Looking for a scapegoat in the Hurricanes’ loss to the Rangers? ‘The power play stunk’
Game 3 of the Stanley Cup playoffs between the Hurricanes and Rangers ended with the Canes’ Max Domi and Rangers’ Ryan Lindgren wrestling at center ice, as New York coach Gerard Gallant spewed a few apparent expletives at Hurricanes defenseman Tony DeAngelo.
Yes, folks, we have a playoff series. The Hurricanes and Rangers are getting down to serious business in the second round. The heat is rising.
The Canes’ opening series against Boston was more about bad blood and settling some old scores with the Bruins, and Carolina did that after seven games. With the Canes and the Rangers, it’s more about the two best teams in the Metropolitan Division deciding who’s the best in the most important games on the biggest stage.
The Canes won the first two, at home. The Rangers have a home win after Sunday’s 3-1 victory in Game 3 that was not decided until a late empty-net goal as goalies Antti Raanta of the Canes and New York’s Igor Shesterkin shined again.
The difference?
“At the end of the day, the power play let us down again,” Nino Niederreiter, the only Hurricanes skater to beat Shesterkin on Sunday, said.
DeAngelo was more blunt: “The power play stunk. That’s the reason we lost the game.”
To Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour, it was a simple equation. The Rangers’ Mika Zibanejad scored a first-period power-play goal while Carolina was 0-for-3 on the power play.
“We’ve got to score,” Brind’Amour said. “Actually, we had a lot of good looks. First one, Svech hits the post, kind of a similar play to theirs, but they put it in the net.”
That was Andrei Svechnikov, who did find the post with a power-play attempt. The Canes finished with seven power-play shots, all stopped by Shesterkin, who patrolled the crease effectively and used his glove efficiently, looking the part of a guy who might win the Vezina Trophy in making 43 saves in the game.
DeAngelo, who quarterbacks the top power-play unit, was not as forgiving as his coach in assessing the power play — Carolina is 5-for 43 in the playoffs, and 0-for-7 against the Rangers.
“You’ve got to score,’ said DeAngelo, who had no comment on what Gallant said to him. “We can’t keep going game after game with no power-play goals. We can keep saying we’re getting the chances, but it wasn’t good enough.”
According to NaturalStatTrick.com, a hockey analytics web site, the Canes had nine scoring chances 5-on-4, with three “high-danger” chances.
“They’re not always going to go in but eventually they have to,” DeAngelo said. “We have to do something to fix it. We’ve got a lot of belief in the guys and we’re working hard but it just seems a little flat.”
Brind’Amour has been reluctant to switch up his power-play personnel. Center Jordan Staal, who can be a big presence in front of the net, is not being used on a power-play unit while Jesperi Kotkaniemi has been. Svechnikov has been used on the second unit.
The Canes have power plays where they zip the puck around and get shots to the net. The skill and playmaking ability is there, but there are others where shots don’t get through, the puck movement is too slow and the passes too many, as if the players are overthinking things too much.
In Sunday’s game, the Canes trailed 2-1 with 6:03 left in regulation when the Rangers’ Tyler Motte was called for slashing defenseman Brett Pesce.
The Canes’ Vincent Trocheck lost the draw to begin the power play. Seth Jarvis had a giveaway. DeAngelo had a shot blocked and Niederreiter was wide of the net with an attempt. Svechnikov had two shots blocked.
So it went.
“We’ve got find a way to sharpen up and make them pay when we have to,” Niederreiter said.
This story was originally published May 23, 2022 at 5:48 AM.
