Three Takeaways: Carolina Hurricanes @ New York Islanders
The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the New York Islanders 4-3 in overtime Thursday night at UBS Arena.
The Canes never relented against the Isles despite falling into a 3-0 hole and their efforts were rewarded with a comeback victory.
Here are the three takeaways from the game:
Shot Overload
The Canes absolutely peppered the Isles with shots last night, putting up over 100 shot attempts.
Carolina outshot New York 47-25 and outchanced them 88-32 at 5v5 and 101-38 at all strengths.
The Hurricanes' offensive strategy is to shoot, shoot, shoot and they kept to the game plan and eventually it paid off.
Jaccob Slavin led the team in shots with seven, Brent Burns had six and Sebastian Aho had five. 13 players had at least two shots and only Jack Drury and Brendan Lemieux were held without a single shot
Overtime Dominance
The Hurricanes remain undefeated in extra time this season having won all three of their games that have gone past regulation.
Scoring the winner last night, Sebastian Aho now has 10 overtime winners, extending his franchise lead.
Those 10 overtime winners also ties him for 10th overall amongst all skaters since he entered the league in 2016-17.
Connor McDavid leads the league with 14 overtime winners since 2016-17.
Martin Necas, who had a primary assist on the winning goal, registered his 14th overtime point, moving him one behind Jeff O'Neill for second most in franchise history.
Bottom Six
While they haven't really gotten onto the scoresheet, the bottom six has been absolutely dominating teams as of late.
Last night, per NaturalStatTrick.com, the Hurricanes' third line had 30 chances for and only gave up six. The fourth line had 15 chances for and only gave up one.
They've been very effective at grinding teams down and applying pressure to give not only their top guys time to rest but also to deny their opponent's top guys offensive ice time.
A lot has been made of the bottom sixes struggles to score, but game management is just as big a part of a win.
Those long grinding shifts really take a lot out of opponents and the Hurricanes are then able to throw fresh bodies over the boards to follow them up.
Just look at the third period last night. Carolina outchanced the Islanders 37-9 at 5v5 and it's in part due to the nature of grinding a team down and leaving them with very little in the tank.
It's all part of the game plan.
Recent Articles
