Gold: Canes readying for hockey's version of a double header
Posted March 12, 2022 12:26 a.m. EST
For the 6th time in the last 7 weeks the Carolina Hurricanes will play on back to back days. For the 2nd time in 2 ½ weeks it will be Carolina against the Keystone State. Saturday at 3:00 the Canes will host the Flyers, then will travel to Pittsburgh for a Sunday matinee against the Penguins.
In both cases, the Hurricanes will be finishing the season series with their Metropolitan Division rivals. Carolina dropped the first of four with the Flyers as Philly handed the Canes their first loss at PNC Arena in early November. On the day after Thanksgiving the Hurricanes scored the last four of the game rallying for a 6-3 win in Philadelphia.
Then, on the second half of a back-to-back – and after a win over the Penguins – Carolina outlasted the Flyers in overtime on a gorgeous goal by Brett Pesce.
The Flyers have had a miserable year and are last in the Metro with just 46 points in 57 games. But, they still have a highly-skilled and talented team with some guys possibly showcasing their skills for trade deadline moves. One such player, though not certain to accept a trade, is 7-time All Star forward Claude Giroux.
Giroux was the MVP of last month’s All Star game as the Metropolitan Division took home the championship. He’s played 997 games for the Flyers in his career and has 17 of his 290 career goals this season. Several teams, including the Hurricanes are interested in the pending free agent who is about two months removed from his 34th birthday. But, the Rangers, Panthers and Avalanche have all been rumored to be interested in the savvy veteran.
Giroux has 13 goals and 46 points in 47 career games against the Hurricanes, but has been held to just 1 assist in 3 contests with Carolina this season. Forward Joel Farabee has a pair of goals, including one shorthanded, against the Canes this year. Meanwhile, defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen leads Philly with 3 points against the Hurricanes.
Sebastian Aho, Jesper Fast and Jordan Staal lead Carolina in scoring with 3 points against Philadelphia this season. Aho’s got a pair of goals as does forward Steven Lorentz. Frederik Andersen made 38 saves in the last meeting, getting the win in overtime. Freddie is 9-4-3 lifetime against the Flyers with a 3.12 GAA/.908 SV%.
In spite of having the NHL’s best record and a 9-1-1 mark in their last 11, the Canes have more players struggling to find goals than those pouring them in. Sebastian Aho has a 3-game point streak (1g, 2a) and has at least one in 10 of his last 11 games. However, it’s been a dozen games since Aho’s last goal at 5v5. He has 5 on the power play since, but it’s been more than a month since he scored in Boston in the early part of February.
Vincent Trocheck has gone 6 games without a goal. Jesperi Kotkaniemi is on an 8-game goal drought. Jordan Martinook has been starving for the last 16 games. And, both Seth Jarvis and Steven Lorentz haven’t scored since January 15th against Vancouver. If you’re keeping tabs on such matters, that’s 21 straight games for Lorentz and 18 empty trips for Jarvis.
Carolina was 0 for 4 on the power play against the Avalanche on Thursday, but have still connected on 6 of 22 tries since Tony DeAngelo has been out of the lineup. According to head coach Rod Brind’Amour, DeAngelo remains on target to return in about two weeks. Brendan Smith, who took a puck to the side of the head a few weeks ago is skating and is close to jumping back into the blueline mix.
The Canes are 4th in the NHL with the man advantage at 25.3%. Philadelphia is laboring at 13.9%, 30th in the league. On the kill, the Flyers are 27th yielding a power play goal 24.7% of the time. The Canes are the tops in the league down a man with a stellar 89.1% kill rate.
The Hurricanes have a 6-point lead over Pittsburgh in the Metro after the Pens beat the Golden Knights, 5-2 Friday night. Carolina does have two games in hand and could go a long way to putting a dagger into the Penguins chances of winning a division Sunday afternoon.
Saturday’s game will be the 4th nationally televised contest for the Hurricanes. They were shutout by Columbus and Washington on ESPN+ and fell to the Panthers in overtime in February on TNT. The game will air on ABC/ESPN+ starting at 3:00. Sunday’s meeting with the Penguins will have an opening face off of 1:00 a 21-hour gap between opening draws as we will bump the clocks up an hour at 2:00 am Sunday morning.
Carolina is 2-0 against the Pens this year. They won 4-3 in Pittsburgh on February 20, then rallied from a 2-0 deficit for a 3-2 overtime win on an Andrei Svechnikov power play goal. The rivals will polish off the 3-game season series in an 11-game stretch.
Coverage of the Canes and Flyers begins on 99.9 the Fan at 2:30 with Storm Watch starring Alec Campbell. Mike Maniscalco and Tripp Tracy follow with the live play-by-play just after 3:00. Make sure to follow the Canes Corner Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. A new episode drops the #MorningAfter every Hurricanes game.
