3 keys to a Thanksgiving win in Philadelphia for the Hurricanes
Tonight, the Carolina Hurricanes conclude their six-game, 12-day road trip as they are in the City of Brotherly Love to take on the Philadelphia Flyers. This game is a rematch of a loss from Raleigh where the Flyers’ young netminder stonewalled the team with the best points percentage in the NHL, and today they get to look for some revenge on the young Canadian and his teammates.
Philadelphia themselves are looking like the strongest opponent Carolina will find themselves contesting on this road trip. With the Metropolitan Division rival currently boasting an 8-6-4 record, the 14-3-1 Carolina Hurricanes will be looking to ensure that they end this road trip 4-1-1 as opposed to just taking home the three wins. However, that is far from a certainty at the Wells Fargo Center.
Since the last time these two teams met, Philadelphia has gotten a lot of bodies back from injured reserve, and Carolina has gotten back a lot too. When they met two weeks ago, Carolina did not have two important players who are both expected to be in the lineup for them tonight. It’s going to be a fun game on paper. Now, we just have to hope that the two teams will live up to expectations on the night.
In this game, Carolina will need two points because that will create some fun scenarios. If Carolina wins this game, what happens in the Florida-Washington game later tonight will be impactful on the team. A win would put Carolina back at the top of the standings with a Florida loss, and at the top of the Metropolitan by more than just points percentage if Washington loses. So two points tonight would be very nice.
Carolina’s forwards need to put the puck in the net
Carolina has not gotten a goal from a forward since the 2nd period in the 5-4 win over the Los Angeles Kings. They’ve gotten two goals from defenseman since then, but that is not going to be enough to take two points from Philadelphia. Some for the Carolina Hurricanes will need to step up and put the puck in the net and see the Canes over the line.
Carolina seems to have struggled to put the puck in lately. On the entire West Coast portion of this road trip, the Carolina Hurricanes only scored 13 goals. That may seem like a lot, but 9 of those came in 2 games against the Los Angeles Kings and Vegas Golden Knights. 4 goals in the other 3 games is a problem. That’s going to make it difficult to win games, and the team relied heavily on their goalie in that 2-1 win in Anaheim.
In the last game, we saw the lines get put through the blender. We saw players that have usually been on the fourth line sprinkled throughout the lineup. We saw key top six players playing on the 4th line. We saw what I think was an attempt to balance the lineup, and it backfired horribly as the Canes were never able to take a lead and make their balanced offense work out for them.
If the Canes want to win in this game, then they cannot afford to start messing around with their line combinations and not putting the puck in the net. They will be punished by this Philadelphia Flyers team. It’s a major issue if the Canes cannot score tonight, and if they want to get back into winning ways, their best forwards are going to need to drag the team out of this scoring slump.
Carolina and the matinee mayhem
Who remembers the carnival that occurred the last time the Canes played in a matinee game? That game ended 5-4 after a complete and utter goal-fest through the first two periods was followed by Carolina shutting the door when they were in Los Angeles. Tonight is also a matinee, and they will need to be at their best and avoid so many heart attacks. I get this is Cardiac Cane, but please stop.
With a 3:30 start time, this is a weird start time for the Canes and they will need to be sharp when the game starts. If they decide to start late, the Philadelphia Flyers will pull away early. If the Flyers get the crowd going in the former Wachovia Center, then it’s going to be difficult to get back into this one. Starting sharply is going to be important to get two points from this one.
If Philadelphia does not start on time, Carolina will get a chance to dominate. With realistic expectations, I find it hard to imagine a scenario where a Flyers team competing for a playoff spot in the bloodbath that is the Metropolitan division doesn’t start on time when there’s an opponent coming in who you could be in direct competition with for a playoff spot.
This is really looking to be a mouthwatering game. The more I talk about it and the more I think about this matchup between the Philadelphia Flyers and Carolina Hurricanes, the more I cannot wait for the puck to drop at 3:30 PM EST today. This is going to be a great game in Philadelphia and it’s going to be a great season series between these two Metropolitan Division rivals.
Win the battle of the pipes
Carolina’s goaltenders have been one of the reasons that they sit 14-3-1 after 18 games. Now, they will need to be good again to beat the Flyers here in Philadelphia. With the Carolina Hurricanes having scoring issues, it’s going to be up to the goalies to give the team a chance to win. They’re going to have to stand on their head if they want to get anything from this one.
I understand that this might sound outlandish, but the Canes are having trouble scoring. When you can’t score, you need to at least get to overtime. Be solid defensively, and get at least a point. We all know that Carolina is exceptional at 3-on-3, and that will favor them against most teams in this league. It’s going to be difficult getting to 3-on-3, but it would certainly look like paying dividends if they got there.
Obviously, this Flyers forward core is going to need to be kept at bay, and there’s a lot of weapons on this team. It’s going to require good defensive performances, and we know that. But when things break through the Canes blueline, whichever goaltender gets the start tonight will need to be attentive and read to stop the high danger shots. It’s going to need to be a good performance from the team tonight.
Anyway, that is it for the keys to this game piece. Thank you all very much for reading. This is a matinee at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia and that means that the start time is a little different. As I mentioned, it starts at 3:30 PM Eastern, and it’s going to be live-tweeted on the Cardiac Cane twitter page, as always. Until then, thanks for reading, and LET’S GO CANES!
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