Behind Enemy Lines: Hurricanes Continue Power Play Struggles

The Carolina Hurricanes not only suffered a 3-1 loss to the Boston Bruins Saturday night in Game 3, but they also lost Andrei Svechnikov late in the game after cutting the Bruins lead in half.

Svechnikov got tangled up with Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara, and was helped off the ice putting no pressure on his right leg.

#TakeWarning Andrei Svechnikov down on the ice after falling down awkwardly here. pic.twitter.com/BJFa7trYPs

— Here's Your Replay ⬇️ (@TheReplayGuy) August 15, 2020

Rod Brind’Amour said he does not have an update on Svechnikov, but that he was getting looked at.

“It didn’t look very good, obviously,” said Brind’Amour. “He fell really awkwardly. It certainly didn’t look good. Hopefully we’ll know more at some point. I don’t have anything to report.”

Hurricanes’ Power Play Struggles

One of the most struggling aspects to the Hurricane’s play has been their lack of execution on the power play. They are 2/11 through three games, including one goal on the man advantage during Saturday’s loss.

“You wouldn’t have enough time (to detail them all). We were just sluggish,” said Brind’Amour. “We actually had a good one in the first period, where we hit the post. Our entries haven’t been crisp enough. Again, you’re facing one of the best teams for a reason, and if you’re not sharp it’s going to look like that. The power play today kind of epitomized our game. We were sluggish, not first to anything, not quite doing everything right. You add all those things up, and like I said, it’s lucky that we were hanging around at the end of the game.”

However, Brind’Amour says his team played fine during the first period. But, it was when they sat back was where the Bruins took advantage.

“We had a good start. The first period was fine,” said Brind’Amour. “I thought we deserved better; we have a couple good looks, some posts, and one that was real close to being in if not in that you can’t see it go in. It was right there for us. And the, we just let off the gas a little, and that team’s too good. If you give them an inch, they’re taking a mile. And then they got their game going, and we never got to our game the rest of our game. It was a miracle that we were still in it by a goal there at the end.”

The Hurricanes finished 6th overall on the power play with a 22.3 conversion percentage.