OT Loss, At Home, To The Islanders, The Last Day Of November. No Bigs!
By Chris Baker
So the Carolina Hurricanes lost the the New York Islanders in OT, on the last day of November. I didn’t lose any sleep, and I hope you didn’t either. It would be easy to be glib about Carolina’s first OT loss of the season, just as easy as it would be accuse others of passing by the graveyard with a whistled tone on your lips. But, this Caniac typically doesn’t take the easy way out of anything. Just ask anyone who knows me. I’ve never met a hill I haven’t thought about dying on. So here are 3 good (what I think are good) reasons why I am not bothered.
Reason #1 Why the OT Loss, To The Islanders, The Last Day Of November Doesn’t Bother Me
The Hurricanes got a point out of it. And they got a point out of a game that earlier in the year, the Canes might have not gotten anything from. Use your imagination and think about if that game happened in October, or even the first of November. With the personnel that was on the ice at those junctures. It could well have been 4-2 or worse. Proverbial tents would have been folded, everyone would have tried to win it single handedly, and OT would have been, likely, out of the question.
Granted, the Hurricanes did exactly what they did last night to the Islander earlier in the season, and won, that game did not have the adversity Carolina faced with bad calls (Staal’s delay of game, Burns’ too many men on the ice) and tough breaks (the failed challenge on the 4th goal). Carolina just have just as easily let this one go and started to think about Buffalo, but they didn’t. Behind twice they kept churning and playing their game.
Reason #2 Why the OT Loss, To The Islanders, The Last Day Of November Doesn’t Bother Me
Look at who contributed to the game. The easier way would be to count who didn’t. Eleven different Hurricanes had a point. No one set of shoulders bore the brunt of load. Jordan Staal had two points, and one of those was his first goal in since the first game of the season. Jordan Martinook got his first point since November 22nd. Even Jack Drury got in the mix scoring his 2nd goal of the season and first his since the middle of the month. We would be remiss for not mentioning Dmitry Orlov and Jalen Chatfield, who have 6 points as a pairing since being matched up. In those 5 games since hitting the line-up, that 4th pairing had points in three.
Reason #3 Why the OT Loss, To The Islanders, The Last Day Of November Doesn’t Bother Me
Pyotr Kochetkov, despite the five goals in this loss, is getting better. Plenty of Hurricane’s fans are ready to throw him under the bus, and before he was likely out of his pads, there were complaints about below average goaltending all over the place. But, Kochetkov has won or tied 16 out of the 26 periods he’s played. That’s 61%. He has won out right 12 of those for 46%. Four of the periods he’s “lost” have been one where he’s only given up 1 goal. His line might not be “great”, but he has been thrown in to several tough spots, particularly two tough games against the Lightning and having to backstop a defensive corps with particularly glaring defensive liabilities.
A little patience will go a long way with his development and yanking him out of the net against Buffalo Saturday might do more harm than good. Of the 32 teams in the NHL, it’s Buffalo on your schedule after a loss like this one. There offense sputters and there defense has troubles, but they always answer your 11:30 PM “you up?” texts, if you catch my drift. As long as the Hurricanes can get out ahead, like the did against the Islanders, it should be sewn up sooner than later.
Reason #3 Why the OT Loss, To The Islanders, The Last Day Of November Doesn’t Bother Me
It was November, not an elimination game or the final round of the Stanley Cup Finals. Carolina has plenty of time to “make up” for any ground they might have “lost” from this game. You won’t lose a season in November, but you can set yourself up for success in the future by stealing a point or two here and there, like the Hurricanes did last night.
Anyone is welcome to their opinions and I am certain someone out there will see this headline, not read the article, and blast me on social media about this, but I think at the end of the day, the OT Loss, At Home, To The Islanders, The Last Day In November is not a big deal. Carolina doesn’t need to panic buy a new goalie, nor is there anything else irreversibly wrong with the team. Especially now that it seams the defensive issues have been ironed out.
In closing I will mention that shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who planned the attack would reportedly wrote in his diary, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” Where Yamamoto got this quote is open for interpretation BUT the sentiment is real. Any Canes fan will remember what the Hurricanes did last year during the month of December. Will this year be the same? Realistically, likely not, only because that was a pretty wild year. For sure, December is going to be a dragon of a month for the Hurricanes judging on just how well they have played rounding out the month of November. Pieces are fitting in, and things will really work out. The scoring is starting to churn up from the bottom, like last year, and the revolving door of heroes is spinning.