Carolina Hurricanes: Keys to Stopping the Skid vs. Columbus

The Carolina Hurricanes travel to Columbus tonight for the third game of a four-game miniseries against the Blue Jackets. The Canes have managed to squeak a point out of the Jackets for the past two games, and look to take the first 2 of the remaining 4 points on the table tonight.

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The Canes aren’t quite in panic mode yet; forcing overtime against a very competitive Columbus squad two games in a row and walking away with a single point each time instead of both points is definitely frustrating, but the Canes can afford to leave a few on the table so long as this doesn’t become a trend.

Going forward, the Carolina Hurricanes have an opportunity to right the ship before it gets too far off course and point themselves back in the direction of securing the top spot in the Discover Central Division once more.

Columbus has proven that they’re more than able to compete with the top teams in the Central Division at this point; the sooner the Canes can get a handle on beating them consistently, the better. Tonight, the Canes will need to accomplish several things to get that done.

3. 60 Minutes

We’ve been down this road before.

This is a dead horse that, for some reason or another, hasn’t been beaten enough. The Carolina Hurricanes struggle to win games that they don’t play a full 60 minutes in.

Whether it be the inability to score in overtime, or just plain being lazy in the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd period, one of the Canes’ biggest problems this season (re: the past two or three seasons, actually) has been the inability to play a full 60 minute hockey game.

Regardless of reason, this is far and away the biggest obstacle that is impeding the Canes from truly being one of the top 5 teams in the league consistently.

I’m not sure why this is such a nagging issue, or even how to fix it, but it needs to be fixed and it needs to be fixed immediately.

1. Nedeljkovic Still On Fire

The title of this key speaks for itself.

Alex Nedeljkovic is still on fire after all but dominating the starter’s crease for the Carolina Hurricanes so far this season.

Ned is Top 10 in almost every single goaltender advanced stat this season. If that doesn’t say “This is now my crease, thank you”, then I don’t know what does.

I still think Ned should take the 1B spot from James Reimer when Petr Mrazek comes back (which should be in a few days or so, given that he and Vincent Trocheck are on this short roadtrip with the team), but we’ll likely see him relegated back to the taxi squad since he’s already (miraculously) cleared waivers once this season.

It’s a shame, but in any case, Rod should ride Ned while he’s hot. I don’t see him cooling down anytime soon, especially since he’s made such a strong case to be the Carolina Hurricanes’ starting goaltender going into next season given that Mrazek and Reimer both are pending UFAs (Ned could be, too, but that’s another story entirely).

Game Notes

Location: Nationwide Arena
Puck Drop: 7:00PM EST
TV: Fox Sports Carolinas
Radio: 99.9 The Fan
Uniforms: White Aways
Projected Lineup:

• Niederreiter – Aho – Necas
• Svechnikov – Staal – Fast
• McGinn – Martinook – Foegele
• Paquette – Geekie – Lorentz
• Slavin – Hamilton
• Skjei – Pesce
• Fleury – Bean

Projected Goalie Matchup:

Carolina: Alex Nedeljkovic, 6-2-2, .926 SV%, 2.16 GAA
Columbus: Joonas Korpisalo, 8-9-5, .900 SV%, 2.97 GAA

Score Prediction:

Moneypuck.com gives the Carolina Hurricanes a 58.4% of winning tonight’s tilt in Columbus.