Hurricanes vs. Hockey Club – The Recap

With a three-game losing streak in progress, the Carolina Hurricanes came into this afternoon’s tilt with one thing on their mind – finish strong.  After a tough loss to a good Minnesota Wild team on Thursday, it was back to work just 38 hours later.  And while I felt the Hurricanes were playing some good hockey, it did seem to feel like the vibes were off a little.  Several Hurricanes looked more than a little frustrated at different points of the game – not at each other, but the circumstances of the situation they were in – working through a tough stretch before a break with illness in their locker room.

A couple things to note before I head into my thoughts – first, Mikko Rantanen would be out today with a lower body injury, presumably because of a puck he took right off the knee from a Brent Burns blast the other night.  Second, the power play has stunk for a while and Rod said as much after the game the other night.  The hope here is that we get through this game with a couple points and take a much needed two weeks off during the Four Nations event.

Below are my thoughts on the game:

• Seth Jarvis had a big game – and it started early.  Seth is a producer, but it all is really jumpstarted by his work on the defensive end of the ice.  His play defensively is extremely impressive.
• Sebastian Aho also started sharp defensively.  This may go without saying, but it seems to me that in sports where you are playing two ways (offensively and defensively), getting the jump on the defensive side early gets you into a flow of the game and can lead to offensive breakouts.  Good to see Aho setting the tone early with good defensive shifts.
• Pyotr Kochetkov was in the net to start this game – as is the case since Frederik Andersen has come back, the two of them have gone back and forth trading turns in net.  Today was Kochetkov’s turn. 
• Eric Robinson had a good start to this one – for the first 30 minutes of this game, he was one that was noticeable in front of the net getting rebound opportunities and creating net front presence.  He, too, started on time defensively with a couple decent steals in his offensive zone and the neutral zone.  Early on, he was with Kotkaniemi and Hall, but the combinations were ever changing as we were playing 11 and 7 again today with Rantanen out.
• Jalen Chatfield had a great game overall and started things off for us in the first period with a great defensive play (notice a theme) in the attacking zone to win a battle on the boards and fed the puck out to Andrii Svechnikov.  He then sped down the ice behind Jordan Staal, who had received the pass coming up the ice from Svech and then fed Chatfield who buried the puck in the back of the net.  Just excellent two- way hockey by Chatfield.  1-0 good guys.
• Dimitri Orlov is still very up and down, and I don’t know what we can do to fix it.  It seems that he is always in on at least one (and sometimes more) awful shifts a night.  A couple spots in the game:
• Kochetkov gave up the first goal, a power play goal to Shane Doan on a goal that sailed right over PK’s glove.  Doan was being covered by Orlov on that play, and while Doan made a real nice play with his stick handling to get around Dimitri, Dimitri should really be taking away some of that space.  Regardless, Pyotr needs to make that save.   This tied the game at one a piece.
• Clayton Keller got a steal in the 2^nd to get the Utah Hockey Club within a goal – and again, it was another good stick play, this time for Keller, to steal it from…Dimitri Orlov…and then zip down the ice.  He shipped it five hole and cut a two-goal lead at the time to one.
• There were at least a couple neutral zone entries that were barely even challenged by Orlov that Utah was able to gain entry cleanly into the attacking zone and put us on our heels a bit.
• He had at least one pass cross ice that was intercepted and led to a Utah scoring chance in the 2^nd period. 
• Our power play scored this evening on a one timer from Seth Jarvis to give us a 1 goal cushion in the early goings of the 2^nd period.  We only had two power play opportunities, and the first one looked miserable aside from the one chance we got where Jackson Blake drove to the net through heavy traffic to try to stuff one (that dude is fearless).  The second one where we scored, we had minimal net front – it was like watching an isolation play in the NBA where the lane is clear and it’s one on one – only we were just passing it around.  Seth finally scored when a rebound came around to Brent Burns who shoveled it to Jarvy – and good news…no reversal of the goal.  Utah did review it for quite some time to see if the rebound of a previous shot hit the net above the glass first, but it was inconclusive, and they decided against a challenge. 
• I thought Taylor Hall played another solid game – I noted a couple good things through the game, including a good IQ play ending a shift where he pinned the puck against the board at the offensive blue line before dumping to an available area where his team could retrieve and maintain possession.  His work on the bump up shifts on penalty kills is also quite noticeable in a positive way.
• Overall, it is amazing how the boys responded after the power play goal.  It was like a black cloud was lifted, just the way they were moving around the ice and creating opportunities.
• Pyotr Kochetkov had a pretty solid game, giving up 3 goals.  I thought the first goal had the ability to be saved, the second goal with Keller barreling down was going to be tough, and the third goal was on a 5 on 3 scenario shorthanded.  In total, he saved 36 of 39 shots, which is above the .900 save percentage I prefer seeing in a given evening.  I thought he was pretty good in the 3^rd, where Utah seemed to come in waves.  He also had a great run at the end of the 2^nd period where he saved 2 or 3 that kept the game at the cushion it was.
• After a tied first period, the Hurricanes had a wave of offensive activity which included Jarvis and Aho both burying two and by the end of the period, we had built a 5-2 lead.  The highlights:
• Seth Jarvis with the power play goal to get us started.
• Sebastian Aho makes it 3-1, but it was created by a Seth Jarvis turnover that he forced in the defensive end – the puck pokes back to Kalel Vejmelka, who was attacking the puck to try to stop a Seth Jarvis breakaway, as he was barreling down.  Vejmelka pokes it out, but right to Aho, who calmly collects the puck and patiently goes backhand (with Vejmelka out of position) to bury it.  Such a great play, all started by Seth Jarvis.
• Sebastian Aho went on natural hat trick watch, to give us our 2-goal cushion back on the penalty kill.  It starts with Jalen Chatfield making a great skate block of a pass defensively – he feeds it out to Jarvis, who had made his way down the boards to collect.  He chiped to himself and retrieved the puck down low, took a peek and noticed Aho supporting.  Also noticing a second player coming towards him, he fed Aho a sick pass and Aho sticks it in the back of the net.  Such a fantastic feed by Jarvis and great defense by Jalen Chatfield.
• There were a couple minutes in this one where I genuinely thought we might have a goalie fight – cooler heads prevailed, but both goalies went past their respective blue lines, as there was a scuffle of players after some poking for a puck after a whistle that Kochetkov was able to induce.  While the forwards and defensemen tied each other up, both goalies started chirping and the refs kind of got between them before any real engagement.
• Immediately after this, a faceoff in the neutral zone was won by Aho who pushed it forward, which was retrieved by Blake after tapping a couple Utah sticks.  Blake then pushed forward to Jarvis, who sprinted free and buried another one to make it 5-2 good guys.
• Seth Jarvis, Sebastian Aho and Jalen Chatfield were your three stars of the game, and I could have ordered them any which way – all three were stellar and deserved top honors today.  With 4 points (2G, 2A), the first star went to Seth.  Aho was very noticeable that second period and Jalen Chatfield was probably our best defenseman today (and that’s saying something because Slavin was pretty good too).
• Martinook netted his 10^th goal of the season – an empty netter near the end of the game.  Hats rained down for it because - we are Raleigh?  We like to drink a lot?  We were partying after scoring more goals in this game than the last four games combined?  More likely – we probably threw those hats because half of our fans may have thought either Aho or Jarvis (both on hat trick watch) had scored it – both were on the ice.  My response to this…pay attention to the action on the ice.  48 doesn’t look like 24 or 20.   Do better fans.  That is all.
• Quiet nights for Jack Roslovic over the last hand full of games.  It is nice that he can center a line, but I think Jaaska can do the same thing for us and is a bit more of a grinder.  I would not be surprised at all if Jack is dealt in part of a trade after the Four Nations event.  He did end up burying one on a pretty slick put back after a couple rebounds.  Juha Jaaska had ended up shooting for a sharp angle shot, where Blake was out front.  Blake collected the rebound and attempted to stuff it, which was also saved.  Roslovic, however, cashed in the additional rebound.  I think Roslovic is liked on the team, but I don’t see his overall fit in the top 9, a spot he likely needs to be in to be successful.  It reminds me of the Ryan Dzingel fit from years past.  Again, he’s been fine, and I guess Roslovic can take face-offs, but I am failing to see the fit for the rest of the way.
• For a bulk of the 2^nd period and all of the 3^rd period, it was a lot of Blake-Aho-Jarvis looks – those three appear to play well together.  I’m not opposed to Taylor Hall on that line to offer some size either.  I will throw a theory out there – and it might not be right.  But it really looked like Aho was in control of that line – and it is possible he feels like he owns a line like that, with Jarvis and Blake younger than Sebastian.  Because of Rantanen and his success in Colorado, and because Sebastian hasn’t ever played with a player like Rantanen, could it be that Aho is a little intimidated by that?  It may be overly hyping this, but it is something to keep an eye on.  He looked comfortable – that’s all I’m saying.  I don’t know if it will happen, but lines like this could make sense:
• Jarvis-Aho-Blake
• Rantanen-Kotkaniemi-Svechnikov
• Martinook-Staal-Hall
• Robinson-Roslovic-Carrier/Jaaska
• Final note:  those line combinations aren’t numbered – I’d think all three of the top lines listed would take turns getting looks as the ‘top line’ in that scenario.   

The game was touted as a “must win” before the break from everyone – while I will take the two points, I didn’t truly buy that.  Some momentum and positive vibes could be just what the doctor ordered, though. 

Up next for the Carolina Hurricanes – a date with the Toronto Maple Leafs on 2/22.  Be on the lookout for some additional content over the next two weeks.