Carolina Hurricanes, Svechnikov Clobber the New York Rangers

The Carolina Hurricanes dominated game two against the Rangers

The Carolina Hurricanes came into game two with the same tenacity and speed they brought to game one against the New York Rangers. There is no surprise that the results were virtually the same.

How are we feeling Canaics? To be absolutely honest, I had no idea where this game was going to go when the puck dropped. Having that one win cushion was a nice way to watch a game that could go either way. But boy did we get a seriously tilted game that seemed to be all Carolina from puck-drop to the final whistle.

This was a complete game from the boys in black. The Carolina Hurricanes dominated all three zones of the ice and were rewarded handsomely with a two-game lead against a New York Rangers team that is struggling to find an identity.

Remember when all the analysts and Rangers fans said that the Carolina Hurricanes were scared of the Blue Shirts? That the reason why they voted no on the return to play plan was due to the fact that they would have to face New York, a team that historically do not play well against, in a best of five?

Well, all that matters not because when it comes to playoff statistics between these two teams, Carolina holds all the cards.

You would think that Rod Brind’amour would be impressed by this effort but he seems to think that there is more his team has to offer:

“I don’t think we were as good this game. Certainly not early on. Not quite as dialed in. I thought the Rangers were on us and they were playing their game. But I thought as the game moved on and we got more involved every was contibuting to that point.” “Obviously, you got to give Petr a lot of credit, he made some real big saves that allowed us to get into the game. He was Huge for us tonight.”

So what stood?

Other than the goaltending like rod pointed out it has been the team’s chemistry and the historic efforts of a 20-year-old Russian hell-bent on taking these Carolina Hurricanes far and deep into the playoffs.

Mrazek Was (Almost) Unbeatable

The Carolina Hurricanes got the support needed in net.

I mentioned in my recap of the Washington Exhibition game that Petr Mrazek looked good and it was still his net to lose. Reimer looked good in that game, true, but the goals against him then were not really on him. Well, the Carolina defense tightened up and with that Petr’s ability to defend the net.

Game one saw him give up a pair on excellent shots on the 5v5. Today saw him break hearts and absolutely dominate with both blocker and glove. Especially the glove that saw him rob several high scoring chances from the dead slot.

Even the one goal that the Rangers did score, which came on an ill-timed 5v3 powerplay had to trickle over his glove to get into the net. That was a perfect shot from Artemi Panarin. It had to be to get past Mrazek today.

He sucked the soul of the rangers right out with his glove like some strange hockey-themed Power Ranger villain. But the Blue Rangers couldn’t win the day against him. When asked about his game plan moving forward Mrazek had this to say:

“We just have to play the same game we played Saturday and tonight. We didn’t give them anything special. Just play our game and focus on ourselves.

I would be hard-pressed to think that Rod Brind’amour would give the crease to James Reimer tomorrow, even on a back to back. With a two-game cushion you have to go with the hot hand in net. Expect more criminal activity from Petr Mrazek Tomorrow.

Team Chemistry is through the Roof

The Carolina Hurricanes are operating as a complete cohesive unit.

Tropic Thunder jokes aside, this team operates and communicates as well as any special operations team I have ever seen. And when it comes to guys like Andrei Svechnikov, they seem to shoot just as well. But more on him later.

There is a reason that the Rangers couldn’t get anything going without a two-man advantage. The Carolina offense continued to put pressure on the offensive zone until they either scored, drew a penalty, or got a whistle while defense managed to suffocate them whenever the Rangers managed to sneak the puck into the zone for some offense.

All three zones of the ice belonged to Carolina. They may be playing in Toronto but the Hurricanes have been taking the home-ice advantage concept straight to the heart. The Rangers were never allowed to set anything up while five on five offensively and even with the man advantage, they were forced to frantically throw the puck on the net where Mrazek could make an easy save.

On defense, the Rangers were lost and Henrik Lundqvist once again stopped this game from being too far out of control until late in the third period. Rangers fans, if you are reading this, your defense is terrible and it starts with the coaching. The Carolina Hurricanes bullied any real attempt at defending against them as they racked up the shots and the goals.

The fourth line obviously has some serious chemistry as Jordan Martinook, Morgan Geekie, and Brock McGinn combined together like some Captain Planet spin-off to generate the third goal of the game that truly sank the Rangers’ hopes for any sort of actual comeback.