Hurricanes, running out of options, can’t change players ... but can change goalies
Nothing against Alex Nedeljkovic, but the Carolina Hurricanes need a 1,000-volt shock to their system and there’s only one way to get it.
When you can’t change the players, change the goalie.
Petr Mrazek hasn’t played in more than three weeks, but down 2-0 to the Tampa Bay Lightning, home-ice advantage squandered, the Hurricanes have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
As long as their popgun offense continues to misfire -- they haven’t scored a five-on-five goal in this series -- they need a goalie who can outplay Andrei Vasilevskiy at the other end. Nedeljkovic, for all his strengths, hasn’t been able to do that in a pair of 2-1 losses. He bounced back from his Game 1 gaffe with a better performance in Game 2, but still gave up two goals on 15 shots.
Mrazek, at his very best, may have a higher ceiling. Whether he can get there is a gamble Rod Brind’Amour has to make.
The Hurricanes are in desperate need of a spark from somewhere, and yet there’s nothing they can, or should, change strategically. They’re doing what has generally brought them success throughout the season; they’re just not doing it well enough. Their goal-scorers have gone so cold, there aren’t many options left.
This isn’t a team built to win if Andrei Svechnikov and Martin Necas aren’t scoring five-on-five goals, if Teuvo Teravainen isn’t setting them up, if it gets only a single goal from Warren Foegele and Jordan Martinook and Jesper Fast. And that’s when Vincent Trocheck and Nino Niederreiter are uninjured and available -- not that either of them was denting the back of the net with frequency, either, as well as Trocheck had played before his leg-to-leg collision with Foegele on Tuesday.
There are probably a few little tweaks to be made, but not a lot, and what’s the point of creating more chances if they can’t finish those, either?
So: Roll the dice with Mrazek.
Hope Mrazek can harness the motivation of being left behind for the entire postseason and show up Thursday night with something to prove.
Hope making the switch from a popular rookie who has carried the team through the postseason serves as a wakeup call to an underperforming group of forwards.
Hope this will shake something, anything loose.
It’s a little awkward to be sure, with Mrazek marinating on the bench for almost a month as Nedeljkovic claimed the job. It wasn’t the Hurricanes’ plan to roll this long with Nedeljkovic, but he earned that run during the Nashville series. That kind of thing happens in the playoffs, which so often take on a life of their own, from game to game, series to series.
When Cam Ward took over for the struggling Martin Gerber when the Hurricanes dropped the first two games of a series at home in 2006, Ward at least got a period and change of relief work in Game 2 to get his feet wet before getting thrown to the lions in Montreal.
Mrazek wouldn’t have that advantage, but he’s also a veteran who has been through this before, which Ward had not. Rusty as Mrazek may be, it’s one of the few levers Brind’Amour has left to pull. It’s a risk he has to take.
The Hurricanes are running out of bodies and running out of options. They haven’t been able to crack Vasilevskiy, but they haven’t made it hard enough on him, either. If they’re not going to score on him, they need their goalie to outplay him. Nedeljkovic hasn’t been able to do that. Perhaps Mrazek can.
Hurricanes at Lightning
What: Game 3, Round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs
When: 8 p.m., Thursday
Where: Amalie Arena, Tampa, Fla.
Watch: USA
This story was originally published June 2, 2021 at 11:50 AM with the headline "Hurricanes, running out of options, can’t change players ... but can change goalies."
