The Carolina Hurricanes will take on the New York Islanders Saturday night at UBS Arena.
The Canes recently saw their three-game win streak snapped by a 2-1 loss to the New York Rangers, so they'll look to start a new one while they're still in New York.
Here are three keys for Carolina to focus in on to get back into the win column:
Make Life Difficult for Ilya Sorokin
The Canes battled one of the league's top Russian netminders in New York already, but they're going to have to do it again tonight.
If they want to come out ahead this time, they're going to need to make it very difficult for Sorokin to do his job.
That means peppering him with shots, setting up multiple layers of screens and battling for those loose pucks and rebounds in close.
It's very hard to beat goalies like Sorokin straight up, so Carolina just needs to do all they can to make him uncomfortable.
That sort of game comes at a cost as the Islanders have a large defensive group more than willing to deal out a few cross checks, so the Canes will have to pay the price if they want to get that edge.
Stay Out of the Box
The Hurricanes are averaging over five penalties per game and that's just not going to cut it.
You can complain about soft or unbalanced calls, but at the end of the day, the team needs to be more aware of the positions they put themselves in.
Carolina is committing mostly careless stick infractions and those are things that can easily be cleaned up.
Focus up, keep the aggression in control and play a clean game.
It isn't like New York has a particularly threating power play, currently it is 23rd in the league at 14.8%, but the penalties detract from the even strength game, which is the Canes' specialty.
The team needs to help itself by staying on the ice and out of the box.
Answer the Physicality
The Islanders are the most physical team in the league, averaging 21.52 hits per 60, and they have a whole line simply dedicated to dishing out punishment.
The Canes are familiar with the way the Isles like to play from last year's first-round playoff matchup, so they should be prepared for it.
However, Carolina shouldn't be afraid of dishing the hits right back to New York
Currently, the Hurricanes average the second least amount of hits per 60 (11.64), but that comes with the territory of being a puck dominant team. You don't throw hits when you have the puck.
But with players like Andrei Svechnikov, Jordan Martinook, Jordan Staal and Dmitry Orlov, Carolina can answer the Isles' physicality.
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