Week Two- A Pause

As week two of the 2021 NHL season ends, it feels both unfortunate and inevitable that we are not just breaking down the play on the ice. We will do that here as well, but as life during a global pandemic goes, we will also address where the team stands in terms of its virus-related pause.

Let’s start with Carolina’s virus situation, currently, the team has six players on the NHL’s COVID-19 Protocol list, team facilities are closed and they have had three games postponed (one against Nashville and two against Florida). Captain Jordan Stall was the first player added to the list prior to the team's second game of the season in Detroit. Four additional players were added to the list after the team's third game in Nashville (Foegele, Martinook, Slavin, Teravainen) and Jesper Fast’s name joined the list on Saturday after the team had returned to Raleigh. First and foremost we think of the players and their health, with so much still unknown when it comes to this virus we hope for a speedy and full recovery and understand that this affects not only the individual players but their families and extended circles. The players are required to remain quarantined in the city they are in at the time they are added to the list meaning the Canes left a man in Detroit and four in Nashville. There are reasons a player can end up on the Protocol list beyond testing positive for the virus themselves such as confirmed exposure dangers identified by contact tracing, that is to say, that just because these names are on the list it does not mean that each of these players has tested positive. At this point, the NHL has not announced when play can resume for the Hurricanes and we have no information on when these specific players can rejoin the team. All the team and Caniacs around the world can do is wait, but as we do let’s look at games two and three of the Hurricanes season.

Carolina lost the back end of a two-game series with Detroit and won what was supposed to be the first of two games with Nashville, prior to their season being postponed by the league. After the loss to Detroit head coach Rod Brind’Amour explained that he didn’t know what he was watching from his team during the first two periods of play. The team, for those two periods at least failed to play their system, and it was too much to overcome even with a solid third period. Svechnikov was again a bright spot, specifically his game-tying goal in the third, a goal created with his physical forecheck and finished with another of his blistering shots. In the end, the Hurricanes gave up a tough, late penalty, and after the ensuing shorthanded goal left Detroit with their first loss of the season. In game three of the young season, Carolina bounced back with another strong third period and a sharp debut from goaltender James Reimer, who stopped thirty-one of thirty-three shots. The vast impact of a player like Jordan Staal is sometimes hard to quantify, but not in the faceoff circle, and in this game, the Canes were able to overcome the fact that they only won 33% of the draws. In stark contrast, the team won 60% of the faceoffs in the only game Staal has played in this season. Obviously, moving forward it will be important to see who the Hurricanes have available when the team is able to resume play. As fans, no matter who they have on the ice, we just hope that is sooner than later and that everyone affected by the virus comes back healthy and without any lasting symptoms.