What do Aho and Svechnikov need to do to come alive in Stanley Cup Final?
The Carolina Hurricanes are down two games to win in the Stanley Cup Final against the Vegas Golden Knights, and if there’s a reason for optimism, it’s that two of their star forwards still have another level to reach.
Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov showed signs of life in Game 3. Svechnikov scored a power play goal at the net front to tie the game at 4-4 with just under two minutes to play and send it to overtime, and Aho had two assists in Carolina’s furious four-goal rally in the third.
But there’s still more to give. Aho has not scored all series, and Svechnikov has not tallied at even strength, so while the overall output in Game 3 was encouraging, it still wasn’t enough to lift the team to a crucial victory.
On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL video coach Steve Peters discussed the need for Carolina’s top two offensive stars to really kick things into gear before it’s too late.
Tyler Yaremchuk: I want one more quickly on Aho and Svechnikov, because we started to see signs of life there. You mentioned Svechnikov tying the game on the power play, huge. Carolina’s power play has been pretty opportunistic this series. Aho had a beautiful feed on that Taylor Hall goal, the backhand pass… that was a thing of beauty, but yet, it’s been too quiet too often for those two. What do you want to see from them? Rod was saying too many one-and-done chances for them. Do they need to get going on the cycle a bit more? What do you want to see from Aho and Svechnikov.
Steve Peters: It does start with the Vegas Golden Knights and their defending. Their inability to get to the inside, because what Vegas does differently, Carolina’s a man-on-man and they’re very aggressive… For Vegas, they’re a zone, and they protect the front of the net. For players like Aho, he needs more room. He’s a guy that can find those open areas usually around the slot to generate those shots. He can’t get there because there’s no room there… They’re going to have to get their “D” more involved. I know when Miller’s on the ice, you expect him to help with the offense, I think they’re going to need to get their defensemen for Carolina more involved, and that might start opening up more space underneath for Svechnikov and for Aho because they need to have a little bit more room to work than they’re getting right now.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…