CAROLINA HURRICANES NEWS CLIPPINGS • March 7, 2021 What happened to Dougie Hamilton’s goal scoring for the Hurricanes? By Chip Alexander averaged 14 goals in the past six seasons and scored on a career-high 8.2 percent of his shots last season, For those who may have forgotten how Dougie Hamilton scored his last goal, here’s the way it went down: “We obviously want him to put up numbers, but it’s more important he’s sound defensively,” Brind’Amour said on a The Carolina Hurricanes defenseman was stationed at the media call last week. right point as a pass from Ryan Dzingel came up the wall. In pursuit of the puck was forward Liam Foudy of the Columbus Hamilton, recently asked to assess his goal-scoring Blue Jackets, but Hamilton beat him to it and quickly lifted problems, said, “You can always be better, I think, tying to the puck toward the net. find spots to get looks and things like that. It took some time but I think I’m starting to get more looks recently. Hit a couple Mike Maniscalco, the Canes’ broadcast play-by-play man, of posts and crossbars. likened it to an “Eephus pitch” in baseball, a good description of the high, floating puck. Columbus defenseman David “It’s definitely a different feel if some of those go in and you Savard, in the slot, tried to jump and swat it out of the air with feel better about yourself. I’d definitely like to be able to a glove and appeared to get a piece. But the puck sailed produce more offense and help the team that way.” past goalie Joonas Korpisalo and into the net. Contract on the horizon That knuckler gave the Canes a 6-4 lead and was the winning goal in a 6-5 victory. The goal was also Hamilton’s It’s an important season for Hamilton. He’s in the final year of first in Nationwide Arena since breaking a leg there on Jan. a six-year contract that has paid him an average of $5.75 16, 2020. million, the highest among Canes defensemen. He is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent after the That most recent goal came on Feb. 7, in the Canes’ ninth season and has stated that he hopes to stay with the game of the season. It is also Hamilton’s only goal this Hurricanes, his third team since entering the NHL in 2012-13 season, as the curious case of Hamilton and his baffling with the Boston Bruins. goal-scoring drought continues. Hamilton now has played almost half as many games this In 23 games, Hamilton has taken 70 shots. Some have been season as he did last season, and some of his metrics tipped and redirected by his teammates for goals, helping proportionately are lower by comparison. He has blocked 21 him to a team-leading 15 assists this season. He had two shots compared to 63 last season, and has 20 hits compared assists Thursday in the Canes’ 5-2 win over the Detroit Red to 52. He has created 11 rebounds off shots to last year’s 30, Wings, when he had three shots and also blocked three according to the Naturalstattrick.com hockey analytics site. shots. And the goals. After 23 games last season, Hamilton had 10. But a year after scoring 14 goals in 47 games, he has just the one. Despite Hamilton’s goal-scoring woes — and even with forward Teuvo Teravainen slowed by COVID-19 and then a Jaccob Slavin, Hamilton’s defensive partner on the Canes’ concussion — the Canes (16-6-1) were fourth in the NHL in top pairing, said he has not sensed any frustration in goals per game (3.35) and fourth in power-play percentage Hamilton because of his lack of scoring. (30.1 percent) through Friday’s games. “I think he’s been handling it fine,” Slavin said on Saturday’s According to Naturalstattrick.com, the Canes are among the media call. “It’s part of the game. You’ve got your ups, got league leaders at all strengths in Corsi percentage, which is your downs. He’s been in the league for a long time. He’s one measure of puck possession, as well as scoring-chance had his chances and they’re going to start going in soon percentage. enough. The Canes rank 17th in the NHL in five-on-five shooting “He’s just going to continue to stick with it and they’re going percentage at 7.89 percent. But they’re eighth at all strengths to go in eventually, knowing the type of player he is and the at 10.56 percent because of their power-play scoring, where ability he has to put the puck in the net. Soon enough, they have an NHL-best 20.8 shooting percentage. they’re going to go in.” What does all that mean? According to the NHL’s stats, Hamilton has taken 25 wrist shots, 21 snap shots and 20 slap shots this season, along “I think it says we have a lot of depth for scoring,” with two backhanders and two deflections — the Columbus Brind’Amour said Saturday. “We have a lot of different goal was classified a snap shot. He leads the league with 36 options now whereas in the past if you shut down one or two missed shots that were wide of the net. of our top guys, it made it hard to score. Now we have a few more options.” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour has used the “just a matter of time” line a few times in describing Hamilton, who has CAROLINA HURRICANES NEWS CLIPPINGS • March 7, 2021 Of note Carolina Hurricanes vs. Florida Panthers The Canes on Saturday signed goaltender Beck Warm to a When: Sunday, 5 p.m. two-year, entry-level contract. The deal will pay Warm $700,000 in 2020-21 and $750,000 in 2021-22 at the NHL Where: PNC Arena, Raleigh. level or $60,000 at the AHL level for both seasons, and he TV: FSCR received a signing bonus of $50,000. Warm, 21, has a 4-0-0 record, 2.25 goals-against average and .940 save percentage in four AHL games with the Chicago Wolves this season. Rest is a Weapon for the Canes Niederreiter: 'It's great to get a little recovery going and go "The games just keep coming," he said. right back at it' And they don't stop coming. By Michael Smith So, any sort of break - especially two days in between I'm going to be honest. I woke up today thinking I had games, about as luxurious as it gets in this 56-game sprint - forgotten to write a game preview. is valuable time to reset and refresh. Instead, Saturday, March 6 was just a practice day for the "It's huge. My body feels pretty good today. That's a treat, Carolina Hurricanes. and it's huge mentally," Slavin said. "We take those days when we can to enjoy them away from the rink with family An informal straw poll around the locker room showed that I and get our minds off the game a little bit." wasn't alone. Other players and staff had similar thoughts running through their minds this morning. This two-day gap in between hosting the Detroit Red Wings and Florida Panthers is the Canes' first of four such breaks "I had to check our team app just to make sure everything this month. In March, the Canes play 14 games in 30 days, was right and I was headed to the right place," Jaccob Slavin or one game every 2.14 days. The Canes knocked out their said. "It's crazy that it seems like every other day we're only back-to-back set of the month earlier this week, and the playing a game. You grind through it." remaining March schedule is just 12 games in 27 days, or "You're in such a rhythm. Even today, I wasn't sure what day one game every 2.25 days. In either case, it's a leisurely exactly it was," Nino Niederreiter said. "It felt great, and pace relative to what came before it and how the Canes will everyone is excited for tomorrow to keep going." finish the season. The Canes have been playing at least a game every other In April and May, the Canes will play 22 games in 40 days, or day since Feb. 11. It was a stretch of 13 games in 22 days, one game every 1.82 days. There's just one two-day gap in one game every 1.69 days. It was a frantic pace, one of the between games, and the team will play four back-to-backs. densest stretches of the season, and everyone's body - even The upside to the otherwise hellish pace is that 13 of the those of us who were simply covering these games - had Canes' 22 games will be played at home, including a settled into a rhythm. season-long, eight-game homestand in the first half of April. Saturday, the body said, should be a gameday. But it wasn't, The Canes don't analyze such a satellite-level view of the and that was a welcome reprieve, especially to the mind. road ahead. As Brind'Amour and head strength and conditioning coach Bill Burniston have said, "We're big on "It was like Groundhog Day.