Taking an 8 p.m. start time to overtime and then a shootout, the Carolina Hurricanes almost concluded their final game of 2024 in a new year. Unfortunately for the Canes, Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins stoned them in the shootout to give Columbus the extra point in a 4-3 win.
It was the team’s third loss in a row on the road and in all of December the team had a record of 1-4-1 when played outside of Raleigh. Carolina cooled down in the final month of the year from where it started the season as it finished the month going 6-6-1.
Defenseman Ty Smith and centers Jack Roslovic and Jesperi Kotkaniemi all got in the goal column but it wasn’t enough against the Blue Jackets. With injuries and top players absent at times, the Hurricanes have lined up and played like a shell of their usual selves.
Between goaltender Frederik Andersen, center Jack Drury, defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere and now center Tyson Jost — who sustained an injury in the final period against Columbus — the Canes have been riddled with injuries.
Smith, Jost and now left wing Juha Jaaska have all been called up to the NHL to replace the manpower lost. With the extent of injury to Jost still unknown, Jaaska got called up from Chicago to ring in 2025 and center the fourth line in Florida.
With a patchwork lineup, the Canes (23-13-2) headed down to Sunrise, Florida to take on the Panthers (23-14-2) — a team who had hung six goals on them in the two previous matchups this season.
It didn’t take long for 2025 to improve on the road compared to how they closed 2024. Thirty-five seconds into the game, defenseman Brent Burns fired a wrist shot from the boards that deflected off Panthers center Alexander Barkov and past the netminder.
It was a dominant first 10 minutes for Carolina, outshooting Florida 14-1. The ice was tilted and the Panthers were fighting an uphill battle. Florida did weather the storm with an early goal in the second period from center Anton Lundell but an even score didn’t quite reflect the flow of play.
By the end of 40 minutes, the Hurricanes had outshot the defending Stanley Cup champions 32-15. Both goaltenders, Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky and Carolina’s Pyotr Kochetov had to make spectacular saves at times and were large parts of why each team could only find the back of the net once.
It was shaping up for a playoff-esque game where the winner wouldn’t come cleanly — and it was all that and much more.
Left wing Jordan Martinook fed his new linemate Kotkaniemi with a pass in the slot but a trailing left wing in Matthew Tkachuk tripped up the Finn who went sliding into Bobrovsky and almost into the net itself.
Trying to remove himself from the crease, Kotkaniemi couldn’t even get up as Tkachuk mounted him and started shoving him while he was down. With Kotkaniemi in the crease, Bobrovsky couldn’t get himself in position to make a save and defenseman Jaccob Slavin capitalized to make it 2-1.
https://x.com/WaltRuff/status/1875010024780804387
The fans were upset but the bench didn’t challenge the call of a good call — they knew their alternate captain had cost them the game.
Center Martin Necas rounded out the scoring, tipping in a pass from right wing Andrei Svechnikov into an empty net with less than a minute to play.
2024 was one of the best years in franchise history based on the regular season. The team was first in win percentage, shots allowed and penalty kill percentage. The team also ranked second in goals allowed per game and power play percentage.
Regular-season stats like that are more appreciated when the postseason results follow them up but that hasn’t been the case. As the team looks ahead to 2025, it will look to go beyond what previous iterations failed to.
That started with the 3-1 win against Florida and continues on Saturday when the team welcomes the Minnesota Wild to Lenovo Center with a puck drop at 7 p.m.
