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Carolina Hurricanes: Three Keys to Lowercasing the Caps

By Christopher Highe

RALEIGH, NC - DECEMBER 28: Warren Foegele #13 of the Carolina Hurricanes scores a goal and skates back to the bench to celebrate with teammates during an NHL game agains the Washington Capitals on December 28, 2019 at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Gregg Forwerck/NHLI via Getty Images)
RALEIGH, NC - DECEMBER 28: Warren Foegele #13 of the Carolina Hurricanes scores a goal and skates back to the bench to celebrate with teammates during an NHL game agains the Washington Capitals on December 28, 2019 at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Gregg Forwerck/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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RALEIGH, NC – SEPTEMBER 29: Washington Capitals right wing Garnet Hathaway (21) and Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Roland McKeown (55) fight during an NHL preseason game between the Washington Capitals and the Carolina Hurricanes on September 29, 2019, at the PNC Arena in Raleigh, NC. (Photo by Greg Thompson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
RALEIGH, NC – SEPTEMBER 29: Washington Capitals right wing Garnet Hathaway (21) and Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Roland McKeown (55) fight during an NHL preseason game between the Washington Capitals and the Carolina Hurricanes on September 29, 2019, at the PNC Arena in Raleigh, NC. (Photo by Greg Thompson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

The Carolina Hurricanes Need to Avoid the Penalty Box.

As fellow CardiacCane writer Austin Blum (@austinblum_) pointed out, the Carolina Hurricanes have had a troubling love affair with the sin bin. Three-quarters of the Hurricanes active roster have ten or more penalties in minutes (PIM) this season, with offseason acquisition Joel Edmundson leading at forty-seven.

In the last forty games, Carolina has had to defend against one-hundred and forty-six powerplays, of which they, Washington, and the New York Rangers lead the league. Of those, Carolina has given up only twenty-six goals, giving them an 82.2% penalty kill rate, which stands at eleventh overall league-wide. Every penalty called against Carolina can turn into a dagger as we know what comes with it.

Alex Ovechkin goes to his office and scores. Ovi has found twine nine times on the man advantage this year, six of those on the road, making him one of the deadlier special teams assets on the Capitals roster. During the 2018 All-Star Game, Alex broke the long-standing slap shot speed record, registering one at 101.3 miles per hour (163 kilometers per hour), a shot you don’t want to block.

The more that Carolina can stay out of the box, the fewer opportunities that Ovechkin will have to put that monstrous slap shot into play. Ovi isn’t the only strong point on the Capitals powerplay unit either, as they have scored twenty-seven times in one-hundred and twenty-seven opportunities. That number translates to an approximate one-in-five chance of scoring on the man advantage.

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