The Carolina Hurricanes dropped their home opener last night, falling 4-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Hurricanes went with the following lineup:
Andrei Svechnikov - Sebastian Aho - Seth Jarvis
Jack Roslovic - Jesperi Kotkaniemi - Martin Necas
Jordan Martinook - Jordan Staal - William Carrier
Eric Robinson - Jack Drury - Jackson Blake
Jaccob Slavin - Brent Burns
Dmitry Orlov - Jalen Chatfield
Shayne Gostisbehere - Sean Walker
Frederik Andersen
We saw some action in the first five minutes of the opening frame, with an early scrum, then the Lightning hitting a post, followed by Andrei Svechnikov driving to the net for a good chance, only to be stopped by Andrei Vasilevsky.
The teams exchanged some power plays from there which didn’t amount to much, and things slowed down for the next little while. Despite the Hurricanes not really sustaining much pressure though, with about six minutes left in the frame, Jordan Martinook forced a turnover on the forecheck and Jordan Staal managed to bury a pass from William Carrier into a wide open net, putting Carolina ahead.
The goal sparked the Hurricanes, starting to carry the play and generating a few more chances to nearly extend the lead from there. Jaccob Slavin ended up with a breakaway chance, then the Hurricanes had a partial 3-on-1 shortly after, and both Sebastian Aho and Shayne Gositsbehere had some point-blank chances, but none of them could convert.
So after a slow first half of the frame, the Hurricanes really came alive in the final stretch, and took a 1-0 lead to intermission.
However, the Lightning ended up with an early second period power play, and quickly took advantage, with Brayden Point taking a pass from Nikita Kucherov and beating Frederik Andersen.
The Hurricanes did put some pressure on a few minutes later, and Andrei Svechnikov had a great chance to put Carolina back ahead off a 2-on-1 pass for Seth Jarvis, but he missed wide. Carolina then briefly had another power play with about seven minutes to go in the period, but it was quickly negated by a penalty. A later power play chance also didn’t yield any results, before a slashing penalty sent the Lightning on the man advantage to end the period.
The Hurricanes killed off rest of power play that carried over to open the third period, but the special teams action kept coming from there. Carolina had another power play of their own only about a few minutes into the frame, but once again, negated it with a penalty of their own.
Things were pretty slow from there, before Anthony Cirelli got a good chance on a breakaway, which drew another Carolina penalty from Dmitry Orlov. This time on the ensuing power play, Nikita Kucherov one-timed a shot past Andersen, giving Tampa Bay their first lead.
Carolina emptied the net late looking for a tie, but never really built any pressure. Kucherov then ended up burying two empty net goals to secure a hat trick, and a 4-1 Lightning win.
The Hurricanes showed flashes in the loss where they looked good, but it was a bit of a disappointing effort overall. They had a lot of momentum near the end of the first period, then were the better team in the second period, but it felt like there were long stretches where they couldn’t get much going.
On the flip side, they did a fairly good job limiting chances for Tampa Bay as well, but from the time the Lightning took the lead, the Hurricanes weren’t able to build much pressure to press for the tying goal.
The effect of a weaker forward group was felt a bit as well, with the Hurricanes only managing 21 shots. While the Svechnikov-Aho-Jarvis line should provide some consistent offense going forward, I wonder what loading up the top line means for the Hurricanes’ scoring through the rest of their lineup.
At the same time, William Carrier looks like a perfect fit on the third line, with Jordan Staal and Jordan Martinook. The line created Carolina’s only goal, and had an expected goals percentage of 97 percent at 5-on-5, according to NaturalStatTrick.com.
It’s only one game against a tough opponent, and the Hurricanes weren't terribly outplayed, but I also don’t think it inspired a ton of confidence. For a couple of years, Carolina saw some issues being able to bury their chances, but looked a lot stronger last year post-trade deadline with Jake Guentzel. Last night though, they weren’t really able to build a ton of sustained pressure, and the team’s offense did admittedly look less dangerous than they were to end last season.
With tonight’s game in Tampa Bay postponed due to Hurricane Milton, Carolina will be back in action on Tuesday, when they host the New Jersey Devils.
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Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
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