Less than 24 hours after a trade involving right wing Mikko Rantanen and left wing Taylor Hall sent the pair to Carolina, the two made their debuts with the team. Despite not getting the full two points, Rantanen and Hall played well in the Hurricanes’ 3-2 overtime loss to the New York Islanders.
Heading into the Saturday night game, the Canes (30-16-4) already had a tough task ahead facing the Islanders (21-20-7) who have now won four in a row, going 7-3-0 in their last 10 games. Coupled with two new faces who didn’t practice with the team, the odds were stacked against Carolina.
Despite being dealt a bad hand, the team came out flying offensively to start the game. Center Jack Roslovic scored his 18th of the season — and first wearing No. 98 — 5:18 into the first period. Center Jesperi Kotkaniemi fired a breakout pass to Roslovic who charged up the ice and lasered a shot over the shoulder of Islanders goalie Marcus Hogberg.
The good fortunes kept on coming for the Canes when just over a minute later, center Sebastian Aho was the beneficiary of a lucky bounce. Looking for Rantanen in the slot, Aho tried putting a pass through from below the goal line but a bounce off an Islanders player’s skate redirected the puck into the net. If it wasn’t for an Islanders skate, the long-time friends almost connected in their first game back together.
“We haven’t played together in 10 years, probably — last time in junior somewhere,” Rantanen said. “But he’s a good player, very smart player, easy to play with. So hopefully we can get the chemistry building and get some offense going.”
A couple of minutes before the first intermission, the Islanders got one back. At the conclusion of a power play chance the team had due to Kotkaniemi’s fight initiation with Isles center Jean-Gabriel Pageau, defenseman Alexander Romanov fired a shot from the point which deflected through Canes netminder Pyotr Kochetkov’s five hole.
Off a questionable call, New York cut the lead to one with their first of three unanswered goals. Left wing Anders Lee scored the team’s second off a rebound that Kochetkov would have liked to have not given up and paid the price for.
Three-on-three action has been kind to the Canes this season mainly because of the dynamic duo that Aho and center Martin Necas were with the extra space. However, with Necas getting sent in return for Rantanen to Colorado, the two Finns were paired together and didn’t have quite the same chemistry.
As a result, it was the Isles who walked away with the extra point. Centers Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri took the puck in transition, leaving Canes defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere to play the two-on-one. Gostisbehere played the middle, taking neither option fully out of the play and putting Kochetkov in a vulnerable position that Nelson exposed with a quick wrister.
The Canes didn’t help out its big acquisitions as much as it could have, especially in the faceoff circle. The team won a dismal 34.8 percent of its faceoffs against the Isles, a night where having center Jack Drury — another piece sent to Colorado — would have helped.
“We need to be better around them,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour.”
Hall only had 11:36 of ice time but finished the game being inserted onto the second line alongside Kotkaniemi and right wing Andrei Svechnikov after spending the majority on the fourth. Rantanen was placed, as expected, next to Aho on the top line, working with rookie right wing Jackson Blake. Rantanen made the most of his first line and power play time, finishing with a team-high five shots on goal.
Carolina will have at least one day of practice before it takes on the New York Rangers on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Madison Square Garden. It gives much-needed time for Brind’Amour and the rest of the coaching staff to assess what pieces need to go where after the big roster shake-up.
