
The Carolina Hurricanes overcame a plethora of penalties, subpar ice conditions and a near collapse to defeat the LA Kings in the shootout 6-5 Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena.
The Canes were outshot 30-19 and outchanced 42-28 in a game that was as far from their normal as possible.
"Trash it and move on," said Carolina head coach Rod Brind'Amour. "I don't know if we've played a worse game ever. They outplayed us from start to finish, we just scored on every chance we had basically. We're going to just trash it and move on."
Usually it's the Hurricanes outshooting opponents and suffocating them with their forechecking, but tonight the Canes just had no juice.
The Kings were on them constantly and Carolina could barely muster any offensive pressure.
But the Hurricanes didn't need to sustain offensive pressure as their shooting talent carried them through the game.
The Canes had five different goal scorers over the course of regulation and the team is now averaging over five goals a game on the year and Andrei Svechnikov has yet to make his season debut.
Not too bad.
Penalties once again took the wind out of the Hurricanes' sails though as the team was assessed a penalty eight times and in conjunction with that, the Canes' penalty kill was hot and cold.
On the one hand, it allowed two goals against as LA found soft coverage on both, but then the Hurricanes also scored twice shorthanded as well.
Sebastian Aho made things happen both times, scoring the first one on a breakaway and then setting up Teuvo Teravainen on a 2-on-1 for the second.
Aho's shorthanded goal was also the 17th of his career, surpassing Eric Staal (16) as the lone franchise record holder.
"There's a lot of room out there in those situations and he's always looking to go," Brind'Amour said. "We give him the green light when there's an opportunity and he's got the ability. He's been good on the kill, for sure."
The penalties are certainly an issue, but it's also that part of the season where officials are calling everything and then some no matter how small.
"The game is just so hard when you're in the box the whole time," Brind'Amour said. "It just has no flow and it was a disgusting game really."
Brent Burns, Aho, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Brendan Lemieux, who was making his Hurricanes debut, all scored their first goals of the season and Teravainen netted his second.
The Hurricanes were up 3-0 and 5-2 at different points of the game, but a terrible third period saw the Kings storm back.
The Canes then barely survived overtime, managing just one shot, before taking the game to the shootout.
It took until the ninth round, with both Aho and Martin Necas scoring in sudden death scenarios and Frederik Andersen standing tall to extend it that far, before Jordan Martinook called came with a sick goal.
"I've seen him do that move in practice on me," Andersen said. "He's more skilled than people give him credit for. He provides a lot of energy for us and he can score, so it's cool to seem him finish it on a nice move like that."
The Canes will be back in action tomorrow as they take on the Anaheim Ducks at the Honda Center.