Hurricanes Carve Up Oilers in Thanksgiving Eve Win

It’s officially American Thanksgiving, sort of. The Carolina Hurricanes had to host the visiting Edmonton Oilers the night before on Wednesday, Nov. 22 at PNC Arena. Before the team could dig into the turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, etc. they had to deal with the Oilers who came into the game 5-11-1. Right from the outset, the Hurricanes would not be jive turkeys as they carved up Edmonton from start to finish.

Hurricanes Wasted No Turkey

Right from the opening puck drop, the Hurricanes looked like a team possessed as they controlled play in the first period. As the period went on, they feasted on the carcass of the Oilers who are in the bottom six of the league. Just before the halfway mark of the period, Jesper Fast scored the first goal to put Carolina up 1-0. That seemed to open the floodgates as the Hurricanes scored 35 seconds later with a Jack Drury goal. Drury has been searching for his first goal of the season so it was evident that he wanted to get that monkey off his back.

In the end, the Hurricanes scored four goals in five minutes to grab a 4-0 lead in the first period. Teuvo Teravainen scored his tenth goal of the season to be the first Carolina player to make it to double digits. Teravainen has been on a mission this season to silence the doubters from his down season in 2022-23 and it’s showing after 18 games played. The fourth goal of the onslaught in the first period was capped off by Seth Jarvis. It was his eighth of the season and he’s been on an absolute heater as of late. He has secured five points in the last two games scoring three goals and two assists. Jarvis currently sits with eight goals and 15 points after 18 games played.

The Hurricanes did not slow down as they added two more goals to finish with six on the night. Martin Necas joined the goal parade with his sixth of the season after a gorgeous pass from Andrei Svechnikov. Svechnikov was circling around the net and found Necas in front of the goal in the middle of four Oilers players who did not pick him up. He was able to shoot the puck on the net for the Hurricanes’ fifth goal of the game in the second period.

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The last goal for the Hurricanes came in the third period when Brent Burns scored on an empty net to make it 6-3 and put the dagger in Edmonton to secure the win. Burns’ goal was the 250th of his career and one that sent Canes fans home happy knowing the game was over. Furthermore, the goal was a shorthanded tally for the team’s fifth of the season. Carolina ended up winning the game 6-3 to start the Thanksgiving festivities on the right note for the team and the fans.

Special Teams Notes

While the game did get dicey at one point for the Hurricanes, the special teams did play a huge factor in this game. Carolina went 0-for-5 on their power play while unfortunately giving up a shorthanded goal to Mattias Ekholm in the second period. That is something no coach, player, or fan wants to see especially when a team is up 5-1 at the time. That shorthanded marker was the second special teams goal that Edmonton scored in the game as Zach Hyman netted a power-play goal in the first period. The Hurricanes’ penalty kill did do their jobs going 3-for-4 on the night. Despite the lone power-play goal (PPG) five seconds into the kill, they managed to shut down the high-powered Oilers power-play units throughout the game.

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Overall, not a bad night for the Hurricanes’ special teams, but one they could learn from after going 0-for-5 with two advantages combined for two shots on goal. They are still top ten in the league which is why the front office made the moves it did to make it stronger. There will be nights where it goes 0-for-whatever, but as long as they are above 20 percent, any team will be happy with those results.

For the penalty kill, the team has gotten better since the horrific West Coast trip where it was 29th in the NHL. As of now, it is almost top 15 in the league for penalty kill percentage. If the Hurricanes keep the upward trend going, there is a chance they could have top 10 power-play and penalty-kill units in the NHL.

What is Next for the Hurricanes?

The next game for the Hurricanes is on Friday, Nov. 24 at home versus the Tampa Bay Lightning. The last time these two teams met, Carolina shut out the Lightning 4-0 back on Saturday, Nov. 11 in Tampa. The Hurricanes will be looking to carry the momentum from the game on Wednesday night into the game on Friday after Thanksgiving. Tampa Bay will also look to carry momentum as they defeated the Boston Bruins on Monday, Nov. 20, 5-4 in overtime. Right now the season series is tied between the two teams. It will be an intriguing contest between the 9-6-4 Lightning and the 11-7-0 Hurricanes.

Hurricanes netminder Antti Raanta was removed after the first period of the Oilers game due to precautionary reasons. The team thinks it is not too serious and they did not want to take a chance on making it any worse. Pyotr Kochetkov came into the game at the start of the second period and stopped 13 of 15 shots to secure the win.

It is unclear what the team will do with the starting goalie on Friday night, but it is most likely that it could be Kochetkov in the net if Raanta is not 100 percent. However, if Raanta is good to go, there could be a chance to get Kochetkov some time to give him some rest. There are some interesting headlines going into the game on Friday, Nov. 24 between two Eastern Conference powerhouses.