Carolina Hurricanes: Three takeaways as Canes blank B’s
Canes win again! 6-0-0 on the season as they beat the Boston Bruins 3-0 to set a new franchise record for the best start to a season with 12 points from a possible 12. With this iteration of the roster setting franchise records like no one’s business, it’s been a lot of fun to talk about what to take away from these wins and how much confidence the team can have in itself.
This felt very much like a playoff game in that it was at a higher pace than usual, there was less space on the ice, and it was far more physical than the rest of the games the Canes have competed in this season. This was a litmus test for the Canes to attempt to exercise a miniature demon in the form of beating the Bruins, something they haven’t done in the playoffs since 2009.
With the 2021-22 Carolina Hurricanes now having the best start of any team in franchise history, we can look around the league. With only 2 teams remaining unbeaten in Carolina and the Florida Panthers, we ask, will the Canes be the last unbeaten team in the NHL? Time will tell, but for now, we have a game with the Bruins to talk about.
Obviously, this game was important for the two points, but this was the first team playing like a playoff team the Hurricanes had seen on the young season. This was going to be a grind, top-end talent wasn’t ever going to bail the team out and it proved to be that early. With the first goal being a very playoff-style one and the 2nd needing a bounce from the carnival to go in, it was a difficult night for both teams.
Great Dane speaks again
Carolina had a lot of questions coming into the season regarding their netminders. Was there a clear starter in their midst? Was it good enough for a team pushing for the Stanley Cup? Could it even get them to the playoffs given the injury history of the two netminders? To put it simply, yes. With this Hurricanes team, their starting netminder has been the backbone of the early success.
What is there to say about Frederik Andersen I haven’t said in a thousand ways with a thousand songs? To say that he has been elite does not do this justice. Andersen has the best start of any netminder in the league’s history with a new team. 6-0-0 with a save percentage of .956 and a 1.33 goals-against average, both good enough for 3rd in the league at the time of writing.
Not just that, but Andersen recorded both his first point as a Carolina Hurricane and his first shutout as a member of the organization! Not for the first time in his career, Freddie has an assist and a shutout to outscore the entire roster of the opponent. To say Andersen has been anything less than spectacular is incorrect and does not do his performances justice.
33 saves last night to move onto a league-leading 6 wins. He’s already made a very impressive highlight reel of saves in Raleigh and dispelled some of the question marks around this team. He’s proving that when the netminders for Carolina are healthy, they are formidable. Tripp Tracy called Freddie the hottest netminder in the NHL last night on the broadcast, and you’ll have a hard time fighting that argument.
Quality kills at big moments
Carolina’s penalty kill has been tested a lot this season. Yet again, the team took 10 minutes worth of penalties. Yes, some of them were abbreviated and some were even coincidental minors leading to 4-on-4 hockey. But that does not do any justice to how well the penalty killing of the Carolina Hurricanes has performed in this season so far.
Carolina killed off 2 different 5-on-3’s last night, and one was with 2 vital penalty killers in the box with over a minute left on the first one. To say that each player stepped up big time while this team was shorthanded could not be more understated if you were to try. Carolina owes a big debt to their killers and someone really should be buying them steak dinners after last night.
What makes Carolina’s penalty kill so special is simple. Anyone fits. With the exception of the two lads who were drafted in 2018, everyone kills penalties. The other 10 forwards all know what to do and how to act when they are down a man, and five of the defenseman know what to do when tasked with killing a powerplay off.
Giving up that many powerplays are going to hurt you eventually. However, Carolina’s kill early has been fantastic. It’s a case of staying out of the box, and don’t take dumb penalties if you can avoid it. I get that with NHL referees there are a lot of ghost calls, but most of them in this game were good calls and you would have been angry if it wasn’t called in the favor of the Carolina Hurricanes.
SAT kills it off
With the Hurricanes needing their stars to bail them out of trouble time and again, it only seemed right that the big line for Carolina was the one to put the icing on the cake to crown their incredible start to the season. With the Hurricanes moving onto 6-0-0 on the season, it was this line that got the empty netter as Andrei Svechnikov and Sebastian Aho continued their point streaks to open the year.
Svechnikov moves onto 10 points through his first 6 games of the year. While the Russian has started hot, he’s also been the king of finishing games off and recording points on empty nets. We all know of the 21-year-old winger’s ability to shoot the puck and score at whatever rate he really feels like when he’s on his game, but he’s been particularly impressive to start the year.
Meanwhile, Sebastian Aho has the quietest 4 goals and 4 assists for 8 points in 6 games in the history of the NHL it feels like. Everyone is raving about Svechnikov and his skill, but Aho’s production is flying under the radar and it’s doing him a disservice. Sebastian is still the most talented player on the team, despite all of Andrei’s beautiful work. Aho is still someone we need to cherish as fans.
With that said and done, that’s it for this one! Carolina improves to 6-0-0 on the year with a dominant win over the Boston Bruins by a score of 3-0. This was the first half of a testing back-to-back with the Chicago Blackhawks awaiting the Canes for tonight. There will be a keys for that game out soon, but until then, take care and LET’S GO CANES!
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