Cardiac Cane
Fansided

Carolina Hurricanes: Takeaways from a Complete Game Against Nashville

By Christopher Highe

NASHVILLE, TN - MARCH 9: Sebastian Aho #20 of the Carolina Hurricanes skates against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena on March 9, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Ronald C. Modra/NHL/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TN - MARCH 9: Sebastian Aho #20 of the Carolina Hurricanes skates against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena on March 9, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Ronald C. Modra/NHL/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 5
Next
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 26: Jordan Staal #11 of the Carolina Hurricanes goes to the penalty box for a second period faceoff violation against the New York Islanders in Game One of the Eastern Conference Second Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Barclays Center on April 26, 2019 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 26: Jordan Staal #11 of the Carolina Hurricanes goes to the penalty box for a second period faceoff violation against the New York Islanders in Game One of the Eastern Conference Second Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Barclays Center on April 26, 2019 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

The Carolina Hurricanes’ discipline showed marked improvement.

I refuse to count the delay of game call for Rod’s coach’s challenge against the team, as I felt it was utterly incorrect. As such, this will be the final time I reference it in the entire article. However, the Hurricanes were not without sin on the ice. In total, the Canes were called on three minor penalties in the entirety of the game. In an interesting twist, they had approximately one per period.

The first call of the evening, and the only call in the first twenty minutes of regulation, came against the Hurricanes. In true Carolina fashion, it took them an entire four minutes and seven seconds to do it. Sebastian Aho took his trip to the bin for slashing, bringing him up to twenty-two penalty minutes on the season.

The second period would see the mentioned above egregious on-ice call, as well as the Hurricanes’ second penalty of the night. With three minutes, nineteen seconds remaining in the period, Joel Edmundson gets to take a breather in the box for holding. Edmundson leads the Hurricanes roster with sixty-five penalty minutes after this contest. He’s averaging just over a penalty minute per game at this pace, which isn’t a good thing.

Carolina’s third and final penalty of the night would come early in the third frame. Just six minutes and fourteen seconds in. Lucas Wallmark is found guilty by the zebras of hooking, putting the Predators on their fourth powerplay of the night. I will say that the Hurricanes caught a significant break tonight, despite the mustard cats having four opportunities on the man advantage.

The Predators powerplay is well below the league average (19.98%), sitting in a three-way tie for 23rd league overall at 16.4%. Against a team with a league-average powerplay conversion percentage could have made for a much tighter game than we got. Speaking of powerplays. . .

Home/Analysis