Carolina Hurricanes: 3 takeaways from win in Quebec

After a third straight win to start the 2021-22 NHL season, the Carolina Hurricanes are flying high right now. With six points from a possible six games, the Canes are one of the few remaining unbeaten teams in the league. Carolina now sits third in the Metropolitan division, capturing every possible point from their first three games.

With a little luck and a good call from the video coaching staff, the Carolina Hurricanes video coaching staff managed to get a questionable call to go their way when the Canadiens had a goal ruled out for incidental goaltender interference. A goal that would have given the Canadiens their first lead of the season was ruled out, and it allowed the Canes to kick on when the period ticked over.

Playing into the narrative of the return of a Montreal villain, Carolina would get the dagger goal from their newest addition. As soon as that goal scorer was announced, the boos started to rain down from above on the player and unfairly so, but we will get to him and more here as we talk about this game. Boy, it was fun to watch this team right now. They’re not flying, but they’re fun.

Let us dive into this then. A couple of Finnish sensations who dominated on the night, Carolina’s victory on Twitter as well as on the ice, and yet another big performance from the Carolina Hurricanes netminder see some of our best points. This was a fun game, I’m glad I watched it and I’m so grateful that you join me to talk about the three big takeaways from a 4-1 win in Montreal.

Great Dane stands tall

With the Carolina Hurricanes victory in Montreal, there’s always going to be a strong underlying cause of goaltending. When Carolina’s netminder turns away 27 of 28 shots faced, you have to give him a lot of praise. Did he get a little lucky only giving up one goal? Probably, yes. But only giving up one goal is a great feat for Frederik Andersen.

Freddie has been asked to keep the Canes in games this season so far that they had no right being in. With this game, that was never the case. Montreal never looked like asserting their dominance. It was always the superior Carolina talent that caused issues, but Andersen turned away what he had to.

Carolina was the first team this year to really get into a “run and gun” style game with Montreal this year where pucks and bodies were flying in a thousand different directions. Montreal couldn’t help it with the deficiencies they have on the back end. We still wish nothing but the best for the whole Edmundson family.

This never should have been the case, Carolina’s inability to hold the Habs in their own zone was shocking, and it lead to a lot of scoring chances against. One of the redeeming factors about Andersen’s projections this season was that he won’t have the same workload he did in Toronto. Yet, Carolina seems to depend on him to bail them out time and time again.

While in the short term, Andersen has the ability to bail the team out, it does raise questions about his long-term sustainability and if he can genuinely get through the season while avoiding injuries. At the age of 32, it’s becoming harder to do. Obviously, no one wants to see Freddie hurt. However, this raises a lot of questions about the previous injuries he had sustained in his career.

With Andersen shining through for the Hurricanes time and time again, he made himself a highlight reel from this game, and it was worth the watch. With the Dane standing on his head, Carolina got a lot of assistance as they overcame an early scare with a goal ruled out for goaltender interference to handle the Canadiens quite easily in the end.

Canes trolling of Habs is not done yet

Carolina’s social media team is a bunch of jerks. After the team completed their 4-1 over the Montreal Canadiens, the team tweeted out a link to a website called “Didthehabslose.com” and started to sell Sebastian Aho and Jesperi Kotkaniemi shirts for $20 in reference to Kotkaniemi’s signing bonus.

We all know the ongoing off-ice feud between the two organizations. Make no mistake, there was not a lot of garbage on the ice. Both teams played a good, clean game. Carolina had some stupid penalties, but there was nothing outlandishly stupid from either team to endanger opponents. This disagreement is between the front offices of the respective organizations.

So for newer fans that do not understand why the two organizations are at war in the public relations department, it goes back to the 2019 NHL summer. July 1st and free agency has just opened. Carolina was a major player in the market given the lower tax rates and the fact the organization was coming off an Eastern Conference Finals birth. Then the unusual happened.

Star center Sebastian Aho was tendered to an offer sheet. It was matched almost instantly because it was a weak offer sheet given the abilities of a player like Aho, but it hurt Canes owner Tom Dundon. Aho’s deal is bonus-loaded and Montreal hoped they could get this player without trading for him just by loading the deal and watching Dundon cheap out. Dundon decided to embarrass the habs.

Dundon replied by instantly saying “Well our summer got easier” and suggesting that the offer sheet was so weak that it was inconceivable to do anything but match now that Carolina had been gifted this perfect contract. He outlined all the great things the habs had done and was insulted that they thought he would cheap out, and Dundon doesn’t forget.

So, this summer, Carolina offer sheeted Jesperi Kotkaniemi and they did it properly. 1 year deal with a higher cap hit so that it doesn’t anchor the team for years, and a low enough cap hit for the compensation to not be ridiculous. It got Kotkaniemi to sign and it made it nearly impossible for the Habs to match given the cap issues the organization had.

This summer, the Canadiens retaliated by reporting the Canes to the league for not playing the minimum required number of pre-season games. To this point, I believe the NHL granted the Hurricanes an amnesty along with a few other teams to play fewer pre-season games. This was due to a variety of reasons.

Now, the Canes are the proud owners of a website that says “Did the habs lose” in the name because the team is not at all petulant. Anyway, their next game is in Columbus, and there will be a preview for that game here on Cardiac Cane. Until then, LETS GO CANES.