Hurricanes showed they mean business in Game 1
One of the two road victors in second-round Stanley Cup Playoff action on Tuesday night deserved to win their first game of the series.
The Carolina Hurricanes really put the pressure on the Washington Capitals in the opener of the Metropolitan Division Final on Tuesday night. Despite being on the road against the team that finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference, the Hurricanes played with confidence, peppering Capitals goaltender Logan Thompson from the drop of the puck.
The persistence paid off, as Jaccob Slavin’s goal just minutes into overtime gave the Hurricanes a big 2-1 victory, taking home-ice advantage away from the Capitals.
Carolina certainly earned that win, outshooting Washington 31-14, amassing 94 shot attempts in Game 1. While some are still confident the Caps can respond, the Canes proved they are going to be a force to be reckoned with in this series.
On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli explain what worked for the Hurricanes and why they deserved to win.
Tyler Yaremchuk: They looked really, really good last night. Did they change your opinion of how this series might play out?
Frank Seravalli: No, because I picked the Canes in seven. I think what this does is two things. It serves notice to the Washington Capitals that the Canes are for real and need to be taken seriously. Two, if there was a question about how the Carolina Hurricanes [would be] be able to score with the Washington Capitals? If you hold them to 14 shots, you’re probably going to have a really good opportunity to do so. So, I think Carolina had a significant advantage in the bottom six versus the New Jersey Devils. I think this time around, they’re hoping to saw off the top six and retain that advantage that they have against the Caps in the bottom six. It’s going to be a very, very close series, I think. This was proof of that in Game 1.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…
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