Carolina Hurricanes 2021-2022 Blog

  Hurricanes (7-0-0) vs Coyotes (0-7-1) The Hurricanes go from playing one winless team to the other winless team in the NHL and Arizona. The Coyotes have been abysmal to start the season, needless to say. Carolina is the heavy favorite in this matchup. Previous Meeting The last time these two teams played was at Arizona in February of the 19-20 season. Carolina won the game 5-3. Sebastian Aho led the way in that game, scoring two goals and adding one assist. Coyotes Strong Defense? The Coyotes have not won a game yet in the season, but they ice one of the best defenses in the NHL. They have allowed only 2.01 Expected Goals Against/60, the 5th best in the NHL (Via MoneyPuck.Com ). Goaltending has been their Achilles heel. The Coyotes goaltenders have given up a combined 13.7 goals above expected. Seth Jarvis’ debut Nino Niederreiter is going to miss games with an injury, this is not a good thing, but Nino’s injury opens the door for Seth Javis to make his debut today versus Arizona...

  Around hockey circles, there was legitimate concern about how Carolina was going to replace the star defenseman, Dougie Hamilton. It is safe to say that Carolina has done that with Ethan Bear and Tony DeAngelo up to this point. No disrespect to Dougie Hamilton as a player; Hamilton is fantastic with the puck on his stick. And he will be a big asset for New Jersey’s road to becoming a good team. But having Tony DeAngelo and Ethan Bear in replacement on the right side is as good or even better than having Hamilton, especially because the depth on the right side is better than last season, thanks to DeAngelo and Bear.  Through 7 games, Ethan Bear has played an average of 18:26. Without any power-play time, Bear has produced 3 assists while playing in a shutdown role with Slavin. He is a +6 so far, and he has allowed Slavin (6 assists) to be more aggressive on offense. The two have combined for 9 assists in 7 games as a shutdown pairing. Needless to say, Bear has done a fantasti...

  Hurricanes (6-0-0) vs Blackhawks (0-5-2) Amidst the turmoil of the recent investigations, the winless Blackhawks desperately need to turn their season around before it's too late. Coming off a rousing win against the Bruins, Carolina is looking to win their 7th straight to open the 2021-2022 campaign. Previous Meeting These two teams were division opponents and faced each other eight times last season. The previous game played between these two was May 6th, 2021. Chicago won in overtime by a score of 2-1. But Carolina won the season series against Chicago with a record of 5-2-1 in their eight matchups.  Opposite ends of “Puck Luck”  Chicago has an abysmal 20% in the Goals For category (21.33 points below their Expected Goals For %). Compared to Carolina, who has an astonishing 73.68% in Goals For (23.93 points above their Expected Goals For %) (Via MoneyPuck.Com ). More than likely, these numbers will stabilize for both teams. But at the time being, they are on opposite...

Hurricanes (5-0-0) vs Bruins (3-2-0) These two teams are very familiar with each other. The Hurricanes and Bruins met each other in back-to-back postseasons before last year. The Bruins won both series and had an overall record of 8-1 in those nine games. But Carolina is looking for revenge and more confidence heading into a stretch of 3 games in 4 days. Previous Meeting The last game between these two teams was game 5 of the 2020 1st round in the Toronto bubble. Boston won that game 2-1 and clinched the series. The game-winning goal was scored by Patrice Bergeron, a bad angle goal given up by Petr Mrazek that ultimately cost Carolina their season. Perfection Line Boston’s “Perfection Line” has been near perfect this season 5 on 5. The trio of Pastrnak-Bergeron-Marchand have produced a 77.3 expected Goals percentage (Via MoneyPuck.com ).  Projected Lines Svechnikov-Aho-Teravainen Kotkaniemi-Trocheck-Necas Niederreiter-Staal-Fast Martinook-Stepan-Lorentz Slavin-Bear Skjei-Pesce Cole...

Hurricanes (4-0-0) vs Maple Leafs (2-3-1) Frederik Andersen faces his former team. A struggling Leafs team that needs to turn it around. And the 1st rematch since the David Ayres game that feels like it happened a century ago. It’s just another typical Leafs-Canes game tonight. Previous Meeting The last game these two teams played was February 22nd, 2020. The infamous game where David Ayres, the emergency goalie who was also the Zamboni driver for Toronto’s AHL team, came in and ended up winning in place of Petr Mrazek and James Reimer, who both went down with injuries earlier in that game.  Carolina won the game by a final score of 6-3, led by the play from the two-star Fins Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen.  Bad Luck Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs record may be deceiving at this point of the season. The underlying numbers tell us that Toronto is going to turn their offense around, and rather quickly. Three of their top forwards are in the bottom 10 for Goals Above Expected ...

  Hurricanes (3-0-0) @ Blue Jackets (3-1-0) Carolina and Columbus square off in an important matchup inside the Metropolitan division. Columbus is off to a surprisingly good start to their season. Led by the scoring of Oliver Bjorkstrand (2 goals, 5 assists) and Patrik Laine (2 goals, 3 assists). And their new head coach Brad Larsen. They look to continue their good start to build towards a potential playoff berth. Previous Meeting The last time these two teams met was inside the Central Division last season on May 1st. Carolina won that game in overtime 2-1 to defeat the Jackets in Raleigh. The game-winning goal was scored by Dougie Hamilton.  Columbus’s unsustainable level of play? The Blue Jackets have the 4th worst expected Goals percentage in the NHL (43.28%) at the moment. Yet they have a Goals percentage of 53.85 (10 percentage points above their expected percentage). It is safe to say that they will need to play better if they want to continue this hot start.  Pro...

  Hurricanes (2-0-0) @ Canadiens (0-4-0) Kotkaniemi returns to Montreal after signing with Carolina in the offseason. What could happen in his homecoming? Montreal has yet to win a game in the season up to this point, pretty safe to say they will be motivated to win this game at home for multiple reasons.  Previous Meeting The last time Montreal and Carolina played was on February 29th in the 2019-2020 season. Just weeks before Covid 19 came around. Justin Williams scored the game-tying goal with 1:17 on the clock. Jeff Petry won the game for Montreal in overtime. A big extra point that helped Montreal get into the play-in against Pittsburgh at the Toronto bubble. Montreal is looking to win what could be a pivot game for their struggling start to this season. Svechnikov’s hot start Andrei Svechnikov through 2 games, has scored 3 goals and added an assist to his leger. One of these goals was the key go-ahead goal against Nashville. Andrei has put up 1.6 expected goals so far, a...

  Hurricanes (1-0-0) @ Predators (0-1-0) The rematch from the 2021 playoffs takes place tonight in Smashville. Nashville has moved back to the western conference after playing the Hurricanes 14 times through last season and the playoffs. (The Hurricanes went 10-4 overall against Nashville). There is some chippiness and nastiness leftover from last season. This budding cross-conference rivalry will add another great chapter tonight. Previous Meeting These two teams met twice in the pre-season, but the last meeting that meant anything was game 6 in Nashville when the Hurricanes closed out the series in overtime with a game-winner from Sebastian Aho.  Predators Top-Heavy The Predators may have lost their opener VS Seattle, but their top line of Forsberg-Johansen-Duchene had a great night, producing an 85.7 xGoals%. While their top pairing of Ekholm-Myers produced an 87.5 xGoals%. (via MoneyPuck.com )  The Hurricanes’ top lines will need to match this effectiveness if they wa...