Carolina Hurricanes: Three keys to beating Nashville
After the Canes got off to a winning start against the New York Islanders in the pre-season, the Carolina Hurricanes turn their attention to Music City as they look towards their game at Bridgestone Arena with the Nashville Predators. The puck drops at 8 PM EST, but before that, we have three keys to beating the Nashville Predators.
With the Carolina Hurricanes getting off to a perfect start, the Predators have not found the same instant success. The Nashville Predators were victim to the first win ever for the Seattle Kraken franchise, and this is a very different Nashville team from the team Carolina met in the playoffs last season. Nashville has embraced its rebuilding needs.
No longer will Carolina find Ryan Ellis or Victor Arvidsson on this Predators blueline. Instead, they are embarrassing young depth. You will recognize a lot of their depth pieces as former teammates to the Canes prospects in Chicago last season. People like Phillip Tomasino headline the new young wave of prospects in Nashville.
As the Canes kick off their new campaign against the division they currently reign over, there’s a lot the team will need to do to find the same success they had during the shortened season last year. It’s time for the Canes to assert their dominance over the teams they are expected to beat as they come up against their first “weaker” opponent of the season.
I say “Weaker” because it’s the NHL. Every team will get wins, even against teams they are not expected to. This is the time for the Carolina Hurricanes to prove themselves as genuinely heartless contenders as they move towards their goal of the Stanley Cup.
Shot selection
Today, Carolina goes up against one of the best young netminders in the NHL. We know from last season’s Stanley Cup playoffs that he can make this game a living nightmare for the Carolina Hurricanes, so it’s very important to select when to shoot at the right times and not just rain down shots like a plague.
We all know that Juuse Saros is a heartbreaker for opposing forwards. There’s nothing he cannot stop, If he gets a clean look at the shot, regardless of who’s stick it comes off, there’s a shot he’s going to get to it. And this is why the shot selection is going to be so very important tonight. This isn’t going to be a game where the SAT line can bail the Canes out.
Traffic out in front is going to be essential if the Carolina Hurricanes want two points from this game. Allow the team to cause chaos out in front, and attempt tips, deflections, and anything else you’ve got to try and get this puck past Saros because it’s incredibly difficult to beat him with a clean shot.
One of the other ways to beat him and do it successfully is to move the puck east to west across the crease. Saros isn’t a big netminder at only 5’11, so he doesn’t have the wingspan to attack pucks that go across the crease the same way his Finnish predecessor in Nashville did. It’s why both traffic in front and east to west passing can cause him some havoc.
Shots also need to be from good angles with a goal in mind. Shooting from the corner like the Canes were doing in the preseason against Saros won’t work (although it did in the preseason). You need to have an idea in mind, shoot for a rebound, shoot for the tip, shoot because Saros can’t see the puck, all of this works. Don’t just throw it mindlessly on the net.
If you can force Saros east and west with shots through traffic, then you’re going to have success against Nashville, just because you will be able to outscore them. Now that I’ve written all this about Saros, I’m willing to bet actual money that he’s on the bench to start this one because that’s my luck!
Quiet Smashville
With the Carolina Hurricanes venturing into one of the most hostile environments in the NHL outside of PNC Arena, it’s going to be vital that the team can keep the crowd out of it. Win the opening draw and establish domination against the Predators. Keeping them hemmed into their own zone, things like this.
If the Carolina Hurricanes can score the first goal early and make Nashville chase this game, it will become so much easier for the team to escape Bridgestone Arena with two points. It will still be very difficult, Nashville’s roster will pose problems all night long, but the Canes need to make it so it’s only the roster causing issues. Remove the crowd, and keep the game under control to limit major events that could get the crowd into it.
This seems so simple, but the Canes need to be the dominant team here. If they allow Nashville to get on the board first, we know that it becomes so much more difficult with the crowd trying to harass whichever netminder is between the pipes. Even if there are no goals until late in the game, that works. This is just to let this game flow as quickly as it can without letting the fans get into it.
I understand I’m asking for a lot. Playing the perfect road game is so difficult, but this is going to be a litmus test for the team. Did they fluke their way past the Islanders or are they genuinely one of the best teams in the NHL? Nashville will provide a lot of answers. They do not have the best roster, but they have a roster capable of winning this game.
Carolina cannot afford to take this game lightly or they will fall behind and they’ll lose it. One of the biggest cliches is “One game at a time”, but that really is what it’s got to be at this point. Don’t bother looking ahead to the games in the rest of the month, win this one tonight before you shift your attention past it.
Full house, or ghost building, the Canes need these two points anyway. In the Metropolitan division, there are 7 teams that want playoff hockey and Columbus. These two points can go a long way to ensuring that the Canes are not one of the teams that miss out. Even the smallest of margins can have big consequences. When you miss, you often rue the points you drop at the start of a season.
Sebastian Aho in Nashville
Sometimes, there are players that love playing against a certain team, or in a certain city. Some Swedish goaltender on the Rangers used to turn into a brick wall as soon as you mentioned PNC Arena. Sebastian Aho seems to love the Nashville Predators. It just seems to be that whenever Aho and the Predators face-off, Aho celebrates.
I think back to the playoffs last year when Aho tipped the series-winning goal in when the teams played at Bridgestone Arena. Or when Aho blew the Predators open a few years ago for his 2nd ever career hat trick. Some of his more memorable moments have come against the Predators, which is unusual considering that it’s an opponent he only sees twice a year.
With an “A” planted firmly on his chest, Aho will need to lead by example against tonight as the teams face off. We know that Aho and the month of October are like the two siblings that always keep fighting. You never want the two to be together because it’s only going to end badly. That is no different for Aho and the month of October.
Seeing as the new alternate captain traditionally struggles during this time of the calendar, it will be important to ensure that the Finnish star gets his scoring touch together before the Carolina Hurricanes fall into a deep hole that they cannot pull themselves out of. Either the struggles of Aho in october continue, or he pulls the magic hat out against Nashville once again.
Aho struggled against the Islanders. Let’s be brutally honest. He had an assist on the night, but never really got into the full on Aho domination that we’ve become so accustomed to. New York did a great job of shutting him down, and never really allowed him to establish his dominance. His entire line was somewhat mute.
In all likelihood, there will be some shuffling of the lines. Either tonight or at some point in the not too distant future to dress the two players that sat out last night for different reasons. With this in mind, it’s likely Aho will have to be a force to start with, until the lineup starts to settle and w get an idea of who he’s going to be put with in the long run. Right now, he’s been replaced on the SAT line and is almost centering the 2nd line wingers.
Tonight would be a great time for Aho to step up big time and show that he is a genuine star in this league. Whether he’s underrated or not, he’s got a stage tonight to step up big time and show that he is rightfully the first name on the Team Finland Olympic roster. He’s the reason why the Hurricanes are scary up front, and why the team are so good.
That’s about it! Puck drop is again tonight at 8 PM EST at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. Carolina will look to increase their winning streak to 2. Nashville will be looking to get on the board with their first win of the season. If you can’t watch the game with Mike Maniscalo and Tripp Tracy, we will be tweeting the game live on Twitter!
Next. . dark