-Gabriel Dorris-

Last Time Out

The Canes are coming off a 4-0 shutout win against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The whole team was solid, and I couldn’t name one player who wasn’t at least okay. Carolina stole the lead in the first and built on it in all three periods in a team effort that involved four different goal scorers (Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravainen, Stefan Noesen, and Brent Burns) and five other players getting an assist. Aho and Burns also had apples, and even though the team played great defense in front of him, Pyotr Kochetkov looked calm, collected, athletic, and strong in net. As a whole, there aren’t many negatives I can give here. It was an incredible display of fire after a wash against the Panthers, one I hope continues into roughly mid-June.

In order, my three stars would be Brent Burns (***), Sebastian Aho (**), and Pyotr Kochetkov (*).

The Overview

Tonight at 7:30 PM EST, Carolina is facing up against the Flyers and hoping to glide to victory. The Canes are 9-6-0, while Philly is 7-7-1 after they let a 4-2-1 start and early metro lead slip away. Philadelphia is starting Carter Hart between the pipes after he missed a couple of games due to food poisoning from a piece of fish in San Jose. He has a 4-3-0 record in 8 starts (he got pulled November 1st against Buffalo after giving up two goals on five shots) with a .913 SV% and 2.52 GAA.

After his shutout in Tampa Bay, Pyotr Kochetkov is playing a second straight game for the Hurricanes. He has a .876 SV% with a 3.11 GAA and a 1-3-0 record. Jalen Chatfield was made the healthy scratch at defense against Tampa, and the Canes would score a powerplay goal (although DeAngelo wasn’t involved in it) while giving up nothing, which paved the way for Tony to play again. This entire situation has been odd, and I wonder if someone might be on the way out. Besides that, Rod is going with the same lineup he used against the Lightning.

The Flyers have given up 46 goals this year. They’ve also scored 48, although very few were on the powerplay. The Flyers are 4-for-52 with the extra man, a horrific 7.7%. Their penalty kill has been a little better, but 79.2% is still not great. The Canes powerplay is quite a bit better at 25.5%, but the penalty kill is close, at 78.2%. It was 68.8% seven games in and has been 91.3% since. The Canes have also been much more disciplined since the start of the year, taking 32 penalties in their first seven games and 23 in the 8 since.

Things to Watch

Tony DeAngelo is fighting to hold on to his spot on the Cane’s third pairing, and every mistake gives Jalen Chatfield a chance to take it back. If he wants to hold it, he must play clean, low-mistake hockey while quarterbacking the powerplay very well. Special teams just keep getting better, and if it can stay like that, it’s huge for the Canes. Pyotr Kochetkov is getting back-to-back nods, and with Andersen absent, him playing good or even great hockey would be huge for the Canes, now and in the future.

Prediction

This team came out hot against Tampa, and if they can do the same tonight, I see no reason for them to not be capable of beating a significantly harder team. Work harder and exploit the special teams’ advantage, and the Canes can come out on top by a fair margin and beat Philadelphia for the 9th time in a row.

5-2 Canes

Record: 10 (correct winner) – 4 (incorrect winner) – 0 (predicted OT/shootout loss and lost in regulation, or vice versa.)

Record in losses: 2 (correct winner) – 4 (incorrect winner) – 0 (predicted OT/shootout loss and lost in regulation, or vice versa.)

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