Carolina Hurricanes: Three keys to winning Matinee in LA
By Conor Power
The top line needs to dominate their matchup
Los Angeles is a very lucky team to have one of the league’s best centers in their organization and added one of the best defensive forwards in hockey to that pool. I do not know what center will be assigned to stop the SAJ line, but one of them will be and that will be where this game gets difficult. If the Kings can constrain the top players on the roster, this gets a lot more difficult.
Not impossible, Carolina has the depth to play a run and gun game in the bottom six with Los Angeles, but far more difficult than it needs to be. Keep getting pucks in deep, get the puck on the net, crash the blue pain, get bodies in front of the goalies’ eyes, and just play sound fundamental hockey. Don’t try anything too fancy if the basics aren’t right like when we saw a certain someone think about his signature move behind the net against the ducks.
Don’t do anything like that if you can avoid it. Forecheck hard, wear this team down. You will generate chances, and the puck will go in if you make the Kings work hard, but this is a very solid team at both ends of the ice, and they’re going to be able to stop you putting them on a highlight reel if you try and mess them around. It’s important to not look ahead.
We’ve seen this line get the winning goal in both games on this road trip so far, so it’s important that they are able to hold the Kings at bay and do everything they can to get the team back into the win column. With that in mind, that’s the important thing here. Winning is what the Canes need to continue. If they get shelled for 60 minutes and win 1-0, that’s just as valuable as blowing the Kings to the moon.