With the Toronto Maple Leafs wearing green and the Carolina Hurricanes red on the road, it was the team dressed for the occasion that coincided with the victory of St. Louis.
The Leafs beat the Canes 3-2 as rookie Netminder Erik Kallgren made 34 saves in just his second NHL start to push Toronto past Carolina. The Leafs took a 2-0 lead in each of the first two periods, and then quickly shot after Ethan Bear made it 2-1 in the third period to extend the lead once again to two.
Vincent Trocheck added a senseless number in the final seconds of the game as Carolina lost his second contest.
Here are some of the highlights of Thursday’s loss:
Expensive mistakes and missed opportunities
On paper, Thursday night’s loss was a game in which the Carolina Hurricanes could possibly win.
For starters, Toronto had a rookie goalie on the net against one of the best NHL teams. And the Canes played pretty well, dominating the CF% at 61.21% while also the Maple Leafs shot out and played pretty comfortably.
That thing, of course, does not matter.
What’s important is that the Hurricanes could not find the end and put on their chances, and at the other end of the ice, the Maple Leaves took advantage of some critical Carolina mistakes and the Canes paid with numbers in goal. Column.
“I think there are a lot of similarities in the way the two teams played,” Trocheck said. “The systems are similar. We both played very hard. I think it was just a matter of those couple mistakes on very simple games that we know and practice all the time.
Toronto’s first goal came after Carolina de Puck could not keep up in her offensive zone as the Leafs won a battle in the corner and left at halftime. Some unlucky defense turned the leafs to make it 1-0 thanks to Ilya Mikheyev.
The Maple Leafs’ second goal came from a bad foul play in the neutral zone by Jaccob Slavin, which Mitch Marner was able to get into the net on his own. And when Marner gets on the net, he does not often clap for conversion.
In the third Toronto goal, which was a dagger in the Canes just three minutes after Bear Carolina’s life, a terrible pass came from Ian Cole’s defensive zone, which gave Puck straight to Toronto with the unusual rush.
The small mistakes, and Toronto’s ability to convert them, were the difference in the game.
The Canes, who had tons of chances, could not collect enough on the way to the finish. And so they got no points.
“I thought we played hard,” said Rod Brind’Amour. “Give the guys credit. We’re always playing hard, which is good, but we have to take our chances, what we did not do. That magnifies the mistakes we made. You will make mistakes, but give them credit. They capitalize. They obviously got the victory out of it.
Power failure
And not to mention taking the chances, the Hurricanes lost 0 for 3 in Power Play Thursday in a game they eventually lost by a goal.
The Canes man advantage hit a really bad funk. Carolina is 0 for her last 10 in Power Play, a four-game stretch where the Canes have not shot at the man advantage. And, of course, Carolina lost two of those games.
Thursday night, the powerplay was terribly bad. In six minutes of man advantage, Carolina summed up exactly 0 goal chances. Just one. The Maple Leafs, under one man, had three goal chances in those six minutes.
The hurricanes collected a total of five shots in those six minutes, and these shots were of the lowest danger imaginable. The Maple Leafs matched it all with five shorthanded shots.
Natural Stat Trick
So, what’s wrong with power play? What needs to be done better?
“I do not know if we know it at all,” Trocheck said. “I think we’re just trying to figure it out now. I think it’s about getting more puck into the net and maybe playing a little bit easier. It’s something we really need to understand here shortly before the playoffs begin.
As for the coach:
“I would like to see a little better execution with our plan,” Brind’Amour said. “We are away from what we wanted to do. Give them credit. They were aggressive and they did what we thought they would do, we just did not do it the right way.
The power play was bad, but it may be about to get the jumpstart that brings it back to life.
Tony DeAngelo, who has not played since Feb. 21, will likely return to the Canes’ lineup Friday night as Carolina is in the process of getting his QB back from PP1. DeAngelo, despite missing players, is second on the team with 15 power-play assists.
Getting DeAngelo back should help the force a lot, but it will not make the difference. Carolina has to figure out that part of her game soon, with the playoffs ahead.
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