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Three Hurricanes Takeaways from another gut wrenching loss to the New York Rangers

By Omar Abdelgawad

RALEIGH, NC - NOVEMBER 7: Andrei Svechnikov #37 of the Carolina Hurricanes and Brendan Smith #42 of the New York Rangers battle for the loose puck during an NHL game on November 7, 2019 at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Gregg Forwerck/NHLI via Getty Images)
RALEIGH, NC - NOVEMBER 7: Andrei Svechnikov #37 of the Carolina Hurricanes and Brendan Smith #42 of the New York Rangers battle for the loose puck during an NHL game on November 7, 2019 at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Gregg Forwerck/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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RALEIGH, NC – NOVEMBER 7: Adam Fox #23 of the New York Rangers scores an empty net goal and celebrates with teammates sealing a victory over the Carolina Hurricanes during an NHL game on November 7, 2019 at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Gregg Forwerck/NHLI via Getty Images)
RALEIGH, NC – NOVEMBER 7: Adam Fox #23 of the New York Rangers scores an empty net goal and celebrates with teammates sealing a victory over the Carolina Hurricanes during an NHL game on November 7, 2019 at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Gregg Forwerck/NHLI via Getty Images) /

2. The Defense Evaporated.

The best defense is a good offense. Not when playing hockey. While the Carolina Hurricanes played well in the Rangers Zone they failed to do very much against them while in their own zone. For a team with supposedly the best defense in the league, their efforts against the rangers were pretty embarrassing.

While guys like Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce did their best to keep the puck moving out of the defensive zone, others like Jake Gardiner and Trevor van Riemsdyk looked to be a pace behind the minimal Rangers offense. The results lead to the Rangers taking a lead into the locker room at the end of each period. Even Dougie Hamilton looks to be skating just to skate:

To be honest, I never want to see that version of the defense again. Perhaps it is time to shake up the defensive pairings and put Haydn Fleury back into the lineup. It’s no secret that the Carolina Hurricanes are trying to offload one of their defenders for some offensive help, perhaps the answer to who that person who gets traded should be needs to expand a little.

The offense doesn’t get a free pass here either. Just because they were playing well in the Rangers zone doesn’t excuse their complete lack of discipline in the defensive one. I have so many questions when it came to the defense in this game. For example just who was supposed to be on Pavel Buchnevich and why was he just allowed to do this:

If you are reading frustration in my voice it’s because I am frustrated. This team IS much better than the last three games. They need to figure out what they need to do to play better regardless of who is in net on BOTH ends of the ice. Quite frankly, the Carolina Hurricanes that started the season need to return in more ways than one.

This loss marks the first in PNC Arena for Petr Mrazek since February.

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