Nikolaj Ehlers gets first goal with Carolina Hurricanes

Nikolaj Ehlers gets first goal with Carolina Hurricanes

in today. How does it feel about Nikolai Eers? How do you feel about Nikolai Eers today? Let me phrase that another way. How much better do you feel about Nikolai Eelers and the Carolina Hurricanes and his role in the Carolina Hurricanes today? Probably a good amount, right? And the reality is, I said this earlier, I don’t I don’t know if he played a ton better than he’s been playing recently, right? It’s it’s you know they say it about football on any given Sunday. It’s it’s true about hockey too. Hockeyy’s a game of inches, gentlemen. Right. Nikolai Eers takes a good shot. Misses by two inches wide left. Oh, what’s going on with Eers? Oh, he’s a bust. Takes a good shot. Hits the inside of the post and goes in. There you go. Knew he had it in him. Finally. That’s the That’s what you pay him for. The difference two and a half inches, right? It’s a It’s a game of inches. That’s why stupid little things, and I say stupid just because it’s like trivial, not because it’s it’s inherently stupid. That’s why trivial little things like Seth Jarvis scoring an empty neter, they matter because for, you know, you look back and you’ll go, “Oh, he had a goal there. He’s not a goal goalless drought, even though it’s, you know, didn’t have to maybe work as hard for that one, right?” Once you get beyond like two or three games out, I think most people just treat stats as stats. For like two games, I think uh context matters, right? If if if you hit the post three times, three times in one game in the middle of a scoreless drought after that game, people are definitely talking about it. Like, oh, that’s just bad luck. He hit the post three times. He’s he’s playing well. After the next game, you still don’t score a goal? Yeah, but he had that game a couple games ago where he hit the post three times. Three, four games later, he’s just on a scoreless drought. Nikolai Elers, again, I don’t know if he played any better, but he scored. It was a power play goal. It was in the first period. It It ended up being the difference, right? It was the goal that gave you the lead. And because of all of that, it’s gonna it’s going to feel much different talking about Nikolai Eers and also Pure Cochov in net. How much better do you feel about that situation now? Right. One game posts a shutout. Although I should say that the the skaters for the Carolina Hurricanes, uh, they give they give a nice little half day essentially to goalies in their debut this year. Brandon Busy got his NHL debut and season debut handful of weeks ago, couple weeks ago, and uh he didn’t face a shot in the third period, right? So, the skater said, “You did you you did good in your debut. Take the rest of the day off. No shots on goal in the third period.” Well, yesterday it was Porto Cochov’s season debut. They essentially said, “Take the last 28 minutes off.” He did he did face one shot, but it was from like 80 feet away. Uh and it it was just right down Main Street. That’s it. That’s all he faced in the third period. That’s all he faced over the last I think it was 28 minutes. That’s good. Right. So now you have goalies that are playing well. You have three of them, right? And and it and it just changes the way you think of that position and it makes the decision to keep three easier, right? Right? Cuz now you got to if you have to do some some roster gymnastics, if you have to to uh figure out ways to keep all three, it’s so obvious cuz all three have done something of significance this year. And and you know that Busy’s not going to clear waiverss. You know that these guys are playing well enough. It’s it’s one game can change so much. One game can change so much if I have a bone to pick. If if there there was one thing that replayed in my brain a few times that was just like come on they did change up the lines yesterday uh which I’m fine with and I I said that and obviously whatever they did even though it was on a power play it got Eers uh on the on the board so you know good move regardless of what they do moving forward. Uh but there was one play one that kept replaying in my brain. Um, it was Taylor Hall, Sebastian Naho, and a two-on-one. Hall had the puck. And when I tell you if we’re grading like scoring chances out of 10, I probably would have given it like a 7.9. Like it it was a really good chance by Taylor Hall. And there was a slightly more difficult pass that could have given Sebastian probably an 8.9 uh shot attempt if the pass was completed. Right. you could pass up a really good shot for a potentially great shot, which is of course in the unselfish world of so many of the Carolina Hurricanes uh thought process, Taylor Hall tried to make the pass ahead to Aaho and they didn’t connect, right? Couldn’t couldn’t really uh missed. We’ll just say we’ll just say it was it was a not a bad pass, not a bad effort by Aaho. I don’t want to put it on either of them. It just it didn’t connect. It happens in hockey, right? puck bounces a funny way. They they don’t even get the the puck to Igor. They didn’t even make Shurken make a save. And that’s one of the more frustrating parts about the Carolina Hurricanes for me. Even in a game that they win 3 0, even in a game where I have so like we could we could write Sonnetss, we could write ODS, we write so much good. We haven’t even mentioned Alexander Nikesian who just keeps getting better, right? There there was so much good. There was that play to make me go shoot the puck, Taylor. Maybe I’m greedy. Maybe I am. Who cares? I want to be greedy. I want 40 rather than three 0 because in in a game down the road that might be 4-3 rather than 3-3 going to overtime. Like shoot the puck. And and that’s part of why I think they mixed up the lines yesterday, which is why I brought that up. Right. There are guys that are seen as creators or or just in their inherent nature are more shot creators whether it’s for them or for others. And when Eers and Aaho were next to each other, it felt like they had two inherent creators. That’s not saying they can’t score, but they’re they’re always trying to think one step ahead. They’re always trying to set up the great shot. And and I thought by mixing it up, you might put some inherent creators with a few more guys that understood their role would be to to score. And then Taylor Hall has the opportunity and he and he’s got daylight against Igorish Sturkin on a twoon-one and and the guy back on defense understands who’s behind him. So he’s paying a lot of attention to Sebastian Aaho and and Taylor Hall still tries to make the the difficult pass hunting for the great shot. It’s what’s frustrating about the power play. It’s what’s frustrating at times about, you know, I always say I like angry Aaho. Uh about non- Angry AO, one of the things that’s frustrating is he’s always looking to make the absolute right perfect play rather than just getting mad seeing red and trying to score. I I I want that on on the Carolina Hurricanes a little bit more. If you go back to at the beginning, this is not a conversation that just started. If you go back to the beginning of last year, gosh despair was was new old, right? He he was back on the team. And in Goshasper’s first games, he had like seven shot attempts, seven shots on goal, something like that. And I remember going, “Oh, I love this guy. I I want him playing a ton every not because he was playing great. I don’t remember if he was scoring goals. I don’t remember if what his plus minus was, but I I was going, I hope he just lets everybody know it’s okay if you have the shot to just let it rip. Get seven shots on goal, good things will happen whether you’re scoring goals or not.” I wanted that mindset. When Bradley Nadau was called up, I thought, “Hey, everybody tells me the rest of his game might take some time, but he’s got a shot.” And I was going, “Perfect. Shoot. Let it fly.” I I I said this, too, and I’m It’s It’s why it’s so frustrating because it’s not a It’s not a new conversation. I think it’s good for like the Canes in life. I think they’re all really nice guys, right? I think I think it’s better like for for them as humans. Their parents should be more proud the way that they often play hockey, but I a few times I want to show them like the last dance, right? I want to be like there’s probably some stuff when Michael Jordan’s parents watch this documentary, they’re like, “Oh, Mike, come on, man. Be nicer to your teammates.” But that probably is what made Michael Jordan Michael Jordan, right? I I kind of want them to to be more selfish. The avocado selfishness I talk about. Taylor Hall, shoot that puck. I guarantee you. And you know what? Because all your teammates are the good people I just mentioned. 0% chance will Aaho be mad at you. He won’t be sitting there going like, “Man, you could have gotten me a really good shot opportunity.” No, he’ll be like, “Hey, good rip, right? Sorry I couldn’t grab the puck retrieval or whatever if you missed.” Like, that’s what you’re looking for. Other than that, I think it was a really good game. 3 0. You have to part of the story is the Rangers did not look great. No, the Rangers stink. Yeah, part that’s part of the story. So, you know, add that check. We’ve now added it. We can go on to the rest. I think it was really good for Pure Cochov. I think it’s a weight off the shoulders of Nikolai Eers. Uh Shawn Walker, your boy, your multiple points including a goal. Uh that’s can’t can’t have enough of that for a player like Shawn Walker. Building confidence and every game you win, every game you play is hopefully a step closer to getting some of your injured guys back and and especially a win. It brings them back in a better situation standings wise, record-wise, right? Points accumulated by the team-wise. So get the win. Don’t give it back because the other team ain’t great. Say thank you. Get ready for the next one. I’m hoping for Eers. It’s just the fact that, like you said, he didn’t really didn’t play much different. Still creating scoring opportunities. He had six shots on goal yesterday. No different. But the fact that he finally had one go in, he’s like, “Okay, I can breathe a little bit.” Yep. And and hopefully it’s reinforcing, right? Sometimes it’s just you’re doing everything right and you’re not getting the results. There’s a huge temptation to make big big changes. Hopefully a goal just lets them say, “No, keep keep doing what you’re doing. If you want to do it a little bit better, a little bit more quality, cool. But keep doing what you’re doing.” The

Tim Donnelly & Dennis Cox discuss the Carolina Hurricanes beating the New York Islanders, 6-2, but how the youth in the organization are paying off despite injuries.

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