Hurricanes stay hot as NHL season hits midpoint, but lose another goalie to injury
The Carolina Hurricanes had at least two players-only meetings earlier this season.
One is usually a sign of trouble. Two usually only happen in a “down” year, or around a coaching shakeup. But for a team picked by some Vegas oddsmakers as the Stanley Cup favorite to have two before the NHL’s holiday break?
“Obviously we’re not happy and we’re frustrated,” Canes All-Star forward Sebastian Aho said after one of those meetings following a loss to Vancouver, a meeting he admitted wasn;t the team’s first of the season. “We’ve done a lot of talking. The time is now to show to us and to everyone what we’re capable of, and the only way out is together.”
What was happening?
Hurricanes ‘weren’t clicking’
The Canes’ had a 6-3 loss to the Ducks on Oct. 15, in the second game of the Canes’ early West Coast swing during the N.C. State Fair run in Raleigh. It was an ugly loss, and there would be others.
That was at a time when the Canes, as captain Jordan Staal put it, “weren’t clicking and it showed.”
Svechnikov, not fully recovered from his knee injury, had not played his first game of the season. The Canes — all five players on the ice, collectively — were making too many mistakes. The goaltending was spotty.
“There might have been some complacency at the start of the season,” Staal said.
The Canes are a veteran team. After reaching the Stanley Cup playoffs five straight years, they were made the Stanley Cup favorites by some Vegas oddmakers, even though Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour quickly dismissed that.
But there were times when the Canes appeared to approaching the 82 regular-season games as necessary chores, as a grind.
“More those 82 games are important, too,” Skjei said. “We know that. We know the ‘fun’ can’t begin unless you pay well in the regular season.
“You’ve got to get there first. Then, the fun begins. Until then, you work.”
New year, new identity for Canes
A year ago, the Canes were 25-9-7 after 41 games and leading the Metropolitan Division by four points over the New Jersey Devils. They also had lost to the Devils in that 41st game.
This season has been more of a slow build. The Canes, the Metro champs the past two seasons, are trying to chase down the New York Rangers in the division.
Coaches always talk about a team “identity” and for the Canes early in the season their teams ID seemed to be “Looks better on paper than on the ice.” No longer.
“I think the last month is looked very similar to how we want to do things,” Staal said. “I think our five on five play hasn’t been as dominant as it has in the past, but think our special teams, the power play especially, has been really good and won us a lot of games.”
Entering Thursday’s game, the Canes had moved to second in the NHL on the power play at 28.7% and had power-play goals in the past seven games. Carolina’s penalty kill, a bit leaky early in the season, ranked ninth at 82.8%.
Smoothing out the bumps
The goaltending, which Staal said has been unsettling at times, had steadied with Kochetkov taking over as the No. 1 goalie with Frederik Andersen still dealing with blood-clotting issues.
“We’ve had some bumps there but ‘Kooch’ has played really well and that’s kind of leveled those bumps out,” Brind’Amour said this week.
Five on five, the Canes had an 85-80 edge on its opponents before Thursday.
“An identity any team wants is for its five on five play to be the best it can be and I think our group still has more room there,” Staall said. “But I think we’re starting to see flashes of what we can be, and the hard work and the difficult style we play is starting to come through.”
According to NHL statistics the Hurricanes rank in the 99th percentile in offensive-zone time — 46.7%. They also among the NHL leaders in shots.
The rub? The Canes’ shooting percentage is 10.2%, about the league average (10.1).
As for an assessment of the season’s first half, Brind’Amour said:
“I think it’s been pretty good. Our team game hasn’t changed. We’ve got some special teams that have been really good but overall I think it’s been pretty steady. Certainly room for improvement.”
Brind’Amour also added, “If we get the goaltending like we have lately, I think we’re going to be in good shape.”
Given Kochetkov’s injury Thursday and Andersen’s status, that could become a question mark.
