The Canes Look Dominant in Home Stretch vs. Devils
Karl DeBlaker/AP
The Carolina Hurricanes have played near perfect hockey against the New Jersey Devils at home. In the first contest, the Canes won 5-1. Last night, they won 6-1. The crowd was electric, and Carolina gave them good reason to be on fire. The Devils simply haven’t shown up yet.
The MVP of the series so far is obviously Frederik Andersen. In my Eastern Conference preview for this round. I thought that the Canes would ride the momentum of Andersen’s Game 6 victory against the Islanders, and they have so far. It has paid off too. Andersen has only allowed 3 goals in his 3 victories. He has saved 78/81 of the total shots against him in the 3 games for a percentage of 96.3%.
Robert Willett
Andersen has been dominant, but he isn't the only one. Jesperi Kotkaniemi has notched 3 goals so far and 2 of those came within 2:30 from each other in Game 2. Jordan Martinook has led the Canes in points with 4 over the last 2 games and Jordan Staal has 3 points himself as well as Jesper Fast. One of those was a nice breakaway goal last night from Staal. Jaccob Slavin leads the team in +/- with 6.
What has set the Canes apart in the playoffs is their penalty kill unit. They have only allowed 1 Power Play goal all postseason at a 95.7% clip. That is phenomenal. They obviously lead the playoff teams in PK%, but they have a nearly 9% lead over the Kraken.
I don’t want to get my hopes up, but the way that Carolina is playing, they may not return home until the Eastern Conference Finals. They have looked very dominant, but there are some things that they can improve upon. In the series against the Islanders, they had trouble scoring and even in this series, their power play unit hasn’t been good. They have only scored 1 PP goal in this series and was only successful 20% of the time in the Islanders series.
James Guillory/USA Today Sports
There is certainly a lot to be excited for with this Canes team despite the injury woes. They are clearly a strong unit and they play as a team. Goaltending is the most valuable asset to a Cup winning team, and the Canes goalies have proven they can play. With a weakened field, or so it seems, the Canes can take full advantage of that and hopefully we see another Cup in Raleigh this playoff season.
Yacs