The Carolina Hurricanes will be back at it tonight at MSG to take on the New York Rangers for Game 2.
The Canes dropped Game 1, 4-3, but there was a good bit to build off in that game in terms of the play at even strength.
However, there was also quite a few things that need to be addressed.
Here are my three keys to Game 2:
Special Teams
It's pretty obvious what the biggest difference between the two teams was Sunday night.
The Hurricanes were abysmal at special teams, allowing two power play goals within just 23 seconds of man advantage time and going 0-for-5 on their own power play.
The Canes had only four shots on goal in over eight minutes of power play time and that's just not going to cut it.
Another big issue was the fact that Carolina went 2-for-7 on faceoffs during their power plays which directly lead to losing possession and struggling to regain the zone.
So the Hurricanes need to focus simply on winning that draw and putting pucks to the net. Get some traffic going and look for those second-chance opportunities.
The answer to the PK problem isn't necessarily simple as New York's top unit is very good and very in sync. They took advantage of the Hurricanes' pressures with quick and efficient passes.
So while it might be easy to say that they should simply go to a stay-at-home, box-style kill, that's not what has brought them success.
A bigger issue is winning 50/50 puck battles and making sure their sticks and bodies are active and in those passing lanes.
Simple stuff like that can go a long way.
Top of the Lineup
If Carolina is going to find success in this series, they need their top players to step up their game.
The top line of Jake Guentzel - Sebastian Aho - Andrei Svechnikov has been good in terms of chance generation and opportunites but the fact of the matter is that they have only a single 5v5 goal this postseason.
For three players that are all 30-goal scorers, that's not ideal.
Guentzel especially needs to start making an impact and taking a more selfish approach. He's had the lowest individual chances per 60 of his career this postseason so far.
The Canes also need their top pair to completely turn their game around.
The pairing of Jaccob Slavin - Brent Burns has been struggling as of late.
They've controlled only a 54.3 CF% and even worse, a 40 xGF% in their even strength minutes.
Burns especially has struggled with transitioning the puck from his own end and Slavin has had a few botched retrievals.
They need to play at an elite level if they're going to be going against the Rangers' top guns, especially in the absence of Brett Pesce.
And lastly, there's Frederik Andersen.
He's been red hot at times, but also ice cold and you can't have that kind of unreliability in the playoffs.
He currently has a 0.899 save percentage this postseason and that fourth goal on Sunday was a brutal backbreaker goal to give up.
He's been shaky with rebounds and puck tracking since midway through the Islanders series and hasn't really reigned it back in since.
Andersen's made some big saves in clutch moments, but there's been more than a few times where he's struggled to make the routine ones.
The Canes won't go far if the top of the lineup isn't playing up to the standard.
Control the Emotions
Game 1 was over officiated.
There was quite a few iffy penalties called both ways that showed the referees were way too involved from the energy of the crowd, but as is usually the case with NHL refs, you can't expect that standard to stay.
The Canes will need to keep a cooler head in Game 2 especially with how dangerous the Rangers' power play is.
Keep retaliation to a minimum and don't let the post-whistle scrums get out of hand.
There's a fine and definite line between not getting pushed around and standing up for your team and yourself and being stupid.
Don't cross that line.
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