Carolina Hurricanes: Three takeaways as undermanned Canes lose
By Conor Power
Carolina’s powerplay couldn’t connect
Carolina’s man advantage yet again could have been the difference in this game, except it became very clear very quickly that they were shooting on a goaltender who was just not going to lose this game. With several fantastic powerplays generating a ton of scoring chances, this Philadelphia penalty kill continued to bend but didn’t break under any pressure.
Carolina looked deadly all night long when they had the extra man, and with both units. But Carolina’s man advantage looked like it was ready to click, as it had everything but the goal in this one. On another night, Carolina likely blow the Flyers out just on their powerplay with how dominant a performance it put in during this game.
In particular, the top unit (I know the Canes coaching staff doesn’t like labeling the units, but the one with more talent) looked deadly. It looked like the team could have scored a thousand goals a thousand ways and it was just an unfortunate case of running into Carter Hart again and again and again and again until it was obvious that there wasn’t anything that would have ended up behind Hart.
If you’re on the powerplay, you do not change a thing going forward. Six or seven times, the powerplay had a great chance to score, and every single time, there was a goalie there to tap it away and that’s incredibly annoying. However, this happens. It’s the best league in the world and goalies can do that. Now you regroup and get ready for the next game.