Cardiac Cane
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Carolina Hurricanes Split Season Series With Caps

By Christopher Highe

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 13: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals skates on the ice against the Carolina Hurricanes in the third period at Capital One Arena on January 13, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 13: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals skates on the ice against the Carolina Hurricanes in the third period at Capital One Arena on January 13, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /
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WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 13: Lars Eller #20 of the Washington Capitals reacts after his stick was broken by Warren Foegele #13 of the Carolina Hurricanes in the first period at Capital One Arena on January 13, 2020, in Washington, DC. Foegele was called for a slashing penalty on the play. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 13: Lars Eller #20 of the Washington Capitals reacts after his stick was broken by Warren Foegele #13 of the Carolina Hurricanes in the first period at Capital One Arena on January 13, 2020, in Washington, DC. Foegele was called for a slashing penalty on the play. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images) /

The Carolina Hurricanes Should Just Get Hitched to the Sin Bin.

Hell, I might even have someone who could do the nuptials for it. The Carolina Hurricanes could not stay out of the penalty box last night. A large portion of that could be pinned on the officiating team that acted as if they were on the Capitals’ payroll. The first period alone saw the Hurricanes penalized four times, with six minutes and seventeen seconds spent short-handed.

As I mentioned in my three keys article, the Hurricanes had found themselves short-handed an average of five times per game across the previous three contests. The hockey Gods read my article and decided to tell me to “hold their beer” as Justin StPierre would call penalties like he was calling pockets in a game of billiards.

The first period saw numerous penalties called against the Hurricanes. Andrei Svechnikov got a minor for tripping Washington’s Richard Panik. Seven minutes, eleven seconds later (ironically the time Svech took the first penalty), Warren Foegele found himself on vacation in the sin bin on a minor for slashing against Lars Eller.

Dougie Hamilton‘s penalty was the result of an unfortunate change in puck orientation as he attempted to clear the Hurricanes’ zone. The puck would sail across the glass, and Hamilton would take his turn in the box for delay of game. The Capitals would convert on this powerplay only seventeen seconds in; however, Jordan Staal‘s trip on T.J. Oshie (if you can even call it that), would see the Canes facing off at center ice, on a penalty kill.

That was just the first period. The Hurricanes had four penalties, six minutes and seventeen seconds of short-handed time, and a powerplay goal against to show for it. Jake Gardiner and Dougie Hamilton would find the box again in the third, but I’m not even going to touch on that. The penalty box was frequented so often in this game it could have been a secondary bench for the Hurricanes.

The penalty situation was so terrible that I took to Twitter to point out that Caniacs could be proud of the fact we hadn’t had a penalty in 22:42 at the end of the second period. I’m confident that you, my readers, likely have similar sentiments. Although I’m sure those are profanity-laced, something I can’t do here.

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