Carolina Hurricanes Look to Keep Ball Rolling over the Cats at Home

Let Your Stars Shine Bright.

Rod Brind’amout has been shifting the lines a bit lately. He brought his blender with him on the road trip and saw a bit of success in doing so.

The biggest success he found was coming out into the third period against Detroit on Thursday night. His changes launched the Carolina Hurricanes to three unanswered goals on top of Martin Necas‘s goal late in the second.

What is important to take away is who were the point-getters on those four goals. Necas, Jordan Staal, Jesper Fast, Nino Niederreiter, and Vincent Trocheck each had two points. Dougie Hamilton also had a point to add to his point on Andrei Sechnikov’s power-play goal in the first period.

My point is (pun not intended), the stars came out and got onto the board. With the exception of the cherubs. Both Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen were kept off the scoresheet. Now with Turbo coming off his concussion, it’s understandable that he is a bit rusty after missing the entire road trip, but Aho is still trying to find his grove.

That said, he still is tied for second on the team (with Jordan Staal) in terms of points. But he only has eight goals to show for it so far. Not for lack of trying. He has had more than a few shots ping off the post or saved spectacularly. Expect the young superstar to start getting the puck to the net more often and hit webbing on the inside.

That has to start tonight. I expect him and Teravainen to come out with a bit more chemistry alongside Brock McGinn who has been exceptional this year. Together they can round out a balanced first line.

All your players are doing exceptionally well in this ridiculously balanced team but If this first line scores, mark this game in the W column.

Rest vs Rust

This team has gotten a real night’s sleep for the first time since February 9-10. They play better with rest this year. In fact any time they get two days of rest or more they come back and win the next game. Even if you count the beginning of the season, it has only happened four times this year.

But each of those times has ended in a win for Carolina to include two shutouts. Today has to be no different as the Carolina Hurricanes look to capitalize on a Panthers team that played just yesterday on the road in Nashville.

That means ensuring that a tired Jonathan Huberdeau never gets a chance to do his thing while their other stars to include Alexander Barkov stay quiet against this Hurricanes team.

Take advantage of their tired legs and push hard from the first period. The sooner they run out of gas completely, the quicker this game could turn into a rout in favor of Carolina. That means no mistakes, no lapses in judgment, crisp smooth passes, and a ton of offensive zone control. The more the Panthers play on their heels, the more likely they will tip over.

Sergei Bobrovsky played yesterday against the Predators in a 6-2 win. But he was abysmal against the Hurricanes in the Shootout loss on February 27th. Expect to see Chris Driedger out for this panthers team. He is a combined 0.924 sv% against the Carolina Hurricanes with the only win against them coming in an OT win.

That means bringing a hailstorm of shots against him to make sure that enough make it behind him to end this game in the allotted sixty minutes with a win. This brings us to our next and final key to the game.

Read My Lips, No More Overtimes

The Carolina Hurricanes are the most generous winning team in the Central. While they have just as many wins and even more as the two teams that are ahead of them in the division, they are struggling to keep up by a point or so. Why? They keep going into overtime.

Only only sixteen of the 23 games played this season have ended in regulation. The Carolina Hurricanes have gone on to win six of the other seven, four in a shootout. That is six extra points (perhaps even eight) given to other teams. How nice of them.

In a season where you only play division rivals, that needs to quit. Two of those points went to Florida. Tampa also got one of them and so did Chicago. That is four extra points given to the teams in direct competition for standings. Without those points, Carolina floats to the top.

Every game against Florida this season has ended in overtime. Today needs to go a bit differently. That means cleaning up this tired Panthers team before the clock hits zero in the third. That means netting in an empty netter or two. That means being a full offensive force to the point that the Cats are just waiting for the game to end so they can get some rest and move on to Columbus.

But it also means no resting. Especially in the third period, in which Florida is notorious for coming back alive and at least tying up the game. They have done it all three times against the Carolina Hurricanes.

In game one, they were down 2-1 before coming into the third with a pair of goals to take the lead. It was up to Trocheck to tie it again on the powerplay to secure the losing point. In game two, they were down 1-0 before the third, eventually tying it to 2-2 and 3-3 before losing in the shootout to Carolina.

And even in game three, The Canes were up 1-0 going into the third AGAIN before losing their lead again only to have Trocheck tie it late again before going into overtime. The Hurricanes won that one thanks to Necas.

You all know this already. So no more resting in the third when this Panthers team comes out of the locker rooms like the MonStars from space jam. Drink your Rod’s Secret Stuff and play a full sixty minutes and give this Panthers team nothing to move forward with on their road trip.

Game Notes

More from Cardiac Cane

• 2023 Southeast Rookie Showcase: Takeaways from the Canes’ Strong Showing in Florida
• Week Two Coverage Of College Hockey In NC
• Derek Stepan Ends His On Ice Career As A Hurricane
• The Southeast Rookie Showcase Will Be a Good Look at Carolina’s Future
• Noesen Ready To Provide Depth For Canes

Location: PNC Arena
Puck Drop: 5:00pm EST
TV: Fox Sports Carolinas
Radio: 99.9 The Fan
Uniforms: Red Homes

Projected Lineup:

McGinn – Aho – Teravainen
Niederreiter – Trocheck – Necas
Svechnikov- Staal – Fast
Martinook – Paquette – Foegele

Slavin – Hamilton
Fleury – Pesce
Skjei – Bean

Projected Goalie Matchup:

Carolina: Alex Nedeljkovic,  10-3-0, .902 SV%,  2.90 GAA
Florida: Chris Driedger, 7-2-2, .926 SV%, 2.25 GAA

Score Prediction:

The Carolina Hurricanes already have five of the possible six points against this Panthers team. Today they make it seven of eight. This is possibly the closest I will ever get to a Star Trek Voyager reference in any of these articles.

Question for CC Readers: Who gets the first goal tonight?