Cold Streak for Svechnikov in January as All-Star Break Approaches
By Glenn Brewer
The Carolina Hurricanes will be sending one player to the All-Star game this weekend. Andrei Svechnikov will have the honor of representing Carolina along with head coach, Rod Brind’Amour.
In all the craziness of the season, the distractions of injuries, All-Star voting, winning streaks, and Stadium Series buzz have taken away from a very large cold streak.
It is common for goal scorers to have hot and cold streaks, but it is hard to believe the All-Star has no goals in 2023.
Svechnikov’s last goal came on December 30th while the Canes hosted the Florida Panthers at PNC Arena.
At that point, the 22-year-old was on a streak of scoring a goal in 4 out of 8 games played.
Again, goal scorers tend to get hot and unfortunately cold at times. This is one of those unfortunate streaks but thankfully it has not harmed the team.
The Hurricanes are 8-4-1 since cooling off the former 2nd overall draft choice.
Much of the slack has been picked up by Sebastian Aho but it is only a matter of time before the streaks may switch.
Aho has currently scored in four straight games and 5 of 6 games. In that time, the Canes assistant captain has scored 8 goals, including a hat trick against the New York Islanders.
The timing of the All-Star break will be good for Svechnikov but in turn bad for a streaking Aho right now.
Svechnikov will get a chance to head South and enjoy the festivities and attention of being an All-Star. He will also be able to show off his skills in the contest and the 3-on-3 play.
Hopefully, the easygoing nature of the All-Star weekend and the emphasis on skill will loosen the grip on Svechnikov’s stick and have him return to Carolina ready to break out.
As for Aho, let’s hope that the rest only strengthens the 25-year-old for a strong finish to the regular season and beyond.
Either way, this team will need the return of goals from Svechnikov to make a run for the Cup.