Carolina Hurricanes: Three Keys to a Metro Division Win Over Devils
By Austin Isham
The All-Important First Goal
The Carolina Hurricanes have given up the first goal in each of their last six games. They’ve given up the first two goals in four of those six games. This is a rather alarming trend that needs to be address if they want to have success going forward.
Yes you’re not going to always score the first goal of a game, but to be playing from behind early in the first period this frequently is asking for trouble. Constantly playing from behind can be taxing both physically and mentally and we’re starting to see the impact of that.
Ever since the all star break and bye week, the Hurricanes have struggled with their starts. At times they’ve played well out of the gate but then give up a soft goal on the first shot of the game, loosing any momentum in the process.
Although they’ve been able to do a decent job at coming from behind so far this season, points are even more important now and teams tend to tighten up defensively once the they have the lead this time of year.
Should the Carolina Hurricanes get on the board first they’ll put themselves into a nice position to come away with the win and two points.