Carolina Hurricanes: Keys to Keep Rolling vs. Chicago

The Carolina Hurricanes return home this evening to host the Chicago Blackhawks. The Canes come into tonight’s matchup having won their last three games. The Blackhawks, on the other hand, have lost their last four games heading into tonight’s contest and face mathematical elimination from the playoffs with a regulation loss.

The race for the 4th spot in the Discover Central Division is heating up, and Chicago have found themselves all but out of it at this point.

The Blackhawks have 50 points in the standings – 5 behind the 5th place Dallas Stars, and 8 behind the 4th place Nashville Predators, whom they have a single game in hand against.

The Carolina Hurricanes, as we all know, have long since clinched their playoff spot, and punched their ticket to the 2020-21 NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. This does not mean, however, that the Canes will be letting up anytime soon.

The 1st seed in the Discover Central Division is a highly coveted prize; whoever snags it will face the 4th seed in the first round, so one of Nashville, Dallas, or (most unlikely of the bunch) Chicago. The 2nd and 3rd seeds will face each other in the first round; this will include at least one of Florida or Tampa Bay, both very good teams that stand a solid chance of besting the Canes in a best-of-7 series.

Nonetheless, tonight’s game should be a fun watch; goaltending phenom Alex Nedeljkovic will be starting, the Carolina Hurricanes are almost back at full strength, and they are hungry for any and all points left on the table.

3. Goaltending Problems Gone

Alex Nedeljkovic has singlehandedly saved the Carolina Hurricanes’ seemingly endless goaltending blight.

Petr Mrazek has been good in his tenure here, and this season specifically has shown that Mrazek does, indeed, have what it takes to be a full-fledged starting goaltender in the NHL.

Ned, though, has been on a whole other level the likes of which we haven’t seen since (dare I say) Cam Ward.

The Carolina Hurricanes had quite the predicament headed their way in the coming weeks, most of which I’d talked about previously in this article. Now that Ned has proven himself a legitimate elite-level goaltender thus far, and the Canes managed to sign both Eetu Makiniemi and Pyotr Kochetkov to entry-level contracts to boot, that predicament is much further down the line, if it even exists anymore to begin with.

Regardless of personal opinion, though, Nedeljkovic has been positively sparkling this season, and I’m sure that form will continue tonight as the Canes look to eliminate the Chicago Blackhawks from playoff contention.

2. It’s Turbo Time – Again

Not to mince words or anything, but Teuvo Teravainen has been on fire since his return from a concussion that had kept him out for several months this season.

Turbo has notched 2 goals and 1 assist in his 3 games back so far, which is a far cry from the “pass-first, shoot-later” iteration of him that has become a mainstay in the Canes’ offensive corps.

I’m fully convinced at this point that the sole reason he refuses to shoot the puck unless absolutely necessary is that he doesn’t want to hurt Wayne Gretzky’s feelings by breaking any of his record.

We’ve seen his playmaking skills firsthand for years, but his goalscoring is just starting to shine through. Let’s hope he keeps it up; a first line of him, Sebastian Aho, and Andrei Svechnikov is arguably one of the best (if not the best) first lines in the NHL, especially if he can continue to find the back of the net.

1. A Wild Foegele Appears!

I’m not sure about you guys, but Warren Foegele has looked like a whole new player on the ice these days.

It might just be that he’s the hockey version of a weird type of month-to-month werewolf and peaks in talent around April (or against the Washington Capitals), or maybe that he’s finally finding his groove with linemates Jesper Fast and Jordan Staal.

Who knows at this point, but whatever he’s doing is working.

Foegele hasn’t often found himself on the scoresheet the past few games (1 goal, 1 assist in the last 3 games), but he’s chock-full of offensive intangibles lately; his forechecking game has elevated, his hockey IQ has seemingly elevated, as has his skating and stickwork/puck-handling.

Foegele has always been a bit of a tricky player for me to get a solid read on, but I think he’s starting to level out into a very solid two-way 3rd liner that can showcase flashes of brilliance at the most unexpected of times.

Or, y’know, it could just be the thaw of the Winter months into Spring that allow his talent to blossom. I think we’ll go with that for now.