Carolina Hurricanes: Keys to Sweeping Florida at Home

The Carolina Hurricanes host the Florida Panthers again tonight as they wrap up a short two-game miniseries against the #1 team in the Discover Central Division. The Canes were the victors in the last matchup between these two powerhouse teams, by a margin of 5-2.

Florida has, seemingly overnight, evolved into a phenomenal hockey team that has what it takes to go the distance. They’ve proven that they can hang with any team in the league, and have done so against two of the top 5 teams in the NHL in the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Carolina Hurricanes.

If the Canes can pull out a win tonight, they’ll reclaim the first place position in not just the Discover Central Division, but the NHL on the whole, with a game in hand against divisional top-of-the-standings rivals Tampa Bay, and two games in hand against the Florida Panthers.

Tonight’s game is one of those moments where, if the Canes capitalize on it, they’ll once again be putting themselves in a tremendous position going forward; obviously finishing the regular season in 1st place in the division would be ideal, seeing as how that would rule out a possible 1st round matchup against the Bolts or the Cats, and instead would be against whichever team snags the 4th place spot between Chicago, Dallas, Nashville, or Columbus.

Before we get too bogged down in those weeds, though, we should probably focus on the game in front of us first, eh?

3. Nedeljkovic Gets the Start

With the triumphant return of Petr Mrazek, most of us were left wondering how the goalie situation would shake out.

Would Petr still be the starter? Would his backup be Alex Nedeljkovic or James Reimer? Will one of the backups get traded?

Well, we still don’t quite have the answers to all of those questions. What we do know is that Ned is starting tonight, and Rod Brind’amour has been very adamant that the Carolina Hurricanes have three goaltenders.

If you had any questions about the depth chart, tonight’s decision to start Ned with Petr backing him up should answer those for you.

Reimer is by no means a bad goaltender, but the winning strategy when it comes to shaping up roster spots at the goaltending position is to ride the hot hand.

While Reimer sports an impressive win/loss record, his stats, both advanced and simplified, are nowhere near his colleagues. Ned and Petr are clearly the right choice, and Reimer will likely remain with the team as a depth option going forward and into the postseason.

1. Svech Slump to End?

I don’t know about you guys, but I have a feeling that we’re getting closer and closer to seeing Andrei Svechnikov‘s recent scoring slump come to an end.

Brind’amour has moved him up and down the lineup and given him a ton of opportunities to dig himself out of the slump he’s in, and I’ve definitely seen flashes of brilliance from him every now and then.

This is more of a prediction and less of a key to victory, but I honestly think Svech ends his scoring slump tonight.

Whether or not he does so in spectacular fashion remains to be seen, but all it would take is a few goals or assists to help him rebuild some confidence in himself.

Hopefully the referees let him play his game tonight without calling him for breathing on a guy too hard.

Game Notes

Location: PNC Arena
Puck Drop: 7:00pm EST
TV: Bally Sports Carolina
Radio: 99.9 The Fan
Uniforms: Black Alts
Projected Lineup:

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

Goalie Matchup:

Carolina: Alex Nedeljkovic, 8-4-2, .924 SV%, 2.12 GAA
Florida: Chris Driedger, 11-4-2, .931 SV%, 2.05 GAA

Score Prediction:

Moneypuck.com gives the Carolina Hurricanes a 59.4% chance of winning tonight’s matchup.