The Carolina Hurricanes are struggling to score

The Carolina Hurricanes are struggling to score

The Carolina Hurricanes play tonight against Columbus. Now, I I always I I feel like I have to preface every Kane’s conversation with this. Uh the Carolina Hurricanes are still 179 and two. Okay? They are still uh second in the Eastern Conference. Okay? So everything we talk about when it comes to uh worry, when it comes to concerns, when it comes to what’s going on here has to be taken under that umbrella of whatever they’re dealing with, they’ve dealt with pretty good. Okay. Uh but also understand that the the Canes have risen the raised the the bar, raised the expectations to such a level that nobody is is comforted or nobody is is content with being second in the East. So the the the the question that is most being pitched to me about the Carolina Hurricanes other than the goalie, right? The goalies have have always, you know, and and that’s every hockey team in the history of the world, right? The goalie is always going to be an interesting case study. Uh unless you have one of the few, you know, dudes that you you just put in in net and you you you don’t worry about. Um, but there is a a significant lack, especially recently and especially in uh, you know, the the games that have gone poorly, a lack of of scoring pop. And I and it’s not just production, right? It’s also uh, you know, I’m going to I’m going to go back to one of my favorite terms when it comes to this hockey team. And not a favorite term because I think it’s good. Favorite term because I think it explains it well. Um, there’s a lack of avocado selfishness. And the reason why I call it avocado selfishness is uh you know we go through our entire life with people telling us that fats are bad, right? Don’t eat too many fats. You don’t want fats. You don’t want fats. And then at some point you get older and they go well actually there are good fats like the fats and avocados. That’s the good fats, right? So we go through our entire uh uh developmental years in sports being told selfishness is bad, ball hogging is bad, right? being being a volume shooter is bad until eventually someone goes, “No, certain people have the skill set and it’s their role on the team to be selfish, to be a ball hog, to score and and the Canes, despite all of their talent, despite all of their ability, despite so many things that go well for them, they don’t have a lot of avocado selfishness. They don’t have a lot of that healthy uh you know, hey, we’re down two. I want to score two goals to get us back. Watch me. They they don’t have that when when things are going well and you know, puck’s moving and then the the the defense is scrambling. Yeah, they can score in bunches, but they don’t have the person, right? I I I have a hard time not relating everything back to football analogies just cuz that’s what I played. But when you have a true number one wide receiver and you like, “Hey, it’s third down.” We need to draw up a play to make sure that person has a good chance of getting us the first. When the Canes are down 2, there needs to be somebody who’s like, “This is this is my role. This is this is when I go score, right? This is this is me.” And and and you would like it to be Jarvis. You would like it to be Aaho. You would like it to be Fetch. Maybe that’s part of the reason you brought in Eers to have another guy there. You would I I actually think in in some ways Blake has kind of that mindset where he’s like watch this and and and tries to go coast to coast with it. But none of them are being effective enough in those situations. And then as I said the other day when when you do get one of them right you do you know down 200 Gospar with a crazy pass to Jarvis. Jarvis finishes it. There’s no followup. There’s no okay now let’s get going. So the the question right in the interest of not just being a problems guy and trying to be a solutions guy is you know I I think messages to the team often go mute or often go numb right if I if I just say like somebody’s got to step up everybody can look around and say all right one of you guys will step up right I’m doing my job so if you have to say specifically which ones which players on the team are supposed to be those cold-blooded scorers I mean, I think many of you know where where the fan base would go. Andre Fetchnikov partially because uh you know the Seth Jarvis would be another, but like you know somebody like like Sebastian Aaho, he’s doing so much playmaking for others that like you need some guys around him that just want to shoot and and Svet hasn’t been there recently. One goal in his last 11. one goal in his last 11 while skating with Yeah. skating top line with guys that that set it like you know that that look to pass. You know what I mean? And and and it’s it’s part of the reason why um you can go back and find it, right? I I try to make sure we have receipts for these sort of things. When Nikolai Eers was signed in the in the uh the off season, the one you know I I speed awesome, right? They he filled some things that that Nate just brought to the table. like there was a lot of good, but one of the few things that that I didn’t like about the signing was he wasn’t a shoot first player, right? And and I was looking for somebody to complete that top line, which is what they started with this season, that was a shoot first, shoot second, maybe even shoot third player, like a just a volume sniper. And and he wasn’t that. And without that, I I I wonder if these little lulls in scoring are are always going to be there. And then you flip that to the the other side of, you know, if you’re if you’re giving up the fewest goals allowed per game in the league, you can maybe put up with some scoring lols, right? But with with Slavven out, with the the goalenders, specifically Freddy, having having some issues like with all of that happening, I don’t know if they they’ll survive it as well when the games get super duper important because like I said at the beginning, they’re they’re 179 and two, second in the Metropolitan, second in the Eastern Conference, right? They’re not at risk of missing out on anything. But for a team whose entire season is judged on how they do in the postseason, you can’t have scoring lols in two of the last three like they’ve had, right? 5-1 against Toronto, 4-1 against San Jose. Granted, they scored a bunch against Nashville in the middle, but in a series, if you go two and three, two out of three games without scoring pop of really any kind, now you’re in a huge hole. right now. Now you’re having to dig your way out, which, you know, is it’s unnecessarily difficult. I want to be clear, we did start it with you got to take it all under the umbrella of they’re they’re still near the top of the league, right? It’s it’s nothing to panic about, but uh you know, I I think I’m going to go crazy how many times I’ve said like shoot the puck watching. And he used to I used to just think about it, right? It’s the leaky faucet thing. Once you hear the drop, you can’t unhear it. Um I used to just every time they went to a power play, I was I was like almost yelling, “Shoot the puck already.” Right? They didn’t even hadn’t even got into the zone yet. I’m going like, “Shoot the puck.” Uh it’s starting to happen now just on five on five possessions when it’s like, “Oh, that’s a nice pass. That’s a nice pass. That’s a nice pass.” It’s all going the other way. Little avocado selfishness goes a long way. And it’s something this team, at least from my perspective, has been been battling with for a while. You know, the crazy thing is talk about like shooting the puck. They’re still second in the league in shots on goal per game at just over 33. I mean, you know what the the the Kane’s slant on that is. They’re not all the the you know, you can you can pepper the goal with shots that you know, maybe aren’t the the you can be more v quantity over quality with that. You know what I mean? like like I I don’t think a a shot granted I love when the blue liners shoot, but I don’t think a shot from distance, you know, with with just kind of slapping it up there is the same as somebody like Aaho with intention making a move to shoot or Andre Svetchnikov with with power going down the middle and and finding a way to shoot. Like not all shots are made the same. The Canes are always going to be near the top in in shots on goal. Well, they’re 11th in high dangerous shots on goal. 11th in the league. I mean then I I mean is it just a finishing issue part of it that so yeah mid-range shots which are kind of like the top of the circles kind of that area they’re third in the league do not actually they definitely have a lot of long range shots on net which Mhm. And again I don’t hate that. I just I just here’s here’s what it all comes down to and and maybe I’ll do all this work and try to find all this online. Uh, I want to see who’s taken all the shots and from where, right? Because if if if it’s Andre Fetchnikov hasn’t scored what you say, 11 games. Once in. Yeah. One goal last year. One goal. One goal in 11 games. Uh, and and like that’s different than, no offense, Mark Jenowski. You know what I mean? Like, like there are players that need to be put in the situations to score. And once they are in those situations, they can’t pass them up because, you know, it’s it’s I I’ll I’ll I’ll finish on this because this is one of my like core tenants of of sports fandom. I often times think about what would it be easier, what would what would make it uh more palatable to put my head on the pillow at night, right? If if I lose a game and I’m the Carolina Hurricanes and I score one goal, but I had Aaho, Svetch, Jarvis, Eers, Gostas, Spear, uh Blake, right? If I had if I had those guys, you know, taking shots that were good shots, I’ll go, “All right, yeah, tip your cap to the other team, they they they bettered you.” But if it’s just, you know, chipping it in from the blue line and it’s all these other things like ah, you know what that it didn’t feel like we gave him our best. Little avocado selfishness. That’s all I’m looking for. So he’s in the speaking ofnikov. Oh, in terms of high danger shots, he’s in the 75th percentile. So like he’s in the top quarter of the league in terms of that. in the mid-range, what you’re kind of getting towards the top of the circles and so on. He’s in the 97th percentile in terms of shots on goal. So, he’s getting shots. So, it’s just finishing there. It’s I mean that that’s on me for not not recognizing it. You know, it felt like he wasn’t getting the uh the looks, but it looks like he is based on the numbers. Yeah, he’s just not finishing. Just not finishing. That’s a I mean, it’s a different problem, but it’s still one that needs to be solved. Also, he spends the most time in the offensive zone more than any other player in the NHL according to NHL edge. So, he’s in the offensive zone percentage-wise more than any other player in the league. Where are his linemates? That might just be them possessing the puck forever, right? Oh, I have to go look and see. But I’m sure they’re probably up there, too. Yeah, that that might be and that might be part of it, right? They’re just passing it around. But if he’s getting all those shots, listen, some of those numbers just debunked my eye test. So, uh, you know, I’ll raise my hand and say my my eye test wasn’t on the same page, but if you got to finish then like that might be the next, it might be not as complicated as I was making it. You just got to finish. If you’re getting high danger chances and you’re a player of such skill level, you just got to finish. AO’s in the 99th percentile of offensive zone time in the NHL. Is that one of those things that like on the on its surface is great, but maybe not when you think about it. In what way? Like or you’re being too conservative, I guess. Like like they’re they’re possessing in the offensive zone forever. Mhm. Uh I imagine you’re you know that’s a lot of passing and a lot of possessing. You know what I mean? Or it could be puck retrievals. I’d have to look at all them. Like maybe they’re they’re shooting and just just being exceptional. Uh but there are certain stats like that where it’s like you can you can almost get too efficient. Oh yeah. uh rather than you know taking a chance every now and then waiting for the perfect shot.

Tim Donnelly & Dennis Cox discuss the Carolina Hurricanes going through a scoring drought overall as a team, and how top guys like Andrei Svechnikov aren’t scoring enough.

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