Photo via @Canes on Twitter/X
By Spencer Knight – @stormsurge_pod / stormsurgepod.com
October 15, 2024
The Hurricanes bounced back from an opening night defeat with a 4-2 victory against the New Jersey Devils. Backstopped by Pyotr Kochetkov in net, the Canes were able to fight through some early adversity and dominated possession down the stretch. Rookie Jackson Blake recorded his first career NHL goal, which ended up as the game winning goal, in a solid all-around game.
The Good
The Hurricanes were excellent at 5 on 5 this game with a nearly 60% Corsi For rating in that situation. This advantage was largest in the first 2 periods, where it was well over 61% before a slightly more even third period at 54%. This domination in possession was primarily driven by the Aho and Staal lines, which boasted a CF% of 60.7% and 61.5% respectively. This is not at all surprising, and exactly what I anticipated in this morning’s preview.
The Kotkaniemi and Drury lines each had a CF% of 50%, meaning even the “worst” lines (from the perspective of controlling possession) were not getting beaten. In fact, these 2 lines both scored tonight, with Gostisbehere scoring with the Kotkaniemi line and Jackson Blake being a member of the Drury line. Jarvis’s goal technically came with Svechnikov and Drury as his linemates, as Aho had already gone to the bench for a change. The Hurricanes have now outscored opponents 4-1 at 5 on 5 this season.
Despite what you read in fan groups on social media, goaltending continues to be a strength for this team. Pyotr Kochetkov saved 23 of 25 shots against, good for a .920 SV% and a 2.00 GAA (weird to do GAA for a single game). Looking at advanced statistics from Natural Stat Trick, PK had 1.14 saves above expected, significantly better than his 0.055/60 from last season. Obviously a single game sample, but an excellent single game.
The Bad
Not all went well for the Canes tonight, and special teams were once again awful. Thankfully there were far fewer penalty minutes tonight, but still some rough calls. We’ll start with the Canes lone power play, though to call it powerful would be a stretch. The Canes had a single shot attempt that was fortunately on goal, and that’s the extent of the positives. Passing looked better for the first 15 seconds and then the same issues as last game reemerged. The best scoring opportunity came in the last few seconds as the Staal line was getting an early start on the bump up shift.
While the penalty kill wasn’t necessarily bad, they did give up 1 goal on 3 attempts. The caveat there is that goal came during a 5 on 3 disadvantage. As for the penalties that were called, the refs are still getting into game shape along with the players. Svechnikov’s “roughing” penalty in the second, while a little late, was certainly not “rough.” He was sent to timeout for being too strong. Jackson Blake’s 3rd period penalty was even more atrocious, as the refs called “tripping” because he was standing too close to someone that fell down. While killing that penalty, Jordan Martinook clears the puck all the way down the ice and over the glass. Certainly an odd looking delay of game penalty, but the call was correct.
With their gift of a 5 on 3 advantage, the Devils and Nico Hischier were able to cut the deficit to 1 late in the third period. Overall the Canes penalty kill was good tonight. Though the Devils had 4 shot attempts during their 2nd period power play, none were on goal. In fact, the only power play shot on goal for the Devils was their 5 on 3 goal. The Hurricanes were able to block over half of the power play shot attempts, while only a third of the unblocked shots ended up on net.
Looking Ahead
The Canes first road trip of the season begins Friday, and it’s a long one. A stop in Pittsburgh is the first of 6 straight road games played in 3 time zones and 2 countries in just 11 days. Unfortunately there’s an extra pair of border crossings as a game at Seattle is sandwiched between two games in Canadian cities.
The Penguins are doing just ok so far this season, and that’s to be expected. An aging core has them expected to miss the playoffs again this season. However, that core is still leading the way. Evgeni Malkin leads the way in scoring, with 7 points in the team’s first 4 games. Letang, Karlsson, Pettersson, and Crosby each have 3 points so far. Goaltending has been subpar, as their two goalies Blomqvist and Jarry have a combined .885 SV% and 3.77 GAA. The Penguins play the Sabres Wednesday night before welcoming the Canes on Friday.
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