Carolina Hurricanes
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
CAROLINA HURRICANES NEWS CLIPPINGS • January 19, 2021 Svechnikov, Reimer help Hurricanes rebound to beat Predators 4-2 By Chip Alexander protocol list. Brind’Amour said forward Teuvo Teravainen “tweaked something” during the game and he was not sure if Andrei Svechnikov is quickly racking up points this season he would be available Tuesday when the two teams for the Carolina Hurricanes, continuing to display his vast complete the back-to-back. hockey potential. “Other guys had to step up into roles they normally don’t do,” Svechnikov scored for the third consecutive game and Brind’Amour said. “From that standpoint I think it was a gutsy assisted on Sebastian Aho’s goal Monday as the Canes, win.” behind goalie James Reimer, topped the Nashville Predators 4-2 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. Svechnikov scores for Canes in second “At crunch time, he doesn’t shy away,” Canes coach Rod Svechnikov has a power-play goal for the Canes and Filip Brind’Amour said of Svechnikov on his postgame media call. Forsberg scored an even-strength goal for the Predators in “He wants the puck. Obviously he was a difference maker the second periods as it was 1-1 after 40 minutes. tonight,” Svechnikov took a pass from Dougie Hamilton and blistered Vincent Trocheck scored for the Canes (2-1-0), who a shot at 16:05 of the second. Svechnikov has scored in all rebounded from a 4-2 loss Saturday against the Detroit Red three Canes games, getting an empty-netter in the opener. Wings. Trocheck’s third-period goal gave the Canes a 2-1 lead as the crafty center first forced a turnover, then scored The Preds needed 46 seconds to tie it. With the Canes on a shot that beat goalie Pekka Rinne to the blocker side. losing focus after scoring, Forsberg was able to take a stretch pass from Viktor Arvidsson and go in alone to beat “He’s a competitor,” Brind’Amour said. “You know he’s going Canes goalie James Reimer. to compete every night. He’s going to make some mistakes like everybody and it’s all generally trying to do too much. Defenseman Brett Pesce was slashed by former Canes He’s making some good plays for us.” forward Erik Haula of the Preds with 36 seconds left in the period, and the Canes went into the third on the power play. Reimer, in his first start of the season, had a busy night, moving and bouncing around the crease and stopping 31 of Canes, Preds scoreless in first 33 shots to stymie the Predators (2-1-0), who beat the The Canes and Predators traded off penalties, and good, Columbus Blue Jackets in their first two games. clean shots were hard to find in a scoreless first period, “He was great,” Brind’Amour said. “They had some good The Canes twice took penalties to put the Preds on the looks but he was just sharp.” power play, only to have the Preds quickly commit a penalty Filip Forsberg broke loose for a score in the second period, and make it 4-on-4 play. Late in the first, Andrei walking in alone, and Viktor Arvidsson scored quickly on a Svechnikov’s tripping penalty again gave the Preds the man third-period power play after Warren Foegele was called for advantage, which Nashville will take into the second period. an offensive-zone penalty. The Canes had an early scoring chance on an early 2-on-1 Svechnikov took a pass from Dougie Hamilton and blistered that had Svechnikov set up Sebastian Aho for a shot, but a wrister from the top of the left circle for a second-period goalie Pekka Rinne easily made the stop. Later in the period, power-play scores. The power forward had a goal and assist Warren Foegele took the puck strong to the net but was in Saturday’s loss, and an empty net goal in the 3-0 opening stymied by Rinne. The Preds’ Filip Forsberg had a shot victory over Detroit. deflected and the puck hit the crossbar late in the period. “Every game is getting better,” Svechnikov said. “Even today Canes goalie James Reimer in his first start of the season, I felt way better than the last game.” faced 12 shots in the first. The Canes had seven shots Aho’s first goal of the season came on a well-executed two- Canes plan: keep it simple on-one with Svechnikov. Rinne snuffed out a similar two-on- The Carolina Hurricanes were fighting some rust in the one by the two in the first period but Aho beat the Finnish season opener but beat the Detroit Red Wings. goalie in the third for a 3-1 lead, Two nights later, the Canes were “too cute” in the words of Nino Niederreiter scored a late empty-net goal to seal the coach Rod Brind’Amour and lost to the Wings. win for Carolina. Svecnhikov, Trocheck and Aho each had a goal and assist -- Svechnkov has five points in the first three And the approach Monday, against the Nashville Predators? games. “We have to get to our game and keep it a little more simple,” The Canes again played without captain Jordan Staal, who forward Ryan Dzingel said on the media call after Monday’s missed a second game and remained on the NHL COVID-19 CAROLINA HURRICANES NEWS CLIPPINGS • January 19, 2021 morning skate in Nashville. “Just play our game and simple, Staal stays on COVID list simple, simple.” With captain Jordan Staal remaining on the NHL’s COVID-19 Seems simple enough but Brind’Amour put it another way. protocol list, the Canes again had center Morgan Geekie in the lineup. Geekie was to center Dzingel and Brock McGinn. “We’ve got to stick to what we do best and that gives us the ... best chance to win,” he said on the media call. “We’ve got come creative players and sometimes instead of getting into Vincent Trocheck led the Canes with 10 shots in the first two the game first and then be creative, they’re trying to be games, two more than Teuvo Teravainen. Martin Necas had creative and think that it’s going to get us to our game. And it six shots and has been an offensive threat, buzzing around doesn’t work that way. the net. Put him in the “soon-to-score” category. ... “It happens. To be successful, and people say it’s simple, but The Predators beat the Columbus Blue Jackets in their first it’s really to play our game and then let the plays happen two games, winning 3-1 and 5-2. Seven of the Preds’ goals from there.” were at even strength as they went 0-6 on the power play. While the Canes will play their first four games on the road, the Preds are home for the first four. ‘Simple, simple, simple’: Observations on the Hurricanes righting the ship By Sara Civian “(The faceoff situation) is obviously troubling, but that’s why,” Brind’Amour said postgame. “You have a guy that takes 20 This NHL season is going to be as weird as it is emotional, faceoffs per night, now one-third of your faceoffs are going to full stop. guys who don’t necessarily — that’s not their specialty. You’re tempted to judge every shift of every game when That’s a big deal. These are things you miss when the big there are only 56, but you’re reminded how rusty these guy’s out.” players are with no preseason and a limited training camp. 3. Like anyone else watching the first three Hurricanes Your team needs to crush the Detroit Red Wings every time games, I have had my fair share of fluctuating thoughts on you play them or your team is in trouble, but it seems very the scale of “Everything’s fine” to “Quebec City 2022,” but unlikely that any team will beat an opponent eight times, and something about Andrei Svechnikov’s tone postgame wait — the Wings aren’t looking so bad. Saturday forced me to believe that everything was, in fact, If you’re feeling like everything — good and bad — is fine. exaggerated, you’re not alone, and I implore you to feel all of “It’s all about mindset, right? We came out, we weren’t ready your hockey feelings this season. In objective reality, though, at all — especially me, I wasn’t ready,” he said, after two the Canes are 2-1 after handing the Nashville Predators their goals in two games. “I gotta play better from the start of the first home loss, 4-2, on Monday. It wasn’t perfect, but it was, game … We gotta be ready. We gotta prepare better, have a as coach Rod Brind’Amour put it, “Gutsy.” It was also crucial better warmup. We’re going to do that next game, for sure.” after a loss against Detroit and a subsequent Hurricanes Twitter meltdown. Like I said, Svechnikov had been putting up points — even while buried in the lineup — but I knew what he meant. What do we do about all these mixed emotions? We There’d been a few, sloppy miscues in his game, and I know organize them into a little list and call them observations. by now he cares about more than whatever’s on the 1. The general vibe of Canes Twitter was much calmer about scoresheet. the state of the team after Monday’s win — funny how that And yes, we truly returned to normalcy with a Svechnikov works.