About Last Night: Everything but the result

The Carolina Hurricanes had a weird one Thursday night in PNC Arena, as the Canes overall dominated the game in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Colorado Avalanche.

Sebastian Aho and Martin Necas scored for the home team in an effort that featured the Canes dominating almost every statistical category, but the end result was an overtime loss all the same.

About last night:

Everything but the kitchen sink (win)

By all accounts other than the final score, the Hurricanes dominated the game Thursday night.

The Canes outshot the Avalanche 48-15, were 68% in the faceoff dot, won the Corsi battle at 72.81%, outchanced the Avalanche 44-13, had a 4.97-1.52 advantage in expected goals and dominated 17-7 in high-danger scoring chances.

But, of course, none of that matters because the final score was 3-2 as the Avalanche won in overtime and left Raleigh with two points despite getting dominated in the game.

Sometimes, that’s just the way it goes. The Canes certainly could have done a few things better — they were 0 for 4 on the power play in the game while allowing a power play goal, and a lot of the shots were at Pavel Francouz — but also the result didn’t really match the effort as a whole.

Like any loss, it’s a disappointing finish. But there’s also plenty of good to hang the hat on for the Hurricanes in that game.

Just one on the power play

The Hurricanes went 0 for 4 on the power play in the game, and just one goal with the man advantage would have made the difference.

Much like the game as a whole, the numbers weren’t terrible for the Canes on the power play. Carolina had five high-danger chances, 11 total scoring chances for and outshot the Avalanche 9-1 while it was on the man advantage, but again couldn’t get one past Francouz.

With that effort, the Canes are now 0 for 12 on the power play in the last three games, and also just 1 for 19 over the past five games. Also, Carolina is now just 3 for 26 on the power play in the team’s seven losses this season.

The Canes entered Thursday night’s game 28th in the NHL on the power play with a 16.1% success rate, and that only got worse.

It’s obviously still early in the season, but the power play has been a bit of an issue. If it got just one Thursday, the Canes could’ve gotten a big win.

Necas, Aho continue to be great

Even in the loss, Martin Necas and Sebastian Aho continued to be exceptional for the Hurricanes.

Both players scored their eight goals in the game, with Necas also picking up his 13th assist of the season on Aho’s goal for Carolina.

Necas has, rightfully, gotten a lot of praise for how his season has started, but don’t overlook the fact that Aho just continues to do his thing.

Against one of the best teams in the NHL, the duo was very good again.