Carolina Hurricanes’ scoring power is also a big question mark this season, writes Urheilu’s NHL reporter Tommi Seppälä.
Tommi Seppälä NHL reporter
In six matches, 13 (3+10) power points, two opening goals and three assisted winning hits. More than 56 percent of the startups are for their own. There Sebastian Ahon balance from the previous six matches.
That is, after he had publicly told every player on his own team to take a deep look in the mirror in mid-December.
Extremely liked Antti Raannan being sent to the transfer list was hard on the team, and Aho did not hesitate to stand up for his teammate. Raanta had not played well, but neither had the rest of the team.
Aho’s appearance in connection with the Raanta incident was an indication of tough leadership. The striker from Oulu is not known everywhere as a good leader, but when the need arises, the verbal chest opens. Now it opened in the right place.
Even more impressive has been Aho’s example on the ice.
In a difficult position, Aho has shown his greatness as a player. Ultimately, the NHL is a high-scoring sport, coldly driven by numbers. During the last couple of weeks, Aho has put the score on the board as much as possible to help his team win. This is leadership at its hardest.
Aho has played in all possible situations, handled the important starts, killed the ice and, above all, showed the rest of the team forward in the middle of a more difficult period. Every single change comes. A few and a select few can do this at the NHL level.
You don’t have to guess twice about whose shirt it is By Jordan Staal after, the letter C in Carolina is sewn.
Carolina is still not at its best, but at least the losing streak ended. Of the six matches following Raanta’s transfer list command, the team has won three, and two of the losses have only come after the winning shots.
And the wins have not come by chance. If sending Raanta to the farm was meant to wake up the group, the club management succeeded in that. While in the first two weeks of December against Carolina, 12.5 scoring chances were created per hour played with 5-on-5, the reading in the last two weeks is 9.4.
At the same time – wonder if – the save percentage of the goalkeepers has increased from 88.5 to almost 91. Raanta was also called back from the farm and the Finnish keeper returned to winning ways early on Friday morning.
The teddy bear spirit is and will remain
Improving the defensive play was of course the first thing on the team’s to-do list, but thinking about the spring, the concern would seem to be the old familiar goal-scoring power – or rather the lack of it. Carolina is definitely a playoff team, but will we go all the way to the championship with this strike force?
Tokkopa.
The club management seemed to be on top of a recurring problem a couple of years ago when they acquired it Max Pacioretty to the group. In the end, Pacioretty couldn’t participate at all due to injuries, but no new confirmation has been heard. If Carolina has been profiled in tough places in the past as a teddy bear gun team, what has changed since then?
Not much.
by Martin Necas a breakthrough to the elite is still awaited. Jesperi Kotkaniemi started the season well, but the taps have completely dried up as the season progresses. The club is certainly hoping for a second center from Pori, but the truth is that right now Kotkaniemi is one of the weakest links in the attack, if not the weakest. Ice time was less than ten minutes on Friday.
Aha and Andrei Svetshnikov are full-blooded reliable goal scorers, but what can be found in the background?
The team’s internal goal exchange is led by Aho (14), followed by what is known as the pass-first type of player Teuvo Teräväinen (13) and still in the development stage, who scored 17 hits in his best season Seth Jarvis (12). The fourth is the worker Stefan Noesenwhose goal record is thirteen.
Svetschnikov rises from the background, but the eyes turn especially to Necas and Kotkaniemi, why not also to Jarvis. If the trio’s ketchup bottles don’t open, Carolina will have the usual scoring problems in the spring.
Carolina doesn’t have such good defense and goalkeeping that it would go all the way to the championship with the striking power seen now.