Hurricanes’ power play comes to life in playoff opener, a 2-1 win over the Islanders
That ought to settle some nerves, in the stands more than the dressing room, although still probably more than the Carolina Hurricanes will let on. Either way, they won’t have to answer difficult questions about their power play for a while, which will be a relief all on its own.
The New York Islanders lost the same playoff game the Hurricanes have so often lost the past couple years — shut out on the power play while the other team goes to town, a furious final flurry frustrated by a hot goaltender — and it’s a little odd to see it from the other side.
After converting their first two power-play opportunities of the playoffs and relying on Antti Raanta through a wild third period, the Hurricanes managed to score as many goals with the man advantage in the first 23 minutes Monday night as they had in the final seven regular-season games.
Special teams and goaltending. The names and faces and Atlanta franchises and generations change, but the playoffs never do.
So this 2-1 win in Game 1 of a series that everyone expects to continue along this same path – a smothering series where scoring chances go to die — may have been worth as much to the Hurricanes’ confidence in the long term as it was to take the early lead and defend home ice in the short term.
The Hurricanes won their division and put up 113 points without a reliable, functional power play. What’s their ceiling if this is a turning point?
“We’ve been working on it hard. I don’t think it’s for any lack of trying,” goal-scorer Stefan Noesen said. “It’s just getting everybody on the same page and we got guys on the same page and that’s what happened tonight. Honestly, we could have gone four-for-four. We were snapping it around pretty good.”
Their power play desperately needed something, anything good to happen, and that it did in a mere five seconds. Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said they’d tried the same faceoff play all year, with Brent Burns zinging it to Sebastian Aho to Ilya Sorokin’s left for a one-timer from the circle, and it didn’t work until Monday night.
The second goal was as weird as the first was fast. The goal horn went off and players started celebrating after a puck-sized chunk of the blade of Noesen’s stick slipped past Sorokin and into the net. By the time everyone figured out what had happened, the Hurricanes were headed to the power play, thanks to the slash that did the damage.
Noesen then deflected Burns’ shot past Sorokin with the exact same part of his new lumber that had been surgically detached from his old lumber. They all count the same, as long as it is actually the puck in the net. It was Noesen’s first NHL playoff goal since 2018, five years and eight teams ago.
“Who’s counting?” Noesen said.
There’s never been an obvious reason why the Hurricanes veer toward stagnant and predictable on the power play, but the two quick strikes — using a total of 52 seconds of power-play time — ought to give them a welcome jolt.
“It’s more if you’re doing things right and feeling good about it,” Burns said. “Yeah, it’s been building. We’ve been working on it every day. It’s nice to see some go in.”
Even though their two later power plays didn’t exactly dazzle, all anyone will remember is they batted .500 in the opener while the opposition was 0-fer.
Raanta had a lot to do with the latter, and as for the other half of the traditional postseason equation, the goaltending question starts to get interesting now. Frederik Andersen is going to play at some point in this series. It’s merely a question of when.
If Raanta hadn’t been so good — even though the Islanders’ lone goal was basically his fault — it would be easy to go back to Andersen in Game 2. That may even have been the plan going in. But the way Raanta played, it’s going to be tough to walk away. The switch to Long Island, getting away from a building where Raanta still has yet to lose in regulation this season or in the playoffs in his career, may provide a convenient opportunity to rotate.
It’s a good problem to have, especially when their biggest, longstanding previous problem accounted for both of the Hurricanes’ goals on Monday, in a narrow win they very well could have seen slip away otherwise given how well Sorokin played at five-on-five.
“It’s going to be like that the whole series,” Raanta said. “Two hard-working teams and, like we saw, the power play came through and it won the game for us.”
That hasn’t been something the Hurricanes have often been able to say this season, or in playoffs past. They’re 1-for-1 in the series and 2-for-4 on the power play.
The first number is all that matters in the end. The second is what feels like matters most in the moment.
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This story was originally published April 17, 2023 at 11:35 PM with the headline "Hurricanes’ power play comes to life in playoff opener, a 2-1 win over the Islanders."
