About Last Night: Canes’ superstars strike down Kraken

Most games in the National Hockey League are competitive.

But some aren’t.

And that was the case Monday night in Climate Pledge Arena, as the Carolina Hurricanes flexed every single one of their muscles in a completely dominant win over the Seattle Kraken from start to finish.

Some stat comparisons, shall we:

• Goals: Canes 5, Kraken 1
• Shots on Goal: Canes 34, Kraken 23
• Corsi For: Canes 66, Kraken 39 (62.86% for the Canes)
• Scoring Chances For: Canes 30, Kraken 17
• High-Danger Scoring Chances For: Canes 16, Kraken 9
• Expected Goals For: Canes 3.36, Kraken 2.1

The Hurricanes just kind of put their foot on the gas and didn’t let up. There’s a vast difference in the talent on the rosters of Carolina and Seattle, and the Canes decided Monday night would be a good time to show that off.

Some thoughts:

Superstars are gonna superstar

Sometimes, the better team wins a hockey game simply because its superstars play like superstars.

That’s exactly what happened for the Canes Monday, as Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov were the two main driving forces in the dominant win. Aho had a goal and two assists. Svechnikov had two goals and an assist. And they were all kind of brilliant.

After Aho got his first assist on a rebound attempt that led to a rebound attempt for Seth Jarvis, the Finn scored his goal on a wicked wrister on the power play off a well-placed one-time pass from Svechnikov.

Then two minutes later, Svechnikov got his first goal on a brilliant feed from Aho.

Then a minute after that, Svechnikov directed in a point shot from Martin Necas to make it 4-1 Canes.

The Canes have so much talent across the board, but there is a gap between Aho and Svechnikov and everyone else. When those two are on, like they were Monday night, it’s near impossible to beat these Carolina Hurricanes.

A power play!

Every single Canes fan got tired of hearing about and talking about the power play last May. It doomed the Hurricanes in the playoffs, and it was the major reason why Carolina exited when it did.

But now in 2022-23, things can be different. Brent Burns is in town to really help things along, and the power play got going Monday night in Seattle. The Canes went 0 for 5 on the power play through the first two games of the season, though not necessarily because the unit was bad. Sometimes it’s just the way the puck bounces.

But against the Kraken, the unit was really, really, really good. The Canes tallied twice on the power play, and both goals were the result of strong puck movement and really good scheme on the power play. See the Aho goal and first Svechnikov goal above.

The power play was very good, and that’s an awesome thing to see.

Let’s talk about Seth Jarvis

While Aho and Svechnikov put up the big points for the Canes, Seth Jarvis had a quietly awesome game for Carolina Monday night.

Jarvis led the team with 0.6 xGF and 5 iCF, and he just played an overwhelmingly present game for the Canes. He scored the first goal by getting to the dirty areas and keeping his composure, and he looked for the umpteenth time that he plays so far beyond his years.

Through three games, Jarvis has been one of Carolina’s best players. The sample size is small, but the suggestion of a sophomore slump seems pretty laughable to Jarvis right now.

What a player the Canes have in the youngster.

Other thoughts

• Martin Necas was really good again. He had the assist on Svechnikov’s second goal, and he was solid and present all night.
• Also in good games, Frederik Andersen was perfectly solid once again. So far, so good in his return from injury.
• One more individual player shoutout, Jalen Chatfield belongs on an NHL sheet of ice for 82 games. He’s a stud and an unbelievable find for the Hurricanes.
• This is a gross hit. Glad to see Jarvis, who obviously had the playoff incident last year, ok after this. Get this stuff out of the game.

• The Canes fishing trip sounded fun.