The Hurricanes went 0-4 against the New York Rangers this year, so it’s not shocking to see that many people have them pegged to be upset by New York in the qualifying round. But when you go beyond their record against the Rangers and look at each game individually, it paints a more evenly matched series.
In their first game in November, the Hurricanes lost 4-2, despite outshooting the Rangers by a ridiculous margin of 47-19. The Rangers really didn’t sustain much pressure in Carolina’s end, meanwhile the Hurricanes were seriously getting chances from all over the ice, but Henrik Lundqvist was excellent. They were given time and space, had odd-man rushes, connected on cross-crease passes, created turnovers and sustained pressure in the offensive zone but just couldn’t bury their chances.
In their second game, the Hurricanes outshot the Rangers 43-25 but ended up losing 3-2. The Hurricanes pressed hard for the last period and a half and had several excellent chances. Martin Necas couldn’t hit a wide open net and Andrei Svechnikov put a shot right off the crossbar, to name a couple of the perfect chances missed. Mrazek was certainly tested quite a bit more than he was in the first game, but this was another game that Carolina certainly could’ve won if they converted on their opportunities.
In their third meeting near the end of 2019, the Hurricanes lost again, this time 5-3, despite outshooting New York 42-24. As was the case with the other two games, the Rangers took the lead and Carolina had to try to battle back. Sebastian Aho had a goal called back as an offside and the Hurricanes missed on quite a few very good chances, while the Rangers scored on most of theirs.
The Rangers may have outshot Carolina in their fourth meeting, but once again, the Hurricanes had some excellent chances. They couldn’t convert on their 2-on-1s, they had some great opportunities on the power play, were stopped on cross-crease passes, hit goal posts and had some great tips from in-close. However, New York’s top players like Ryan Strome, Artemi Panarin and Mike Zibanejad didn’t miss on the majority of their chances and the same can’t be said for the Hurricanes’ top forwards.
In their four meetings, Carolina outshot New York 161-104 but scored just nine goals on those 161 shots. It’s also certainly unsustainable to allow 17 goals on 104 shots but we know that the Hurricanes’ goaltending will be a disadvantage heading into the series. Several of New York’s chances came on the rush, while the Hurricanes were unable to capitalize on continued pressure in the Rangers’ end.
In terms of individual players, Carolina’s top forwards just weren’t able to produce. While Sebastian Aho scored three goals against the Rangers this year, Martin Necas, Andrei Svechnikov and Teuvo Teravainen all went without a goal on 33 combined shots in the four games.
If the Hurricanes hope to get past the Rangers in the qualifying round, their top players will need to be able to convert on their chances. There’s more to it than that and goaltending will still be a concern, but Carolina’s inability to find the back of the net, despite getting great chances, was the main reason the Hurricanes didn’t win a game against New York this year.
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Here are today's poll questions (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
If you could select one team in the East ranked from 9th-12th for the Hurricanes to face in the qualifying round, who would it be?
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