Carolina still leads in games against the New York Islanders, but if the strange losing streak at home continues, everything is suddenly wide open. Florida, in turn, needs its team captain more than ever before.
At 19.55 New York Islanders–Carolina Hurricanes, TV2 and Arenan
Commentator: Mattias Simonsen
Two extremely even games followed by a total overrun. At least in terms of the end result.
But 5-1 in the last meeting between the teams on the night of Saturday does not tell everything. Until the Islanders at the end of the third period scored four goals on as many shots (!), the third game in the series was also a thriller.
The problem for Carolina is still the scoring. The problem for the Islanders was to get to the really sharp positions. When the “Canes” defense started to slack off, the sharp “Isles” attackers took charge of the situation.
Was it a slip by one of the league’s best defenses or a storm warning by the well-known underdog?
Finnish: Aho i nyckelroll, men Glöm inte Kotkaniemi Heller
Just as colleague Anders Nordenswan noted in his column on Friday, Sebastian Aho is by far Carolina’s most important striker right now.
Max Pacioretty is missing, Andrej Svetchnikov is missing and Teuvo Teräväinen is missing. At the same time, Aho has taken as much responsibility as he can carry on his shoulders and delivered.
Jesperi Kotkaniemi, meanwhile, is starting to seriously look like the second center Montreal thought he could be when they took him third overall in the 2018 draft.
The points haven’t yet rattled in at the rate his game really warrants, but follow him when he’s on the ice. The number of mistakes can be counted on one hand. On the contrary, it feels like “KK” is mostly the driving player in a chain where Martin Necas should be the big star.
Jesse Puljujärvi had to jump into the fourth when Teräväinen was injured and although he was not immediately convincing in match three, he will be allowed to continue due to lack of other options.
Antti Raanta may well get to play in goal again, the pucks he let pass him on Saturday night were not exactly his fault. But at the same time, it could be an opportunity for Rod Brind’Amour to rotate and possibly wake up the team.
Watch out for: Islanders stars enjoying home field advantage
Besides the obvious advantage of playing in front of fanatical fans, the home ice also has another, tactical, advantage in ice hockey. In practice, the team playing at home gets to choose which chains play against each other.
When Carolina plays at home, there is no talk of the matter: Jordan Staal, Jordan Martinook and Jesper Fast are matched against the sharpest offensive pieces in the opposing camp. In plain language, this means the Islanders first chain with team captain Anders Lee, Matt Barzal and Bo Horvat.
The first two games the Isles trio was invisible, on home ice they suddenly had huge areas to exploit as they were able to avoid being constantly forced to play against possibly the best defensive chain in the league (which has also shown they can score this series).
Carolina is often described as a team where all four chains can play at the same level both offensively and defensively. It’s not like that, of course, but if Carolina is going to be able to beat the Islanders on the road, the rest of the chains have to tighten up backwards.
The commentator tips: Feels like it’s settled after this
Carolina has now lost eight (!) straight games on the road in the playoffs (spring 2022 included). That’s an NHL record. And a completely unimaginable number for a team as good as Carolina anyway.
Well, part of that can be explained by the very fact that Staal, Martinook and Fast don’t get to zero in on the opposition’s most dangerous players. But now it has also become a ghost for the Hurricanes.
A Hurricanes who are averaging two goals per 60 minutes of hockey right now. Against an Islanders who clearly have more goals in them.
Nah, the streak is extended by at least one match. Both the gut feeling and the statistics say 3-2 to the home team.
At 22.20 Florida Panthers–Boston Bruins, TV2 and Arenan
Commentator: Anders Nordenswan
The Boston Bruins, the supreme number one in the regular season, have suffered setbacks in the most important stage of the season. Before the first game against the Florida Panthers, a wave of illness swept through the squad and, in addition, the team captain and first center Patrice Bergeron was injured.
The Panthers, who were the last team from the East to make the playoffs, took advantage of the Bruins’ problems and went home for the third and fourth games of the series with a victory in the bag.
Heading into Game 3, it wasn’t enough that Bergeron was gone — Bruins sophomore center David Krejci was also forced off the ice after warmups due to injury. Suddenly, Charlie Coyle became the team’s first center.
Everything was set for a Florida victory on home ice. Instead, the so-called panthers offered a real kiss-miss performance and were outclassed on all fronts of the game by a super-tagged Bruins.
In tonight’s game, Florida has its back against the wall: a second straight home loss would mean the Bruins could clinch the series in Game 5, at home in Boston.
The Finns: Has anyone seen Aleksander Barkov?
If Florida is going to stay in contention for the series win, Aleksander Barkov needs to step up several levels. After the first three games, the team captain has two other assists, a total of four shots on goal and -2 in the record.
In short: failed. Sure, Barkov does a lot of things well, but at this stage of the season, when it comes to winning even games, the team’s first center needs to lead the team in producing – shooting pucks and/or creating premium opportunities for his chainmates. It hasn’t happened.
Game three was Barkov’s bottom – in perhaps the most important game of his career so far. With Bergeron and Krejci gone, Boston’s third-string center Charlie Coyle was lined up against Barkov. In exchange after exchange. Coyle won that duel in every possible way.
The crowning achievement was when Coyle first won an offensive draw against Barkov and a couple of seconds later wrestled free from Barko’s marking in front of the Florida goal to make it 2-0 to Boston. In those few seconds, Florida effectively lost game three.
Most recently after that, Barkov was like a pale copy of his best self.
The series’ two other Finns have done their job in an approved manner. Eetu Luostarinen has been thrown between the chains and handled all tasks well. Three games have yielded 1+1, five shots on goal and +1 in a team that lost two out of three games.
The junior in Florida’s Finnish phalanx, Anton Lundell, leads a fast-playing third chain that did its job decently. Lundell has shot a whopping seven times, tackled and been tackled and won 51.4 percent of his draws.
Barkov should have been modeled by Lundell and Luostarinen regarding the setting and Drivet på isen.
Watch: Who wins the melee?
In the games in Boston, Florida was true to its team name and clawed its way into the series victory. The Bruins were still like reborn in game three and almost tossed around the Panthers players in the rink.
The will and ability to not get overrun in the close matches combined with clinical efficiency in the scoring situations is the only way for Florida to win game four.
Look especially at the first five minutes of the game – in game three, the Bruins came to the rink with the tags out and immediately showed who is in charge. Florida never recovered from being tossed around like mittens at the start.
The commentator predicts: With their backs against the wall, Florida wins against a scrappy Boston
Every old man in the Panthers knows that the team must win the second home game, and thus earn another game in Florida. It just has to be enough for the team – led by captain Barkov – to play as if every change was life or death. Because it does.
If both Bergeron and Krejci are still out, which is likely, Florida manages to take advantage of the situation and win the game.
