Carolina Hurricanes: Three Takeaways from Game 3 Loss

1. Finish

If you haven’t noticed, or maybe you’re new, we love new fans, “finishing” has been a common theme throughout this season.

Most people know that the Hurricanes almost always outshoot the opponent, usually by a large margin. We usually out possess the opponent, by a large margin. Every advanced stat that exists, we usually dominate.

That did not translate into consisting winning until 2019 (not 2018-2019, but like January 2019). Period one of last night looked like vintage pre-2019 Hurricanes. Absolutely dominate the opponent in every aspect of the game except goals.

It’s frustrating to become so close, so often and not finish.

Granted, it’s better than the alternative. Game 2 was the alternative. I came into the game expecting to win, and after the first period, I felt even more confident in that prediction. Things didn’t work out.

Part of that was the fact that the only person to score was Calvin de Haan. Not exactly known for his goal scoring ability. In de Haan is your leading scorer on the night, you probably lost. That sounds a little harsh but it’s true.

Our best offensive players need to be our best offensive players. And they really haven’t been. Sebastian Aho has turned it on, with a point in five straight games, but it’s a clear departure from our top sixes play this season. Greg McKegg and Nino Niederreiter are tied in goals this series.

That’s weird.

But give credit where credit is due, Tuuka Rask played out of his mind last night and deserved to win the game. But we missed the net a couple of times and made his life easier than it should have been.