Carolina Hurricanes: 3 takeaways from Windy City victory
After overcoming the first multi-goal deficit of the season, the Carolina Hurricanes win 4-3 and improve to 9-0-0 on the season. In another performance that was unmoving, Carolina’s talent shone through and bailed them out of what had been a dismal performance after two periods. However, Carolina will now face the Florida Panthers with a chance to tie the all-time record of consecutive wins to start a season.
After giving up the first goal, the Canes would not give up the fight. With the Carolina Hurricanes falling behind 3-1, there was a lot of resilience from the team, sparked from a young man we will talk about shortly. That young man (I’m sure you all know who I’m referring to) has become a must-watch player for this team going forward.
Carolina’s 4th line really did inspire their comeback in this game on the back of some much valued 4th line scoring. With their 4th line firing, the Carolina Hurricanes managed to fight back into this game as eventually, their talents woke up offensively. A team effort to overcome the Chicago Blackhawks in the third period truly came through the tough grind of the first 40.
This game will never be viewed as a classic, it’s not a display of the high-flying Carolina Hurricanes offense that dominates from puck drop to the final whistle that we’ve become so accustomed to. In fact, by the standards of the team in recent years, this performance could be classed as a major disappointment. But that doesn’t matter. Carolina is unbeaten moving forward.
Carolina remains the NHL’s only unbeaten team so far. Now, the tasks become a lot more difficult in the future.
Carolina’s rookie comes through
When people talk about Carolina’s top talents, the names that come to mind are the members of the SAT line. When you’re down, it should be them that inspire the comeback right? Yet, last night it was Carolina’s rookie that came through to give the team the kick in the read end that the team needed to continue their unbeaten record. It wasn’t the SAT line, it was Seth Jarvis.
His absolutely beautiful goal in the second period really kick-started the comeback for the Canes to cut the Hawks league in half. His fake deke allowed the puck to slide through the five-hole of the Chicago Blackhawks netminder. It was his play that allowed the Canes to start mounting their comeback and his performances in his first two games indicate that he is going to become a star.
Jarvis has a lot of room to improve. No one is going to argue with that, but in this game at least, he has earned himself a spot higher up the lineup. He’s a point per game as a rookie in the NHL with some crucial points. He’s not supposed to be the game-breaker for a 9-0 team, yet he’s stepping up when no one else on his team will. He’s exactly what this team needs.
On top of his scoring, his youth and speed make this team better. He skates hard and is a right-show winger, something Carolina doesn’t have a ton of. He’s going to be an important player for the organization in the future. But now he’s stepping up when the stars just don’t is so promising for such a young kid.
All hail Frederik Andersen
In sports, there are times when new faces just don’t fit. They’re brought in to do a certain job and they just cannot do it to a good enough standard. Frederik Andersen is not one of these. With the Great Dane between the pipes, this Carolina Hurricanes team has been nothing short of incredible. Pulling victory from the jaws of defeat time and again with Freddie making saves he shouldn’t.
Freddie stopped 27 of 30 in this game. That’s not bad, but this was a horrible game for him by the standards he has set for himself. You cannot ask him to do anything more than what he did on each of the goals. None of them were leaky like his counterpart at the other end. Andersen was very good all night long, keeping up his form to the season.
Going into this game, King Freddie led the league in goals-against average and save percentage. That’s how good he has been. If the season ends right now, he is the winner of the Vezina trophy. Call me biased all you want, name me a starter who has played as much as Andersen who has had the same results as Freddie. There’s not one.
Andersen’s been fantastic and he’s been a major reason that the Carolina Hurricanes are where they are in the standings to this point. With the team being this good, it’s gotten very easy to appreciate the work of a talented netminder. Andersen has been incredible and deserving of his spot on the 3 stars of the month for October.
Carolina’s beared master
When you talk about the new faces in the dressing room who will play big parts this season, you think of the netminders and of the new defenseman. Someone who likely doesn’t cross your mind is the 4th line center, yet Derek Stepan has turned the clock back a long way to make the Carolina Hurricanes as deep as any other team in the NHL.
If you assumed that the Carolina Hurricanes would be getting the 60 point player that Derek Stepan once was, then you were very much fooling yourself. However, Stepan has shown so far this season that he isn’t a passenger. He’s still got that scoring touch, and he picked up first star honors in this game to match.
So far, Stepan has amassed 2 goals and an assist this season, but all three have indeed come against the Chicago Blackhawks. It’s not to say that Stepan can only score against teams that aren’t the same caliber as Carolina, but it is worth pointing out that he is still yet to record a point against anyone else. He’s been very good against the Blackhawks.
With that said, this doesn’t mean he’s not been bad in other games. He’s just not had the same level of production against other opponents. He’s been a good fourth-liner. He’s always willing to dive in on the forecheck and attack the net whenever he sees the chance. He doesn’t play as much as he did as a Ranger, but he’s still got incredible talent at his disposal when the team needs it.
With that said, that’s it for this one. Thank you very much for joining me, but that’s it for now. Carolina improves to 9-0 with a 4-3 come-from-behind-win over the Chicago Blackhawks.