Follow me on Twitter:
@Hockey_Comps
Follow HockeyBuzz Hurricanes on Twitter:
@HB_Canes
The Carolina Hurricanes’ comeback against the Seattle Kraken fell short last night, losing 7-4.
With Frederik Andersen unavailable, Antti Raanta got the start for the Hurricanes, while the rest of the lineup remained the same.
Seattle opened the scoring about seven minutes into the game, as Yanni Gourde tipped in a shot from Andre Burakovsky, giving the Kraken an early lead. However, just 19 seconds later, Jaccob Slavin just threw a shot on goal, and it went off Jesper Fast and in, quickly tying the game.
The Kraken took back the lead on a power play only about five minutes later though, with Jaden Schwartz sliding a puck through Antti Raanta, putting Seattle back ahead. Then later in the frame, with Carolina on a power play, the Kraken went back the other way and beat Raanta shorthanded, giving Seattle a 3-1 lead through 20 minutes, despite Carolina throwing 21 shots on goal in the frame.
Things got worse in the second period, as only a couple minutes into the frame, Vince Dunn wired a shot past Raanta for another power play goal, making it a three-goal game. That ended Raanta’s night, as Pyotr Kochetkov entered the game for his first action of the season. We saw somewhat of a less eventful period from there, as the Hurricanes trailed by quite a margin heading into the third period.
In the final frame, the Hurricanes were able to make a run at cutting down the lead, though. First, Seth Jarvis took a good pass from Stefan Noesen to beat Joey Daccord, making it a 4-2 game. Then about five minutes after that, Jesperi Kotkaniemi was able to get a pass at the side of the net to beat Daccord after he lost track of the puck, cutting the lead to one.
However, a little over midway through the frame, Jared McCann beat Kochetkov with a nice shot in-close, to extend the lead again. Then only about 21 seconds after that, Tye Kartye took a great pass from Matty Beniers in the slot to score, reinstating the three-goal lead, and basically putting the game out of reach.
While Seth Jarvis did bury his second goal of the game with about four minutes to go, Oliver Bjorkstrand added an empty netter shortly after, on route to a 7-4 Kraken win.
The contest marked the Kraken's first victory of the season, taking them five games to reach that mark. Meanwhile, despite the 3-2-0 record, there are some concerns early on with the Hurricanes. It’s only five games in, but we’re seeing some clear trends.
For starters, the Hurricanes have taken the most penalties of any team in the league, and the penalty kill, which has been such a strength in recent years, hasn’t been great so far. They’ve allowed six goals across 23 times shorthanded, operating at only about 74 percent.
Then there’s just the sheer number of goals being allowed. Carolina has allowed at least three goals in every game so far, for a total of 24 goals against already. As of now, that’s the highest goals against per game of any team in the league.
For one, the Hurricanes are giving up better chances than usual. As a team that’s typically great for shutting down opportunities and having a pretty good buy-in in terms of commitment to defense, they haven’t really looked like themselves in that way. There are players struggling, but Dmitry Orlov is up there at the top of the list. Somehow, he’s already a minus-10 across five games.
At the same time, the Hurricanes just aren’t getting the goaltending they need either. Andersen is injured, and Raanta has posted a horrid .818 save percentage in the limited sample size of action.
On the bright side, the Hurricanes’ lack of finishing ability to this point has been a complete non-issue. They continue to find ways to score, with all of Teuvo Teravainen, Seth Jarvis, Martin Necas, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Jaccob Slavin and Brady Skjei all with at least five points in the five games. That’s also not to mention Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov still being out of the lineup.
But the Hurricanes are having a really hard time keeping pucks out of their net right now, which isn't typically something they have to worry about. It’s only five games in, but aside from maybe the game against San Jose, the Hurricanes still haven’t been playing their best hockey.
They’ll be back in action tomorrow, when they face another good test against the Colorado Avalanche.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM OCTOBER
- 3 questions for the Hurricanes’ lineup heading into the season
- Hurricanes set season-opening roster
- Hurricanes trade Caleb Jones to Avalanche
- Could this be the Carolina Hurricanes’ year?
- Hurricanes open season with home win over Senators
- Hurricanes split weekend back-to-back with win over Kings, loss to Ducks
- Hurricanes explode with four-goal third period in win over Sharks 
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»
