Carolina Hurricanes offense sputters again as Georgiev, Rangers shut out Carolina, 2-0
For some NHL players, the final days leading up to the NHL deadline can be stressful.
One stress reducer: Play a game, get their minds off it.
The Carolina Hurricanes had a game Sunday, a day before the deadline, but it may not have eased their stress level a lot. The Rangers took a 2-0 victory behind goalie Alexandar Georgiev’s 44 saves as the Canes lost a fourth straight game.
Both teams had their chances in the first 40 minutes and the only goal was a redirection by the Rangers’ Chris Kreider with 4:21 left in the second. It was Kreider’s 41st of what has been a special career season and came on the Rangers’ eighth shot of the game.
The Canes (41-15-6), who had defenseman Tony DeAngelo return from injury, came out with a strong push in the third, getting some long forechecking shifts and attacking the net. They had heavy shots and tipped shots and shots that were near-misses. They pulled goalie Frederik Andersen with 1:45 left in regulation, looking to get one past Georgiev.
But Georgiev remained calm in net, making all the stops in his first shutout of the season. Frank Vatrano had a late empty-net goal with 42 seconds left to seal it as the The Rangers (40-18-5) followed up a big road win Saturday at Tampa Bay — Igor Shesterkin in net — with another and have the salary cap space to add more players on Monday.
“That was probably one of our better games all year,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Their goalie played great and that’s the end of story. I don’t know what else we could have done other than put pucks in net. Everything that we wanted to do, for the most part we did and didn’t get rewarded tonight. It’s tough. I know everyone is down because we basically played in their end the whole game.
“We can’t change what we’re doing. Can we get better? Of course. But overall, walking out of here, you should win that game 99 times out of a hundred.”
The Canes had almost a 100 chances to score: 44 shots on goal, 27 missed shots and 23 shots that were blocked. That’s 94 total attempts, and NaturalStatTrick.com had Carolina with 20 high-danger chances.
Unable to score, the Canes had their home-ice point streak end (12-0-2) end after 14 games.
The biggest trade news of the day before the deadline had the Toronto Maple Leafs acquiring defenseman Mark Giordano. Tampa Bay added forward Nick Paul from Ottawa and the Florida Panthers, who are loading up, also added another defenseman, Robert Hagg from Buffalo.
The news wasn’t all good for the Panthers, the Atlantic Division leaders. There was talk of star defenseman Aaron Ekblad possibly being placed on Long Term Injured Reserve (LTIR) until the playoffs.
The general feeling around the Canes on Sunday was that little might be done Monday. But president and general manager Don Waddell was said to be on the phone most of the day, doing his due diligence.
Canes captain Jordan Staal said the team’s recent scoring woes can be handled by the players already in the room.
“I can’t say I’ve been on a team that hasn’t had dry spells during a season,” Staal said. “The goals will come. We’ve got to find a way to get over the hump and mentally be tougher and continue to push through it.”
With Nino Niederreiter serving a one-game suspension for a slashing incident Friday against the Washington Capitals, and forward Jordan Martinook out with a lower-body injury, the Canes had a lineup of 11 forwards and seven defensemen Sunday.
DeAngelo, sidelined 11 games, last played Feb. 21 at Philadelphia, when he said he injured himself getting off a hard slapshot from near the blue line -- “Some discomfort in my midsection,” he said Sunday of the injury.
The Canes’ power play operated smoother Sunday with DeAngelo back quarterbacking the top unit but Carolina was 0-3 with the man advantage.
“These are tough losses but we’ve got a good group in here and I love the way they play,” Brind’Amour said. “They give everything they have. That’s all a coach can ask.”
This story was originally published March 20, 2022 at 8:37 PM.
