Carolina Hurricanes: Three Keys to Home Win Tonight vs Dallas

The Carolina Hurricanes head home tonight to take on the Dallas Stars. The Canes are still riding the high of what is arguably the best story in franchise history. Here’s how the Canes can continue riding the wave of David Ayres.

The Carolina Hurricanes have been the talk of the league the past few days.

Ever since they pummeled the Toronto Maple Leafs with Franchise Legend David Ayres in net, the Canes (Ayres, specifically) have been at the forefront of hockey media, and rightfully so.

That wave of attention and positivity followed them into the final day of the trade deadline.

The Carolina Hurricanes made some moves on deadline day, for the first time in what seems like forever.

Widely touted as the clear-cut ‘winners’ of deadline day, the Carolina Hurricanes made two of their three moves in the final 20 minutes of the trade deadline, with both trades not being officially announced until well after the deadline ended.

The Dallas Stars didn’t do much on deadline day, and for good reason. The Stars are a solid team, top to bottom, and have only lost two of their last six games since beating the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 on February 11th.

The Carolina Hurricanes’ will certainly look different tonight, but that may not be a bad thing. Here are the Canes’ keys to snagging another two points in the standings tonight.

1. New Faces

The Carolina Hurricanes acquired forward Vincent Trocheck from the Florida Panthers, defenseman Brady Skjei from the New York Rangers, and defenseman Sami Vatanen (another Finn!) from the New Jersey Devils on trade deadline day yesterday.

All three of these guys are sure to have a tremendous positive impact on the Canes’ roster going forward, although one of them (Vatanen) will remain on the Injured Reserve until early March, according to GM Don Waddell.

I have watched Vincent Trocheck since his pre-NHL days with ‘the Young Guns’, and can tell you that he will fit in perfectly with the Carolina Hurricanes. His play style is right up Rod Brind’amour’s alley, and he himself can even be compared to Brind’amour as a player. Huge get, absolutely love this trade.

Brady Skjei will fit in nicely, as well. Skjei has been hugely mismanaged and underutilized in his time with the New York Rangers. When he has been utilized properly, he is an absolute game-changer. Skjei is the big, physical body the Canes have been missing lately, and he can move the puck with the best of them. Love this pickup as well.

Alex Nedeljkovic and Anton Forsberg aren’t exactly ‘new’ faces to us Canes fans, but nevertheless, they both have had virtually no time playing on the actual Carolina Hurricanes roster this season past the preseason. If Waddell trusts them to carry us until Petr Mrazek or James Reimer get better, I do, too.

We’ll get into Vatanen when his time to lace ’em up comes, but he will fit in nicely in Carolina alongside the other two deadline acquisitions. All I can say is this: it is a great time to be a Carolina Hurricanes fan.

2. Play Like You Did in Front of Ayres

The Carolina Hurricanes played one of the most solid, yet most desperate, games of hockey I have ever seen them play the other night in Toronto in front of David Ayres.

The defense finally stepped up to the task at hand, and the Canes on the whole played like a team possessed in front of their emergency backup goalie.

Speaking of David Ayres, the man, the myth, the legend himself will be in the building tonight to sound the Storm Siren before tonight’s game. Go ahead and retire #90, already!

That is what this team needs more of. Desperation. They know where they are in the standings, and they have to know what it takes to get it done and get back into the playoffs.

That was evident the other night in Toronto.

They need to take that same urgency, desperation, and teamwork, and apply it to the game tonight in front of Alex Nedeljkovic.

If the Carolina Hurricanes could play like that the rest of the season, they won’t lose a single game and could easily handle any team in the league. Even with a 42 year-old zamboni driver backstopping them.

3. Don’t Take Bad Penalties

The Carolina Hurricanes have jumped from one bad trend to another this season.

From lack of depth scoring, to lack of up-front scoring, to lack of defense, to lack of goaltending, to lack of urgency, the Canes have run the gamut of ‘oofs’ this season.

The most recent, and most frustrating, I’ve seen the past few games are bad/retaliatory penalties.

Jordan Staal is a huge culprit here, but players like Nino Niederreiter and Andrei Svechnikov have fallen victim to the ever-present foe that is frustration.

A guy whacks you, the refs miss it, so you whack him back. Seems fair, right? WRONG! A majority of penalties that are called are typically the retaliation. If the refs miss the first thing, then all they see is you retaliating, they have no choice but to call you for retaliating, while the instigator gets off scot-free to go pester someone else into taking a bad penalty.

This is just one of many frustrating trends I’ve noticed the Carolina Hurricanes sinking into this season, but it is the most obvious at this point. They’ll need to watch this tonight, especially against a team full of pests in the Dallas Stars.