Carolina Hurricanes: Takeaways from a Complete Game Against Nashville

The Carolina Hurricanes steal a road win in Tennessee and stay in the playoff race.

The Carolina Hurricanes, despite a questionable call from the situation room in Toronto, pull off a 4-1 win in Smashville. Before I go much further, I’m going to address that call now. There was clear goalie interference on Nashville’s first-period game-tying goal by all replays that we, as fans watching the Fox Sports-Carolinas feed, could see. Color Analyst Tripp Tracey even stated it was a clear-cut case.

However, according to Toronto, it wasn’t the case. Much to the dismay of Canes fans, and Rod Brind’Amour. I’m not one to play the zebra card but in this case? It was absolutely the wrong call. I can only imagine what John Tortorella’s response would have been in Rod’s shoes.

End rant. The game itself was exhilarating, with incredible plays by both teams throughout regulation. It was also a record-setting game for the Hurricanes. Sophomore forward, Andrei Svechnikov has registered his second eight or more point streak this season, making him the only other in Whalers or Hurricanes franchise history to do so.

The last player to do so is Seattle General Manager and former Hurricane, Ron Francis (1982-83).

Sebastian Aho also continues to mark his place in the franchise books as well, with thirty-three goals in the first fifty-eight games of a season. The only player ahead of him is Jordan Staal‘s older brother, Eric Staal. Aho is currently on pace for seventy-nine points this season, while Svechnikov is on pace for seventy-six, doubling his point total from last season.

Now, as exciting as the records and Rod’s reaction to the good goal call are, let’s see how the Canes stacked up against my keys for victory!

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. . .

The Carolina Hurricanes convert on the powerplay thanks to Svech.

The Carolina Hurricanes boast one of the better than average powerplay units of the league currently, and against the worst penalty kill in the NHL, it showed. I mentioned in my preview that the Hurricanes need to score on the powerplay, regardless of the situation. To my chagrin and that of fellow Caniacs, they did just that.

The powerplay goal, Svechnikov’s fifth of the season, and twenty-third overall happened a scant five seconds into the man advantage. Just an absolute beauty from the bottom faceoff dot. Like Alex Ovechkin, you don’t want to leave Andrei wide open, especially when it’s on the powerplay.

It is also Svechnikov’s fourth game-winning goal of the campaign, surpassing his previous season record of three. The Hurricanes would find themselves again on the man advantage with a minute and twenty-nine seconds remaining in regulation. The Preds did a masterful job defending against this truncated powerplay, however, preventing the Canes from establishing a four-goal lead.

I say truncated because the on-ice call was a double-minor against Yannick Weber, resulting in less than half the second powerplay opportunity to be played out. If the Hurricanes had the full four minutes, the Predators would likely have given up a second powerplay goal on the night. And last, but not least:

The Carolina Hurricanes made clearing the blueline look easy.

Against a team like the Predators, who’s expected goals for (xG/60) is ridiculously high, the Carolina Hurricanes managed to severely limit their chances. For many of their last several games, the Canes struggled to maintain offensive momentum, let alone build it. Nothing was further from the truth in this game.

Carolina dominated the puck game, keeping the Predators on their toes and in their zone. Six skaters combined for six takeaways throughout the game, while forcing eleven giveaways by the cats. The shots on goal, while relatively even (30-29), never tell the whole story of the game. The El Nino himself put it rather well during his second intermission interview with Mike Maniscalco (@MikeManiscalco).

He is right when he says it is their composure with the puck. Unlike the last several games, the Canes played a tight game. Passing was crisp, zone exits were executed with precision, and Petr Mrazek got the support that the club’s goaltending has lacked for more than a minute. The penalty kill went a perfect four-for-four, with Petr not having to worry about spinning on his head.

The only time, aside from Ryan Johansen‘s controversial goal that Petr looked like he even saw a remote challenge was on a breakaway attempt by Filip Forsberg. Overall, the Hurricanes matched up solidly to all three keys and walked away with the all-important two points in Nashville. On the plus side, Petr Mrazek picked up his first road win in two months.