Carolina Hurricanes: Week In Review Part 1
The Carolina Hurricanes started off 2023 with a four-game week, and it is now one that the team is looking to put behind them. Head Coach Rod Brind’Amour and company only managed to pull three out of the possible eight points from the week, and most of the games were ones they felt they controlled going into the third period. Let’s take a look at these games:
January 1st @ New Jersey
The Canes started of the new year with an away tilt on New Years Day in New Jersey. The first period saw both teams head to the rooms scoreless, as Antti Raanta (Carolina) and Mackenzie Blackwood (New Jersey) stood tall in net. The second period saw the two offenses get going, as Derek Stepan (3) put the Canes on the board at 8:00 into the second. Jack Hughes (21) tied the game up for the Devils at the 16:18 mark. Sebastian Aho (12) was able to take advantage of a Mackenzie Blackwood mistake at the 18:14 mark to give the Canes a 2-1 lead heading into the third.
The third period was a highly offensive affair, as Jesper Bratt (13) knotted the game up at the 6:15 mark. The goals kept coming during the first half of the period, as Derek Stepan (4) put in his second of the night at 8:04, and Nico Hischier (16) tied the game back up at 8:38. Jesper Bratt (14) put in his second of the period to give the Devils the 4-3 lead at the 13:48 mark, however that lead would not hold, as Martin Necas (16) scored on the power play at the 15:32 mark. This would send the game into overtime where nothing would be decided. In the shootout, we only saw one goal, and it was a big one from Andrei Svechnikov, which gave the Canes a 5-4 win, and a big two points.
January 3rd @ New York Rangers
Brent Burns (5) got this one going early for the Canes, as he was able to score at the 7:24 mark. The middle section of this period was relatively slow, however the last five minutes saw the action pickup. Jacob Trouba (3) net in a power play goal at 16:26 to tie the game up, but Martin Necas (17) would score less than twenty seconds later at 16:42 to the give the Canes a 2-1 lead heading into the second. The first 15 minutes of the second period saw little action, but the two teams got in going in the last five minutes.
Mika Zibanejad (19) scored his second of the game on the power play to knot the game up, however the Canes had another quick response, as Jalen Chatfield (2) scored at the 17:14 mark to give the Canes the 3-2 lead heading into the final period. The third period completely flipped in the Rangers favor, as they outscored the Canes 3-0 to get the 5-3 win. Artemi Panarin (11) got things going 0:36 in to tie the game up, and Defensman K’Andre Miller (3) gave the Rangers the 4-3 lead at the 10:27 mark. The team wouldn’t look back, as Filip Chytil (9) scored the empty netter with 1:03 left to seal the Canes 5-3 loss.
Recap of These First Two Games
The team started of the week with two out of the possible four points, however many of the players felt it could have been more. The team controlled the majority of the game against the Rangers, but the team saw a collapse in the third period. In Part Two of this weekly review, we’ll take a look at the remainder of the week, where the team continued to slide in games at home against Nashville and on the road against Columbus.