Thoughts From My Couch

November wasn't as kind to the Canes as October was, but it was still a good month for the team. They sat in a playoff position heading into the final month of 2021 with a full 14 games on the schedule, including another trip out west through Western Canada and Minnesota. COVID had already reared its ugly head with three defensemen heading into protocol coming into the month. The team finished the month on a bit of a losing stretch, losing four of its final five games, but they still had some fun games on the schedule against some quality opponents. Here's a look back at the month of December for the Carolina Hurricanes.  The Month in Review Before we get into the games from this month, the story continued to be COVID ravaging the league. The Canes had Pesce, DeAngelo, and Bear in protocol to begin the month, but several more would enter protocol throughout the month. Sebastian Aho entered protocol following the Edmonton game on December 12 and Seth Jarvis followed shortly afte...

For the first time in 12 days, the Canes took the ice with an almost full arsenal against a Montreal team that was without almost its entire starting lineup with COVID and injury problems. I'd usually be much better about posting this right after a game ends, but, against my better judgment, I actually was in PNC Arena for this one. It was the first time I'd been in Raleigh with a full crowd since January 2020 and just my second game of the calendar year. I picked this game for the reasons most people would. It was against Montreal, a team I was expecting them to beat a few months ago after I bought the tickets, and it was the first time Jesperi Kotkaniemi would've played against his former team on home ice. I bought the tickets way before any of their COVID issues started, so I had no clue they were going to be this bad. I'm going to keep this one short, just give my thoughts about the game and things like that.  Thoughts on the Game The first period felt very much lik...

While not completely back to 100%, the Canes will be playing with a full complement of players after recalling Josh Leivo and CJ Smith on an emergency basis. This will be Leivo's second stint with the team, playing in the back to back on 11/12 and 11/13, and CJ Smith will be making his team debut tonight. Smith is second on AHL Chicago in scoring (10-18-28) behind only Andrew Poturalski and has 14 games of NHL experience with Buffalo (2-1-3). This gives the Canes five forwards playing tonight on an emergency basis after playing two men down Thursday night against Detriot. The Canes pulled off a huge 5-3 win over Alex Nedljkovic and the Red Wings with five players having multi-point nights and both Poturalski (1st period assist) and Jack Drury (1st period goal) scoring their first NHL points. Frederik Andersen, while not at his best, earned the win with a strong third period and he'll be getting the start again tonight. The visiting Los Angeles Kings are playing some good hockey...

It has been a very weird last couple of days, but then again, so has the last almost two years. News broke right before the Vancouver game on Sunday night that Sebastian Aho was going to miss the game and it was later revealed that he'd tested positive for COVID, along with Seth Jarvis, who'd tested positive the day after. Cut to Tuesday, with the Canes set to face the Minnesota Wild, it was revealed that four more players from the team had tested positive. We'd later learn that it was Jordan Staal, Andrei Svechnikov, Ian Cole, and Steven Lorentz. The league decided to cancel the game, but it didn't do anything to make the situation any better. All this leads to tonight's game against Detroit. With the help of the emergency recall rules, the Canes will be playing with just 16 skaters, ten forwards and six defensemen. AHL leading scorer Andrew Poturalski plays his first NHL game in almost five years, Stefan Noesen will be making their team debuts, while Jack Drury wi...

24 hours after a nearly flawless performance against McDavid and the Oilers, the Canes conclude the Canada portion of the road trip with a visit to Vancouver. Sebastian Aho factored into every Canes goal for the second straight game, with three points in the 3-1 over Edmonton last night. He's recorded multi-point games in all five outings in December, but he's not going to be able to extend that tonight. It was announced a little before puck drop tonight that he'd miss the game with an illness. While it was not specified whether it is COVID-related or not, my feeling is that it's the bug that's still going around the locker room that kept Andersen off the bench against Buffalo and Ethan Bear out against Calgary. This gives me the impression that the team will go with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen again. With this being a back-to-back situation, Antti Raanta is getting the start tonight, his first since the 6-2 win over Buffalo before the road trip started. The Canuck...

Tonight is big, not because it means much in the grand scheme of the standings, but because you’re playing the two best players in the league. The focus for the game is going to be on McDavid and Draisaitl, but the supporting cast for these two is equally as impressive. Players like Hyman, Nugent-Hopkins, Nurse, and Yamamoto are just as likely to get something going with those two playing around them. The Canes are on game three of the trip and this is the front end of a back-to-back with Vancouver tomorrow night. They scored a huge 2-1 overtime win in Calgary on Thursday night with huge efforts from Sebastian Aho and Jaccob Slavin. It’s been a while since these two met. It's been almost two years to the day since the Canes traveled to Edmonton. December 10, 2019, the Canes won 6-3, but I remember that game for Jordan Martinook scoring the game-winner and Dougie Hamilton scoring from center ice after fooling Mikko Koskinen and pretending to dump it around the boards. They met again...

The second game of the road trip through western Canada swings into Calgary for the Canes' first meeting with the Flames since the pandemic began. It's been nearly two years since the last trip to the Saddledome, a 4-0 win for the Canes on December 14, 2019. All four goals scored in the game were by players no longer on the team. The Canes won the first game of the road trip on Tuesday night in Winnipeg 4-2 with special teams being the biggest contributor to the win. The power play scored twice and the penalty kill went with four for five, highlighted by a huge five-minute kill after Ian Cole was assessed a major for kneeing and ejected. Cole was only slapped with a $5,000 fine and is going to be in the lineup tonight. Ethan Bear, who has played just two games since returning from COVID protocol, missed the morning skate tonight because he wasn't feeling well, so he's a game-time decision. The guys who've been out will remain out. Both Pesce and DeAngelo have exited...

There are a bunch of fun storylines for the Canes as they face the Winnipeg Jets tonight. First, Andrei Svechnikov will be back in the lineup tonight after missing the Buffalo game on Saturday. The timing is perfect because we'll get a Battle of the Brothers with Andrei's brother Evgeny on the opposing side tonight. The elder Svechnikov scored a goal in Winnipeg's last game, a 6-3 win over Toronto on Sunday, and it's being reported that their parents will be in attendance tonight. Second, Seth Jarvis is returning home to play the team he grew up watching for the first time, and his family is also reported to be at the arena as well. Lastly, this is the Canes' first game in Winnipeg since December 17, 2019, just ten days shy of two years. On that date, Andrei Svechnikov scored the second of his lacrosse goals, this time beating tonight's starter, Connor Hellebuyck. The Canes won that game 6-3 and beat the Jets again 4-1 in Raleigh in January that got very chippy ...

ACC Championship- #17 Pittsburgh 45, #18 Wake Forest 21 (Charlotte, NC) I wasn't far off when I predicted this game last week with my initial pick being Pittsburgh 45-27. This is the first time since 2010 that the Coastal Division representative won the ACC Championship and ends a decade-long streak of Clemson and Florida State dominance over the title. Kenny Pickett showed why he was the ACC Player of the Year, throwing for 253 yards and two touchdowns, while also opening the scoring with a 58-yard touchdown run that came about after he fake slid and kept running. The Pitt defense also forced Sam Hartman to throw four interceptions sacked him five times, and held Wake Forest to just 82 yards rushing. Wake Forest led the game 21-14 after the first quarter but was held scoreless from there while their defense couldn't find an answer for the Panthers' offense. The victory will likely secure the Panthers a spot in the Peach Bowl, with the usual destination of the Orange Bowl b...

It's time for the Canes to get a win and the Buffalo Sabres are a perfect team to beat to break the three-game losing streak. The offense came alive in the third period with two goals in just over one minute, but then allowed a goal 19 seconds later that ended up being the game-winning goal. The hope is that Ethan Bear will be back on the ice tonight after exiting COVID protocol earlier this week. He'll be a welcome return to the lineup if he does play. The Sabres are coming off a loss to Florida after blowing a 4-1 lead. This game was supposed to feature the top three picks in the 2018 Draft facing off with Rasmus Dahlin coming into town, but it appears Andrei Svechnikov will miss tonight's game. Jeff Skinner also makes the return to Raleigh yet again. He's among the team leaders in goals and points along with Tage Thompson and Kyle Okposo. With Aaron Dell playing in Florida and Craig Anderson on the shelf for a little bit, I'd imagine newly-acquired goalie Malcolm...

While on opposite sides of the spectrum in hindsight, both the Hurricanes and the Senators come into tonight's game in Raleigh in desperate need of a win. The Canes have lost four of their last five games, giving up a hat trick to Roope Hintz in a 4-1 loss in Dallas on Tuesday night. The only notable positive from the game was the goal from Jesperi Kotkaniemi that extended his goal streak to three games. The team will be without Pesce and DeAngelo for the second straight game and while Ethan Bear was on the ice for the team's morning skate this morning after exiting COVID protocol, he is going to be out again tonight with the hopes he'll play on Saturday. This means the same lineup will be on the ice tonight with Antti Raanta likely to be the starter after being in the starter's crease at the morning skate. It will allow Maxime Lajoie to play against his former team for the first time tonight. As rough as it's been for the Canes lately, it's nothing compared to ...

It's hard to play better than the Canes did in October. Completing a perfect 8-0-0 start in the season's opening month, the question then centers on how long the Canes could keep this streak alive. The record set by Buffalo in 2006-07 was ten games and there have been a few others that have made it to nine straight. New additions Frederik Andersen and Tony DeAngelo were among the many players that got off to hot starts, so the goal is to continue those starts into November. They were a juggernaut of a team out of the gate, but the schedule in November was longer, tougher, and road-heavy. The Canes would be on the road for ten of the 13 games this month, with a trip through Florida and a west coast trip on the horizon. Here's a look back at November for the Hurricanes.  The Month in Review The team began the month with a three-game trip starting in Chicago and then through Florida. The opener of the month was a hard-fought 4-3 win in Chicago, moving the Canes to 9-0-0 on the...