-Gabriel Dorris-

The Overview

Tonight at 7:30 pm EST, the Canes hope to reel in a win from the sea against the New York Islanders. The Canes are 6-5-0, after the New York Rangers managed to end a three-game win streak in a nail-biting match, while the Islanders are 5-2-2, having won their last game with their third shutout of the season. Still, their win streak is only at one, as the game before this was an overtime defeat to the Red Wings. Both teams have had two days of rest.

Ilya Sorokin is likely to start in net for the Islanders, and he’s played six games this year with three wins, a 2.99 GAA, and a .910 SV%. He’s one of if not the best goaltenders in the NHL, and he’s not going to be easy to beat. Frederick Andersen or Antti Raanta could both potentially start for the Canes, but Raanta would be my guess to get the go since Freddie has played two consecutive games now and Raanta had a shutout in his last outing.

Raanta is 2-1-0 in four starts (he got pulled in the second frame of one game) with a .867 SV% and a 3.06 GAA. Still, he did just put up a shutout in his last game against the San Jose Sharks. Not great competition (the Sharks are 0-9-1 now!) but it still counts. Andersen had a perfect record until Thursday when the Canes lost 2-1 despite his impressive .923 performance in net. He has a .894 SV% overall with a 2.87 GAA.

The Canes have looked a lot better in their past four and to an extent five games than they did at the start of the season. They’re better than their rather mediocre record shows. The Islanders, however, look like the opposite. No team they’ve beaten has had a win percentage of above .500 before their game, and they’ve taken advantage of an easy start to the season.

The Isles have 24 goals in 9 games this season, while Carolina has 37 in 10. New York I has made up for this by not giving goals up, though, as they’ve just allowed 23 goals to Raleigh’s 39. A huge chunk of this is due to their goaltending, as they’ve had a .926 SV% this year, while the Canes have had an unfortunate .864, tied with Edmonton for lowest in the league. However, in their last four games, they’ve stopped a much better .940, which would slot them in at 2nd behind the Bruins. They have a fantastic 26.2 PP%, but a much weaker 75.6 PK%. Still, they’ve shown improvement there, killing off 15 of their last 16 penalties. The Isles have a worse PP and better PK, clocking in at 14.8% and 81.3% respectively.

Things to Watch

Again, the penalty kill is showing big signs of improvement that we hope to see continue. But the team is looking far too undisciplined, taking 10 penalties in their last two games, even if some of those calls have been a little weak. They’ll need to improve in that area, although maybe not for this game, with the Isles’ powerplay being as bad as it is. Andrei Svechnikov is still looking for his first goal of the season after several close calls, and despite having four goals himself, Martin Necas has been very close and just missed or been robbed a ton recently. If he can start breaking through, we might see some huge goal-scoring games from 88.

Prediction

The Islanders have been strong defensively all season, and the Canes have the past few games. Assuming both teams continue this trend, it could end up being a very low-scoring match. But I think special teams will end up being the difference maker here, and the Canes will manage to walk out of New York with at least one win.

4-1 Canes

Record: 8 (correct winner) – 3 (incorrect winner) – 0 (predicted OT/shootout loss and lost in regulation, or vice versa.)

Record in losses: 2 (correct winner) – 3 (incorrect winner) – 0 (predicted OT/shootout loss and lost in regulation, or vice versa.)

Record in wins: 6 (correct winner) – 0 (incorrect winner) – 0 (predicted OT/shootout loss and lost in regulation, or vice versa.)