Carolina Hurricanes: Three Keys to Rebounding vs Lightning

The Carolina Hurricanes find themselves on the second half of a back-to-back against a struggling Tampa Bay (12-8-3), but what will it take to rebound from consecutive losses?

The Carolina Hurricanes find themselves 15-10-1 after last night’s loss to the Nashville Predators, slipping them into fifth-place in the highly competitive Metropolitan division. With a quarter of the season complete, the Canes need to find a way to get back on the winning column or risk falling out of playoff contention.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are in a similar scenario, sitting fifth in the Atlantic Division after a record-tying season last year. As Sean Tierney of Charting Hockey has shown, Carolina is still an excellent team:

And Head Coach Rod Brind’Amour had this to say about the team’s start in Nashville:

“It was tough because I thought the start was perfect. We had two or three great looks. Didn’t get anything.”

So how do the Carolina Hurricanes get back on track? Here are my three keys to securing two points in the Sunshine State tonight!

The Penalty Box is not Your Friend.

The Carolina Hurricanes have done an exceptional job limiting their penalties but will need to step up their discipline game for their visit to Southwest Florida. The Lightning boasts the third-best powerplay in the league, currently clocking in at one powerplay goal-per-game. Any opportunity handed to Tampa can very quickly turn into a goal-against, especially if it is a penalty killer headed to the bin.

The penalty kill will have to be extra-vigilant in the event the Canes find themselves at the man disadvantage. Despite currently owning the league’s seventh-overall best penalty kill at 84.4%, the Hurricanes have to be at top-form against special teams as effective as Tampa’s. Success on both ends vastly increases the chances of a Hurricanes win in Florida.

Joel Edmundson is one player who the Hurricanes need to reign himself in for tonight’s game, as he ranks ninth in the league for overall penalties-in-minutes with thirty-nine across fourteen penalties in twenty-six games. The next most penalized Hurricane is Nino Niederreiter with twenty penalty minutes across ten calls in twenty-six games.

One strategy that Rod could employ is limiting Edmundson’s ice-time against the Lightning, as he has been pulling a minimum of a penalty-per-game this season. It’s only one piece of the puzzle to winning, however.

Defensive Zone Play and Optimus Reim.

With tonight’s game being the second half of a back-to-back, backup goaltender James Reimer is expected to get the start tonight. He is currently 4-4-0 with one shutout across nine games, with a quality start percentage of 62.5%. He also has a 2.71 goals-against average and a ninety-one percent save rate.

https://twitter.com/Canes/status/1198757395503222785

But as we have seen, his performance can be spotty, and Tampa is one of those opponents that the Hurricanes cannot gamble on.

As such, Jaccob Slavin, Dougie Hamilton, and the rest of the Canes defense corps will need to be playing at their best in front of Reimer. This means that the Canes need to intelligently pass the puck to prevent turnovers, avoid icing the puck at nearly any cost, and stay on their assigned player. The less time that Tampa, which has a plus-ten goals differential, spends in the Hurricanes zone, the better.

A combined grade-A effort by Carolina’s blue line and James Reimer can prevail against a struggling, but still lethal, Tampa Bay offense. But that effort alone will not win the game.

More from Cardiac Cane

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• Week Two Coverage Of College Hockey In NC
• Derek Stepan Ends His On Ice Career As A Hurricane
• The Southeast Rookie Showcase Will Be a Good Look at Carolina’s Future
• Noesen Ready To Provide Depth For Canes

Game Notes:

• Puck Drop: 7:00 PM ET
• Location: Amalie Arena, Tampa, FL
• TV: Fox Sports Carolina, Fox Sports Sun
• Radio: 99.9 FM, The Fan
• Uniform: Road Whites
• Last Matchup: 6 Oct. 2019. 4-3 OTW CAR
• Last Ten:
  • Carolina (6-4-0)
  • Tampa (6-3-1)
• Predicted Starting Goaltenders:
  • James Reimer (4-4-0, 1SO)
  • Curtis McElhinney (3-1-2)

Question for CC Readers: What is your prediction for tonight’s match up at the bay?