The Carolina Hurricanes swept Dallas yet again this season in the conclusion of their second miniseries against the Stars last night. The Canes escalate to 9-3-0 on the season, as the Stars fall to 5-3-4.
This takeaways article is going to be short and sweet. There were plenty of good things to takeaway from the game last night, and I’m going to go over all of them below.
The first, and likely the most important takeaway is that Alex Nedeljkovic earned his first win of the season; not only did he perform splendidly in regulation, but he steered the Canes through overtime with aplomb and absolutely stood on his head in the shootout.
Ned remained perfect throughout overtime and in the shootout to allow none other than Vincent Trocheck to score the game-winner and send the Canes home with yet another two points courtesy of the Dallas Stars.
It's 5 minutes of goodness from a 4-point trip to Dallas 👊 pic.twitter.com/SKwZed0wmU
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) February 14, 2021
Acquiring Vincent Trocheck via a trade last year has more than paid off; Trocheck has become one of the Canes’ premiere players, and is a solid piece of the core of the team up the middle. The Trocheck trade is making a strong case to be one of the best trades in franchise history if you ask me.
As far as the defense goes, Jaccob Slavin seems to be returning to his normal, sturdy self after seemingly running into a few hurdles since coming off the COVID protocol list. The other defensemen are playing well, but Brady Skjei was a real standout for me against Dallas last night. Look for him to continue flourishing with the role he’s been given.
Speaking of returning to normal. Teuvo Teravainen seems to be getting back to his old self as well; Turbo finally scored his first of the season last night. I know what you’re thinking, a stronger sign of Turbo returning back to ‘normal’ would’ve been for him to try and pass the puck instead of shoot it, but I’ll take any offensive production coming from him at this point.
The Carolina Hurricanes almost managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory last night, in a very rare misstep from Sebastian Aho in the final minutes of the game. I won’t get into the details, but a bad decision to pass the puck led to an incredible defensive play by Dallas, which immediately led to the game-tying goal that would gain Dallas a point in the standings after the game went to OT and eventually the shootout.
Aho was visibly upset with his blunder on the bench, but after a few comforting words and an arm around the shoulder from Martin Necas, Aho seemed to pick himself up and played well in the overtime period.
If the Carolina Hurricanes can play every game the way they played last night’s we all will surely have cardiac problems, but at least the Canes will win more games, right?