The Carolina Hurricanes opened the playoffs with a Game 1 win yesterday, taking down the New York Islanders 3-1.
If you’re looking for yesterday’s game recap article, it can be viewed below.
- ARTICLE: Islanders come up short in Game 1, fall 3-1 to Hurricanes
But with Carolina now holding an early series lead, below, we take a look at some of the takeaways for the Hurricanes.
Despite the win, it wasn’t the Hurricanes’ best game
While Carolina got the job done, it wasn’t as clean of a victory as you’d like to see. The Hurricanes are pretty heavily favoured, but through a lot of the game, it was the Islanders who took the play to them.
Carolina came out strong early, but the Islanders found their footing in the back half of the first period, before going on to really outshoot the Hurricanes in the second frame by a 13-6 margin. The Hurricanes did find their game again a bit more in the third period, but they still gave up some great opportunities for the Islanders to take over.
Carolina did have some stretches where they were able to pin New York in their end for long stretches with their forecheck, but in the coming games, you’d like to see the Hurricanes able to execute on that a little more.
Great performance from Frederik Andersen
Frederik Andersen’s playoff track record is somewhat mixed. While his numbers look good overall, and he’s been able to put together some elite-level performances in the past, he’s also lacked consistency at times and is a little prone to giving up bad goals.
However, Andersen silenced doubters in Game 1, stopping 33 of 34 shots, and was arguably the team’s best player. He looked a little shaky early, but settled in as the game went on, and ended up coming up with some huge saves (including the third period stop on Noah Dobson). It’s only a single game, but the netminder looks like he’s picking up right where he left off, following his outstanding end to the regular season.
Top-Six Not Clicking
While Rod Brind’Amour has shown he’s very open to mixing around lines when it’s warranted, it seemed like a given that Guentzel-Aho-Jarvis were locked in as the team’s top line. However, after being outshot 8-1 at 5-on-5 yesterday (according to NaturalStatTrick.com), Andrei Svechnikov was moved up to the top line, with Seth Jarvis moving down to play with Jordan Martinook and Jordan Staal.
While the top line was outshot, they were actually generating chances, so any long-term change seems like it would be an overreaction (even if Svechnikov did work well with Guentzel/Aho after the swap). The Hurricanes were back to Guentzel-Aho-Jarvis at practice today, according to Walt Ruff, so it’s likely they go back to that top line for Game 2.
Perhaps the quieter line though was Teravainen-Kotkaniemi-Necas. While the second line did come alive a little more in the third period, they were dead quiet for the first 40 minutes. Considering we’ve seen how much some of the lines were swapped around leading up to the playoffs, this is something worth keeping an eye on.
Other Notes
- Carolina benefitted from three power plays yesterday (capitalizing on one), but two of the calls were pretty soft. We know the special teams battle greatly favours the Hurricanes, but they probably aren’t going to be so lucky with those kinds of calls going forward.
- It was a tough night for the Slavin-Burns pair, who were each below an expected goals percentage of 25 percent at 5-on-5, but both Skjei-Pesce and Orlov-Chatfield were solid.
- Both the Drury-Kuznetsov-Noesen line and the Martinook-Staal-Svechnikov line (pre-swap) had great nights. Considering the top-six lines weren’t going at times, it was key to have them contributing.
Carolina will be back in action tomorrow for Game 2.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM APRIL
- Canes look poised for success entering final stretch of regular season
- Canes recover from loss to Bruins, beat Capitals to split back-to-back set
- Canes shut out Columbus in last home game of regular season, sign Nadeau
- Hurricanes stay hot, Svechnikov's Michigan goal highlights win over Bruins
- Hurricanes enter playoffs as a force in the East
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
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