About Last Night: Let’s Learn French

Bonjour! Last night the Carolina Hurricanes took care of business defeating the Montreal Canadiens 2-0 in game two of an eight game home stand. Thanks to this and some other things that have occurred throughout the season series between the Canes and Habs, it felt like it was the perfect time for a lesson in French.

Whether you just want to touch up your rusty second language or if you need those three credit hours of foreign speech for college, buckle up and let’s get to learning!

Points de Discussion

Words of the Day

First up is rafler. This word means sweep, which is what the Hurricanes have done over Montreal this year by winning all three of their match ups. The first game was on December 27th where the Canes won 3-1, in the middle of the four game win streak where Cam Ward was lights out. Then we all remember the wild game just last Thursday where the Canes pulled out a 6-5 victory in possibly the weirdest game of the year. And finally, Ward completed his own personal sweep on Montreal with his 2-0 shutout last night.

Buts. No, not the famous line from Bob’s Burgers, Buts is French for goals. Unlike the last game between these two teams last night featured only one team scoring. Brett Pesce got the Canes going with his first but on the season off a offensive zone face off.

The game would remain without anymore goals until late in the third period when Brock McGinn would finally break through for his 8th but on the year. Once again a goal was scored soon after a face off. As Haydn Fluery dumped the puck in Justin Williams got to the loose puck first and then he performed an excellent backhand pass to the slot where McGinn picked up the loose change.

Exclure means shut out. Used in a sentence - Cam Ward exclut (verb conjugations for the win!) the Montreal Canadiens last night. For all the ups and downs Ward has had in his career, he is the reason the team is tied for a playoff spot. Scott Darling has so far not been up to the task of being the number one, and while Ward has had some bad games, he has also dominated a lot. He’s given up one goal total over his last two starts and Bill Peters is going to be forced to make a tough decision regarding tonight's game. The team needs Darling to get them a few wins down the stretch but as it stand the Hurricanes will once again live or die with Cam Ward for yet another year. Ward did all of his work last night despite the Montreal media once again creating false rumors before the game.

Série des victoires, or as we call it - winning streak. The Canes have now won three straight games and will push for four in a row tonight. This long home stand will determine if Carolina is a contender or a pretender so putting together a winning streak is the perfect way to prove you are a contender.

However, it was not the strongest night for the Hurricanes’ Équipes spéciales - special teams. While their penalty kill was one for one the power play was useless and failed at all three of their attempts. While the power play has been improving for most of the past month it reared some ugly ghosts from the past last night. Slow set ups and sloppy passes plagued the Canes but thankfully it did not cost them. This team needs the keep working on their power play units and strive to make it at least respectable by other teams.

Lastly on our list of terms to learn is déménagement. We will let you google that one on your own time but just know it is never going to happen, Quebec!

Morale de l’histoire

The Hurricanes know exactly where they are in the standings and they also know what they need to do this month to climb up said standings. The month of February will determine a lot of things for this team and they got off to the exact start they needed. But it is now time to have a very short memory and get right back at it tonight against a rested Red Wings team that is truly in full desperation mode.

Note: All translations came from Google Translate so we apologize if there are any inaccuracies in the wording.