Hurricanes Avalanche Francouz, But Come up Empty Handed

Canes Need to Protect Each Other

Ryan Dzingel almost became the sixth injure Hurricane this season (including new Hurricane Sami Vatanen) after taking a scary spill on the boards following a shove from behind. Luckily he came right back into the game the following period and the Hurricanes seemed none the worse for wear.

But it can’t continue happening. Hurricanes have been dropping like flies. That seems to stem from the fact that they aren’t protecting each other from the various angles while keeping their heads on a swivel.

It not only leads to injuries, but to goals against. Take a look at everyone’s favorite scapegoat Jake Gardiner as he fails to corral a difficult bouncing puck at the blue line:

That is not an easy puck to collect and it bounces in such a way that chances are he was going to step on it and slide his foot in the wrong direction and end up hurting himself. Luckily he didn’t step on. Unlucky was that Jost found it and deposited it for his first goal of the night.

Nino Niederreiter and Vincent Trocheck just watched it happen with no hustle and couldn’t get down the ice fast enough to stop the two on one against Trevor van Riemsdyk. That goal is on them as much as it is on Gardiner.

This roster does not have what last year’s roster had, which was a continued chemistry. Three new pieces thrown in at the deadline along with Justin Williams and a pair of new goalies. It might take a week or two for the chemistry to set it, which brings us to our next takeaways.