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The Carolina Hurricanes split their home back-to-back set across Thursday and Friday, falling 4-1 to the Boston Bruins, before taking down the Washington Capitals 4-2 last night.
The game against Boston acted as a good test for the Hurricanes, but Carolina found themselves in a terrible spot early, when three Boston goals in the first 11 minutes (courtesy of some defensive breakdowns for Carolina) left the Hurricanes in a huge hole. While Carolina did press back with a really strong second period, and got on the board on a 5-on-3 later in the frame, ultimately, the deficit was far too large to overcome. The Bruins held off the Hurricanes in the third period, and added an empty netter, leading to a 4-1 loss for Carolina.
It wasn’t necessarily a poor outing overall for Carolina, just a really, really tough start. Surrendering a breakaway only minutes into the game is tough, then the David Pastrnak goal, where everyone got lost and allowed him to just walk right to the net and score, was just a bad look. In a matchup where the Hurricanes really had an opportunity to see how they measure up against another top team in the East, the slow start put things out of reach before they could even get going. The game also marked Frederik Andersen’s first loss since returning after a wild 7-0-0 streak, which was just a bonus negative.
So heading into the last night's game against Washington, seeing a bounce-back performance was key to make sure the loss didn’t act as any sort of a real setback. Not to mention, Washington had recently ended Carolina’s win streak only about two weeks back.
Once again though, Carolina started slow, with Alex Ovechkin able to bury a rebound only minutes into the game. Then even though the Hurricanes went on to dominate the first period after giving up that initial goal, they couldn’t capitalize, and Ovechkin struck again in the final minute of the frame off a nice tip in front, leaving Carolina in a multi-goal deficit for the second day in a row.
The Hurricanes continued to press in the second period though, but despite some power play chances to claw back into the game, Carolina couldn’t convert. However, late in the the frame, Jaccob Slavin flipped a puck down ice and Jake Guentzel managed to get there just before it got to Darcy Kuemper, scoring to finally get the Hurricanes on the board. Sebastian Aho then had a late chance on a shorthanded breakaway but was stopped by Kuemper, leaving Carolina still trailing.
So entering the third period, the Hurricanes had a lot of life, down just one and outshooting Washington by a ridiculous 32-10 margin through 40 minutes. Once again, the Hurricanes outshot the Capitals in the frame, but it wasn’t until a power play midway through the period where the Hurricanes were able to tie it, with Martin Necas wiring a one-timer past Kuemper.
Then with the Hurricanes back on the power play with under two minutes to go, Brent Burns put a point shot on net, and while he was stopped, Sebastian Aho was there to bury the rebound, giving Carolina their first lead of the game. Jake Guentzel scored an empty netter in the dying seconds after that, with the Hurricanes taking a 4-2 win.
It was a huge bounce-back outing after the loss against Boston, where Carolina managed to outplay the Capitals through most of the game, outshooting the Capitals by a massive 45-16 margin.
Of course, getting into another early multi-goal deficit wasn’t the way you’d like to see the Hurricanes start the game, but it’s difficult to find much else to take issue with. Carolina was pretty dominant at even strength, and went 2-for-4 on the power play, in order to take over in the third period, putting together a great second half of their back-to-back set.
While Andrei Svechnikov missed the game against Washignton with an illness, the matchup against Boston also gave us a glimpse of how the lineup could look when fully healthy, with Jesperi Kotkaniemi as the healthy extra. We’ll see if he’s back out again once Svechnikov returns, or if the Hurricanes go a different route (and maybe rest Jesper Fast at points).
As of now, the Hurricanes probably aren’t catching the New York Rangers for top spot in the Metropolitan Division, but have already locked up second spot. Assuming they don’t overtake the Rangers, they’ll be facing one of the New York Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, or Washington Capitals in the first round .
In other news, shortly after signing Scott Morrow earlier in the week, the Hurricanes also announced today that they’ve signed forward Gleb Trikozov to an entry-level contract. Trikozov was selected by the Hurricanes in the second round of the 2022 NHL Draft, and has spent his entire career up to this point playing in Russia.
Carolina will be back in action tomorrow, when they play their final home game of the regular season against the Columbus Blue Jackets
OTHER ARTICLES FROM APRIL
- Canes look poised for success entering final stretch of regular season 
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
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