About Last Night: Happy Halloween

It was trick not treat for the Carolina Hurricanes Monday night in PNC Arena, as Carolina came away with two points in the shootout in a win over the Washington Capitals.

The Canes got goals from Stefan Noesen and Andrei Svechnikov in regulation, while Brent Burns and Svechnikov found the back of the net in the shootout to lift the Canes to the win.

Some thoughts on the game:

I want to talk about Martin Necas again

This is my fifth About Last Night of the season, and it’s the third time that Martin Necas is getting his own takeaway.

But once again, Necas was awesome for the Hurricanes Monday night in PNC Arena. He assisted on both Carolina goals, bringing his point total on the season up to 13 with just nine games played. If you want to do a way-too-early #OnPace for that, Necas is on pace for 118 points. That’ll do.

His first assist was a crafty one, as he bounced a pass of the boards back to Brent Burns to set up a point shot on the power play that led to a Stefan Noesen goal. Then later in the game, he spun and flung a puck on net that eventually found its way in thanks to Andrei Svechnikov.

I feel like a broken record at this point, but Necas is just playing a brilliantly effective brand of hockey right now that was sometimes lost last season. It’s been absolutely refreshing to see, and right now he’s doing a lot of the heavy lifting for the Hurricanes.

Get to the front of the net and you know the rest

At the risk of being a little bit (a lot a bit) cliché, good things happened for the Canes Monday night when they got to the front of the net.

Both goals came right in front of Darcy Kuemper, as Noesen scored on a redirect and Svechnikov tallied on a rebound.

Natural Stat Trick

I mean, just look at this heat map.

It’s not rocket science, and it’s also not as easily done as said, but it’s still a general overall truth in this game. Get to the dirty areas and good things happen.

That’s where the Hurricanes found their success Monday in a game where they maybe weren’t their absolute crispest from start to finish.

Other Thoughts

• For the second straight game, the Jordan Martinook-Jordan Staal-Jesper Fast line led the Hurricanes in CF% at 90.91%. They also led the team in expected goals once again.
• It was a great shootout performance from the Canes. Frederik Andersen was good, while Burns and Svechnikov were money. Solid job to get two points.
• Candy!