Riding the wave of a 4-game win streak, the Carolina Hurricanes came into tonight’s game looking to add to that mark against a Tampa Bay Lightning team that had been losers against Boston on Saturday night. You knew that the Lightning would be hungry, but you would also know that Carolina would be a game opponent, having lost the previous two decisions to Tampa earlier in the season (4-1 – two empty netters – and 3-2).
Much like I viewed games against the Boston Bruins in the
past and how I view Florida Panthers games now, I view these games against
Tampa Bay as measuring stick games – what sort of guts do we have, especially
this time of season. If we are to make a
deep run, we have to win games like this one.
Coming into the night, we learned we would be without Dimitri
Orlov again but also Andrii Svechnikov, due to injury. While Dimitri was expected (I’d guess he’d return
in a couple games), the Andrii injury was a little unexpected. He did get nicked up at the end of the game
against the Jets. Hopefully it isn’t too
much of an issue and he can be around again soon.
Below are my thoughts on the game:
- With the injuries listed above, Rod deployed the lines as follows:
- Hall-Aho-Blake
- Martinook-Staal-Jarvis
- Jost-Kotnaniemi-Stankoven
- Roslovic-Jankowski-Robinson
- Defensive pairings were the same as the other nights Dimitri was injured. And, as you’d expect, Pyotr Kochetkov was in the crease for this one.
- Early on, I could tell Pyotr Kochetkov was dialed in. We have discussed it on the podcast some, but it really does seem like Kochetkov enjoys playing against fellow countrymen. He made save after save during this game, 23 in total.
- A noticeable game for a good bulk of the evening – the 4th line. Roslovic-Jankowski-Robinson, for whatever reason, has worked. I noted in the last game that Winnipeg just couldn’t figure out how to match up with that line. It was no different tonight – Tampa really struggled making this line work in their own end. To this line’s credit, they did a lot of work in the offensive zone, from puck possession to creating chances and overall, just supporting each other. Additionally, Roslovic and Jankowski shared faceoff duties, depending on the dot. I really like this element. I don’t think this line is a game breaker, but you need a line like this that you can confidently roll. Jankowski already looks like he’s up to speed, having seen some minutes on the power play and kill so far in his short time in Raleigh – nice to have a true 4th line C that knows his role and is on the books for next season as well.
- We go on the kill about two and a half minutes in and were able to kill it, but it wasn’t easy – Tampa had a lot of zone time and were able to get a couple chances. Kochetkov was able to handle any shots that came through – which couldn’t be said for Andrii Vasilevskiy, who allowed a short-handed goal. Seth Jarvis went bar down, after racing down the ice once Sebastian Aho stole a puck at the blue line. The rest is history. Penalty killed, 1-0 good guys.
- Logan Stankoven, throughout the night, was moved around with a couple different groupings to give him and the staff some different looks. He looks most comfortable down low near the crease – I’d park him on a line and put him right there to redirect shots. He needs some additional strength, but aside from that, he’s going to be a stud in this sort of system.
- The power play – let’s discuss:
- The issue with the power play is that there is no power. We have been able to get some good zone entries lately, which is positive. For better or worse, we have dropped the drop pass and have just started attacking into the zone in a north-south way. Once we got in the zone and set up, there was no real pace or urgency. We had a few power plays, a 5-on-3 and a 4-on-4. By the end of the night, Rod was just throwing two defensemen and three forwards over the boards. A couple things for us that could help –
- First, winning faceoff draws. It is no secret around the league that we are struggling entering the zone. Winning the face off (and preferably back to the quarterback defenseman) is a critical first step – this way we don’t have to enter the zone.
- Second, if we are a low to high team, let’s work the puck down low and then feed up high to generate redirect chances for those that are hovering around the net. The Stankoven goal was an excellent example of this the other night – the dude is all of 5’8” but got in front of all world goalie Connor Hellebuyck to redirect a shot to the back of the net.
- Third, there must be some pace to the passing. Of all our power plays, our second one was our best, I thought, but it all was built around pace and urgency. We tend to receive a pass and dust the puck, which allows the defenders to reposition – pace should be priority. It hasn’t been. To put some things in perspective – in calendar year 2025, we have just as many short-handed goals (6) as power play goals. Urgency and pace.
- I thought the Lightning owned time of possession and zone time from the middle of the first through the halfway point of the 2nd period. It was impressive to see our defense handle things and not over pursue things – it’s not easy to do when you’re looking across and seeing the elite talent on the other side of the ice.
- Sean Walker was one who I thought had a real solid night overall. Scott Morrow also played noticeable positive shifts in the 2nd period that helped keep things at 1-0. What a way to get your bearings in the league – he’s played against Winnipeg twice, Utah and Tampa. He was credited with three blocked shots on the night
- By the end of the first, I started seeing the Blake-Aho-Jarvis line I had been dying to see and boy, did they look good together. Towards the middle of the 2nd period, they had one dominant shift after another. With Blake being able to maneuver around defenders the way that he does and get through tight areas with the puck, he should really be able to open space for Jarvis and Aho to bury the puck. There were two such occasions in the 2nd where Blake was able to feed a driving Jarvis, who was either saved by Vasilevskiy or had his stick tied up by the defender legally. Another shift, this line helped keep the Lightning hemmed in for two and a half minutes in their zone while we were attacking.
- For a bit, I thought Andrii Vasilevskiy was going to try and steal this one from us. He made a couple stellar saves against Jarvis and Staal on some Grade-A looks. After the Staal save, the puck was poked out and picked up by Jordan Martinook, who allowed everyone to get onside before streaking down the right side. He threw the puck at the net, and it somehow leaked through the short side on a crazy tough angle. It was excellent pressure for about five minutes or so – the dam was going to break eventually. 2-0 good guys.
- With a little under a minute left, Jalen Chatfield obtained a loose puck in the defensive end and sent the puck to Taylor Hall, who was working his way up ice. He had Jack Roslovic coming with him on a 2-on-1, so Taylor sauced a pass his way and Jack Roslovic left no doubt, going top shelf blocker side. 3-0 Hurricanes.
- Throughout the third period, I kept asking myself if there was someone injured. It appeared that we were juggling through a few iterations of the lines. I am not sure if that was by design to get some more looks for Stankoven and Jankowski with the rest of his teammates. By the end, Stankoven was playing a lot with the Jordans – and I support that decision. They had a couple of solid shifts together. I think Rod may have found that top line in Blake-Aho-Jarvis and the 4th line of Robinson-Jankowski-Roslovic, so he is mixing some of those middle six now.
- Shayne Gostisbehere and Brent Burns also had solid nights tonight. Nothing fancy, just smart, sound defensive hockey. Stack the games boys. Stack the games.
- Tampa finally buried one in the 3rd – it was a clean zone entry with Cirilli driving to the net. Staal went with him, so that was two decent sized frames in Kochetkov’s line of sight. The puck came off Goncalves stick and upstairs glove side to make it 3-1 us.
- Sean Walker wrapped us up with a nice goal that started with a clean face-off win by Jordan Staal. We didn’t dominate in the circle like we typically would, but he won that one pretty convincingly. Walker went across the top of the zone with the puck and went what could only be described as against Vasilevskiy’s grain, blocker side as he’s coming across the crease to follow the play. Well placed puck. 4-1 Hurricanes.
And that would be our final score. I thought there were stretches of this game
where Tampa really had the initiative, but we dug deep to keep them off the scoreboard
(either defensively sound play or great goaltending). I mentioned stacking games (for Brent Burns,
I have been saying it for like 6 or 7 games now – he’s played well) – the goaltending
has been very good. Freddie and Pyotr
have a good rhythm at the moment.
We are officially on a roll, winners of five straight. We did a lot of the work tonight with
Martinook and Staal getting a little bit of a lighter load. I would have expected them to get the lion's
share of Tampa’s first line – neither of the two cracked 12 minutes of ice
time. This is good news for us, as they
could use a lighter load in preparation for a playoff run.
Next up: Another date
with the Detroit Red Wings on Friday.
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