Gold: Canes face back-to-back games; will the wins follow suit?
Posted October 29, 2021 4:37 p.m. EDT
Updated October 29, 2021 4:44 p.m. EDT
You’ve heard about the irresistible force and the immovable object. Well, meet the irresistible force and the very movable object.
The Carolina Hurricanes are a perfect 6-0-0 on the season and welcome the winless Chicago Blackhawks into PNC Arena tonight for a 7:00 puck drop. The Canes extended their season-opening winning streak to a franchise record 6 in a row with last night’s 3-0 win over the Bruins. Frederik Andersen steered aside 33 shots for his first shutout in a Canes sweater, and tradition has goalies earning the next start coming off such a performance.
Tradition, shmadition.
Andersen has played every game so far this year for the Hurricanes and will give way to allow Antti Raanta to play for the first time this season. If it seems like it’s been a long time since Raanta has seen the ice you’re not wrong. The last time he faced NHL shots with the clock moving was October 4th in a preseason OT loss to the Nashville Predators.
That’s 24 days ago if you’re keeping track of such things.
If history is any judge -- this just in, it isn’t -- Raanta will play well. In his career, the former Blackhawks netminder is 3-1-1 with a 1.18 GAA and .964 SV% against his former club. Antti played his first two years in the NHL with the Blackhawks before moving on to the Rangers and Coyotes.
There are no other line up changes coming tonight which means that defenseman Brendan Smith and rookie forward Seth Jarvis will be bystanders for the 7th straight night. In the case of Smith, that’s fine. He was always a 7th defenseman option here. However, for Jarvis, who can not be sent to the minor leagues because of his age, the 9-game trial period is coming to an end soon and if he doesn’t play either Sunday against Arizona or the following Wednesday in Chicago then the 9 games would have been spent in NHL practices and flying around on jets.
There is value in just having that experience, but the way the Hurricanes have been playing it’s hard to find a spot for him in the lineup. And, who would you remove from the group to make it happen?
Horses for courses…
Andrei Svechnikov and Sebastian Aho each are riding 6-game point streaks to open the season and each has been excellent in their careers against Chicago. Svech has 14 points (9g, 5a) in a dozen games against the Blackhawks. Aho’s registered 7 goals and 8 assists in 15 career starts against Chicago.
Nino Niederreiter (14 goals in 36 games), Vincent Trocheck (14 points in 17 games) and Martin Necas (5 goals in 10 games) have also found a fair amount of success against the Hawks. As a team, the Canes were 5-2-1 in the season series against Chicago a season ago.
For Chicago, they’ll be without superstar forward Patrick Kane, who’s been in Covid-19 protocol and will miss his 3rd straight game. But, they still have Alex DeBrincat, who has score 10 goals in 14 career starts against Carolina.
The Blackhawks have been rotating their goalies so far this year and if the pattern holds, Carolina will face Marc Andre-Fleury. The future hall of fame backstop is 18-9-5 in 34 career starts against the Canes. However, it’s been a struggle of late, going 0-4-0 with a 5.37 GAA/.839 SV%. Don’t rub your eyes, those are his actual statistics heading to the arena this evening.
Storm Watch starring Alec Campbell on 99.9 the Fan comes your way at 6:30 tonight. Then stay tuned just after 7:00 when Mike Maniscalco and Tripp Tracy have all the action. Don’t forget to follow the Canes Corner podcast (available wherever you get your podcasts) with a reminder that there is a fresh episode the morning after every Hurricanes game.
