Martin Necas has put the Carolina Hurricanes on his back this season.
The talented center carries a 13-game point streak into Wednesday’s matchup between the Hurricanes and the host Philadelphia Flyers.
Necas has 10 goals and 17 assists during his hot streak, and he leads the team in goals (11) and assists (19) in 17 games this season. In fact, he has almost twice as many points (30) as his next closest teammate, Andrei Svechnikov (16).
Most recently, the Czech Republic native notched two goals and two assists in Sunday’s 4-1 triumph over the St. Louis Blues. It was his first multi-goal game of the season, and he helped Carolina to its 11th win in the last 13 games.
“Obviously when things are going your way, you’re in the zone,” Necas said. “That’s what I’m feeling. I’m trying to get there and stay there as long as I can. We’ve talked about confidence and you try to bring it each night. It’s not about just one guy, obviously. We’re outplaying teams at 5-on-5 and that’s huge.”
Eric Robinson added a goal and two assists for the Hurricanes, while Svechnikov also scored in a game that Carolina won comfortably despite not playing its best.
“You’re not always going to have your A-game,” Robinson said, “but you’ve got to find ways to win in this league.”
Philadelphia also didn’t play its best in its most recent outing — a 3-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Monday. The Flyers fell behind 3-0 before scoring twice late in the third period to make things interesting.
“I think we shot ourselves in the foot a little bit,” said Owen Tippett, who scored one of the Flyers’ two goals. “They’re a quick team and they transition fast. I think we gave them a little more than we should have and found ourselves behind.”
Veteran coach John Tortorella was a bit blunter in his assessment.
“A lot of the game I liked as we kept on going, but (expletive), we do stupid stuff,” Tortorella said. “It’s so aggravating, the stuff that we do that should be out of our game. That’s what aggravates me.”
Wednesday marks the third game of a five-game homestand for Philadelphia, which had been 4-0-1 in its previous five contests prior to Monday’s defeat.
“We put ourselves in a (spot) to win the game and that’s all you can ask,” Flyers forward Travis Konecny said. “It didn’t play out the way we wanted it to maybe the first half of the game, but we stuck with it. We’ve been doing the right things and starting to get the results. (On Monday) we didn’t get it.”
Philadelphia’s recent 4-0-1 streak began following a 6-4 loss at Carolina on Nov. 5. Necas starred in that game, as well, scoring the decisive goal with 31 seconds to play.
“It’s still early in the year, but I like our group,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “I know we have a lot of guys in here that get how the game needs to be played on a daily basis. The new people we brought in to fill the spots that were left are buying into it and that’s why we are where we are at this point.”
–Field Level Media
