Much of the focus from tonight’s Boston Bruins-Carolina Hurricanes game will be on what the defending 2011 champions did wrong. That doesn’t seem very fair to the Canes, though, as they excelled in a few areas to eek out a 3-2 win, which is their first victory of 2011-12.
Hurricanes win special teams battle, especially shorthanded
Sure, the Bruins power play woes are continuing; they went 0-for-5 against the Hurricanes and are an ugly 1-for-18 so far this season. That shouldn’t totally take away from Carolina’s shorthanded efforts, though.
Check out this video breakdown of some of their better moments.
Cam Ward comes up big
My feeling is that Ward would put up sexy numbers if he played behind a more responsible defense. That’s not the case, so he often carries a big burden to keep the Canes in games. His first two games weren’t very pretty, but he was a difference-maker tonight.
Opportunistic offense
Finally, check out Ed Olczyk’s breakdown of how the Hurricanes scored tonight (and why they ultimately won). Their good work on offense combined with solid special teams work and strong goaltending for their first win of the season.