Should we be worried about the Carolina Hurricanes’ struggles of late?
Tyler Yaremchuk was joined by Mike McKenna to talk about the recent struggles of the Carolina Hurricanes on the latest episode of Daily Faceoff Live.
Tyler Yaremchuk: The Carolina Hurricanes are struggling right now, having been shutout in back-to-back games by the Devils and Golden Knights. And their previous win was a 1-0 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers which means we’re now closing in on nine periods where this team has one goal.
We heard a lot leading into the deadline. Are they after Ryan O’Reilly, are they in on Timo Meier. Tom Dundon told our Frank Seravalli that he wants to get aggressive, well they didn’t exactly get aggressive. All they got was Shayne Gostisbehere, I guess Jesse Puljujarvi as well. Although he isn’t much of a factor, he isn’t going to help your scoring.
Is there a reason to be concerned about the Canes from a hockey perspective, and if you were a fan of this team would you be a little bit irked that your team didn’t do more at the deadline?
Mike McKenna: I’m a little nervous and yeah I wish the Canes would have taken a bigger swing at a rental or someone they could have gotten under team control in the future. And here’s why, they’ve scored one goal in their last 94 shots in three games. They’ve been against the Devils, Golden Knights, and Flyers, so its a mixed bag but look at the chances that they’re generating Tyler.
Throughout the season, the Hurricanes always out-chance teams when you look at straight up scoring chances. But when you start to pair it down to high-danger things change. Like 5-on-5 in the last three games, six high-danger chances, 11, six again last night against the Devils. That’s not going to cut it if you’re trying to score, on top of that look at their scoring.
Brent Burns is their leading scorer followed by Necas, Svechnikov, Kotkaniemi, then Aho. Where is the star power that we’ve always talked about. Yes, they’re missing Pacioretty but they needed to get at it more at the deadline. And now, Gostisbehere is -5 in his last four games. He had a great first game against Tampa Bay, he had a goal and two assists.
They have two defensemen out there in Burns and Gostisbehere that make the goalie a little bit nervous. Great offensive players, but they make you nervous defensively. I think that that team looks a little different and they did not bulk up the way those other teams in the Eastern Conference did.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Yeah, we talked about that hole down the middle and how that was the spot they probably should have looked to address a little bit. And you’re going to go into the playoffs now with Kotkaniemi as their 2C and I know they’re thrilled with what he has done this year and they feel like he’s taken another step. A lot of people in Carolina say it has not been talked about enough around the league.
The point is, you’re going to go up against a Toronto team potentially, you just go through the whole conference, if you get Toronto or Tampa or Boston in the conference finals look at what those teams can throw out down the middle. Look in your own division, what the Devils have with Hughes and Hischier down the middle. What the Rangers have with how that whole top-nine looks.
Their forward group just isn’t on par and then I look at the goaltending situation where neither of those two starters can stay healthy. I know Kochetkov is a great story but there’s a lot of flaws with this Hurricanes team despite how good their record looks this year.
Mike McKenna: They’re this good because they play so hard, and they play with an identity, and they come in waves, but can they finish?
To me that’s the big question, and Freddie Andersen has been okay lately and Kochetkov has been pretty good but they’re still missing that scorer. With Svechnikov out, you really see it. They’re one injury away from not being able to score. That’s been a problem in the last three games.
You can watch the rest of the episode here…