Gold: Canes readying for early season test in Florida
Posted November 6, 2021 2:46 p.m. EDT
Ali and Frazier fought three times in the greatest trilogy in boxing history. From the Fight of the Century through the Thrilla in Manilla, it was an absolute slugfest. Frazier took the first, Ali the next two with Frazier failing to answer the bell for the final round in the Philippines
While there’s no championship belt on the line, when the Carolina Hurricanes visit the Florida Panthers Saturday night at 6:00, it will be a matchup of the two best records in the National Hockey League. The Canes are 9-0-0 after Wednesday’s 4-3 comeback win in Chicago. Florida is 9-0-1 with the lone blemish a shootout loss in Boston.
Within the pandemic realigned Central division a year ago, the Canes handled the Panthers to the tune of a 6-0-2 mark. Four of the games extended beyond regulation with Carolina winning the middle six and Florida bookending those with overtime wins in the first and last of the season set.
Infirmary report
Both teams are dealing with significant injuries. Florida’s top goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky left Thursday’s game with an upper body injury and won’t dress tonight. However, rookie Spencer Knight is more than capable of shutting any team down and he’ll bring a 3-0-1 record with a .912 SV% into the game. In addition, center Sam Bennett, tied for 3rd on the team with four goals in eight games, was placed on injured reserve. Joe Thornton will also miss tonight’s game.
Carolina will be without Nino Niederreiter (lower body) and Brett Pesce (upper body) for both games on the Sunshine State roadie. In the case of Pesce, that means holes in every situation. Brett has assumed control of the second power play unit as well as all the ice time logged at 5-on-5 and shorthanded. Expect Jaccob Slavin to assume some of those power play minutes. Brendan Smith will draw into the lineup for the first time this season for Carolina.
Streaking
Tony DeAngelo has points in four straight games (2g, 4a) for the Hurricanes. Jonathan Huberdeau has a -game point heater going for the Panthers in which he’s scored 3 and set up 7 others. Alexsander Barkov has 5 goals in his last three games.
History tells us...
Sebastian Aho has been very good in his career against the Panthers. Carolina’s alternate captain has 9 goals and 21 points in 20 career starts against Florida. Five of those goals and 12 points came in last year’s crazy eight games. Vincent Trocheck scored in each of the first six games he played against his former team a year ago. And, who could forget this goofy one…
The other side of that is Andrei Svechnikov has just 1 goal in 14 games against the Panthers in his career.
Huberdeau (9 goals, 28 points in 31 games) and Barkov (10 goals, 27 points in 28 games) have both fared well in their careers against the Canes. But, they’ve fared well against most teams.
I can see the future...
Here’s how the Hurricanes are expected to line up….
Martinook-Aho-Teravainen
Svechnikov-Trocheck-Necas
Kotkaniemi-Staal-Fast
Lorentz-Stepan-Jarvis
Slavin-Bear
Skjei-DeAngelo
Smith-Cole
Andersen
A win tonight by the Hurricanes would tie the 1993-94 Toronto Maple Leafs and 2006-07 Buffalo Sabres for the best start in NHL history. Each team won their first 10 games. Each also made it as far as the conference finals before bowing out of the playoffs.
Storm Watch starring Alec Campbell will roll in at 5:30 with opening face off set for just after 6:00 pm on 99.9 the Fan. Don’t forget to follow the Canes Corner Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. There is a fresh episode the morning after every Hurricanes game. Tonight we’ll also have a conversation with Carolina defenseman Tony DeAngelo.
