This Week, Last Season 01102020

[zacka77ack]

I am going to try and put together one of these threads every week. With that being said, its going to be a bit weird once we hit March because of the shutdown last season and the unorthodox schedule moving forward. Nevertheless, I will do my best. These will be short and sweet recaps of the games that happened last season, during this week. Let me know if you have any ideas on what would should be included. Let's begin.

1/10/20 - Coyotes @ Hurricanes

Hurricanes blank the Coyotes with a 3 - 0 win, with an authoritative Saint Petr making 32 saves.

Warren Foegele scores in front of the net at the 14:20 mark on a slick, slick pass from corner battling Svechnikov, who had 2 defenders between him and Foegele. In the 2nd, Lucas Wallmark scores off a tip from Dougie Hamilton who had corralled the puck at the mid-wall after it skittered along the boards. With 10 seconds left in the 2nd, Martin Necas makes the dagger goal look stupid easy. He lazily skates, almost carefree, from goalie's right, around the back the net and surprises everyone once he emerges in front with a sweet, sweet backhand. The 3rd period featured some nice attempts by the 'Yotes, but they were unable to break the seal.

1/11/20 - Kings @ Hurricanes

The one where the Canes wear green. The Hurricanes showed off their heritage with a throwback Whalers' night and wore the colors of Hartford. Canes deliver a 2nd shutout in as many nights, this time with Big James making 41 (FORTY ONE) saves.

With 5 minutes and change left in the 1st, El Nino plays hot potato with Teuvo Teravainen and sweeps the puck in on King's goalie Jack Campbell, who must have been paying tribute to Pucky the Whale with his beautiful belly slide out of the crease. The 2nd period featured nothing but saves from James Reimer, including a calm and collected stone wall of Adrian Kempe who snuck through and was all alone in front at the 12:09 mark. Still down 1 - 0 in the 3rd, and with the chance at a win ticking away, the Kings pulled their goalie in the final moments to bring on a 6th attacker and James Reimer absolutely plays like a man on fire, denying the Kings every time they approached his doorstep. Teuvo earns his 2nd point of the night with an empty netter from center ice to seal the win.

You never want to give up 41 shots, but when you do, it helps if your goalie makes 41 saves, including one with his head. The crowd was awesome in this one.

1/13/20 - Hurricanes @ Capitals

The Hurricanes get a taste of their own medicine and get shut out in Washington, losing 2 - 0. Future Hall of Famer Alex Ovechkin potted 2 goals to pass Teemu Selanne for 11th all time on the NHL's all time goals scored list.

At the 11:02 mark in the 1st period Tom Wilson, from the corner, finds Ovechkin right in front of the net with a tactical pass, and Ovechkin puts it home. 6 minutes later, at the 17:18 mark, the Capitals score on the power play with a howitzer of a shot from Ovechkin who had been waiting patiently just outside the top of the left face off circle, otherwise known as "his office". Periods 2 and 3 were forgettable as the Canes were unable to fight their way back into this one. This was Washington goaltender Ilya Samsonov's first career shutout.
 

1/16/20 - Hurricanes @ Blue Jackets

The Hurricanes go back and forth with the Blue Jackets in this division matchup, but lose in the final 2 minutes when Nick Foligno scores an unassisted heartbreaker.

The 1st period caught the Hurricanes by surprise when the Blue Jackets scored just 1 minute and 7 seconds after puck drop. With just 2 passes the Jackets moved the puck from their defensive end, through the neutral zone, and into Hurricanes' territory. Emil Bemstrom caught a nice pass from Atkinson, and then proceeded to quickly undress Brett Pesce as he delivered a nice wrist shot to beat Mrazek's stick side, over the shoulder. Each team had chances during the rest of the 1st period but the goalies were keeping it tight and the scored remained unchanged heading into the 2nd frame. At the 8:38 mark in the 2nd period, Martin Necas evened the game out for the Hurricanes while showing off his speed and his ability to finish. Necas slipped through the 2 back defenders and received a nice, heady pass from Lucas Wallmark and was off to the races on a breakaway before going glove side, top shelf to make the game 1 - 1. Both teams scored in the 3rd period and neither looked ready to concede. Cam Atkinson showed off some nifty stick work to keep the puck away from his defender, before scoring on Mrazek and then 2 minutes later Jordan Staal redirected a wild shot/pass that looked like it had no hope of finding twine to even the game back up. With time winding down and with tensions rising, Nick Foligno somehow found himself in possession after the puck lazily rolled toward the middle of the ice. Left all alone and moving with speed, Foligno delivered the dagger with just under 2 minutes left to play. Hurricanes fall, 3 - 2.
 

 

What started out as a great week with back to back shutdowns wound up being mediocre as the Canes dropped the next 2 games, to finish this stretch 2 up and 2 down. With a record of 27-18-2 at the end of this week, the Hurricanes were positioned nicely to make the postseason. One last note: rewatching these makes me realize how much I am going to miss John Forslund. No shade thrown to Mike Maniscalco, because he was great in his own way during the playoffs, but John Forslund is, and will go down as, a legend.

[Harbingers]

Nice look back! Its going to be real interesting to see how this season go since basically every team is playing their opponent in back to back games. I saw we have one 4 game stretch vs the blue jackets and 2 single game stop offs between two game series.

[zacka77ack]

I think Abby is a Huddler...

Just goes to show ya...don't sleep on the "This Week, Last Season" threads!