Entering the final week of the preseason, the Carolina Hurricanes will wait until Oct. 6 for their next game. Training camp is ramping up and finding the right line combinations is the priority. The team is experimenting with different lines and personnel, including on the penalty kill unit. This is an area where the Hurricanes excelled last season, and adding a star forward should give it an added edge.
Penalty Kill Strategy
Killing penalties is never fun, but teams have found new ways to be good short-handed. Instead of having a shutdown line that excels at defending, coaches are now putting their best offensive weapons on the ice, which has proven to be successful.
Related: Hurricanes’ 2nd Power Play Unit Is A Big Improvement from Last Season
For the last ten years, the Boston Bruins have had the short-handed duo of Patrice Bergeron (who announced his retirement this summer) and Brad Marchand. Bergeron was arguably the best defensive forward to play the game, and Marchand excels at both ends of the ice. Since 2015-16, he has led the league in short-handed goals. Also, the Edmonton Oilers deployed Connor McDavid on the PK, and he had six points with the extra open ice. A power play unit has to be aware of any offensive threat while trying to capitalize on the opportunity. The Oilers led the NHL in short-handed goals during the 2022-23 season, showing that using offensive firepower on the PK helps.
During training camp, the Hurricanes have experimented with the idea of adding offense to their penalty kill and gave Andrei Svechnikov some ice time.
Svechnikov Will Excel in that Situation
The best two-way player on the Hurricanes’ roster is Sebastian Aho. Not only is he an offensive threat, but he also has a solid defensive game and is dangerous on the penalty kill. In fact, he ranks fourth in short-handed goals since the 2015-16 season. Aho is the only true offensive threat while short-handed on the team.
During the 2022-23 season, he led all players who earned time on the PK with three goals; the only other forward who scored a short-handed goal was Teuvo Teravainen. The Hurricanes ranked second on the PK last season, finishing with an 84.4% success rate, and they finished with the fifth fewest power-play goals against – a testament to their success and their ability to defend. In a league that is driven by offense, the Hurricanes would do well to add that element to their penalty kill, and throwing Svechnikov into the mix will make the unit better overall in 2023-24.
Svechnikov was dangerous offensively last season and was one of the team’s best players. For a power forward he is an exceptional skater and possesses great skill. He finished third in goals (23) and fourth in points (55), and had a high expected goals rate of 23.5. As great as he is offensively, he can also defend, and adding his offensive presence while short-handed will pose new challenges for the opposition.
Svechnikov is an in-your-face type of player and plays physically. He finished with 140 hits as a bruising power forward last season. Furthermore, he finished tenth in takeaways (35), often capitalizing on the opposition’s miscues, entering the offensive zone on a two-on-one rush to help put the Hurricanes on the board.
This is a new experiment and a situation he did not play in last season, but he could thrive there.
Stacking the Hurricanes’ Penalty Kill
The Hurricanes are one of the deepest defensive teams in the NHL and execute their system flawlessly. From the blue line to the forwards, everyone does their job and plays a solid 200-foot game. Even though the PK is already a stout unit, there are ways to make it better.
With a dynamite offensive weapon on the ice to counter the opposition’s power play, they will also have to defend while having the extra man. Svechnikov is a solid player who can excel and gives the PK an additional element that could pay dividends.
