Carolina Hurricanes: Three Takeaways from Silencing the Lightning

The Carolina Hurricanes Racked up Some Frequent Flyer Miles in the Penalty Box

Tonight the Carolina Hurricanes saw a breakdown of team discipline is the best way to describe it. Things had gone well for the Hurricanes through most of the first seventeen minutes of play of the first period until Trevor van Riemsdyk took a call for holding against Tampa Bay’s Pat Maroon. It was Carolina’s first penalty of the night, and second for the contest overall.

Despite the Bolt’s impressive powerplay, this first attempt fell flat primarily due to the skill and tenacity of Carolina’s penalty kill units, holding the lethal special teams to a single shot during the entire powerplay sequence. Brock McGinn blocked that shot, and it would lead to an offsides call against Tampa Bay.

Carolina would take two more minors during the second period. The first came at thirty-nine seconds of the second period, with Brock McGinn being called for roughing against Yanni Gourde. McGinn, while trying to box Gourde, ends up jabbing Yanni square in the face, leading to Tampa Bay’s second powerplay of the night.

Three minutes and seven seconds later, Clark Bishop is called for tripping Cedric Paquette as he attempts to retrieve the puck, but instead finds Cedric’s skates. It was merely a case of poor stick control in this situation and provided Tampa with a third man-advantage opportunity. Again the Hurricanes special teams would come up large and keep Tampa off the score sheet much to the surprise of Bolts fans in attendance.

By the end of two frames, the Carolina Hurricanes have held Tampa Bay’s powerplay at bay, despite coughing up three opportunities. It would not take long before Carolina would cough up another opportunity to the Bolts, as Jake Gardiner is called for holding against Anthony Cirelli less than three minutes in. On this fourth attempt at the man advantage, Point and Tampa Bay would finally find the twine in under a minute.

Just after the half-way mark of the third frame, Ryan Dzingel ends up hooking Ryan McDonagh, negating his team’s powerplay. Ryan’s hooking call could have easily resulted in what was already a tight game (3-2 at this point) turning into a tie game at four-on-four, and a seven-second penalty kill. This made six minor infractions, most of which could have been avoided by being more careful and allowing Tampa to get on the score sheet.

Luckily the Canes special teams and James Reimer were up to the task.