The Carolina Hurricanes shut out the Arizona Coyotes to improve to 4-2-0 on the home stand. What led to their success?
In the sixth game of their seven game home stand, the Carolina Hurricanes shut out the Arizona Coyotes 3-0 in a total team effort. Getting a solid performance up and down the lineup, the Canes played a solid 60 for the first time in a while and improve to 4-2-0 on the home stand in the process.
While there were a lot of notable storylines throughout the game, the play of Jake Gardiner of late has to be encouraging. In the dog house of fans a bit early on, he’s started to put together a string of solid performances of late. Finishing the night with an assist, it’s possible we could see Jake provide the team with an impact similar to the one Dougie Hamilton did this time last year during the playoff push.
And oh yeah, we allowed 0⃣ goals pic.twitter.com/tLv30p61tb
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) January 11, 2020
Aside from Gardiner’s performance, the speed and forechecking game of the Hurricanes seemed to have caused the Coyotes a lot of trouble. The Canes were continuously causing turn overs near the offensive blueline, leading to quality chances for. If it wasn’t for the solid play of Antti Raanta, and some bad luck with the post, Carolina could have easily found the back of the net a few more times.
Speaking of bad puck luck, Nino Niederreiter still can’t buy a goal right now. In what has been a disappointing season for him offensively, Nino had several grade A chances throughout the contest but just came up short once again. Even though he isn’t scoring, he’s still finding way to help the team defensively which is a good sign. Although he is visibly frustrated, if he sticks with it good things are bound to happen.
With these things in mind, what were the major contributing factors in the Carolina Hurricanes shut out victory?