Carolina Hurricanes Preview: Can You Philly The Brotherly Love?
Carolina Hurricanes face the Philadelphia Flyers in their second home game of the year
After a joyous home opening win, the Carolina Hurricanes (2-3-2) face the Philadelphia Flyers (3-4-1) next. The last time these teams met Carolina jumped out to a two-goal lead before the Flyers scored four unanswered in the second period and won 6-3. This time the Hurricanes are out for revenge.
Like the cheesesteaks of their city, the Flyers second time around is not as pretty. Since beating the Carolina Hurricanes, the Flyers went 1-2-0 and are struggling to find consistent play. Compared to the hot Rangers with their league-leading offense, this appears to be a very winnable game. A wins brings the team to .500 hockey and will be the first win streak of the season for the Hurricanes. A win also shows Carolina’s fans, and their detractors, the Hurricanes mean business this year.
Heading into the game tonight Victor Rask and Jeff Skinner are tied for the team lead in overall scoring at nine points apiece; both have four goals and five assists. Vitor Rask also has a seven game point streak having earned a point in every game this season. Lee Stempniak also has scored four goals as well. Noah Hanifin leads the defensemen with six assists while Justin Faulk has five points with 2 goals and 3 assists.
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Other Scoring
Jeff Skinner showed again against the Rangers why he is the best player on the team. The question now is if the rest of the team can help him out. Skinner with Lee Stempniak and Victor Rask have 42% of the Hurricanes points and over 50% of their goals. This is not sustainable if Carolina wants to compete for a playoff spot. With Jeff Skinner recently earning a lot of national focus, this would be the perfect game for the Canes to show an extra dimension and keep opposing teams guessing in the future.
Power Play
Carolina’s power play is number three in the NHL with a 28% conversion rate with the man advantage. If Carolina continues to convert on their opponents mistakes teams are going to find them very difficult to beat. Until the scoring is a little more spread out on the team, the Canes need to capitalize on special teams to keep their scoring up.
Goaltending
Yeah, yeah it’s beating a dead horse but goaltending will be key. With neither Cam Ward or Eddie Lack able to string together back to back good outings, it will be interesting to see if the bad luck can end tonight. Cam Ward will get the start in net after his performance against the Rangers. Let’s see if the pattern of one good game one bad game can end. It needs to if Carolina wants to win the game and make the playoffs
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