The willingness to make changes has been part of coach Rod Brind’Amour’s approach with the Carolina Hurricanes.
That paid off during the weekend with a split of games in the Sunshine State.
Now it’s back home for a visit from the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night in Raleigh, N.C.
The Hurricanes used lineup changes and line adjustments in a 4-0 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night. Carolina had lost 5-2 at the Florida Panthers on Friday.
“We haven’t had the whole group until the last little bit here,” Brind’Amour said. “Now it’s just trying to find the right mix. We’ve got good options. It might take a little while to find the chemistry we need.”
The right mindset helped as well, defenseman Brady Skjei said.
“That was more the style that we need to play and we know how to play,” he said. “It usually leads us to wins.”
The Hurricanes are trying to reach a standard, so that might be the roots of some of the nitpicking at this point of the season.
“There are still things that we want to get better at and fix, but for the most part, guys are trying to do the right things,” defenseman Brent Burns said. “They work hard and they play the game that we need to play in order to be successful.”
Returning from the West Coast, the Flyers are finishing a stretch of four consecutive road games, hoping to win their third in a row.
Much of Philadelphia’s success comes with maintaining the right pace.
“The key for us is our patience,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said. “We’re creating offense, but we can’t get into a run-and-gun.”
The Flyers have made lineup moves, with Tortorella mixing things up. Morgan Frost rejoined the lineup and that move looked good for at least a night last weekend.
Frost produced a two-goal night in a 4-2 win over the host Los Angeles Kings on Saturday. He said it’s a matter of maintaining the right mindset when sitting out.
“I think I’ve done a pretty good job with it, but I’m not going to sit here and say that it has been easy,” he said.
Tortorella will use Frost’s production as a motivator.
“We need his offense,” Tortorella said. “He needs to do those things offensively for us. He’s buying in. He’s trying to find a way to stay in the lineup.”
At the other end of the ice, the Flyers are trying to figure out how the goalie situation will unfold. Goalie Cal Petersen, who was the winner in Los Angeles, was sent back to the American Hockey League on Monday. This apparently is a sign that Carter Hart should be ready to return to the nets for Philadelphia.
This matchup starts a five-game homestand for the Hurricanes, who’ve largely been playing on the road this autumn.
“Eleven games out of 15 on the road to start the season is pretty tough,” Brind’Amour said. “Now you have to take advantage of the time when you’re home or otherwise you’ve kind of wasted that. It will be nice to have a little consistency.”
Carolina has a power-play goal in six of its last seven games.
This is the first of two meetings between the Flyers and Hurricanes in less than a two-week span.
–Field Level Media
