Thoughts From My Couch

The Hurricanes will get a second chance at closing this series out after failing to do so on home ice on Tuesday night. Self-inflicted mistakes and terrible puck luck doomed the Canes as they fell behind 2-0 early in the second period on goals from Pierre Engvall and Brock Nelson. The Nelson goal was especially bad luck since it hit Sebastian Aho in the face. Paul Stastny got the Canes on the board with a beautiful deflection in the second period for his second goal of the series but a 4-on-4 goal from Mathew Barzal after terrible puck management in the neutral zone made it 3-1 before the end of the period. Aho would get a goal back with a little less than half of the third period remaining. With Raanta out of the net, the Canes threw everything they could at Ilya Sorokin to try and force overtime. Ultimately, it wasn't enough as the Islanders stayed alive with a 3-2 victory. Still, the Canes remain ahead in the series with home ice in their favor should something go horribly wrong...

The Hurricanes have put themselves on the brink of advancing after finally getting the job done on the road. They snapped an eight-game road losing streak on Sunday afternoon with a thorough and solid performance in all areas of the game. Seth Jarvis struck early during a 5-on-3 to get the Canes ahead. Martin Necas added another on the power play and Sebastian Aho scored on a 2-on-1 with Mackenzie MacEachern to make it 3-0 after two periods. Jarvis picked up his second of the game on a breakaway in the third period before Ryan Pulock broke the shutout. MacEachern would put the dagger in the Islanders' coffin and while Bo Horvat did score a short-handed goal in the final minutes, it was way too late as the Canes won 5-2. Antti Raanta was phenomenal as he earned his third win of the postseason. It didn't come without its bumps as the Canes played with 11 forwards for most of the game after Jack Drury left in the first period on a dangerous hit from behind. Still, the Canes played...

With the first loss and series loss of the season behind them from their visit to Toronto, the Rays turn their attention to other ways to make history. They still had a home run in every game of the season to this point and were yet to lose at home. While they would begin the week on the road against Cincinnati, they would get the chance to extend that home streak over the weekend against the Chicago White Sox. With no more concerns about staying perfect, it felt like the Rays were able to truly start their season.  Monday 4/17 Reds 8, Rays 1 WP- Ian Gibault (1-0) , LP- Jalen Beeks (0-1) Jalen Beeks (TB)- 3.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 1 K Hunter Greene (CIN)- 3.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K (left early after taking a ball off of the shin) Kevin Newman (CIN)- Solo HR in the 2nd, RBI 1B in the 7th TJ Friedl (CIN)- Bases-clearing 2B in the 4th, RBI GO in the 8th Tyler Stephenson (CIN)- RBI 1B in the 7th Jose Barrero (CIN)- RBI 2B in the 8th Josh Lowe (TB)- Solo HR in the 9th (Rays- home run in...

The goal for the Canes is to flush the finish from Game 3 because it was a real stinker. It overshadows just how competitive and tight the game was on Friday night. The game sat a 1-1 for a long time as Casey Cizikas opened the scoring and Jesper Fast responded with a short-handed marker a few minutes later in the second period. Ilya Sorokin and Antti Raanta battled through most of the third period and it looked like the game was heading to overtime for the second game in a row. New York had other ideas as Kyle Palmieri redirected a shot on the power play over the shoulder of Raanta with under four minutes left to give the Islanders a 2-1 lead. This seemed to open the floodgates the Islanders would score four goals in 2:17, setting a new postseason record, to win the game 5-1 and get their first win in the series. For the Canes, it felt like deja vu. It seemed to open a wound from the last two postseasons where the team is incapable of winning a game on the road. This afternoon, they h...

The series shifts to the island as the Hurricanes look to do something they haven't done in almost two years. Wednesday night's game was an extremely spirited tilt as the physicality ramped up, as did the goals. The Canes scored first again as Paul Stastny redirected a puck past Ilya Sorokin in the first few minutes. The Islanders would shoot themselves in the foot as Sebastian Aho, the other one, batted the puck out of mid-air and into his own net while short-handed to push the Canes' lead to 2-0. This really woke New York up as they played their best stretch of the series over the next 20 minutes. Kyle Palmieri and Mathew Barzal each scored in the final ten minutes of the second period and Brock Nelson gave them a lead in the third period to put the Canes against the wall. Jaccob Slavin would make the deficit short-lived as he scored from below the goal line with the help of Sorokin's head to tie the game. The two teams would fight to force overtime and in the extra s...

Raleighwood was rocking on Monday night as the Canes and the Islanders squared off for Game 1 of the 1st round. The Canes wasted little time jumping ahead of New York as the power play struck early in the first. Sebastian Aho buried a one-timer five seconds into the man advantage to score the first goal of the series under four minutes into the first. The Canes' power play struck again early in the second period as Stefan Noesen redirected a shot from the point by Burns past Ilya Sorokin to make it 2-0. The Islanders responded 24 seconds later as Ryan Pulock miss-hit the puck but managed to get it to ride up the stick of Antti Raanta and into the net to cut the Canes' lead in half. From there, it became a defensive struggle. Both Sorokin and Raanta made some huge saves to keep the game 2-1 and that's where it would sit until the final horn as the Canes withstood the late push from New York and took the opening game in the series. Burns and Martin Necas ended the night with ...

The chase for the Stanley Cup begins tonight and the Hurricanes have high aspirations. After losing in Game 7 of the second round last season, the team fought it out to the final night to win their third straight division crown and ensure a meeting with the first Wild Card team. The finale in Sunrise against the Florida Panthers was pretty until it got very ugly at the end. The Canes led 2-0 after two periods on goals by Brent Burns and Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Florida scored twice in the first four minutes of the third period, capitalizing on some mistakes from the Canes, to tie the game at two. Rod Brind'Amour called his timeout and lit a fire under his team and they responded with two goals in 21 seconds from Burns and Jesper Fast to retake a two-goal lead almost as quickly as they gave it up. The score would remain 4-2 until Shayne Gostisbehere left the penalty box and immediately scored into the empty net to seemingly put the game out of reach. The Panthers didn't go quietly, s...

The Rays remained undefeated entering the week after three-game sweeps over the Washington Nationals and the Oakland Athletics. This week, they begin the division portion of the schedule with the Boston Red Sox coming to town for four games before taking it up north for a three-game weekend set with the Toronto Blue Jays. The Rays are chasing history to start the week as they aim to keep the perfect start going. It should be easy, as long as they can stay healthy.  Monday 4/10 Rays 1, Red Sox 0 WP- Colin Poche (1-0), LP- Chris Martin (0-1), SV- Pete Fairbanks (1) For the first time this season, the Rays faced a division opponent as they looked to keep their perfect start alive. It was also the biggest test the Rays had faced thus far. They returned to their "opener" strategy with Jalen Beeks toeing the rubber to begin the game before Josh Fleming took over. After a terrible outing to start the season, Fleming was very good when he got the ball in the third inning. He threw fo...