The Canes have gone 4-1-0 so far in the first five games of their road trip. The Carolina Hurricanes finished their season-long road trip with a 5-1-0 record, the second best road trip in franchise history. The team had it all in that six-game stretch: goal scoring, special teams, defense, goaltending, you name it. But I managed to pick out 10 different things to focus in on today, so without further adieu, here are 10 observations from the road trip. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The New Guys Are Finding the Score Sheet Coming into the season, there was a lot of worry surrounding the Hurricanes' offseason moves and questions on if they had done enough to replace some of the key pieces they had lost. While it's still a small sample size, the early results are promising so far. In total, 11 different skaters registered a goal on the Canes' six-game road trip with Carolina scoring 22 goals in total. All but three skaters registered at least a point on the road and Shayne Gostisbehere (3g, 6pts) and Jack Roslovic (4g) were two of the biggest standouts offensively. 2. The Penalty Kill Taking Shape The Hurricanes' bread and butter is typically its penalty kill and after a slow start at home, where they allowed three power play goals against, they really shut it down while on the road. In total, the Canes allowed just one power play goal against in 21 times shorthanded (to Connor McDavid at that) for a 95.2% success rate. The kill was strong for Carolina and it came through in multiple key situations and even came close to scoring more than once. 3. Power Play Producing And on the other side of the special teams coin, the power play also found its legs once the team hit the road. The Hurricanes scored six goals on 21 different man advantage situations during the road trip, converting in five straight games. The top power play unit has been looking good with quarterback Shayne Gostisbehere leading the team in power play goals with three. It's also been a really impressive start for Martin Necas who leads the team in points (11) and power play points (5). The only concern is the second power play unit which has had some looks, but so far has no goals and more than often than not has struggled to look consistently dangerous. 4. Martin Necas Popping Off What a road trip it's been for the blonde beauty. After having just a single assist in his first two games, Necas exploded for a 10 point road trip with four of the six being multi-point games. The Czech forward also had two game-winning goals and even scored his 100th career goal. The Hurricanes are looking for a big year out of Necas and so far so good. 5. Shayne Gostisbehere/Sean Walker are Good While the loss of Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei left a large hole in the Canes' blueline, Shayne Gostisbehere and Sean Walker have done a great job in trying to mitigate those losses. While Dmitry Orlov and Jalen Chatfield have more so gotten the tougher minutes, the Hurricanes' new third pair has been outstanding in the minutes they're getting. The pair leads the team in Corsi For Percentage (69.54%) and are outscoring opponents 4-2. They also have a 78.73% expected goals for percentage and have generated 31 high-danger chances to the nine they've given up. 6. Jesperi Kotkaniemi Looking to Bounce Back It's a pivotal year for KK, but the good news is that he's had a strong start. Kotkaniemi leads the team in 5v5 points with six, all assists, and his line has been one of the more dynamic ones on the team as he's skating alongside Martin Necas. The Finnish center had a hot start last year too, so it'll be key for him to maintain his level of play. 7. Bottom Six = Corsi Canes The Hurricanes' bottom-six continues to be the Corsi Kings. The Canes' new fourth line of William Carrier, Jack Drury and Jackson Blake has a 82.93 CF% in three games and have been absolutely dominant. The Jordan Staal and Jordan Martinook line with Carrier controls a 67.44 CF% and have yet to give up a 5v5 goal yet and with Seth Jarvis have a 56.16 CF% and have surrendered just one 5v5 goal. The Hurricanes have long been known for their heavy possession, heavy forechecking style of play, but it's always good to see it still as effective this early into the year and while mostly on the road. 8. Opportunity Calls for Pyotr Kochetkov With Frederik Andersen sidelined due to injury, it's yet another opportunity for Pyotr Kochetkov to show he can be the guy for Carolina. The biggest thing for the Russian netminder is consistency. He has really great games and makes some huge saves, but he's got to find a way to limit his valleys. Andersen may not be out long-term, but Kochetkov needs to produce strong results every time he starts if he wants to separate himself. Every game is an audition and he needs to put on a successful performance every night. 9. Sebastian Aho Eyeing a New Franchise Record With his overtime game-winner against the Vancouver Canucks, Sebastian Aho registered his 57th career game-winning goal, moving him into a tie with Ron Francis for the most in franchise history. Last season, Aho broke Eric Staal's record for shorthanded goals (17) and every game he moves himself closer and closer to the all-time scoring lead. I think it's safe to say Aho will have a new franchise record under his belt before too long and by the end of his career, he might have all of them. 10. Only Two Skaters Still Searching For First Points We're eight games into the season and only two skaters are still searching for their first points of the year: Jalen Chatfield and Sean Walker. And everyone else except Jordan Staal has at least two points too. So things are looking pretty good in terms of everybody chipping in. I mean, even Pyotr Kochetkov has a point now. Goal scoring has also been pretty even spread with just mostly the defensemen without goals. Those still searching for Goal #1 include: Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Jordan Martinook, Brent Burns, Jaccob Slavin, Jalen Chatfield and Sean Walker.
