Power play success unable to propel Hurricanes to victory

Nov 25, 2022 - 10:20 PM

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Some things just never change.

After failing to win even a single game at TD Gardens last postseason, the Carolina Hurricanes are still looking for another one as they failed to hold off the Boston Bruins, en route to the B’s NHL record 12th consecutive win at home to start a season.

Even on an afternoon when the power play chipped in TWO goals, it just wasn’t enough to spur the team to a victory.

It’s the fifth straight loss for the Canes and it has now been 232:54 since they last scored an even-strength goal — Sebastian Aho’s first period goal against the Minnesota Wild was the last one.

And so despite Boston’s starting goaltender, Linus Ullmark, left early in the third period with an upper-body injury, the Hurricanes failed to get any pressure against a cold netminder, managing just six total shots on goal through the final 16 minutes of play.

The performances have just not been good enough and it’s seeming more and more that Carolina might not be as dominant of a team this season as many were hoping they’d be.

The stars have been carrying the load for the Hurricanes, the trio of Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov and Martin Necas have 31 of the Hurricanes 54 total goals.

The rest of the lineup outside of Jordan Staal, Jesper Fast and Jordan Martinook just aren’t getting it done. Outside of those five, every other forward has been a passenger.

The one bright spot recently has been netminder Pyotr Kochetkov who has had to carry the load with both of Carolina’s other goalies — Frederik Andersen and Anti Raanta — injured.

Kochetkov turned aside 38 shots in the loss and has been getting virtually no support from his team in his last few starts.

At least he looks like he actually can be the goaltender of the future.

Also the power play did the thing. Twice even!

The first power play goal was spurred from a determined effort by Brent Burns. After a great keep in the zone, he got the puck across to Svechnikov who found Aho in the slot for a deflection on net.

There, Stefan Noesen was able to grab the rebound and tucked it in.

The second goal came from a solid effort by Jesperi Kotkaniemi after he set up Seth Jarvis for a solid chance after entering the Bruins’ zone and after Jarvis’ attempt missed, Kotkaniemi collected the loose puck from behind the net and quickly pulled it up to the goal mouth, where the puck managed to squeeze through Ullmark.

Neither of them were “pretty” goals, but they were ones that had to be worked for in close. It’s what the Canes need more of on offense.

It’s going to take a full team effort to get Carolina out of this rut and until they can get everyone pulling on that rope, the team is going to continue spiraling.

They won’t have to wait long for another chance to break the the losing streak as they will host the Calgary Flames Saturday at PNC Arena for another afternoon showdown.