Thoughts From My Couch

The Canes are rolling into the final week before the break after a massive 4-1 victory over the Boston Bruins on Sunday night. They've won five in a row and have points in their last eight games, their second-longest streak in each respect this season. The battle on Sunday felt like Goliath was heading to battle to face Goliath as the top two teams in the league met at PNC Arena. By the end of the game, it felt like the Canes had just dominated Boston. Sebastian Aho continued to light the lamp with his seventh goal in four games to open the scoring in the first period. Paul Stastny kept the ball rolling with a power-play goal in the second period. Seth Jarvis broke his goalless drought with a beautiful breakaway goal early in the third period and after Boston broke the shutout, Jordan Staal put the game away by carrying David Pastrnak down the ice and depositing it into the empty net to seal the deal for the Canes. Frederik Andersen wasn't tested much but he was very good, stop...

You aren't going to experience much as exciting as what we saw on Friday night at PNC Arena. The Canes and the Sharks put on a very exciting show in the third period. After each side scored once in the first 40 minutes courtesy of Oskar Lindblom and Calvin de Haan, Sebastian Aho scored 17 seconds into the third period to give the Canes a 2-1 lead. San Jose would score three unanswered, including an empty-net goal with 1:52 left to lead 4-2 as many Canes fans headed for the exit. Aho picked up his second of the night just 15 seconds later to pull the Canes within one. With Raanta on the bench, Martin Necas scored with 11.5 seconds left on a rebound to tie the game and send the Caniacs into a frenzy. The goal would force overtime and just 55 seconds into extra time, Necas finished the job once again, scoring an overtime goal in back-to-back games to complete the comeback. The win propelled the Canes to 70 points to earn them their 15th win at home and 31st overall. They joined their ...

It was a hard-fought victory for the Canes on Wednesday night as they extended their win and point streaks to three and six games, respectively. The Canes got the job done with a 3-2 victory in overtime over the Stars in Dallas, needing a strong relief appearance from Antti Raanta and the late-game heroics of Martin Necas. Sebastian Aho scored his 200th career goal while the Canes were short-handed in the first period but Dallas responded with two of their own to hold a 2-1 lead through the first period. Coming out for the second period, Frederik Andersen, who'd started the game, was announced to have sustained an upper-body injury and Raanta took his place. Brent Burns knotted the game at two with a blast from the point that went bar-down less than five minutes into the period and we'd stay that way after 60 minutes and sending the two sides to overtime for the second time this season. As was the case in Raleigh, Necas played the hero again as he snapped a shot over the glove ...

Despite the rough patch the Canes hit after their win and point streaks were snapped, they've turned it around by winning four of their last five games and securing nine of a possible ten points. They've won each of their last two games by a final score of 5-2, most recently doing it against the New York Islanders on Saturday night. Before the game, Jaccob Slavin was announced to have a lower-body concern and would miss the game. Jordan Staal got the Canes on the board early twice with a goal 44 seconds in and then set up Jesper Fast just under four minutes in. After the Islanders scored twice at the end of the first period, Sebastian Aho took over. He broke the 2-2 tie late in the second period before finishing the natural hat trick with two more goals in the third to secure the 5-2 victory. Teuvo Teravainen finished the game with two assists and Frederik Andersen stopped 29 shots for his fourth straight win since returning from his injury. The Canes' offense has gotten a ...

The league is trying something new this season when it comes to their All-Star reveal. This past week, the league unveiled its first 32 All-Stars by announcing one player per team representing their division during All-Star Weekend in early February in Sunrise, Florida. Each team is currently comprised of seven skaters and a goalie with three spots left on each team to be decided by the fans. The remaining three spots will be two more skaters and a goalie that the fans will choose, leaving the possibility for some crazy additions. As a Hurricanes fan, I'm hoping for at least one more Hurricane to join Andrei Svechnikov. Despite this hope, I've decided to set my bias aside and put together four teams of 11 that I think should represent the very best the league has to offer. The only parameters I've set for myself are that each team has to be represented, as is already the case, and that each team will be either 7 forwards/2 defensemen/2 goalies or 6 forwards/3 defensemen/2 g...

Thursday night's victory for the Canes came at a serious cost. After three days off, the Canes returned to the ice by dominating the Minnesota Wild, 5-2. Five different Hurricanes found the back of the net in the victory, including three more goals from the defense. After Kirill Kaprizov scored on the power play in the second period, Brent Burns began a streak of five straight goals for the Canes, highlighted by power-play goals from Brady Skjei and Martin Necas, a short-handed goal from Teuvo Teravainen, and Jalen Chatfield's fifth goal of the season. Minnesota would get one back in the third period but it wouldn't be enough as Frederik Andersen outdueled Marc-Andre Fleury. In the final minute of the game, Max Pacioretty went down on a non-contact play and was helped off of the ice without putting any weight on the same leg he injured during the offseason. After further evaluation, it's been determined he re-tore his Achilles and is done for the season. The Canes won t...

The Hurricanes ride into tonight with a three-game point streak but their loss to Vancouver on Sunday left a bitter taste in everyone's mouth. The Canes had a chance to shut the game down but couldn't get the job done, settling for a shootout loss to earn another point. Paul Stastny and Jordan Martinook each scored in the first period and after Vancouver scored the next two, Sebastian Aho scored on a breakaway in the final three minutes to give the Canes the lead. Brock Boeser tied the game with the goalie on the bench and just 17 seconds left. Colin Delia shut the door in overtime and outperformed Pyotr Kochetkov in the shootout as Elias Pettersson ended it on a Peter Forsberg one-handed tuck goal to seal the deal. It was the first time the Canes failed to win on the back end of a back-to-back, dropping their record to 6-0-1. They maintain a slim lead over the Devils in the Metropolitan Division, though things are opening up a little bit outside of the top four teams. The team...