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The Carolina Hurricanes opened the 2023-24 season with a win last night, defeating the Ottawa Senators 5-3 on home ice.
The Hurricanes went with 11 forwards and seven defense, as Jalen Chatfield slotted in on the blue line and Brendan Lemieux was a healthy scratch.
It wasn’t a great start for Carolina, and despite a successful early penalty kill where the Senators were limited to no really strong chances, Ottawa struck soon after. Rourke Chartier was sprung in alone and while Frederik Andersen came up with a big save, the puck stayed in and ended up getting back to the point, where Artem Zub threw a shot on net and it was tipped in by Mathieu Joseph. The Hurricanes then quickly ended up with a power play of their own afterwards, but didn’t get much going at all.
Chances started getting exchanged quickly afterwards though, with Tim Stutzle getting a good opportunity at one end, before Jesper Fast was hooked on a breakaway, and awarded a penalty shot. However, not really known for his finishing ability, Fast tried to put a shot blocker side and it was stopped by Joonas Korpisalo.
Ottawa really started to get the better of the chances from there, and while the Hurricanes weren’t necessarily getting stuck in their own end, they were allowing quite a bit off the rush and not generating enough chances of their own to offset those. We saw a good opportunity for Rourke Chartier, then Drake Batherson hit a post, and Dominik Kubalik got a point-blank one-timer from the slot. Carolina may have led 14-12 in shots by the end of the period, but the actual quality chances were skewed in Ottawa’s favour and Andersen had to be pretty good to ensure the Hurricanes weren’t down by more after the frame.
However, the Hurricanes went on their second power play of the game early in the second period and when the puck got down low, Michael Bunting drov to the net and tucked it around Korpisalo, tying the game for his first goal as a Hurricane.
Carolina got into penalty trouble from there, taking two penalties to spend almost four consecutive minutes shorthandeded, but again, Andersen came up big, notably making a huge save on Drake Batherson to keep the game tied.
The Hurricanes ended up with another power play of their own shortly after and slowly started to build momentum from there, until they began to rally some good chances late in the frame. Then with about two minutes to go, Martin Necas put a great cross-ice pass over to Teuvo Teravainen, who beat Korpisalo with a one-timer to give the Hurricanes a lead through 40 minutes.
Though it wasn’t a great first half of the frame, the Hurricanes really started to control the game from about the midway mark, and probably had about 15 shots just in the last 10 minutes, ending the period up 33-21 in shots overall.
Then only 20 seconds into the third frame, the third line cause a turnover off Tim Stutzle with a relentless forecheck between Jordan Staal and Jordan Martinook, and after taking possession, Staal went to the front of the net and backhanded a puck past Korpisalo to extend the lead to 3-1.
The Hurricanes then ended up with a power play a few minutes later with an opportunity to basically put the game out of reach, but after a blocked shock, the Senators ended up getting a 2-on-1 down low the other way, and Mathieu Joseph got a pass past Dmitry Orlov over to Parker Kelly in the slot, who cut the lead to one. Then only 35 seconds after Kelly’s goal, Tim Stutzle came down the wing with speed and managed to sneak a shot through Andersen, and all of a sudden, the game was tied.
However, just minutes later, the Hurricanes responded. Just like the third goal, Martinook stripped the puck off Stutzle, and after the Hurricanes took possession and got the puck back to the point, Brady Skjei managed to beat Korpisalo with a shot over the shoulder, to reinstate Carolina’s lead.
Soon afterwards though, Carolina ended up taking another penalty, giving the Senators an opportunity to tie the game again. However, it was the Hurricanes who were able to respond with a shorthanded goal of their own, as Jesperi Kotkaniemi found Jaccob Slavin, who beat Korpisalo with a well-placed shot to extend the lead to two once again.
Ottawa lost their way from there a bit, with Stutzle and Brady Tkachuk taking penalties late, allowing Carolina to cruise to the end with the win.
The Hurricanes started pretty slow, arguably relying on Andersen to make sure the score didn’t get out of hand for much of the first period and a half. He may have been at fault for the third goal, but Andersen was key to helping Carolina stay in the game early on.
Carolina ended up getting contributions from almost their entire forward group as well, which was great to see. Of the 11 forwards dressed, nine of them had at least a point.
As was the case through a lot of last season, the team’s third line of Martinook, Staal and Fast was the spark plug the team needed. The line created some of the better chances in the first period, then the forechecking of Staal and Martinook getting the puck away from Tim Stutzle created both the team’s third and fourth goals of the game.
Up front, I also thought Martin Necas looked great. Coming off a breakout year, I think there’s a big question as to whether Necas can produce at that level consistently, especially heading into a contract year. On several occasions, he was transporting the puck up ice and blowing through the neutral zone for a quick entry with speed, then made a great pass to set up the Teuvo Teravainen goal. He was one of the more visible forwards on the ice last night.
Carolina’s blue line was also a big part of their offense last year, and we can expect that to be the case again. Goals from Brady Skjei and Jaccob Slavin were the difference-makers in the third period.
That said, one note is that I think at times, Dmitry Orlov and Tony DeAngelo struggled last night. DeAngelo specifically was caught up ice a few times (including for first goal against) and left players alone at times off the rush.
A key point in all of this is that Jalen Chatfield, who emerged as a rock-solid bottom-pairing option last year, played under five minutes last night. Especially if the team opts to go with 11/7 in the near future, using Chatfield a little more as opposed to DeAngelo should be strongly considered.
Overall though, Carolina had a really strong back half of the game. While things didn’t look great for a while there, the Hurricanes were able to build some momentum as the game went on and did a great job limiting chances in the second half of the game.
The Hurricanes will be back in action on Saturday and Sunday for a weekend back-to-back, as they kick off a California road trip against the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks.
I won’t be doing an individual game recap for the Saturday game against the Kings, but will have a recap/analysis of the back-to-back set out on Monday morning.
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? 
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