Carolina Hurricanes: Takeaways from Shootout Win vs. Chicago

Trocheck’s Continued Dominance

Vincent Trocheck has, seemingly overnight, turned into one of the most dominant players on the ice for the Carolina Hurricanes.

Trocheck, tied with Andrei Svechnikov for most goals and points on the team, now has 7 points (5 goals, 2 assists) in 7 games. This is absolutely huge, and is a massive cause of one of the Carolina Hurricanes’ most successful starts to an NHL regular season in franchise history (only the 2nd time in franchise history they’ve begun a season 6-1-0; the first was in 2019-20).

In terms of possession, Trocheck was an absolute monster last night with an 80% puck possession rate. Troch also dominated in the faceoff circle, winning 15 of 20 faceoffs against the Blackhawks top centermen.

As I’ve said since the day the Carolina Hurricanes traded for him, Vincent Trocheck will be the best 2C the Carolina Hurricanes have seen in a long, long time; he’s done a fantastic job of proving me right so far.

Andrei Svechnikov Will Score Wherever

Andrei Svechnikov is fast becoming the best player on the Carolina Hurricanes’ roster.

Paired with just about anyone, Svech will find a way to score goals, and that’s exactly what he did last night after being paired with Jordan Staal and Warren Foegele.

Svech not only kicked things off for the Canes, but he also would go on to score the game-winning goal in the shootout to secure the Canes’ 8th consecutive shootout win dating back to March 2019, and 5th consecutive win this season.

I have said it once, and I will say it again: Andrei Svechnikov is a generational talent, and (along with players like Sebastian Aho, Vincent Trocheck, and Teuvo Teravainen) has successfully heralded a new era of scoring and offensive prowess into the Carolina Hurricanes franchise.

I am so excited to see just how high exactly this kid’s ceiling is; so far, it’s through the roof.

Reimer’s Unflinching Dependability

With starting netminder Petr Mrazek out indefinitely with a hand injury, James Reimer will be expected to shoulder most of the work in the crease for the Carolina Hurricanes going forward.

The organization seemingly has little trust in their goaltending depth past Reimer, so expect to see him draw into the crease more often than not in the coming months.

Reimer, since being relied upon to carry the Canes’ goaltending work, has been unflinchingly dependable. Last night’s game was only close because of Reimer’s sharpness and incredibly solid play as the Carolina Hurricanes were outshot for most of the game until the beginning of the third period.

In the shootout, Reimer was sparkling once again, as he not only stopped a solid chance on Dylan Strome, but he made a spectacular glove save on Patrick Kane that would allow Andrei Svechnikov to score and send the Canes back to the team hotel with 2 points in hand on the very next shootout sequence. After securing the shootout win for the Canes last night, Reimer remains perfect in the 2020-21 NHL regular season, sporting a 4-0-0 win/loss record.

Losing Mrazek, especially at the height of the dazzling run of form he was on, is undoubtedly going to hurt, but if there’s one guy in all the league who is able to pick up the slack and be the rock to lean on, it’s James Reimer.

Like I said before, last night’s game was far closer than it had to be; I’ll be hoping for Thursday night’s matchup to be a little bit more lopsided in the Canes’ favor. With players like Trocheck and Svechnikov really hitting their stride and carrying the Canes’ offense and goalscoring for now, once players like Aho and Teravainen really get going, this team is going to be near impossible to stop.