Carolina Hurricanes: Three Takeaways From the Loss To Washington

Special Teams Efforts

The Carolina Hurricanes showed serious effort on the special teams.

Both the Carolina Hurricanes and the Washington Capitals each got five powerplays. There was also a full two minutes of four on four play as coinciding penalties sidelined a player from each team. For an exhibition game, there were a lot of penalties, both called and uncalled.

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While both teams managed only a single goal on their powerplays, the Carolina Hurricanes were the better team on special teams. The Capitals scored theirs early due to Alex Ovechkin being Alex Ovechkin, but the Carolina Hurricanes scored due to an excellent push and could have scored more had lady luck showed up to root for them instead.

Now I am not saying that a bit more skill and talent couldn’t have helped the Carolina Hurricanes and their powerplay, it most obviously could have, but a bit more luck would have more than likely changed the outcome of the game.

Ryan Dzingel had a few excellent looks during the four on four play that took both a bad bounce and hit the post. Brock McGinn had an incredible shorthanded breakaway that beat Braden Holtby but went just wide. At one point Andrei Svechnikov looked like he was going to treat us to something incredible, but ended up with a more traditional power move from behind the net.

The kill was simply fantastic. That Ovechkin goal aside, the Carolina Hurricanes took off seconds from the penalty clock like a kid ripping mushrooms off a pizza. The Capitals had to rely on bounces and simply being in the right place at the right time.

All in all, there is still a lot of good things to take away from this game that will have to be incorporated and built upon when the puck drops on Saturday for real and the money is on the table.