The best way for the Hurricanes to defuse an incipient goaltending crisis: Score six
In every season, there’s one moment of panic. Some are more legitimate than others. For the Carolina Hurricanes, it always seems to arrive about this time.
And if it hadn’t settled upon them when Pyotr Kochetkov stuck his head in the path of Sean Walker on Saturday night, it did 18 seconds into Monday’s game against the Dallas Stars, when Tyler Seguin opened the scoring with a tap-in past Spencer Martin, who allowed three goals on the first seven shots he faced.
Here we go again?
Maybe not. Turns out one of the best ways to defuse an incipient goaltending crisis is to score five goals in the third period, which the Hurricanes did on their way to a 6-4 win, erasing a two-goal second-intermission deficit.
Nevertheless, the Hurricanes find themselves in a familiar position with Frederik Andersen and Kochetkov both injured and wide-eyed Yaniv Perets watching from the bench as the next man up.
Maybe it’s just a function of relying on Andersen, as fragile as he is talented, that the Hurricanes seem to go through this every winter. Last year, Kochetkov saved the Hurricanes’ bacon when Andersen was on the shelf and Antti Raanta lost his mojo. This year, with Andersen recovering from surgery and Kochetkov concussed, that burden falls on Martin.
Monday was a wild ride. It was hard to fault Martin on any of the first three goals, largely the victim of an unusually sloppy performance by the Hurricanes in their own end. Then he made two huge saves in the third period — flashing a pad on Roope Hintz and standing up Matt Duchene from close quarters — and really only wanted Dallas’ fourth goal back, an unobstructed Miro Heiskanen shot from distance.
“It’s always when you make your saves,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “That’s critical. They didn’t have a lot of chances, but a lot of them were good chances.”
Or, as a resurgent Seth Jarvis, the best player on the ice in his first game back after missing seven, put it: What goalie crisis?
“‘Spence’ played great,” Jarvis said. “Our goalie situation is all right.”
But the goalie situation is tenuous, to say the least, and will demand some kind of action this weekend when they face the Florida Panthers in a home-road back-to-back. Four games in six nights against top-tier teams is probably a bridge too far for anyone but Arturs Irbe, and there are a couple different approaches the Hurricanes can take.
They can muddle through with Martin, likely signing AHL goalie Dustin Tokarski to an NHL contract to play the second game against the Panthers on Saturday. Even if the Hurricanes take a loss or two, they have built themselves a nice cushion and there’s a lot of hockey left. There’s only so much damage they can do punting now, and they save assets and cap space for later.
Or they can buy some longer-term insurance and try to make a deal for a surplus goalie elsewhere, presumably one on an expiring contract. Utah’s Karel Vejmelka probably makes the most sense, maybe for one of the middle-tier prospects the Hurricanes have stockpiled, but the Utahns aren’t going to make that deal as long as Connor Ingram is injured. The other options — a James Reimer reunion? a random Shark to be named later? — aren’t quite as palatable.
With the Hurricanes, there’s often a third way you don’t see coming, like the deferred salary that solved the deadlock on Jarvis’ contract extension. They like to work the margins when they can. If Eric Tulsky has any tricks up his sleeve, now might be a good time to spring one. Not only is it hard to score six every night, there’s no safety net behind Martin.
But they’ve been here before, and they’ve stayed the course — adding Martin with a fortuitously timed waiver claim last season — and not been any worse for wear. (If there was a botched goaltending decision last season, it was starting a weary Andersen in Game 6 in New York instead of Kochetkov, who would have left either a hot Kochetkov or a rested Andersen for a potential Game 7.)
The raw numbers didn’t flatter Martin on Monday — four goals on 19 shots — but his teammates didn’t do him any favors early and he made big saves when the Hurricanes needed them late. The Hurricanes are probably going to have to figure out some alternate goaltending options over the next few days. For now, Martin’s 1-0 as the de facto No. 1.
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This story was originally published November 26, 2024 at 12:00 AM with the headline "The best way for the Hurricanes to defuse an incipient goaltending crisis: Score six."
