Carolina Hurricanes: Three Takeaways from Silencing the Lightning

The Carolina Hurricanes Overcome the Tampa Bay Lightning to claim their 16th win of the Season

In a thriller of a game, the Carolina Hurricanes defeat Tampa Bay on home ice in Southwest Florida. They took a sizable lead in the first period, going to the first intermission on a three-goal headway. Tampa Bay, however, was not about to go down without a fight. By the final buzzer, Tampa had crawled to within one despite a fervent Hurricanes defense and red-hot James Reimer.

Despite giving up three goals in the first period, former Hurricane Curtis McElhinney shut the door on Carolina for the remainder of the evening and giving the Lightning a fighting chance in the game. No matter how much the Lightning pressed, the Hurricanes would push back with equal enthusiasm, going as far as Jaccob Slavin taking up the crease as a quasi-goaltender.

However, let us pause for a moment to appreciate James Reimer.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is a SportsCenter Top 10 and Save of the Year candidate from Optimus Reim. This man was stellar on the ice tonight, posting a two goals-against average with a whopping 94.7 save percentage (twenty-two saves on twenty-four shots) on numerous saves of such insane quality you cannot help but watch them on repeat. Speaking of saves to watch on repeat:

It was performances like this that nearly landed the article the title “James Reimer Appreciation Article” as well as jokes such as this one. Reimer is now 5-2-0 on the road, 5-4-0 in total, and up until Brayden Point‘s powerplay goal, had not allowed a single goal in 108:02. The last goal he gave up before that was by Carson Soucy of the Minnesota Wild on November 16th.

But that’s enough Reimer worship; for now, let’s see how the Hurricanes stacked up to my keys of the game.