Carolina Hurricanes Blank the Red Wings to Open the Season

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Mar 10, 2020; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Petr Mrazek (34) protects the net against the Detroit Red Wings during the second period at Little Caesars Arena. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports /

Petr Mrazek with a Perfect Night

It’s easy to look at the mere 14 shots taken by Detroit and assume that Petr spent most of the night finishing that book he started on the flight up to the Motor City. After all the Carolina Hurricanes more than tripled that total at the other end of the ice.

But it would be discrediting to say that he didn’t have a quality night. When a defense as tout as Carolina’s continues to play shutdown defense in front of you, the only shots that you are going to see are the high-quality ones that the defense relies on you to stop.

Even Rod Brind’amour in his post-game brief noted that the team “relied on [Petr Mrazek] too much”. He didn’t have to stand on his head, but he did have a game and a start to the season that he will be fond of and will look to continue that on Saturday when the team jumps into game two of the two-game set.

https://twitter.com/Canes/status/1349936366860308480

Before I move on to the next takeaway from this game, let’s talk about the netminding on the other end of the ice again. Greiss skated away as the second star of the game. A meaningless accomplishment in the grand scheme of things, but still, a testament to his play considering Mrazek, with the shutout, came in third (Nino was the first star).

The Carolina Hurricanes racked up close to a full five on the Expected Goals (xG) range. This tells us two things. The first is that the Carolina Hurricanes could have absolutely run away with this game had it been someone else in the net. They simply need to continue with this offensive tenacity for the next fifty-five games.

The second thing this tells us is that this was a complete effort and domination of the Red Wings. Thomas Greiss deserves to carry his head up for keeping it a one-goal game for virtually the whole game.

But there was more to this game than just shots and saves. Remember in my storyline article where I mentioned that there would be a physical presence to this game? Well, it reared its ugly head.

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