3 takeaways as Canes lose matinee on HFC night 4-2 to the Capitals
And that is a disappointing result on hockey fights cancer night at PNC Arena. With the Carolina Hurricanes falling 4-2 to the Washington Capitals. A great third-period comeback was nipped in the bud by a stupid decision when already down a man to give the Capitals a 5-on-3 that would eventually see the game-winning goal scored seconds after returning to 5-on-4. A stinging defeat.
Carolina could have been out of sight with this game after the first period. They were making Washington’s netminder look like Bambi, and couldn’t get the puck into the netting behind him. It was infuriating as those wasted chances came back to bite the Canes in the third period. What’s annoying is that the Canes had everything in place to win this game, and they just didn’t.
A strong comeback in the third period was wasted, and the Canes lose the lead of the division, and they lose their place at the top of the NHL. This loss was costly for the organization, and I delayed the publishing of this takeaways piece to find out about the two RD that have since entered the league’s COVID-19 protocol and are not going on the trip to Dallas with the rest of the boys.
Carolina lost potentially a lot more than just two points in this one, and we will get to talking about that, but this game stings a lot. Some of it you have to chalk up to the Washington Capitals being a very good hockey team, and some of it you have to chalk up to the Carolina Hurricanes not being good enough in this game to get the win. At no point can you say the Canes deserved to win this game.
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.
Carolina’s wasteful offense cost them
If you want a major reason the Canes could not defeat the Washington Capitals in this game, the first thing you point to is their inability to score on their best chances early in the first period. Multiple times they had the Washington netminder confused as to where the puck was or just lost at sea, and they missed the net or fired the puck right into the logo of the goalie to make it easy.
Carolina could have had three goals by the five-minute mark of this one, and it was just not good enough from the offense of what was the best team in the NHL. Things looked like they were going to start flowing after the high-scoring matinee game in Philadelphia, but the Canes offense has struggled with putting the rubber in the goal and it’s clearly a lingering issue for the team.
It’s not to say that the team isn’t generating chances. If they were not generating scoring opportunities, this would be a whole lot more concerning. It’s just annoying to watch such talented players get such great chances and watch them squander them. There’s no denying that every forward on this team can put the puck in the goal, with maybe one exception for the guy who ain’t got one.
Carolina’s offense has the ability to score 6 in a game as they did in Philadelphia. They have the ability to score on mass, they’ve done it a lot this year. It’s just concerning that when the team has all these great chances, they cannot put the puck in the goal and put a game to rest. It’s annoying for the fans, and we all know the coaching staff would love it if the team could win 10-0 every game.
Carolina’s newest addition is rapidly improving
When you think about Carolina’s great strengths, something that comes to mind quickly is their incredible center depth. You probably don’t think much about the fourth line, but it’s on that fourth line we find one of the positives to take away from this game, and it comes in the form of the newest Hurricane after his arrival late in the summer through an offer sheet from Montreal.
Jesperi Kotkaniemi is very quietly becoming a very dominant player on the fourth line, and it allows them to roll four very good lines. Carolina’s other Finnish centerman has quietly started to put it all together since his move across to the middle. He’s putting up a consistent number of points, and the majority of his tallies seem to be goals. Only three players on the Hurricanes roster have more even-strength goals than Kotkaniemi.
Kotkaniemi’s intelligence and his knowledge of where to be in order to create a scoring chance have led to many chances for his line, and it’s a big reason why KK has five goals on the year, and that number is improving all the time. Before the team went on the Western Road Trip, KK had 2 goals and 1 assist. Since? 3 goals and an assist. That’s in the space of just two weeks. He’s improving all the time.
What’s most impressive about Kotkaniemi is that whenever he is on the ice, he never looks like a defensive liability. He always looks like he is ready to handle the offensive outpouring from an opponent and looks like he can turn that opponent back towards their own zone, and start an aggressive forecheck against them, which often leads to strong momentum favoring the Canes.
Next. . dark