we know what to do.
— Roy Cooper (@RoyCooperNC) May 12, 2019
The crowd needs to be loud and make their voices heard. If they don’t like a call, they need to boo. If they like a call, they need to cheer. The Hurricanes should expect some nice calls and they need to stay out of the box, because officiating will likely try to make up for Game 1 and 2 and the Hurricanes need to make that job easy for the referees.