Carolina’s Offense Was Stellar Against Flyers
By Chris Baker
In re-watching, Thursday’s game against the Flyers, how the Carolina Hurricanes’ offense did not put up more biscuits in the basket was a Christmas Hockey Miracle. Santa’s elves must have been Flyers fans because that game could have been out of hand early.
In the first period alone, the Canes outshot the Flyers 14 to 9 and nearly all of those shots had some serious frosting on them. Andrei Svechnikov and Sebastian Aho all had grade-A shots in that period alone. Martin Necas did get in a beauty on the power play that was stoppable by the back of the net.
No surprise to Canes fans, the Staal Line tacked on two goals and five points. Jordan Martinook and Jesper Fast trimmed the tree with two combos. Jordan Staal had a secondary assist on their second goal of the period.
Brady Skjei nearly lit up the tree in the first possession of the second period but lost his footing in a nearly perfect passing play. Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Teuvo Teravainen had in traffic shots only needed a few my sprinkles to make them full fledged Christmas cookies
And can we just pause for a minute to talk about the Svechnikov goal in the second period. Martin Necas completed an phenomenal between the legs pass to Svechnikov who hung the mistletoe making it 4-2 Canes.
Brett Pesce and Jordan Martinook’s goal sent Flyer’s Rookie Goalie Samuel Ersson to the bench in his NHL debut. Carter Hart came on in relief but gave up a yule log to Jesperi Kotkaniemi.
Carolina’s offense must have had some extra egg nog at intermission between the second and third periods to keep Ersson (who came back on after Hart was injured on the Kotkaniemi goal) on his toes. Aho, Teravainen, and Burns nearly put stars on the tree but were denied.
The scoreboard Thursday did show a scoring bounty, but the Carolina Hurricanes offense was as full as a Christmas ham. Nothing short of Santa’s elves kept the game as close as it was when the horn blew.