Canes penalty kill is the best in the NHL. Good thing: The team is shorthanded a lot
The Carolina Hurricanes’ ability to kill penalties has become so routine that at times, it’s almost taken for granted.
The Canes will draw a penalty, send four players on the ice shorthanded and kill it off.
Again. And again.
No team has done it better in the NHL for the past three-plus years. Since Rod Brind’Amour became the Canes’ head coach in 2018, Carolina has been No. 1 in the league in penalty killing.
“I just think we have a good system in place and we all buy in,” defenseman Brett Pesce said Sunday after the Canes’ 2-1 win over Edmonton at PNC Arena. “Everyone’s willing to block a shot, and I think everyone does such a good job of when it’s time to jump on them and try to get after them and take away their space.”
According to the NHL, the Canes have killed off 84.9% of their penalties in the past 258 games in that four-season period. In the past two seasons, it’s a collective 87.8%. This season: 90.2%, again tops in the league.
The Canes have been shorthanded 184 times this season and allowed 18 goals. They went 8-for-8 on the kill in their recent home wins over Columbus and then Edmonton as the Blue Jackets and Oilers each were 0-4 on power plays.
“We’re just so in sync,” Pesce said. “Whoever’s out there, the four guys out there, everyone’s intact with each other and obviously we’re really confident right now, too.”
The Canes’ penalty killers got some early work Sunday against the Oilers. Defenseman Brady Skjei high-sticked Oilers star Connor McDavid, leaving McDavid bloodied and resulting in a four-minute double minor — albeit four minutes with McDavid in the locker room getting medical and dental treatment.
With the Canes’ Vincent Trocheck and the Oilers’ Ryan McLeod already in the penalty boxes, the Oilers first had a 4-on-3 power play. Sebastian Aho, Jaccob Slavin and Ian Cole played shorthanded for Carolina, followed by Jordan Staal, Trocheck, Pesce and Cole when Edmonton had the 5-on-4 advantage.
When the four minutes were up, it was still a scoreless game. Edmonton got one shot on goal out of all the power-play time. A few minutes later, Carolina’s Teuvo Teravainen scored the game’s first goal at even strength and Aho later added a power-play goal for a 2-0 lead.
Aho and Teravainen have seen considerable shorthanded minutes and used their quick hands, good sticks and instincts to make plays up high and set up some shorthanded offensive chances. They’ve also been aggressive in doing it, often relying on goalie Frederik Andersen to clean up any mistakes.
“It always starts with the hot goalie,” Aho said Sunday. “You can trust your own goalie and he’s always the most important guy on the PK. He kind of allows you to pressure up on the ice, because you know he’s going to make the last save if we do something stupid out there.
“It probably starts from that and obviously I’ve been playing with ‘Turbo’ for quite a bit. We read each other. And we have elite defensemen.”
Few have been better in net this season than Andersen. The big Dane picked up his 29th win Sunday and is 18-2-2 in his last 22 games, with two shutouts.
“He’s calm in there, so he makes you feel calm,” Brind’Amour said Sunday. “Even when you have a really good chance coming at you, the way he plays it’s like, ‘Oh, that wasn’t as good of a chance.’ It makes you feel like it’s not going so bad.
“He calms the group down, the way he plays, and obviously at the end of the day he’s stopping the puck at a high rate. That helps.”
It has helped the Canes build a 37-11-4 record and the lead in the Metropolitan Division. Carolina, on a five-game win streak, had a game at Detroit on Tuesday against the Red Wings, then a Metro matchup Thursday in Washington against the Caps.
The Canes beat the Red Wings 5-3 in their only other game this season and had the special-teams edge in that one — winger Nino Niederreiter scored a power-play goal and the Canes were 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
Carolina would like to reduce the stress on their penalty killers. They’ve spent more shorthanded time (6:12) on the ice per game than any other NHL team. But they have held the damage to a minimum.
Pesce, in his seventh season with the Canes, has been on some strong penalty-killing units. He was asked Sunday if this year’s killers were the most cohesive.
“Yeah, I’d say that,” he replied with no hesitation.
Carolina Hurricanes vs Detroit Red Wings
When: Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit.
TV/RADIO: Bally Sports South, WCMC-99.9 FM.
