Carolina Hurricanes: 3 Keys to Continuing Streak vs. CBJ

1. Recover from Special Teams Hangover

On October 3rd, the Hurricanes turned lots of heads of their fans when they scored a powerplay goal in their first powerplay opportunity, with fresh face Martin Necas deflecting a Dougie Hamilton bomb.

In the games against the Washington Capitals and Tampa Bay Lightning, Erik Haula was a force to be reckoned with as he scored both the powerplay goals in those games. html would keep the powerplay magic going, as he scores on the powerplay against the Florida Panthers earlier this week.

Necas, Dzingel, and Haula have not only been an amazing line, but they have been an amazing powerplay unit that is producing results. Teuvo Teravainen, Andrei Svechnikov, and Dougie Hamilton have seen lots of success in moving the puck on the powerplay to deceive the opposing teams. The Hurricanes powerplay ranks currently 8th in the league, at 29.4%.

The Hurricanes penalty-kill hasn’t been perfect nor has it really been great either, but it’s been tolerable. However, as of the last two games, being the most recent games, they matter more to the team’s current status, they gave up two goals on the penalty-kill, that allowed the Florida Panthers to get somewhat back into the game.

Just yesterday, the Hurricanes gave up two goals on the penalty-kill. All four of these penalty-kills, Jordan Martinook was either not 100% or not playing. Martinook’s absence on the penalty-kill and for the boys on the bench has been felt.

The Hurricanes are suffering from a hangover and they need to snap out of it. A common trend throughout all these games is an insane lack of discipline, taking unnecessary penalties. The Hurricanes scored no powerplay goals last night, they gave up goals on the penalty-kill, the special teams are on a downward trend and they need to repair it against Columbus tonight.

2. Blue-Line Warriors Continue

Most teams do not know what to do when all of this offense is coming at them at once. When they cover the forwards, their team’s forwards are usually unreliable and defensively-inept, they can’t cover the defensemen.

This is the part where the Hurricanes defensemen come in to take all the glory. Joel Edmundson has been throwing his body and laying bodies out. Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce are being amazingly defensively-reliable again. Jake Gardiner is reliable and showing offensive talent. Gardiner, Slavin, and Pesce have goals already.

However, who is most commendable, is Dougie Hamilton. He is third on the Hurricanes in plus-minus at +5, the best for a defenseman on the team. He has the second most goals, assists, and points on the team, which is the most for a defenseman on the team.

Over the years, Hamilton is what people wanted in Justin Faulk. A reliable defenseman who can handle himself and not get carried away offensively and forget that they’re a defenseman. Hamilton is a power-play specialist and excellent offensive contributor, who has shown no bad sides yet, if ever. Hamilton also leads this team in average time on ice at 23:05, replacing Faulk’s heavy minutes.

When this blue-line contributes offensively and plays their best game, this team wins. Which, by the way… has been all five games out of five games, yeah.. remember? The Hurricanes are 5-0-0… which brings us to the next key.

3. Use Momentum as Confidence

The Carolina Hurricanes are one of the undefeated teams remaining in the National Hockey League right now. The Hurricanes have the most points, the most wins, and the most goals scored in the league right now. For the first time in franchise history, they are 5-0-0.

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You know what’s better? 6-0-0. It can be done. They have went through five games, they vanquished three teams in a row; the Montreal Canadiens, Washington Capitals, and Tampa Bay Lightning, all teams people had doubts they could beat and all teams they pulled comeback victories on.

This team is loaded with depth, it’s loaded with talent, and it’s loaded with personalities, on top of a team personality that has fun things like the Storm Surge. All five times this team has went out, they won.

The Hurricanes have all the hype and momentum in the world now. The Columbus Blue Jackets need this win badly. In all four of their games, they have one overtime victory over the Buffalo Sabres. The other three, they got kicked around by the Toronto Maple Leafs, Pittsburgh Penguins, and… lost a tough one.. to the Anaheim Ducks… on home ice.

The Carolina Hurricanes will host the Columbus Blue Jackets at PNC Arena at 07:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, rocking their new white aways for the first whiteout in PNC! Make sure to dress in white or plan to wear the giveaway shirt. As it is a Saturday game, we all hope the Hurricanes win so obviously we can see a surge and get a nice hot free Chick-Fil-A sandwich on Monday in the Triangle Area.

Question for Cardiac Cane Readers: Will Dougie Hamilton score tonight?