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.

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.

The Carolina Hurricanes Say it’s Bo-Time!

The contest between Carolina and Tampa Bay can be summarized as a battle of special teams. The exceptional Hurricanes penalty kill managed to stave off the Lightning powerplay on all but one attempt across the night, and the Canes powerplay managed to steal a goal early in the first period to get on the board.

Despite lacking Erik “Bo-Time” Haula, the Hurricanes sneaking one past Curtis McElhinney and the Lightning on the powerplay had to be the most impactful goal of the entire night. It provided the Canes with an early edge, placed the Lightning on the defensive, and infused the whole team with an energy that has been lacking for the last several games.

That energy would resonate across the entire roster, providing the morale boost that the Hurricanes needed to keep Tampa Bay reeling for most of the game. It wasn’t until the third period before the Lightning gained any traction, due in part to Point’s powerplay goal, and out-shot the Hurricanes nearly eight-to-one. By then, however, it was a little too late for Tampa.

Had the Carolina Hurricanes not been robbed of their third powerplay opportunity by Dzingel’s ill-timed penalty, the Canes could have found twine a second time on the man-advantage. By that point, they were starting to regain cohesion after Tampa all but erased the lead in five minutes and twenty-four seconds.

Final Thoughts and Miscellaneous Tidbits

In all, the Carolina Hurricanes came out as the better team tonight. Whether at even-strength or in the special teams battle. Their sudden lack of discipline compared to the norm, however, severely jeopardized their chances tonight by feeding Tampa chance after chance on the man-advantage. But with the quality of play we saw from the team, the Hurricanes more than earned those two points.

It is also a relief to see that the Canes powerplay still has some life to it without Haula. Something about the Finnish center seems to invigorate that aspect of the team’s special teams in a way no other player can. Before his injury, it was not uncommon to see the Hurricanes score on the man-advantage. Hopefully, the Hurricanes bench will have “Bo-Time” back on it this season.

And lastly, despite virtually a wall of text praising him, I cannot say enough about James Reimer’s performance tonight. He appears more at home when the Canes play on the road than he does on home ice, as his record this season suggests. I was skeptical of him being chosen over Anton Forsberg based on preseason performance, but nights like tonight show that the coaching staff was well within reason to entrust him with the alternate/backup role.

I think Rod Brind’Amour in his post-game pep-talk sums up all of our thoughts on tonight.