3 takeaways as Canes lose matinee on HFC night 4-2 to the Capitals

Carolina’s penalty kill cannot stop everything

Does it shock you to learn that the Carolina Hurricanes are the most penalized team in the NHL? Me neither. It’s blatantly obvious that the Hurricanes have an issue with wanting to sit in the sin bin every thirty seconds. For most of the season, Carolina’s aggressive and successful penalty kill has been able to atone for some of the errors, and a good penalty kill can do that. But they can’t stop everything.

Holding Washington to a single powerplay goal when they have one of the best natural shooters to ever play the game camped in his office above the dot is very successful. Remembering that the goal Washington did get on the powerplay was a cross-crease pass on a 5-on-3 that the goaltender just about couldn’t get a stick on. It’s been very up and down to this point.

Now, when the Carolina Hurricanes go to the box 2/3 times a game, that won’t kill them. But giving potentially the greatest goal scorer the league has ever seen 10 minutes of powerplay time will get you beaten a thousand times. This was a sloppy game in terms of discipline from the Hurricanes and the team responded with a poor defeat at the hands of the Capitals.

This Canes penalty kill has not been responsible for a single loss this year, perhaps outside of the Florida loss, and they’ve been more of a positive than a negative for the team. Getting the team far more in terms of points than they have given up. They’ve been major contributors to the Canes’ success and the Canes just need to learn to not be so dependant on their 4 man units.