Carolina Hurricanes are handling adversity well
If you watched the or were in attendance since it was a home game of the uh the Carolina Hurricanes Minnesota Wild game last night, I bet you you you went to sleep, your uh like hair was disheveled, your eyes were were bloodshot, you felt like you had been on a a roller coaster with loops and maybe a little like a log flume at the end just consistently for at least the first period. Second period may have been more lazy river, but I mean third period more more chill, but the the first period was bananas. I don’t know. He had two goals in the first 50 seconds of the second period. Yeah, you’re right. I guess I kind of considered I considered that like a carryover from from the first period. There’s like 22 minutes. Uh yeah, exactly. It was My point is the game was crazy, right? And and there’s uh I wish this this is, you know, for as bad as it went, it went pretty good. You know, it’s it’s a car crash where no one got hurt, right? You wish you didn’t get in the car crash, but you’re so thankful that nobody got hurt. You wish that they didn’t have to face so much adversity early on in that game or so many weird obstacles. You wish Chatfield didn’t take a dirty hit and and leave the game and and not return with the injury. You wish that they didn’t give up a couple soft goals early. You wish that they didn’t have so much in their way. But for all of that happening, I liked the response to the Chatfield hit. I liked that um it seemed uh just this is how I remember it. I was watching the game at home sitting on my couch. My wife was in the other room. She said, “Let me know when someone scores.” And there was a lot of darn it the they scored. Oh, no wait, we scored. There was a lot of that, right? I liked how quick those reactions are. Well, who gave up the goal? What happened? Never mind. We scored. It’s tied up again. Like that’s that’s how all of our conversations went. And I love that, right? I I love that there was no sulking. I I love that uh Jackson Blake and Andre Fetchnikov didn’t even like it was just watch this. Right. It was it was it was here we go. I got it. I thought Adam Adam Gold on on Twitter described it pretty well. Uh it looked like Jackson Blake back at North Dakota or whatever he was, right? It looks like the he just weaved through everybody and it’s the move that the future pro does in college or the future uh you know college stud does in high school and the coach goes you know that’s not going to work at the next level. You’re going to have to use your teammates. You’re going to have to be phys weave around everybody because you’re a better skater. Jackson Blake okay yes coach gets to the NHL. I don’t know if they give me space I can just kind of weave through them and go score which is exactly what he did. ties it up 1-1. Brock Faber scores. A handful of seconds later, Andre Fetchnikov has an old school Andre Fetchnikov goal. And what I mean by that is it has me yelling at my TV, “Why don’t you do that every time, Andre?” That every time we go, we go weeks without seeing it, but I know you can because you just did. Why not every time, Andre? When the team needs a spark, that’s what you do. I feel like uh um Will Smith in in Bad Boys with Martin Lawrence. From now on, that’s how you drive, right? That’s how you shoot from now on. That’s the sequel. Uh that’s what I’m looking for, Andre. That’s what I’m looking for. Shawn Walker’s He’s I mean, he’s on a heater right now. What What are you gonna do? He’s playing really really good hockey. He has three goals already this season. He had five last year. I mean, is Shawn Walker a double- digit goals guy? Like, is that just what he is now? Is it him sensing gosh spear’s out and this guy’s out and that guy’s out and I there’s there’s some oxygen that I can go absorb maybe getting plenty of minutes, but he’s playing really well. This is not one of those situations where a guy is uh super efficient with 12 minutes and you’re like, let’s see if we give him 15. And then the efficiency drops. No, it’s it’s it’s maybe increasing. And then I want I want to go find the uh I want to go find the commenter from yesterday when we did our feedback frenzy that acted like we were doing too much talking about Nikolai Eer scoring one goal. It’s just one goal. Relax. Yeah, but you don’t know what that weight off your the shoulders can do for a guy because now two games, two goals, including the go-ahead goal that ends up being the difference. Was it set up for him nicely by Jackson Blake? Absolutely. Uh but but Eers had to finish and he did. I don’t love, as I I’ll say over and over again, I don’t love that this team seems to be tested so many darn different ways, but I do really respect how they react to it. Rod Brymore was asked after the game about having another injury on the blue line. obviously talking about Chatfield, a guy that’s been covering for other injuries along with the other healthy uh Dmen and uh this is what Rod had to say. Yeah, injuries anytime, no good. But, you know, it’s just the way this year’s gone. I just can’t get healthy and then keep losing, you know, key pieces. That’s that’s rough. And hopefully, I mean, it you know, I don’t know how long he’s going to be out, but it’s it’s it was a tough hit. It’s a tough hit. It’s a tough one. That is that is just a it’s a I mean sometimes when it rains it pours. You get Keandre Miller back. We talked so much yesterday about how excited I was to see Miller and Chhatfield out there in that defensive pairing because I I think that has massive potential. Lasted a couple of minutes be before Chatfield left for the day and then Miller was out there, you know, getting in where he fits in, right? cuz then he’s kind of the odd man out on on the pairings uh with left without a partner and and he ends up playing 23 something minutes. Looked like he didn’t miss a beat. Really good. The only thing that I noticed about him being out is a few times they cut to him on the bench and he just looked like he was a little tired. Just trying to get that win back. Yeah, that was that was the only thing that I noticed. Had a great pass to uh Djangowski. Uh Djangowski couldn’t finish for the goal, but it just shows what Miller can do as a a creator. And then Dennis, I if I were a superstitious person, I would make you choose a line that needs to perform well every game. Yeah. Because yesterday you asked uh and we both answered, you know, what line do you want to see play well? What line do you think it’s important to get going and and you picked Eer Stanovven and Blake? I picked a line that didn’t even end up playing at the beginning of the year. They changed it before the opening puck drop. Meanwhile, you picked Eer Stanovven and Blake. And I mean, great hockey from those three. Blake led the way, but but I thought it was really good from from that group. And Rod Brymore agrees. He thinks that line was the difference. Blake’s probably the one needs the most credit for tonight. I mean, he on both those the one goal is all him and and then the the other one’s just a great pass. Um but yeah, all those three guys are, you know, have that ability and then, you know, two of those guys especially just hound pucks like crazy and keep getting it back and um can’t say enough of the work that they did tonight. That that was uh well, that’s why we won the game. That’s got to feel good. That’s why we won the game. And and by the way, like this the I try not to do this, although I do catch myself because there’s so many games and you got to work quick. I try not to just care about points. I try not to just go like, “Hey, Blake and Walker, huge game.” Because, you know, they’re producing points and goals. Uh, at one point they put a graphic up and I thought it was a really good point made by the broadcast. Uh, Eers was far and away leading the team in just zone entries, right? He’s just carrying the puck constantly, using the speed, which is what we talked about in the offseason when they signed Eers that he brings that element that they hadn’t had very much, right? Or they had I mean, let’s be real, they depended on Martin Nus for that for a long time and and hadn’t had since he left. Jackson Blake, who’s now been on a line with Eers for two games, talked about uh playing with Eers after the game. He’s just unbelievable. He’s a stud. Um I love playing with that guy. He’s, you know, he’s so fast and makes really good decisions all the time and obviously back to back goals is, you know, it’s really big for him and he’s been solid all year. Um, and then to play with him and obviously like you said, Stan, too. I think we can build some serious chemistry and hopefully be a a really good line. I said it yesterday, I’ll echo it today. I would not I might even prefer it. I was going to say I would not mind. I I think I would prefer the way they’ve played and the potential I think they’ve shown if those three on the line in the most important games of the year this year. I I I’ll be the first to say that I thought Eer’s on the top line was was had the potential to kind of complete the top line, but the first month the first two months are about gaining information. With the new information I’ve learned, Stankovven centering Eers and Blake looks looks mighty fine to me. Yeah, they were super effective all night last night. And and obviously Eers is a bit more uh like he is what he is, right? He’s in the prime of his career, a little bit older, but he’s going to keep getting more comfortable in Carolina with their system, with their players. So, I think his improvement is obvious. And the other two, I mean, what are we talking like red shirt seniors? Is that is that what we’re talking here age- wise? Yeah. Like, these are very young players who are only going to improve. So, if they can be as effective, even if it’s not every night, if it’s decently consistent enough, as effective as they were last night with room to go up, that’s that’s something that intrigues me a whole bunch. The way that Blake and Stankovven are able to win board battles and hold on to pucks and come out with loose pucks, you along the wall, and just the way they’re able to just to obviously their skating ability. All three of those guys can skate extremely well and are very fast. Like you mentioned, Eers is one of the fastest guys out there on the ice every single time he steps out there. and just the the chances are constantly creating just left and right and and you know this is every almost every Kane’s conversation comes down to at some point uh height and weight. They’re not the biggest line in the world. Stankovven plays I would say much heavier than he is. He’s he’s more stout. Uh Blake is fearless. I I board battles any situation he’ll he’ll mix it up. And uh Eers gives me like uh Roadrunner Wy Coyote vibes like meep meep and he’s off. Good luck catching him. Exactly. It’s like if you catch me I’m this this could go bad for me but me and he’s and he’s gone. Uh they call him fly, right? Makes sense. So there there’s a lot to like once you get by the the obstacles that were put in the Kane’s way early in that game. At some point you hope they’re going to stop having so many obstacles in their way, but you know, control what you can control. move on, react the right way, and I thought they did that. And they’ll have to do that again this week or this weekend, I should say, back toback with traveling in the middle with an already beat up team already tired, having to play a bunch of minutes for certain guys. It’s not not ideal, but control what you can control. React the right way. Let the chips fall where they
Tim Donnelly & Dennis Cox discuss the Carolina Hurricanes beating the Minnesota Wild, 4-3, despite having to deal with another in-game injury, this time to defenseman Jalen Chatfield.
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