Carolina Hurricanes: 3 Keys to Beating the Bolts

A Total Team Effort

This is going to be a tough game when you have all 18 skaters you desire. With 5 members of the taxi squad expected to be called up, this is going to be a tough task; there cannot be anyone underperforming. You’re missing some critical key depth pieces, as well as one of your best forwards and one of your best defensemen. No one can be a passenger in their absence.

To a man, everyone will need to step up. No one is going to be expected to fill the shoes of someone like Slavin or Teravainen, because they are monsters in their positions. To quote Bill Belichick, “Do your job and trust in everyone around you to do theirs. Do it to the best of your abilities, and it will sort itself out.”

Roles within the lineup are going to change. For some strange reason, I have a feeling we will see Brock McGinn on the top line because he had pictures of Rod from the team Christmas party or something. That doesn’t mean he’s expected to play like Teravainen would, because no one can replace what Teravainen can do. He is a very talented player and his connection with others is not replaceable.

It’s not just the on ice roles either. Without Martinook, someone is going to need to scream at Andrei Svechnikov before the game, right? It’s going to be important to replace everything. Everything in the locker room, everything on the bench and off the ice will be just as important. This is a game against a current cup contender and the defending Stanley Cup champions, you need everything you can get. Even the small things might prove to be essential, you never know.

Without Foegele, Teravainen, Martinook, or Fast, there’s going to be a lot of new penalty killers. McGinn will need to join Staal on the PK. Obviously we know a certain Finn who will be on the PK, but we will get to him later. Some of the taxi squad members are going to play larger roles than they may have anticipated. They will need to do as much as they can to help the team.

Someone is also going to have to learn to play that shut-down D role that Slavin leaves. Without a shadow of a doubt, this is the job for Brett Pesce. He’s going to need to be a wall. He usually is, but he didn’t have the best year defensively last year. If he steps up majorly to fill the hole Slavin leaves, then the Canes will have a genuine chance to beat the Lightning.

Fast will need to be replaced too. My guess is this is done by Morgan Geekie, who’s the natural right handed shot replacement to add into the line-up because Carolina do not have a lot of right handed forwards. In fact, it is a rather limited list. Geekie will have to shine wherever he is played in the line-up against Tampa if the Canes are going to give themselves a chance to win.

Goaltending

Shock. Carolina are going to need stable goaltending. Hold the front page, this must be breaking news! Not like this has been said about this organisation every single day since it was relocated.

On a serious note, whichever goaltender goes against Tampa will need to be at their best to give the Canes a chance. We’ve seen both Petr Mrazek and James Reimer this season and we’ve seen them both perform in varying ways. Specifically Mrazek tends to be incredibly up and down whereas Reimer is traditionally solid, albeit with injury issues.

Reimer traditionally brings a calm to the defense in front of him. We’ve seen Reimer stonewall countless teams as a member of the Hurricanes, and put up some rather decent stats in the meantime. In a one off game against Tampa just trying to bridge the gap until the reinforcements arrive from Nashville, I feel that favors “Optimus Reim”.

Mrazek tends to be better in games when he’s only going to see 20 shots, and the defense in front of him will take the bulk of the load for the most part. Against a team like Detroit where he had a sub-20 save shutout for example. That’s when Mrazek is a very valuable goaltender because his concentration doesn’t dip when he’s not seeing a lot of the puck.

Against Tampa Bay, I think it fits Reimer’s style better. Tampa will not blow Carolina away on the shot clock if they don’t blow them away on the scoreboard. Tampa don’t shoot unless it’s a VERY high percentage chance it goes in. That’s why I would prefer to see him in here tonight. But it needs to be a big performance from whoever plays.

Mrazek may have a fire in his stomach after the way his last game ended in defeat to the lowly Detroit Red Wings (said with all due respect), and perhaps he could be given the chance to prove he’s a better goalie than that performance perhaps entailed. Giving him a shot at redemption might work out better in the week or so before the players on the COVID-19 list get back.

Either way, Tampa Bay are a team of highly talented forwards and dangerous offensive defensemen. They can kill teams with all four lines and all three defensive pairs too. They are not one dimensional. They can pin you in your own zone, exploit weaknesses, control you on their powerplays, and are just a truly dominant team. A bad goaltending performance will almost surely kill the Canes.

Martin Necas

I said earlier that no one is going to replace Teravainen on the top line. That holds true, but someone will need to step up to fill the void left on that right wing. The best player on the roster to fill this gap is the young Czech Martin Necas. We’ve all seen Necas start to take that next step into becoming a monster talent up front. He’s even had a reasonably bright start to the season, but the Carolina Hurricanes need him to step up.

His skating has broken goalies before. His hands are evil, and his intelligence with the puck is incredible. Necas is coming off a reasonably good start to the season so far with an assist in his first three games. He did tally 16 goals and 20 assists in his 64 games last season, and is starting to show why he is so highly regarded. He’s going to be a beast of a player, but he needs to step up for the Canes tonight.

Losing Teravainen means you lose that playmaker, you lose the player who can put the puck on the tape of a stick in Helsinki, Finland by skipping it across the Atlantic ocean like a rock, have it turn around corners, and jump over the glass of a hockey rink. You can’t replace that. But Necas may be the best option at minimizing the affects of losing that kind of player.

He won’t pick a pass like Teravainen can, but he will skate circles around players, and he will try his absolute best to display his Harlem Globetrotters routine. He will skate, continuing to probe and looking for the killer pass, but it doesn’t come as naturally to Necas as it does to Teravainen. This is no slight at Necas, it just speaks to Teravainen’s pure quality.

This is what Necas will need to do against the Lightning to have any chance. Not undress the goaltender and leave him hanging from the rafters like he did here with the Jets, but just be explosive. He will need to use his speed to create chances. He’s going to be the fastest guy on the ice most of the time, so he will need to have the rockets on most of the game.

If he can generate chances with his skating, and if he can force the defensemen of the Lightning to respect him and give him a little more space for fear of being on the negative end of a highlight reel, it’s going to open up more space for him to pick that pass out. It’s going to start with his burners though; he can’t be lazy and slow which he tends to be when he’s low on confidence. It’s going to be a tough game, but Necas will play a major role.

Final Notes

Just in case you need anything before the puck drop, here’s everything you need to know.

Opponent: Tampa Bay Lightning
Location: PNC Arena, Raleigh, North Carolina.
TV: Fox Sports Carolinas
Radio: 99.9 FM The Fan
Uniforms: Black Thirds

Projected Lines:

Forwards

Andrei Svechnikov –Sebastian Aho– Brock McGinn
Nino Niederreiter – Vincent Trocheck–Martin Necas
Steven Lorentz– Jordan Staal– Ryan Dzingel
Max McCormick–Morgan Geekie– Sheldon Rempal

Defensemen

Brady Skjei–Dougie Hamilton
Jake Gardiner–Brett Pesce
Haydn Fleury– Jake Bean

Goalies

Petr Mrazek
James Reimer

Projected goalie match-up:
Mrazek vs Vasilevskiy.

This is going to be a tough game for the Carolina Hurricanes. While there are no easy games in the NHL, there are games more friendly than this for sure, but that’s when the Canes have a full squad. I cannot help but fear for the result of this game. While I don’t think that there will a large difference in on-ice performance, I certainly see the scoreboard being flattering.

This could be a score that the Canes cannot manage more than a physical domination and that is what I am fearing. Tampa Bay are more than capable of scoring 10 goals on 20 shots. It’s why they are so vaunted. Without Slavin specifically, who covers the danger so well for the Carolina Hurricanes?

Question for Cardiac Cane Readers: What do you think the score will be tonight?