Gold: Last stop, Nashville

By Adam Gold radio host 99.9 the Fan

The Carolina Hurricanes finish up a five-game road trip with a solo match in Nashville Tuesday night. The Canes are coming off their second straight extra time win, beating Florida 3-2 in overtime two nights after surviving the Panthers in a shootout. In each case the deciding goal was provided by Martin Necas, Monday’s coming when Sebastian Aho found the 2nd year winger with a backdoor feed at 1:59 of the OT to cap a comeback out of nowhere.

In all honesty, after being dominated like the Canes were in the third period, the fact that Carolina took two points with them on the way to Nashville is borderline criminal. Florida hammered the Hurricanes -- especially in the 3rd period -- for much of the night. The Panthers had a 23-5 edge in shots on goal in the third and a 20-1 edge in even strength scoring chances over the final two periods. Yet, somehow, the Canes dragged this one into overtime when Vincent Trocheck piped home a Nino Niederreiter pass with goalie Alex Nedeljkovic off for the extra attacker in the final two minutes.

Then, for the second time this year, Necas scored in OT finishing off a good trip for the 21-year old speedster. His shootout goal was the deciding one on Saturday as Carolina took the first game in Sunrise. Nedeljkovic, the rookie goaltender, who has gotten regular work since the injury to Patr Mrazek, stopped 44 shots and has now steered aside 91 of the last 95 he’s seen. He was the best player on the ice for the Hurricanes who improved to 14-6-1 on the season, tying Tampa for second place, one point behind the Panthers.

It will be interesting to see how the goaltending position is handled for the Hurricanes as Mrazek works his way back from right thumb surgery. Ned has clearly been better than James Reimer the last week and a half or so.

Nashville is 10-11-0 on the year, but have won 2 in a row and 4 of their last 5 games. The Predators allowed just a pair of goals in two games to the Blue Jackets in 2-1 and 3-1 victories last week. Filip Forsberg leads the Predators in scoring with a team-high 9 goals and 19 points. Roman Josi is next with 13 points (2g, 11a) in 21 games.

As for the Canes, Trocheck has a team high 11 goals and is tied with Sebastian Aho with 18 points to pace Carolina’s offense. Necas enjoyed his second career game with 3 or more points and now has 14 points on the season (3g, 11a).

Not all Hurricanes are a cat 5 right now…

Jordan Staal is pointless in his last 7 games. Nino Niederreiter has gone 6 without a goal, Aho’s gone 5 without hitting the back of the net. Meanwhile, Andrei Svechnikov has gone 13 straight without beating a goaltender and Dougie Hamilton has scored just once this year -- the unintentional flip at the net last month in Columbus. In fact, Brett Pesce’s 3 goals are equal to those of the rest of the Hurricanes defensive corps. And, if we didn’t count Hamilton’s Eephus goal and Jaccob Slavin’s empty net marker against Chicago two weeks ago, it would leave only Jake Bean’s first NHL goal to come from Hurricanes defensemen that don’t hail from Tarrytown, NY.

But the same is true…

Hard to believe but Ryan Johansen has yet to score this year in 14 games. Matt Duchene has just 3 goals and none in his last 7 games. Roman Josi, the reigning Norris Trophy winner hasn’t scored in 11 straight and Victor Arvidsson, who had a 2-point night when these teams met in January hasn’t triggered the red light in the last 13 games.

Beware the third…

In a statistical oddity, the Predators have scored more goals in the 3rd period of games this year than they have in the first and second COMBINED. Nashville has 26 3rd-period tallies while combining for just 20 over the first 40 minutes. Judging from the way Carolina’s limped to the finish line in the two games in Florida you shouldn’t turn the game off entering the third no matter what kind of lead the Canes might have.

Puck drop is just after 8:00 with Storm Watch starring Alec Campbell rolling at 7:30 on 99.9 the Fan. Stay tuned after the game for the Aftermath and then check out the Canes Corner Podcast which drops after every Hurricanes game.