Hurricanes need to diversify scoring chances to beat Panthers

The Carolina Hurricanes will need to find offense when they face the Florida Panthers in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference Final best-of-seven series on Thursday night. After losing 5-2 in Game 1 on Tuesday, the Hurricanes can’t afford to find themselves being down 2-0 as the series shifts to Florida for Games 3 and 4.

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk are joined by former QMJHL coach Jon Goyens to discuss the Hurricanes’ lack of scoring in recent playoff runs and how they can change their fortune in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Tyler Yaremchuk: During the regular season, the Hurricanes were a middle of the pack team when it came to generating scoring off the rush, but their DNA is “dump the puck in, play the possession game.” Do they have it in them to diversify their scoring chances?

Jon Goyens: They’re going to have to execute in their diversification of scoring. This was the first team that led me down that path of coming up with this phrase. Every year, when they get bounced out of the playoffs, it’s not because they don’t defend well, or they don’t play hard, or they get away from their identity. Typically, they run out of goals at key moments in a series.

They have become a team that’s more middle-of-the-pack like you mentioned when it comes to creating offense off the rush. However, in the last game, all their offense was perimeter. When they did get their moments, they weren’t able to capitalize.

They’re going to have to take the fact that Florida is a high-pressure team all over the ice, and they’re going to have to put one or two in the back of the net off those plays.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…