Three Takeaways: Canes Pull Off Win in Philly
© Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports - Three Takeaways: Canes Pull Off Win in PhillyThe Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 Monday night at Wells Fargo Center.
Goals by Stefan Noesen, Michael Bunting and Teuvo Teravainen helped to elevate the Canes while a 26-save performance by Frederik Andersen kept Carolina kicking.
Here are three takeaways from the win:
Special Teams
The Canes had their first perfect special teams outing in quite a while against the Flyers.
The power play converted on its one and only chance as Michael Bunting scored a blistering one-timer off of a faceoff win and then the penalty killed turned in a perfect five-for-five record.
The kill had been plenty bad to start the season, ranked fourth worst in the league heading into the game, but this game helped bump it up a few spots.
The Canes' pressure-based system has seemed to find its footing as of late and perhaps some new combinations such as Jordan Staal paired with Seth Jarvis are providing a spark.
Whatever the case, the Hurricanes are just hoping it continues.
Frederik Andersen
After a shaky start to the game, Andersen turned in a clinical second and third period to help elevate the Hurricanes to a win.
According to MoneyPuck.com, Andersen saved an additional 2.21 goals above expected on the shots he faced.
The Danish netminder is now 4-0-0 on the season and has progressively gotten better as its gone along.
In fact, he seems to get better as games go along too.
The bottom line is that Andersen was tremendous in Philadelphia and perhaps was the biggest reason that the team won.
Fourth Line
For the first time all season, the Hurricanes' fourth line finally seems to have found a pulse.
Go figure that adding a star-level talent to a line would have that sort of effect.
Since Andrei Svechnikov's season debut against the San Jose Sharks on Oct. 27, he's played primarily on the fourth line with Stefan Noesen and Jack Drury.
Since then, the trio has generated a 58.82% Corsi For and has scored one, nearly two, goals (Drury had yet another goal called back for offsides).
Svechnikov probably won't stay on the fourth line for much longer, but with how much talent the Canes have on the wing, whoever slides down will still be a boost to that line.
That's also partially because Brendan Lemieux hasn't been able to find a his bearings in Carolina yet.
Lemieux has just a 40% Corsi For, a 35.41 xGF% and has been outscored 3-1. His defensive metrics have been some of the worst on the team and his one supposed plus, his physicality has amounted to just 10 hits yet 31 penalty minutes.
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