The old and the new resulted in a good blend when the Carolina Hurricanes began the season.
They’ll be happy to see the same mix when the Philadelphia Flyers come to town Saturday night.
Defenseman K’Andre Miller enjoyed a stellar Carolina debut when he scored two goals in Thursday night’s opener as the Hurricanes topped the visiting New Jersey Devils 6-3 — becoming the first blue-liner to score twice in his first Canes game.
He could get used to playing these home games.
“I honestly hated playing here when I was on the other side,” said Miller, who arrived in a summer trade from the New York Rangers.
The Flyers will be looking for their first victory after falling 2-1 in their opener to the host Florida Panthers.
“There’s pockets of good stuff,” said Flyers coach Rick Tocchet. “We have to make sure we believe what we’re doing for 60 minutes.”
The Hurricanes received plenty from familiar sources of offense in the opener, too, with Seth Jarvis scoring two third-period goals and Sebastian Aho providing a pair of assists.
But Miller certainly took much of the spotlight, and it wasn’t solely because of his scoring.
“Take the goals away, even, he was impactful,” said coach Rod Brind’Amour. “He hadn’t played a game for how many months? He stepped right in and looked like he hadn’t missed a beat. Obviously, we’re pretty excited to have him.”
The Hurricanes look forward to seeing what Miller, who didn’t play in preseason games, might do once he’s more comfortable, hoping there will be another step like that against the Flyers.
“There’s some adjustments and in-game stuff that I was just trying to figure out on the go,” Miller said. “Once I got adjusted and found the speed of the game, I felt great.”
For the Flyers, they’ll look to make upgrades in applying pressure offensively. They only had one full power play, so that was a sign they weren’t flowing like they would prefer.
“When they did have puck possession, we didn’t panic and stayed in our spots,” Tocchet said.
Noah Cates had the lone Philadelphia goal. The Flyers are eager to see more development from 20-year-old winger Matvei Michkov, the seventh overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft who posted 26 goals and 37 assists last year as a rookie. He managed two shots on goal against Florida.
“I think we have to keep the pressure off him,” Tocchet said. “The one thing he does is he wants to win and he wants to be the guy, which is great. But there is a process to get there.”
The Hurricanes scored four third-period goals against the Devils. They liked showing off the fruits of their offseason work right away.
“We pride ourselves on our third period,” Jarvis said. “I think a lot of that has to do with our conditioning. We’re a very well-conditioned team. By the time the third period rolls around, I think we can wear teams down with how we play.”
Carolina swept the Flyers last year, winning three games by a combined score of 15-5. In their lone meeting at Carolina, the Hurricanes won 6-4.
–Field Level Media
