Carolina Hurricanes: 3 keys to beating the St Louis Blues
Tonight, the Carolina Hurricanes face a foe that hasn’t fought in almost 3 years. With the St Louis Blues in town, the Canes are on the second half of a back-to-back and now, need two points to move clear at the top of the division again. It’s a tough task to ask the Carolina Hurricanes to dominate the Blues and walk away with two points having played last night, but that’s the task at hand.
St Louis comes into this game as one of the premier teams in the National Hockey League. With an 8-2-2 record, St Louis is one of the best in the Central division, and they look to come into Carolina and dispatch a Carolina Hurricanes team that is tired and depleted. It’s a very difficult task for the Hurricanes, but they made this difficult for themselves with a loss last night.
For Carolina, it’s simple. Winning this game builds a strong base before the team goes out to the west coast and continues their great start to the season. This is their last game at PNC Arena for a while, so we better get used to looking at the white road jerseys as they go away for a long time. It’s not going to be an easy road trip for the team, so the team needs points here soon.
So, how can the Carolina Hurricanes get back in the win column and get their season back on the right path? Well, that’s what we’re here to talk about. So as the Carolina Hurricanes take on the St Louis Blues tonight at PNC Arena in Raleigh, here are your three keys to the game with the team needing to get back to winning ways after a tough loss last night.
Lyon’s share of the crease
Tonight, Carolina is going to turn to their 3rd choice netminder in the absence of their backup goalie and that means that we are expecting a Carolina Hurricanes debut for Alex Lyon. So, this is a little terrifying. Lyon has played in the NHL before with the Philadelphia Flyers and has some stats that we would all rather not look at, but they’re workable I guess. Listen, this team won with a Zamboni driver in the net, Lyon’s got a shot.
Carolina is going to need to shelter the inexperienced goaltender as much as they can. He’s not going to let floaters in, but he’s not going to make the highlight reel saves that we will see from the netminder at the other end of the ice in this game. It’s a very difficult situation for the team, so building a strong defensive game, limiting zone entries is going to be the key to this game.
We know that when they want to be, Carolina can be a very strong defensive team, and this St Louis offense can be deadly when it wants to be. So, forcing everything to the outside is going to get the Carolina Hurricanes a long way in this game. Win battles at the front of the net and do not allow the St Louis offense to settle down.
Even as I’m talking about this, this is a very tall order for any team in the NHL. Let alone the Carolina Hurricanes without their premier right-handed defenseman. This is going to be a difficult game, and it has all the makings of being a long night for the team. If they can get anything out of this game, it’s a bonus.
Forecheck hard and continue it
With the Carolina Hurricanes likely going to need to score a lot to take two points from this game, the best way to do that is going to be to get the puck into the offensive zone and keep the Blues pinned in their own zone. If the Blues can’t fly the zone, then they’re going to find it difficult to score on the Canes. Forecheck and dominate offensive zone time. If Carolina can hold the lead, this game gets a little easier.
With the Hurricanes needing to get pucks in deep, grind the blues down, get pucks in front and get bodies to the net, this is going to have to be a very greasy performance. There’s not going to be room for the traditional 15 passes and a perfect shot that we usually see the Canes pull off when they’re dominating offensive zone time, and this is where the Canes’ bottom line is going to need to come through big.
With the Carolina Hurricanes needing a strong forechecking performance, it’s going to come down to the 4th line. We know there’s enough talent on this team to keep toe to toe with the Blues, but the 4th line is going to have to break the Blues down. It’s a difficult task, but keep the puck in deep and stay physical with the 2019 Stanley Cup Champions. It’s not easy, but it’s what needs to be done.
Laying the body and making St Louis work extra hard to avoid hits, get the puck out and just get to the bench is going to be vital if the Canes want to win this game. Do not let the Blues breathe when they’re on the ice. Force them to be active with both their feet and their sticks, and force them to think every minor action through. If you disrupt their basics, it gets so much easier.
Sebastian wakes up tonight
Carolina’s superstar has been in hibernation for far too long, but it’s time for the Finnish sensation to come through to completely take over a game. It’s time for Sebastian Aho to truly be unleashed on this season. He’s been muted so far this season, so it’s time for a vintage Aho performance where he comes through and dominates as only Sebastian Aho can.
Where Aho needs to improve isn’t putting the puck in the net, it’s just dominating as only Aho can. Watch him take over a game, where every time he steps on the ice the opponent just shudders. When we talk about Aho dominating teams, we know he can do it because we have seen him do it before time and again. It’s not a tall ask for someone who was ranked in the top 20 players in the NHL this summer.
Aho has 5 goals and 7 assists so far this season for 12 points in 12 games, but this has been far from Sebastian at his best. We’ve seen him miss some absolutely golden chances that you would expct a player of Aho’s caliber to have completely taken over a game, yet Aho really hasn’t done that yet this season, and the Hurricanes are still 10-2. There’s a lot of room for Aho to grow here for Carolina.