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Kochetkov gives up a grade school softie. Geez....

Last Time Out: The Canes finally snapped a five-game winless streak on Saturday, earning a much-needed victory over the Calgary Flames. After enduring a streak of six consecutive games without a power play goal from November 12-23, the team recorded two goals on the man advantage for a second consecutive day in the contest. Including a late game-winner from Brett Pesce, it was second occasion of the campaign already where the team has produced two or more power play goals in back-to-back games. Antti Raanta, making his first start since suffering a lower-body earlier in the week, turned away 18 of 20 to record his fourth victory of the season. Power Play Pesc: Carolina is now 4-0-0 all-time when Brett Pesce scores a power play goal. He has also earned a point on the man advantage in back-to-back games now and is already just one one point shy of matching his power play points total for the 2021-22 season. Man Advantage Tex: Forward Stefan Noesen recorded an assist on Martin Necas' power play goal Saturday, also giving him a power play point in two consecutive games. His three goals on the man advantage this season have him tied with Necas and Andrei Svechnikov for the team lead. 500th Marty Party: Canes forward Jordan Martinook is expected to play in his 500th career NHL game tonight. He currently ranks tied for fifth on the team in points through 22 games. Drafted in the second round by Phoenix in 2012, he is set to become the 19th player from the draft class to reach the milestone. Almost Turbo Time?: Forward Teuvo Teravainen traveled with the team to begin the first leg of their six-game road stint, inching closer to returning to the lineup. The 28-year-old winger suffered a non-concussion upper-body injury on November 10 in the team's win over Edmonton. After skating with Max Pacioretty prior to the team's practice last week, Teravainen returned to team practice Monday morning in a yellow non-contract jersey. Rod Brind'Amour said following the skate that he is hopeful #86 can play at some point on this trip. On The Other Side: Pittsburgh enters tonight's bout as one of the hotter teams in the league, going 7-2-1 in their last 10. Forward Sidney Crosby leads the way with 29 points in 20 games on the year, including 12 points in his last six games. Forward Evgeni Malkin played in his 1,000th NHL game last Sunday against Chicago. Their 76 goals as a team ranks tied for seventh in the NHL. CANES INJURY UPDATES Forward Ondrej Kase has been in concussion protocol since October 13. There is currently no timetable for his return. Goaltender Frederik Andersen suffered a lower-body injury on November 6. He skated with Goaltending Coach Paul Schonfelder Monday morning at Invisalign Arena. There is currently no timetable for his return. Forward Teuvo Teravainen suffered an upper-body injury on November 10. He practiced with the team on Monday and is on the trip. Forward Max Pacioretty suffered a torn Achilles tendon in August. He has been skating in recent weeks, but has yet to take part in a full team practice. There is currently no timetable for his return. Lineup: TT is out tonight and Coghlan is the healthy scratch as DeHaan continues to improve and get more comfortable in his role. Be nice to see the 4th line do something special tonight as the other 3 are gonna get a workout. Forwards: Jarvis - Aho - Necas Svechnikov - Kotkaniemi - Noesen Martinook - Staal - Fast Drury - Stastny - Stepan Defense: Slavin - Burns Skjei - Pesce de Haan - Chatfield Goalies: Kochetkov Raanta Scratches: Dylan Coghlan

Going to the Styx show in Greensboro in January. Have now seen this band live more than any other- probably 10-12 times. Never fail to put on a great show and tight set.

- 8-9 points and I'm very happy. Couple days rest before the Penguins, who are not playing all that well and look pretty old and slow these days. The Blues always give the Canes a tough game and the Islanders are a rivalry of sorts. Those are the 3 toughest games on the trip, although they cannot overlook and have a let-down against Detroit the night before they come home. Beating Pittsburgh to start the trip would be a huge confidence booster.

Positives were offensive zone time- Carolina worked hard at keeping the puck in the zone. Looked very good on the wrong end of a back-to-back weekend. A lot more shots taken from the face-off circles in. Not so good- another turn over in the middle of the ice leading to a breakaway goal. Canes, at times, had issues with Calgary's forecheck, and the flames got aggressive with it on their PK. 2 of 3 on the PP? Wow, about time. Brent Burns didn't take many shots (relatively speaking) and I actually saw him think twice about jumping in and, instead, he backed off to the blue line. Maybe he's finally starting to figure out his role. Jarvis is coming. He's young and still makes the occasional misread, but he's going to be really good. KK is starting to come around, but it's going to take a lot of making up with his contract, expectations and performance thus far. He lost at least 1 tooth Friday in Boston, and I thought he'd be down yesterday, but he played okay.... just okay. He was physical yesterday- I will give him that. Paul Stastny. If I hadn't heard his name on the PA getting credit for an assist, I wouldn't have known he was playing yesterday, and I was at the game. Maybe I'm wrong, but I had a lot more expectation of his veteran leadership and ability to bring a physical presence to the front of the net, like the Nino he replaced. But I've seen the very rare flash, but nothing that wows me. Matter of fact, that whole line is under-achieving and it's driving me nuts given the amount of experience.

Last Time Out: The tough times continued for the Canes on Friday, although it didn't look like it would be that way in the beginning. After six consecutive games without a power play goal, both units broke through in a big way. Each scored in the first period, inspiring confidence and giving Carolina an early 2-0 advantage against the Atlantic Division leaders. Aside from a few big saves from Pyotr Kochetkov, that was as good as the outlook would get for Rod Brind'Amour's club. A late second period goal for Boston, combined with the Canes offering them six power play chances, allowed the Bruins to come from behind and force overtime. They'd then win it on the man advantage in OT, giving Carolina their fourth overtime loss in their last five games. In The Crease: Pyotr Kochetkov's start yesterday was his fourth in a row, making 38 stops en route to another unfortunate defeat. Through six starts this season he has allowed a total of just 14 goals, although his record now sits at 2-1-3. Kochetkov was not scheduled to start Wednesday night against Arizona but Antti Raanta was "nicked up" at morning skate ahead of the team's meeting against the Coyotes, thus prompting Kochetkov to become the first Canes netminder to start three games in a row this season. Prior to yesterday's game Rod Brind'Amour said that Raanta was healthy enough to back up, but the team wasn't going to start him if he was less than 100%. During the Brind'Amour era in Raleigh it has been extremely uncommon for a goaltender to start games on back-to-back days, so the question of whether Raanta is healthy enough to start today's contest is a big one. Good On The Back Half: Through three back-to-back sets so far this campaign, the Canes are 3-0-0 in the second game. Be In Your Seats On Time: The Flames arrive at PNC Arena with 23 first period goals this season, third most in the NHL. Conversely, they've also allowed 23 first period goals, tied for the second most league-wide. When it comes to the third period, they've scored just 13 goals, the fewest in the final stanza by any time thus far this season. Injury Report: Forward Ondrej Kase has been in concussion protocol since October 13. Goaltender Frederik Andersen (lower-body injury) was placed on injured reserve November 10, retroactive to November 6. Forward Teuvo Teravainen (upper-body injury) was placed on injured reserve November 11, retroactive to November 10. Teravainen and Max Pacioretty, who tore his Achilles in August, have been skating together recently though. On The Other Side: Calgary comes to town for their final bout of a six-game road trip out east. They are 2-2-1 on the venture thus far, taking wins from both Florida and Philadelphia. Former Hurricane Elias Lindholm leads the way for the team with 16 points in 20 games this season. A key component to their game, like Carolina, is getting pucks on net. They have averaged 35.6 shots per contest this season, third most in the NHL.

A 5-game win streak will put 'em right back where they need to be. I'm not sure it's panic time yet.

We'll be there as well. On a positive note, the Canes have only lost 3 games in 3 seasons when we've been in attendance...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And nearly every stitch of clothing we're wearing- I get it. But last time I checked, none of that involved millions in bribes being paid to an international organization and the resulting 6,000 deaths to forced labor immigrants who were promised something completely different.

After losing tonight, this will be 0-1-4 over the last 5, right? They'll lose to Boston Friday and come back for Saturday afternoon.

Burns should get the assist for Coyotes 2nd goal. Game is over

So now desperation sets in and the Canes start taking penalties...

14 shots in the 1st to Arizona's 1. I would think it's nearly impossible to be down on the scoreboard after a period like that.

3 PPs in the first half of the first period. And nothing to show.

5 on 3 coming. If they can't convert this.... oh boy.

In less than 2 minutes, I might add.

Arizona: 1 shot, 1 goal

Still need a #1 net-minder who can go 50-60 games a year. The notion of platooning a couple of second-tier goalies and expecting great success, especially in the playoffs, is a pipe-dream.

Lending A Helping Hand: Sebastian Aho recorded an assist on all three six-on-five goals for Carolina, becoming the first Hurricanes player to record three assists in a period since Jake Gardiner on 2/8/20. He now has 22 points in 19 games and a three-game point streak. Always Earning Points: Despite taking an overtime loss in the affair, Pyotr Kochetkov's young NHL record moves to 5-0-2. Yet to lose a game in regulation, he has allowed just eight goals in four starts this season. He began his career as just the 12th goaltender in NHL history to win each of his first five regular-season appearances and has now become the 13th netminder to earn a point in each of his first seven contests, joining Spencer Knight (FLA, 2020-21: 8-0-1 in 9 GP), Mike Condon (MTL, 2015-16: 6-0-2 in 8 GP), Martin Jones (LAK, 2013-14: 8-0-0 in 8 GP) and Vitek Vanecek (WSH, 2020-21: 5-0-2 in 7 GP) as the fifth goalie to accomplish the feat since 1995-96. In Net: Rod Brind'Amour shared Monday pre-game that because Kochetkov earned the nod for back-to-back starts against Minnesota and Winnipeg, Antti Raanta is "more than likely" to take on his former team tonight. Raanta began the year 3-0-1, but has been on the wrong end of three consecutive decisions despite allowing a total of just eight goals in them. He has also posted a 5-0-1 record, 1.98 goals-against average and .936 save percentage in six career regular season games against the Coyotes. Special Teams Struggles: The Canes were held without a power play goal again Monday night at Canada Life Centre, moving their streak to five straight games without a marker on the man advantage. Their 14.3% success rate thus far this season now places them 30th out of 32 in the league. Injury Report: Forward Ondrej Kase has been in concussion protocol since October 13. Goaltender Frederik Andersen (lower-body injury) was placed on injured reserve, retroactive to November 6. Forward Teuvo Teravainen (upper-body injury) was placed on injured reserve, retroactive to November 10. Rod Brind'Amour last Wednesday that, "Nobody's close to coming back." Teravainen and Max Pacioretty, who tore his Achilles in August, skated Friday morning at Invisalign Arena prior to the team's limited practice. On The Other Side: Arizona comes to town in the midst of a 14-game road trip that ranges from November 5 - December 7. They started the venture with three straight wins but have since dropped four in a row, including a shootout loss Monday in the Music City. Their 14 standings points on the season rank third-fewest in the NHL and no team has scored fewer than their 40 goals. Offensively, Clayton Keller leads the way with 18 points in 17 games.

I expect nothing but a hard-fought, eked out win against one of the worst teams in the league. I'm sure the Canes will do all they can to make the Coyotes goalie look outstanding tonight.

Except this is on a global level. A lot of countries- the United States included- doing the collective hand-wringing over human rights abuses, while at the same time fully endorsing sending a team to compete. Would be more than willing to bet a lot of money there are fans who paid major dollars to attend who also have the same opinion of the human rights issues here, but deciding it's okay to set it aside for a fugging game.

Anybody watching and supporting this event has given their tacit approval to the corruption and human rights violations behind it all. I've already seen multiple television stations talking about the human rights issues behind the construction all stadiums, then watched the same networks' sports segments posting scores and upcoming match schedules.

Wednesday's game will be the 20th of the season, or about 1/4 of the season done already, most of it on the road. That, in and of itself, could be a good thing. However, this team, based on their off-season and the expectations, cannot be considered anything more than a disappointment. At first look, I thought it was just a handful of new guys in key roles getting used to their line mates, but 20 games in and that should be worked out by now. Here are the key differences between last year's Canes and the team on the ice now: Missing Nino and Trocheck in front of the net. Martinook, Stastny, Noessen are not those guys. Without a net front, the opposition simply clogs the middle of the ice and doesn't allow the Canes the cross-ice and seam passes that were their bread and butter last year. Also means a lot more perimeter shooting, which opposing will give up all day, especially when the goalie can see the shot coming and no one taking his eyes away. PP & PK are both far below expectations. 14% PP this season versus 22% last year. PK was dominant last year at 88%. This year- a full 11% lower at 77%. Check the numbers so far this year- the Canes are just an above average hockey team, nothing much to see and be pleased with.

As goals have become an endangered species, I fear this game is over if they go another scoreless 2nd period.

RBA comments.... ouch. "2 or 3 guys playing and the rest just going through the motions." Among a few other few choices words. Crap. Miracle we got a point. Garbage.