The Carolina Hurricanes’ season of Jekyll and Hyde results continued Saturday, and the pendulum swung emphatically in the Canes’ favor.
Five different players scored goals, Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 21 shots and the Hurricanes, fresh off a disappointing and at times leaky overtime loss to the Islanders, locked down a 6-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres at PNC Arena
Sebastian Aho, long a thorn in the Sabres’ side (more on that later), scored twice, Jack Drury scored his second goal in as many games and Andrei Svechnikov continued to rack up points despite not scoring to lead the way offensively for Carolina.
Kochetkov, meanwhile, started his fourth consecutive game and evened his season record at 4-4-1, but is 4-1-1 in his past six decisions. Brent Burns also reached a milestone Saturday. With his second assist, on Teuvo Teravainen’s 11th goal of the season,
Burns became the 17th defender in NHL history to record 600 career assists. He leads all active NHL defensemen in career assists — by five over former San Jose teammate and now Pittsburgh rival Erik Karlsson.
Here are five takeaways from the Canes’ win over Buffalo:
FOUR IN A ROW FOR PYOTR KOCHETKOV
The Hurricanes didn’t likely plan on a single-goalie playing situation this early in the season, never mind one that featured rising star Kochetkov in a regular role. They didn’t want to play him Saturday, after a tough outing Thursday.
“We were trying to give him the night off, but (Raanta) wasn’t able to go,” Brind’Amour said. “So you gotta give him credit for answering that.” And, here we are.
Kochetkov, who in his rookie campaign a year ago went more than a month without a loss as the Canes rocketed to the top of the NHL standings after a middling beginning to the season, had a rough go of it early in the 2023-24 season while spelling Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta on the team’s opening road trip.
The medicine for what ailed him? A quick trip to the AHL, where he won all three of his starts for the Syracuse Crunch and put up great numbers. Instead of remaining with Syracuse and honing his skills, though, Kochetkov was again summoned to the NHL, this time for a much longer stay after a blood clotting issue sidelined Andersen indefinitely.
Raanta was then expected to earn the lion’s share of starts. But, after appearing to tweak something late in the first period of a 6-3 win over Edmonton — a game that Kochetkov finished — Raanta returned to the ice the following game, only to get shelled in an 8-2 loss to Tampa Bay. It’s been Kochetkov’s crease since then. In his past five decisions leading into Saturday’s tilt against Buffalo, he was 3-1-1 with a shutout and a goals-against average under 2.50, despite a five-goals-against loss on Thursday.
Saturday against Buffalo, Kochetkov’s form more closely resembled that which helped him earn that shutout, though he lost that bid 4:07 into the third period after a giveaway at the blue line allowed Buffalo center Casey Mittelstadt an unabated lane toward the cage. In his three periods of work, Kochetkov stopped 21 shots to pick up his fourth win of the season — all coming in the past seven games.
“Again, he didn’t have a ton of work,” Brind’Amour said, “but he allowed us to kinda cruise. He’s got his instincts, and that’s what makes him good.”
SEBASTIAN AHO LIKES SEEING THE SABRES
Some players seem to play well against particular teams. Many times, that player has a special connection to either the team or the city, causing a heightened awareness or sense of pride. Jeff Skinner with the Sabres, for example, has fared well against the Canes — his former club — in return visits to PNC Arena. On the flipside, Aho has been good — really good — against the Sabres in his career, both at home and on the road.
With his two goals Saturday, Aho now has 15 goals and 28 points in 18 regular-season games against Buffalo. At 1.56, Aho has the most points per game against Buffalo of any single active skater with at least six games played against the Sabres.
“He was good. He was the difference,” Brind’Amour said. “That line was good, he was real special tonight. If he had the chance to get the third one, that would have been nice, but he was good.”
IN BUNCHES
After just missing on a handful of early chances, and after weathering an early penalty kill, the Hurricanes’ volume shooting finally yielded results.
Aho’s strike at 15:26 of the first period on a slippery wrister from the top of the right circle beat Buffalo goalie Eric Comrie high glove to give the Hurricanes a 1-0 advantage, causing the mesh to ripple as the Finnish center curled back toward his bench to celebrate his seventh of the season.
The echoes from announcing that goal hadn’t stopped reverberating at PNC Arena when Drury again sent the home crowd into a frenzy, finishing in front by batting the puck out of the air and over Comrie’s shoulder. Only 50 seconds had passed.
The goal is also Drury’s second in as many games and third since Nov. 22, a sign that perhaps he’s starting to find his groove after a slower scoring start to the season. “You can tell Jack is pushing to show he belongs all the time,” Brind’Amour said. “That’s what we love about him. He’s an NHLer but he knows he’s gotta keep proving himself. That’s how you gotta be.”
DECEMBER TO REMEMBER?
While the Hurricanes had a lot of preseason expectation attached to this season — they were the betting favorite to win the Stanley Cup — the team’s start, and particularly the team’s uncharacteristic porous play on defense and in goal, left many fans and pundits alike scratching their heads.
Of course, that’s familiar territory, and you don’t have to look too deep into the rearview mirror. One year ago, the Hurricanes started the season with 11 wins in their first 22 games — two fewer than they have through the same amount of games this season.
The Canes then went on a tear through December, carving out a 12-0-1 record, including a 10-game win streak after Dec. 10.
In Rod Brind’Amour’s tenure as head coach, the Canes are now 32-14-3 in December, including 20-2-1 in the past two seasons. Saturday, Carolina started December 2023 with another win.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
The Hurricanes played one of the more road-heavy schedules in the NHL to start the season, skating away from PNC Arena in six of their first seven games.
After a recent run of six of seven at home, the Canes have played one more road game (12) than at home (11). That will change this week.
Carolina will complete its tour of the Central and Western Canadian teams as part of a six-game road swing beginning Tuesday night in Winnipeg. The Canes will face the Jets, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver in a four-games-in-six-days stretch before returning to the East and playing at Ottawa and Detroit on a six-game road swing.