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.
There are few things better than a happy RBA pic.twitter.com/yLgYEQ7L0c
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) December 1, 2019