Carolina Hurricanes: Keys to Game 2 vs. Nashville
The Carolina Hurricanes host the Nashville Predators for Game 2 of the 2020-21 NHL Stanley Cup playoffs tonight at the PNC Arena after taking Game 1 in a decisive 5-2 victory. Game 2 will be the last Canes’ home playoff game until Game 5 (if needed) on 5/25.
Game 1 was interesting to say the least, but the Canes came out the other side the better team, as they usually do against the Nashville Predators.
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Jordan Staal was selected as the game’s First Star, and rightfully so. The Captain snagged two goals to help secure the victory for the Canes Monday night. I’m not entirely sure where Staal’s torrid offensive production tear has come from, but it has definitely carried over from the regular season.
Alex Nedeljkovic stood tall in Game 1 as well, becoming the first rookie goaltender in Carolina Hurricanes’ and Hartford Whalers’ history to win their NHL Playoffs debut. Ned stopped 22 of 24 shots, but can’t be blamed for the two that went in – one off the back of Jani Hakanpaa, and the other as a result of Filip Forsberg blowing right past the Canes’ defensemen and in on Ned alone.
Tonight’s game should look similar to Monday night’s game, at least from the Canes’ perspective; Alex Nedeljkovic gets the start and there are no other lineup changes to note. Even still, there are a few things the Carolina Hurricanes should to tonight to tighten up their game before heading to Nashville for what should (hopefully) be the last two games of the series.
3. Tighten Up Defensively
The Carolina Hurricanes boast arguably the best blueline corps in the NHL right now, that much is a given.
They do have a tendency, however, to play a bit over their heads sometimes. A bad pinch or two here and there can lead to an entire game being flipped on its head, and that’s almost what happened Monday night early on.
Jani Hakanpaa specifically has found himself the victim of a slight lapse in judgment when it comes to pinching in the offensive zone on more than one occasion. This would normally be fine if he had the footspeed to recover and get back to his defensive position in time, but the 6’5″, 218lb. defensive behemoth just can’t quite get back in time.
Luckily, none of his pinches really ended up messing the Canes up too bad, but from now on, he (and a select few other Canes’ defensemen) should work on playing a more stay-at-home style, at least when Filip Forsberg, Viktor Arvidsson, and Erik Haula are on the ice.
2. 4th Line Keep Rolling
The Carolina Hurricanes’ 4th line was a huge part in keeping up with the physicality of the Nashville Predators Monday night.
The Preds know how the Canes play by now, and tried their best to overcome it with raw physicality in Game 1. Jordan Martinook, Steven Lorentz, and Brock McGinn matched that physicality hit for hit.
One could argue that it was directly because of the 4th line that the rest of the Carolina Hurricanes’ squad had the time and room they needed to create and capitalize on the chances they got in the 3rd period to snag the win.
There aren’t many things that can deter the Canes from winning at this point, especially if the 4th line keeps rolling on the way it did Monday night. Expect to see some big hits from the usual suspects, Hakanpaa included (even though he isn’t on the Canes’ 4th forward line).
1. Powerplay Problems… Again
The Carolina Hurricanes, despite having the best powerplay in the NHL this past season for huge swaths of the regular season, are no stranger to struggling on the man advantage.
The past few seasons, this has been an area they struggle in, especially in the playoffs against teams like the Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals. This is something that needs to change immediately if they want to have a chance at both surpassing the Nashville Predators in Round 1, and the higher-profile, more deadly teams in Round 2 and beyond.
In Game 1, the Carolina Hurricanes went 0-5 on the powerplay. To their credit, a few of their powerplay opportunities were truncated or cut short by 4v4 play, but that ultimately just means they’re taking penalties while on the man advantage, which brings us back around to my initial point: do better when you have more men on the ice.
More often than not, the Canes’ PP1 unit looked a bit lost and couldn’t quite get as comfortably set up in the offensive zone as we’d previously seen throughout this past season.
Hopefully we see the trend bucked tonight before it really becomes one in the first place. Otherwise, we’re going to be in for a very frustrating road to the Cup, paved with teams who have absolutely no problem taking a penalty or 6 against the Canes on any given night, knowing they likely won’t convert on the ensuing powerplay.
Game Notes
Location: PNC Arena
Puck Drop: 8:00PM EST
TV: Bally Sports South, CNBC
Radio: 99.9 The Fan
Uniforms: Black Alts
Projected Lineup:
- Svechnikov – Aho – Teravainen
- Niederreiter – Trocheck – Necas
- Foegele – Staal – Fast
- Martinook – Lorentz – McGinn
- Slavin – Hamilton
- Skjei – Pesce
- Bean – Hakanpaa
Injuries: Paquette (lower body)
Scratches: Bibeau, Gardiner, Geekie, Keane, Lajoie, McCormick, McKeown, Reimer, Ryan, Shore, Suzuki
Projected Goalie Matchup:
Carolina: Alex Nedeljkovic – 1-0-0, .917 SV%, 2.01 GAA
Nashville: Juuse Saros – 0-1-0, .892 SV%, 4.05 GAA
151. 2. 109. Prediction. 1
Moneypuck.com gives the Carolina Hurricanes a 62.4% chance of winning tonight’s matchup in Raleigh.
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