Carolina Hurricane: Keys to Forcing Game Six Against Boston
The Carolina Hurricanes take on the Bruins in game four tonight
The Carolina Hurricanes look to force a game six against Boston with a win tonight to tie up the series at two wins apiece.
Game four. This game can make or break these Carolina Hurricanes. The last three games have been heartbreaking. Game one ended in complete heartbreaking fashion a few seconds into the second overtime. Game two ended with a hard-fought win and kept us in this series long enough to force a game five. Game three was a devastating loss both on the scoreboard and on the ice.
This is where the Carolina Hurricanes need to turn things around. It was where the Hurricanes turned it around against the Washington Capitals last year forcing a game six that allowed them to force a game seven and a double-overtime series win. Against Boston, they will need to ensure that they fight back even harder tonight.
This will not be an easy fight. They have still not figured out an answer to Jaroslav Halak, who shut them out during the regular season and if it wasn’t for a mistake made from behind the net, would have shut out them out against on Saturday.
They have had the whole weekend to figure out their game and plan for a comeback in this series. It will take at least six games to clean this one out. Tonight they can force this series into a best-of-three and keep fighting, not only for their fans but for their teammates as well.
Here are the Keys to an important win tonight.
1. Do not let the Bruins keep the puck
The Carolina Hurricanes have to deny Boston the puck
Boston did anything they wanted except score five on five in the last two games. This is a testament to how good this Carolina Hurricanes defense is when it comes to stopping shots. But the Bruins have had plenty of shots in these games. Too many for comfort.
Game one saw them place 40 shots on goal. They followed that up with 35 in game two and 39 in game three. This is indicative of the fact that they keep generating offense and if it wasn’t for excellent goaltending from James Reimer and Petr Mrazek, these games could have gone much worse and the Bruins could have been looking at sweeping the series tonight.
Instead, the Carolina Hurricanes have a chance to tie up the series and set themselves on the path towards making the next series and the next. But that has to start by addressing the fact that the Bruins seem to have their way with the puck.
They are too comfortable with the puck. They can hold the offensive zone and do not rely on dump and chase to try and enter the zone. That has to change tonight. This team needs to do what they can to remove the puck from Boston players at any given time. They have to feel the pressure that Carolina has shown they can provide and force them to pass the puck.
The more the Bruins feel like they have to quickly move the puck, the more likely they will make a mistake and give it up. This can easily lead to odd-man rushes and high danger chances for Carolina.
But even when these chances are finally showing up this team needs to cleanly enter the zone and establish something they haven’t done very well in the first three games, and that is an offensive zone hold.
2. Slow the game down in the offensive zone
The Carolina Hurricanes need to slow down their game in the offensive zone.
I feel that every time the Carolina Hurricanes enter the offensive zone, the either quickly lob a weak shot on goal or are giving up the puck and politely ushered back into the neutral zone. This team needs to slow down their game and hold the zone. The longer Boston sits in their own defensive zone the quicker they fall apart.
The three teams that picked them apart in the round-robin did that very well. Tampa, Philadelphia, and Washington each managed to keep the puck in the offensive zone and hang around long enough. They did that enough times and it didn’t matter how was in net for Boston, they managed to find the back of it with the puck.
There is a reason Boston brings more pressure whenever Carolina enters the zone, they don’t want to be in it for very long. If Carolina can figure out how to hold the zone, they can make Boston pay for going out of their way to bring the body and pressure to the puck holder.
Clean passing and smart forechecking can quickly expose the shooting lanes that Boston is leaving open. There should be enough footage now that Rod Brind’Amour and his team can identify where the puck can be passed to take advantage of these shooting lanes and get more than one puck behind Halak and secure a decisive victory.
They need this win tonight more than anything right now. They need to do it to give their fallen teammate a chance to return to the game this year.
3. Do it for Svech
The Carolina Hurricanes will have to fight for their fallen teammate.
This isn’t the first time that a veteran and captain from the opposing team took to injuring our young superstar. Hopefully, it will be the last. Hopefully, the same energy that bound this team together to rally against the Washington Capitals last year will show up again to rally against the Boston Bruins.
The Carolina Hurricanes have more to fight for than just a second-round ticket. They have to fight for their teammate, Andrei Svechnikov, who was seriously injured by Zdeno Chara, who used his massive frame to fold down on young Svech and sprain his ankle seriously.
Luckily the injury is not as bad as it could have been, but it will still be weeks before we see the young Russian again. That means that if the Carolina Hurricanes cannot win this series, he has played his last hockey game in 2020.
But let’s not freak out about that just yet. Andrei Svechnikov isn’t:
“I’ll be back”. That is some serious confidence he has in his teammates to not only get back into this series but also win it and the next one. And why shouldn’t he have that confidence? He saw it happen last year after his injury following a fight with Alex Ovechkin.
This team needs to pay back that confidence tonight and in the following two to three games. They need to go out on the ice tonight and play for Andrei Svechnikov. They need to go out and win for him. Win the chance for him to come back in these playoffs. Win the chance for him to go back out on the ice and enjoy some more playoff experience and show off some more of his skill.
This team is still good with or without him, so it is time for the other stars on this team like Sebastian Aho and Dougie Hamilton to step up. After all, how else will we get the first Lacrosse goal in playoff history?
Game Notes
The Carolina Hurricanes are going into tonight’s game without a big gun.
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Puck Drop: 8:00 pm EST
Location: Scotiabank Arena
TV: FOX Sports Carolina (Locally), NBCSN (Non-Local)
Radio: 99.9 The Fan
Uniform: Black Alternates
Potential Lineup:
- Niederreiter – Aho – Teravainen
- Dzingel – Trocheck – Necas
- McGinn – Staal – Williams
- Foegele – Geekie – Martinook
- Slavin-Hamilton
- Skjei–Vatanen
- Fleury– Van Riemsdyk
Potential Goalie Matchup:
- Hurricanes: Petr Mrazek
- Bruins: Jaroslav Halak
The Carolina Hurricanes have both Andrei Svechnikov and Joel Edmundson as “unfit to play”. Edmundson is closer to returning.
The Carolina Hurricanes have a slim 55.5%. chance of victory according to moneypuck.com.
Question For CC Readers: Can the Canes tie the series at two tonight?