• Moderators, please send me a PM if you are unable to access mod permissions. Thanks, Habsy.

GDT: Canes @ Oilers 10/20 9:00

A

andyt

Canes Moderator
Staff member
The Canes face their first true test in an earlier edition of #CanesAfterDark

Seth Jarvis struck early and the Canes buried the Kraken on the strength of 3 unanswered goals after the Kraken got to within 1 to win going away, 5-1. The new look PP netted their first 2 goals of the season but the PK gave up their first. Andersen was stellar in net, allowing the 1 goal on 23 shots. Jarvis took a high hit but there were no reports of any issues. With Kase out, the only changes, if any, will come on the 3rd pairing. Dylan Coghlan made his Canes debut, playing his off side with Jalen Chatfield. He also ran the 2nd PP unit. We’ll probably see Andersen in goal.

Expected to contend this year, the Oilers have started slowly, with consecutive losses to Calgary and Buffalo following an opening night win over Vancouver. Connor McDavid leads with 4 goals, noted sniper Darnell Nurse is the only other with more than 1. Leon Draisaitl has 5 assists. Their PP is humming at 36.4%. Jack Campbell was brought in to be the starter in goal. He was OK in the opener against Vancouver but was pulled after allowing 4 goals on 1q shots in 10 minutes against Calgary. Stuart Skinner relieved him and got the start against the Slugs. Expect Campbell in goal tonight.

Bally Sports South for TV.
 
I watched a goodly chunk of that game the Oilers lost to Buffalo. They've still got defensive structure problems, but when they get on their possession game they are truly terrifying. The Oilers end up asking too much of their goalie, and to the degree that they can limited the number of times those questions are asked then they're OK. Buffalo generated very little by way of sustained offense in that game and still managed to score twice at even strength ... but make no mistake. Buffalo won that game because Eric Comrie stood on his freaking head in net.

Carolina's a different beast, and the gameplay will probably look more like Edmonton's game with Calgary. In that game, the Oilers were starved of possession, reliant on quick transition chances and Stuart Skinner was the one standing on his head to keep them in it after Campbell got pulled. Their D just isn't collectively very good at playing D. If Canes can force them to defend their own zone and win the territorial battle, then they've got a good chance of finishing enough chances to get a W so long as their own goaltending holds up. Lose control of the flow and it's a different story.
 
A ding-dong's (that's me!) keys to a Hurricanes victory:
  • Fore-freakin-check! Keep the puck in the offensive zone for as long as possible.
  • Block those shooting lanes. Stick 'n sprawled out bodies all over the place.
  • Sneak in a few goals. Time for goal scorers to find a way to sneak in a few the way that Jarvy did to open the scoring in Seattle.
 
Canes are 7-2 against the Oilers since February 2017 and have won the last 4 in Edmonton. The Canes are the only team that Connor McDavid has only a single goal against, he has 1g, 7a. He’s played more than 23 minutes in each game and played nearly 27 against the Slugs, so all 3 pairings are going to see a good bit of him.
 
Chatfield has really improved. He wasn’t bad last year when he played, but you can tell he’s worked on his game

Svech wasn’t lying when he said he worked on his weak spots this off-season in Mother Russia. He has really played well at both ends of the ice this season.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top