2022-23 Regular Season, Game 20: Hurricanes (10-5-4) v. Arizona Coyotes

There are a couple different ways to look at the most recent stretch of games for the Hurricanes. Since winning four straight, the Canes have just two wins in their last eight, including three straight losses in overtime. It could be argued that the Canes should've won at least two of those last three. That being said, the team is on a four-game point streak because of those losses in overtime. They've managed to earn points despite their inability to finish games. The most recent of these defeats came at the hands of the Winnipeg Jets on Monday night. The Jets looked like they had the game in the bag with a 3-0 lead in the third period after playing 55 minutes of solid hockey against the Canes. In the final five minutes, the Canes' offense came to life. Goals from Jaccob Slavin, Andrei Svechnikov, and Martin Necas in the final five minutes with Pyotr Kochetkov on the bench and three assists from Sebastian Aho got the Canes to overtime and secured a point in a game they were dangerously close to losing in regulation. A bad line change from the forwards in overtime led to a breakaway for Josh Morrissey and he put the end to an all-time comeback for the Hurricanes. Tonight, the team returns to PNC Arena to kick off three games in four days around Thanksgiving, beginning with the Arizona Coyotes. It is the finale of seven straight games against the Western Conference with the team set to face Boston on Friday. 

Projected Lines/Pairs

Stefan Noesen-Sebastian Aho-Seth Jarvis

Andrei Svechnikov-Jack Drury-Martin Necas

Jordan Martinook-Jordan Staal-Jesper Fast

Paul Stastny-Jesperi Kotkaniemi-Derek Stepan

Jaccob Slavin-Brent Burns

Brady Skjei-Brett Pesce

Calvin de Haan-Jalen Chatfield

Pyotr Kochetkov

Antti Raanta

Healthy Scratches- Dylan Coghlan

IR- Ondrej Kase (upper-body injury), Teuvo Teravainen (upper-body injury), Frederik Andersen (lower-body injury)

The Hurricanes will deploy the same 18 skaters from the last few games with some slight tweaks. Jack Drury will be up on the second line with Svechnikov and Jarvis, while Jesperi Kotkaniemi will start on the fourth line. Antti Raanta was originally slated to start tonight's game based on the morning skate, but it'll be Pyotr Kochetkov getting his third straight start instead. Raanta appeared to be shaken up at practice this morning, so that might have played into the decision to start Kochetkov instead. He's 5-0-2 in his NHL career and just signed a four-year extension today. 

Tonight's Opponent: Arizona Coyotes (6-9-2, 14 points, 8th in the Central Division)

The state of the Arizona Coyotes is a very interesting one. They're an NHL team playing their home games in a college arena. They have some decent young talent but are nowhere close to competing for a playoff spot and they likely won't be for a few more years. They are sitting in the cellar of the Central Division at the moment, though they have some competition. Arizona is also in the midst of a 32-day, 14-city road trip. Raleigh is the eighth stop on the tour. Their last outing was on Monday night in Nashville. After falling behind 1-0 in the first period, Lawson Crouse evened the game before Nick Bjustad scored his first of two goals in the game to give Arizona the lead after 40 minutes. Nashville stormed back with two goals in 28 seconds in the third period to regain the lead, but Bjugstad tallied short-handed to tie it and force overtime. The Coyotes killed a penalty and nothing was settled during the five minutes of extra time, so a shootout was required. In what would be a fun display of talent, Juuse Saros shut the door in the skills competition to secure the win for Nashville. Clayton Keller continues to be the team's playmaker, tying Crouse for the team lead with seven goals and adding 11 assists and 18 points They also feature five more players with at least ten points. Their goaltending has been the biggest area of concern. Their goalie tandem is one of the worst in the league and the team is allowing over 3.5 goals per game. They did just get Jakob Chychrun back into the lineup against Nashville, so that's a major plus. 

Last Season v. Carolina- Both games went in the favor of the Hurricanes last season, but they were anything but easy. The first meeting in December was a struggle for both offenses. Christian Fischer scored in the first period and Martin Necas tied it late in the second period to even the score with 20 minutes left. Neither team could find an answer until Brett Pesce scored on the power play in the final three minutes with Seth Jarvis picking up his first-career point with an assist. Frederik Andersen made 22 saves in the win. It would be almost six months before they played again and the Canes jumped out to a big 3-0 lead. The Coyotes slowly made their way back into the game with three goals in the second period, but the Canes still held a 4-3 lead at intermission. Sebastian Aho helped the team avoid the upset with the lone goal of the third period of a 5-3 win for the Canes.  

Arizona's Starting Goalie: Karel Vejmelka (5-5-1, 3.23 GAA, .909 SV%)- It's no secret that he doesn't have a great team around him. The second-year goalie has some rough numbers. After a shutout against the Islanders two weeks ago, he's allowed four goals in each of his last two starts, both losses. He made 35 saves in his last start six days ago against Vegas in a 4-1 loss. He started both games against the Canes last season, allowing seven goals on 90 shots. 

Arizona Player to Watch: Shayne Gostibehere- Since being traded to the Coyotes, Gostisbehere has refound the magic from his peak years with the Flyers. He's always found a way to torment the Hurricanes too. In 21 games, he has 15 points, tied for the second most points for him against any team. He's off to an excellent start this season, tied for third on the team with ten points. 

Scoring Summary

1st Period

(ARZ) 1:06- Nick Schmaltz (1) (assisted by Clayton Keller (12))

2nd Period

None

3rd Period

(ARZ) 1:52- Lawson Crouse (8) (assisted by Dylan Guenther (5) & JJ Moser (10))

(ARZ) 9:14- Nick Bjugstad (4) (assisted by Shayne Gostisbehere (7) & Dylan Guenther (6))

(ARZ) 17:53- Lawson Crouse (9) (assisted by Shayne Gostisbehere (8) & Jakob Chychrun (1))

Let's Talk About the Game

I won't mince words here, the Hurricanes were the second-best team on the ice in the second and third periods. They were outplayed by the Arizona Coyotes for 40 minutes after one of the most dominant periods I've ever seen them play in the first. I honestly don't have much to say about this game. The Canes allowed a goal on the first shot of the game, held Arizona without a shot for over 20 minutes of gameplay, then got decimated by allowing three goals in the third period while Karel Vejmelka stood on his head all night long. Pyotr Kochetkov deserved better than the effort to guys in front of him gave tonight. You probably want that first goal from Nick Schmaltz back, but it was a perfectly placed shot that went bar in. The other two goals he allowed were hard-working goals from the Coyotes that found their way into the net. I don't blame Kochetkov for the loss as he drops his first regular season game in regulation. You have to admit, that was one amazing save he made in the second period. 

Instead of talking about the game, I want to talk about the offense as a whole because outside of the outburst against Edmonton and the five minutes in Winnipeg, it has been a tough month for the Hurricanes as it pertains to putting the puck into the net. Through 11 games in November, the Canes have scored three or more goals just five times, 11/3 against Tampa Bay (4-3 SOW), 11/5 against Buffalo (5-3 W), 11/10 against Edmonton (7-2 W), 11/14 against Chicago (3-0 W), and Monday against Winnipeg (4-3 OTL). You'll notice that the Canes are 4-0-1 in those games. In the other six games, the Canes have two or fewer goals and are 0-4-2. It doesn't take a genius to connect the dots that scoring a lot of goals is good and usually leads to wins. It's that the Hurricanes have clearly been the inferior team in all of those games with the exception of the overtime loss to Colorado last Thursday. 

The power play is obviously an area of concern that fans are focusing on quite a bit. With their 0-for-4 performance tonight, the power play is now 4-for-39 this month. For those that can't do mental math, that's 10.25%. That is not good. If you go back to the overtime loss to Calgary in the fifth game of the season, the power play is 6-for-59, or 10.16%, after starting the season 4-for-15. There have been times when the power play has looked good even when they aren't scoring, but it has also cost them a bunch of points through 20 games. Tonight was a perfect example of that. Andrei Svechnikov misses a wide-open net on the team's first power play, then they can't capitalize on a 5-on-3. The answer is not to fire Jeff Daniels. That's a terrible take and needs to die now. I don't have the answer to the problems, but changing the coach is not it. I love that the penalty kill seems to be getting it together. They've killed 13 of the last 14 chances, which is a great step after allowing power-play goals in 11 of the first 15 games. 

Canes' Three Stars of the Game

First, Second, and Third Star- Pyotr Kochetkov (23 Saves on 26 Shots)

There were plenty of forwards that had decent nights (Svechnikov, Drury, Jarvis, and Necas to name a few), but, as I said earlier, Kochetkov deserved better tonight. He faced almost all of his shots in the final two periods and was good despite the final statline. This point ties into the lack of offense I talked about but in the last three games, all started by Kochetkov, the Canes have scored four goals. That leaves very little room for error if you're a goalie and that's not a gamble you want to make no matter how good the goalie is. We'll likely see him against Calgary on Saturday afternoon and I'm hoping we'll see a better effort from the team in front of him. 

What's Next

The next game is a big one for the Hurricanes. On Black Friday, the Hurricanes will travel to Beantown for an afternoon tilt with the league's best team. I'll admit that I was wrong about the Bruins during the preseason. I expected the injuries to some of their top stars to hamper them to the point that they'd miss the playoffs. Yet here they are, entering the Thanksgiving holiday with a league-leading 34 points. They also played tonight, dropping a 5-2 decision to the Florida Panthers in Sunrise, Florida. After sitting tied 1-1 after 20 minutes, Florida scored three times in the second period to provide enough separation to win the game. With Jeremy Swayman starting tonight, there's a strong possibility that the Canes will be facing 13-1-0 Linus Ullmark on Friday. It'll be a rematch of the first-round series last season the Canes won in seven games as the home team took all seven games. I expect this game to be very chippy for 60 minutes. I'm just not sure which Carolina team we'll see when they take the ice.