Mrazek hears his name, and the Hurricanes hope he answers the call
There were two different instances Friday night when the PNC crowd chanted Petr Mrazek’s name. Once after a short-handed save on Lawson Crouse, the second over the final 48 seconds as the Carolina Hurricanes ground out the final minute of a shutout win.
The Hurricanes have been calling Mrazek’s name all season, hoping he can recapture the form he showed down the stretch last season. Friday, the fans took up the call, in appreciation.
There’s very little wrong with the Hurricanes’ offense, with a fifth (Warren Foegele), sixth (Lucas Wallmark) and seventh (Martin Necas) player hitting the 10-goal mark in the 3-0 win over the Arizona Coyotes. The defense remains a work in progress beyond the Big Three of Jaccob Slavin, Dougie Hamilton and Brett Pesce. There are two ways to fix that: Upgrade the defense to cut down on the miscues or upgrade in goal to keep them from ending up in the back of the net.
Mrazek getting on a hot streak, getting back to where he was last year, would take care of all of that.
James Reimer has had his moments, and by all indications will get the start Saturday in Hartford Whalers gear against the Los Angeles Kings in this unusual home-home back-to-back against Western Conference opposition to close out a seven-game homestand, but neither Reimer nor Mrazek has truly claimed the No. 1 job. It was around this point last season when Mrazek took control of the position and became the clear first choice over Curtis McElhinney
The Hurricanes really need Friday to be the beginning of something for Mrazek.
They really needed him Friday, too, on a night Mrazek made the difficult look easy.
“With any goalie, when they’re dialed in, it seems like even when they get Grade A’s, it doesn’t look like a Grade A (chance), because he’s already ahead of it,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “That’s almost what it felt like tonight at times. He had some really good looks he made look like easy saves when they weren’t.”
There were plenty of those. Mrazek bailed out his teammates during a sloppy second period, losing his helmet in the process at one point, making a one-goal lead stand up until the end of the period, when Wallmark and Necas scored 63 seconds apart, the latter a candidate for goal of the month on a team that doesn’t also have Andrei Svechnikov. Necas scooted in from the left point, circled behind the net and scooped a backhand over Antti Raanta, top shelf in both location and quality.
The save on Crouse, who broke free down the middle on an odd-man rush, was Mrazek’s best of 32 on the night. He didn’t overreact and left Crouse very little room to shoot, fully in keeping with the general poise Mrazek had in net. At his worst, he scrambles and gets himself out of position. At his calm best, like this, his reflexes are preserved until the last second, when they can do the most good.
“We don’t always want to give up those chance,” Foegele said, “but Petr came up big.”
So, the question remains, was this just a good night for Mrazek or the beginning of a few good months?
The answer may lie in fashion. On a shopping trip Wednesday, Mrazek good-naturedly bullied television analyst Tripp Tracy into buying an expensive new shirt and tie and even more expensive shoes. Mrazek promised Tracy a shutout if he wore the tie, a slim, blue striped number to replace Tracy’s arsenal of dated, wider ties, on Friday.
“The white sneakers he convinced me to get are what got me,” Tracy said.
A man of his word — and it really is a nice looking tie — Mrazek delivered.
“He better wear it tomorrow,” Mrazek said, but that will likely be Reimer’s start. Mrazek and the tie should both be a go again Monday in Washington. And if all goes well for him and the Hurricanes, three of the four left before the all-star break.
If Mrazek is going to lock down the job, now is the time to tie it up.
This story was originally published January 10, 2020 at 10:57 PM.
