Three Keys to a Hurricanes Win in the Brotherly City of Love
The Carolina Hurricanes are launching into a tough month of March starting with a road trip that begins in Philadelphia. Here are the keys to a winning beginning.
The Carolina Hurricanes are about to start the most important month of the season. It begins in the Brotherly City of Gritty, against a team that right now, is the hottest in the National Hockey league.
The Philadelphia Flyers are coming off a convincing 5-2 win over the Division leading Washington Capitals that is caps off a seven game winning streak. If that wasn’t scary enough, this is a team that hasn’t had back to back losses since They last saw the Hurricanes early in the calendar year. Since then they are 17-5-1 and not looking back as they scale the division.
I am not going to sugar coat it, this might be the team to beat this season. After a rocky start the Flyers are Moneypuck.com‘s favorite to win the Stanley Cup. That means Gritty will get his greasy mitts on it and probably do something crazy like chuck it into the stands, break it, and most likely kill someone.
We have to stop that from happening at all costs. So here are your three keys to a Hurricanes win that will help the Canes make the playoffs and perhaps slow down Gritty’s march towards the Stanley Cup.
Protect the Goalie and He will Protect the Net
After a shaky start against the Dallas Stars, Alex Nedeljkovic looked much more calm and composed when he was brought in to replace Anton Forsberg against the Montreal Canadians only allowing a single goal, which happened to come in overtime unfortunately.
He gets his second official start for the Hurricanes against the Flyers tonight. It has been no secret that the Canes are the worst in the league when it comes to turnovers and high danger chances. This has to end tonight. The Carolina Hurricanes cannot allow themselves to be their own worst enemy.
If the flyers want to score tonight they are going to have to earn it. That means stopping the puck from getting to the netminder and only allowing Ned to see the softest and least dangerous shots on net. So how does the team accomplish that?
Proper backchecking and clearing the zone. The Flyers are not going to get the quality shots they want if they don’t spend the time in the offensive zone to set it up. They will turn them to desperation to get any shot on net. Any shot turns into weak shots that Ned can easily handle, build his confidence, and mentally prepare himself for the eventual good shots taken.
But Omar, this team’s defense is pretty banged up, think they can do that?
Yes. Because they did it against the Toronto Maple Leafs with David Ayres in net. They protected him and He managed to earn them the win. They did it through excellent backchecking against the most expensive forwards in the league. They did it by keeping the puck out of the defensive zone, into the offensive zone and neutered a high power offense completely.
The need to do the same tonight, which brings me to the next key:
Don’t Give them Space in the Defensive Zone
The Flyers scored five goals against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals and they all came from right in front of the net. Every single one of them. There is a lesson to be learned from this.
I’m about to sound like a broken record, but the Canes are the worst at allowing opponents the puck from right there. The Flyers don’t miss from right there. That means that this defense which is built to launch the offense needs to break from its comfort zone and begin to crowd out the Flyers from the juicy parts of the ice.
That means getting physical, that means forcing them out of position, and that means putting bodies there to discourage anyone from trying to get cheeky. That means letting guys like Joel Edmundson, Jordan Staal, and even Jaccob Slavin, patrol that zone like a 1950s NYC cop.
The math here is simple, the Flyers can’t score from there if they don’t shoot from there, and they can’t shoot from there if they can’t get the puck on their stick from there, and they definitely can’t get the puck on the stick from there if they can’t get there.
Sounds easy right? It won’t be. The Flyers offense has been extremely crafty and will need constant supervision like a toddler with a play-dough. That means defenders need to take a break from trying to jump into the offense at first opportunity. That means guys need to enforce the zone and ensure that the Philly offense doesn’t get an inch.
That will not be easy. But can be made easier with this final key:
Take Advantage of the Fact they just Skated
The Flyers are on the back to back end of a back to back NBCSN special with travel. They had to rally get back into the game last night against the Capitals before eventually racking up the goals and getting the win. But they are also banged up.
James van Riemsdyk, brother of our defender Trevor van Riemsdyk, left the game yesterday with a broken or fractured hand. Brian Elliott saw 27 shots, meaning that while he is technically fresh to start, the Flyers are confirmed to turning to Carter Hart, who hasn’t been as phenomenal this season.
These are all opportunities for the Carolina Hurricanes. Opportunities that they need to take advantage of in order to skate away from tonight with a win. If they can exhaust the Flyers early and use their speed to keep them on their heels the first two keys become a cakewalk.
What also gets easier is the ability to score. After all according so many of those who love to comment on these articles, the keys should simply be “score more than the other guy”. Well it will be easier to set up an offense against a tired team than one that is given the chance to catch its breath.
The Canes have had four days of rest and recuperation. This is the time to apply it. The biggest time to apply it. If they allow the Flyers so much as an ounce of time to get themselves together, this game is lost. But if they can come out the gate swinging and shell shock this team, they can push them back on their heels and take silence the Wells Fargo crowd for a full 60 minutes.
Game Notes
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- Puck Drop: 7:00pm EST
- Location: Wells Fargo Center
- TV: NBCSN
- Radio: 99.9 The Fan
- Uniform: Away Whites
- Projected Lineup:
- Niederreiter – Aho – Teravainen
- Dzingel – Staal – Williams
- Svechnikov – Trocheck – Necas
- Foegele – Martinook – McGinn
- Edmundson – Slavin
- Fleury – Skjei
- Gardiner – van Riemsdyk
- Projected Goalie Matchup:
- Carolina Hurricanes: Alex Nedeljkovic
- Philadelphia Flyers: Carter Hart
3. 68. Final/OT. 4. 109
The Carolina Hurricanes are going to come back stronger tonight but the Flyers will be tough to handle, expect this game to go into an extra period and perhaps even then some before it is all said and done. The important part here is that the Canes end up with two points coming out of tonight. They will need them.
Question for CC Readers: Do you think this squad has what it take to get into the playoffs?
Next. Canes Need to win the Weekends. dark