Hurricanes dominate play but falter again. Stellar Canadiens goaltending and missed opportunities seal their season sweep defeat.
For the third time in as many games, the Carolina Hurricanes were defeated by the Montreal Canadiens, this time falling 3-1 Sunday night at Lenovo Center.
This game was much the same as the other losses: the team plays well and dominates the shot share, but can't capitalize enough, ultimately giving up a bunch in succession to lose.
In all three games, the Hurricanes have also led after the first period, only to see it all collapse in the second.
Here are three takeaways from the loss:
1. Goalie Differential
Rod Brind'Amour said it best in his postgame comments: The difference in this game was goaltending.
While Jakub Dobes had another herculean effort for Montreal, stopping 34 of the 35 shots he faced, Frederik Andersen failed to make key stops, allowing three goals on just 18 shots.
It isn't like Andersen played bad by any means, but he wasn't great either. At this level of hockey, you need your goalie to be a steady contributor, not a passenger.
Dobes, meanwhile, won all three games he played against Carolina this season, stopping 95 total shots and posting a 0.922 save percentage.
"You just have to tip your cap sometimes," Brind'Amour said. "They played well, but their goalie was the difference."
He wasn't great in the first meeting, mind you, but he was outstanding in the last two and was the primary reason why Montreal won.
Andersen didn't lose Carolina these games, but he certainly didn't help them win them either.
"It's tough," Brind'Amour said. "You can't blame him on them, but at the end of the day, that's the difference in the game. I mean, clearly."
2. Top Line's 5v5 Struggles
While they've certainly been producing on the power play, 5v5 has been a different story for the Hurricanes' top line.
The trio of Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov and Seth Jarvis have combined for just one goal at 5v5 over their last 10 games, while conceding 10.
"They have to be on the sheet," Brind'Amour said. "They play all the minutes and get all the opportunities. And they did have them. In the third period, Fishy goes right off the bar from 10-feet out. It was just countless chances, but you still have to cash in.".
Despite that, they actually control a 60% expected goals for percentage in that span, so they've really just been super unlucky.
Take tonight for example where all three players drew iron at different points of the game.
They have an on-ice shooting percentage of just 1.52% and an on-ice save percentage of 0.804, and you really can't expect both to stay like that forever.
The line is doing what they need to do, it's just about waiting for the bounces to even back out.
"On a night like this, you need to find a way to score and obviously we weren't able to do that," Aho said. "You can't get too frustrated because you have to keep on going and trust that it will come eventually, but tonight, it didn't. That's on us."
3. Triple Digit Shot Attempts
The Hurricanes certainly did everything they could to try and break through against the Habs, as their 100 shot attempts was the most by any team this season for a game that ended in regulation.
In fact the only other team to have that many shot attempts was the Colorado Avalanche in a 6-5 shootout win over the Vegas Golden Knights back in December.
The Canes did it all in regulation, putting a ton of rubber on net.
They had 35 shots that got through to the goal, 33 shots that missed the net and a whopping 32 that were blocked by the Montreal skaters.
And of those 100 attempts, 19 were high-danger chances, so Carolina certainly had more than enough opportunities to score in that game, they just happened to run into a hot goaltender.
"We definitely had enough looks, we just didn't cash in," Brind'Amour said. "That's all you can say about it."
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