The Carolina Hurricanes ought to be more than ready to take on the visiting Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night — they will have had five days without a game since a frustrating home loss.
“We just played a boatload of really top-end teams and managed to do pretty well,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “But now you look up to turn the page and there’s a whole bunch more coming.”
The Hurricanes haven’t played since a three-goal lead in the third period vanished in Saturday’s 5-3 loss to visiting Winnipeg.
“We know how we messed this game up,” Brind’Amour said. “It just can’t happen.”
The Hurricanes were irritated with how they failed to finish in the final period. It was the first time since before Christmas that Carolina scored three or more goals in regulation and didn’t win.
“Really embarrassing. We’ve got to give ourselves a squeeze, man up, and start playing hockey,” captain Jordan Staal said. “We kind of just sat back and hoped it wasn’t going to go the way it was going and it did.”
A blunder from goalie Pyotr Kochetkov was among the glitches for the Hurricanes in the Winnipeg game. Brind’Amour doesn’t want to put too much weight on that situation, preferring to assess the bigger pitcher.
“He has been so good,” he said. “And we love his aggressiveness because that has been part of his routine.”
Of bigger concern for the Hurricanes, who are 19-8-4 in home games, has been more action for their penalty-killing units than their power-play groups.
“We’re taking too many O-zone penalties,” Brind’Amour said.
Montreal, meanwhile, should be in a better mood after Tuesday night’s 4-3 overtime victory at Nashville.
“Individually, you can really see a lot of players’ games are being risen to that next level,” Canadiens right winger Brendan Gallagher said. “There is excitement around our team. Starting to feel really good about our game. It’s tough to make those jumps, but we don’t want to wait until next year.”
Montreal has points in four straight games, including the past three on the road. The young Canadiens, despite having the worst goal differential among Eastern Conference teams at minus-45, are seeing some encouraging results.
“It has been a process, like anything you’re trying to build,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “It takes time. I’m excited for where they’re at now. Building that up is not easy. Maintaining that is probably harder than building it.”
There is still progress to be made in many areas. That includes Montreal’s power play, which ranks in the bottom third of the NHL at 19.1 percent.
“Five guys have to be connected,” St. Louis said of getting the team’s power play clicking.
Carolina won 5-3 against Montreal on Dec. 28 at home, with Jesper Fast scoring two goals. Fast has only six goals this season. The teams will meet later this month at Montreal.
The Hurricanes have points in nine of their last 12 games, with victories in eight of those. Montreal is 12-12-7 away from home.
Earlier this week, the Hurricanes signed forward Max Comtois to a one-year contract. He has played in 210 games with Anaheim, though this season he has been with the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League.
–Field Level Media
