Carolina Hurricanes: Three Keys to Victory Against the New York Rangers
Coming off a rough 4-1 loss against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Carolina Hurricanes will look to get back on track as they welcome the New York Rangers into Raleigh.
The Carolina Hurricanes return home after dropping the last two games at the hands of the New Jersey Devils and the Philadelphia Flyers. Coming off one of the best October’s in franchise history, Carolina has struggled to start the month of November, posting a 1-2-0 record.
The Rangers have played two games so far this month, defeating the Nashville Predators 2-1 and dropping the game against the Ottawa Senators 6-2.
This will be the 145th game between the two teams. New York currently has the better record against Carolina, posting a 72-56-7-9 record all time. This is also the first of four matchups between the two teams this season. Last season, the two teams split the four matchups. More notably, Carolina ended their MSG “curse” when they defeated the Rangers on February 8th, 3-0.
Also. Fall out from the Eric Staal trade to the Rangers. light
Currently Artemi Panarin, Ryan Strome and the injured Mika Zibanejad lead the way in points for the Rangers. They rank 13th in goals for (3.08 goals per game). Their team defense is ranked 25th in the league. The best way to describe their goaltending is inconsistent.
Henrik Lundqvist is nearing the end of his career, as his numbers are not great. Their starter, Georgiev, has flashes of greatness, but has had some struggles as well.
Historically, the month of November hasn’t always been a great one for the Hurricanes. A quick look at the standings will tell you how important it is to get back on track and avoid continuing the concerning trend that has been November. Let’s take a look a three keys that can help Carolina get out of their funk and back into the win column.
Stay Out of the Box
This should be something that any coach would stress to his team, but it definitely holds true for the Carolina Hurricanes. In the three games so far this month, Carolina has taken 10 penalties. While that may not seem like to many, the fact that they gave up power play goals in all three of those games is concerning.
Currently, the Carolina Hurricanes rank 17th in the league when it comes to the penalty kill, killing off 80.7% of the penalties they face. So they’re right around the middle of the pack, but when you keep taking unnecessary penalties like the team has recently, that number is bound to go down. You can only play with fire for so long before it burns you.
The New York Rangers are currently 11th in the league when it comes to the power play, converting on 20.83% of their opportunities. While this stat may not look too scary, it would be wise to not take a power play unit lightly when it includes the Russian sniper Artemi Panarin. I haven’t even mentioned the young up-and-coming star Kaapo Kakko, who can be just as deadly.
Watching Panarin score @TheGarden is a little more fun now. pic.twitter.com/t4rQe5nuSD
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) October 4, 2019
If the Hurricanes are looking to negate some of the chances that the Rangers will get, then they are going to have to stay out of the box. Penalties will happen, but the difference maker here is negating the unnecessary penalties that have plagued the team recently. If they can manage that, then it’s a big step in the right direction and will make securing the win so much easier.
Take Advantage of Tired Bodies
The New York Rangers are coming into Raleigh on the second half of a back-to-back, which can make any team sluggish out of the gate. To make matters even worse for them, it will be three games in four days. It can be very hard to stay mentally sharp when you have a workload like that, so they will more than likely make a few more errors as a result.
The Hurricanes will be rested for this game, so it is important to come out strong from puck drop. Stay strong on the puck and wear down the Rangers with an aggressive forecheck. The Hurricanes will need the big guys like Staal and Edmundson to lay the body out and be tough on the puck. Force the Rangers to make errors and capitalize on the opportunities when they present themselves.
https://twitter.com/Canes/status/1189364724779094021?s=20
When teams are tired, it increases the possibility for the team to take unnecessary penalties. This is where the power play will need to come up strong. The Hurricanes are currently 9th in the league in that department, converting on 22.45% of their total opportunities.
So far, the Hurricanes have had twelve total chances on the PP in the month of November and have converted on just two of those. Definitely room for improvement.
If the Hurricanes want to get back in the win column, they’re going to have to take advantage of what is going to be a tired Rangers team. This is also a team they *should* beat. Carolina needs to avoid losing what many would consider a trap game, play to their strengths and come out of the gate strong.
Intensity Against a Metro Division Team
If the Hurricanes are going to live up to their preseason predictions as one of the favorites to win the Metropolitan division, then they’re going to have to prove that they can play (and win) against those teams. So far this season, we have seen some mixed results overall. Carolina needs to treat every divisional game as highly important and up the intensity level, especially against the Rangers.
At the start of the season, Carolina looked unstoppable. Comeback wins were coming left and right and everything looked great. During that five game winning streak to start the season, the Hurricanes played two divisional rivals.
The first was against the Washington Capitals which featured a come-from-behind thriller, capped off by an overtime goal by Jake Gardiner. The second was against the Islanders, where Carolina played strong and won the game 5-2.
Canes call up Eetu Luosarinen to play against Rangers. light. Related Story
Since that hot streak, Carolina has played against the Columbus Blue Jackets (twice), the New Jersey Devils and most recently the Philadelphia Flyers. In those games, the Hurricanes went 0-3-1. Clearly, this is not good enough. Going into Thursday’s action against the Rangers, they really need to win this game.
Carolina is a really good team. Up and down the lineup, when this team is healthy, it’s hard to find any holes. Without Jordan Martinook (Currently out after having surgery), it’s hard to up that intensity level. This is where captain Jordan Staal and alternate captain Jaccob Slavin have to step up and get this team motivated.
The Hurricanes have to up the intensity against any divisional rival, but it starts Thursday against the Rangers. It’s time to turnaround what has been an abysmal stretch against Metropolitan teams and get back to that level of play that was present against the Capitals and the Islanders. Play hard at home and don’t let up.
Game Notes
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- Puck Drop: 7 PM EST
- Location: PNC Arena
- TV: Fox Sports Carolinas, NHL.TV
- Radio: 99.9 The Fan
- Uniform: Home Red
- Potential Lines:
- Niederreiter-Staal-Teravainen
- Svechnikov-Aho-Foegele
- Dzingel-Wallmark-Necas
- McGinn-Luostarinen-Gibbons
- Slavin-Hamilton
- Edmundson-Pesce
- Gardiner-TvR
- Potential Goalie Matchup
- New York Rangers: Alexander Georgiev
- Carolina Hurricanes: Petr Mrazek
2. 95. 4. 109. Prediction
Question for the CC Readers: How many goals do you believe will be scored tonight?
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