Canes win against Islanders, 3-0

On Saturday night, Carolina Hurricanes played on Long Island against the Islanders, and I would like confirmation from my friend Corey Lavelette, North State Journal and The Athletic at Corey Lave on Twitter. Was that not a defensive clinic that we watched for 60 minutes? Yeah, well you know, I just got back from Wake Competition Center and Rod Brentmore got a little grin when we asked him about the way that game went and the way they shut down the Islanders. Pretty impressive without your number one center. Very good performance. It was great.

It's funny. I know, and I totally understand, Piotr Kacekoff with a 16 save shutout. Normally, goalie has a shutout. He is one of the three stars of the game.

And you asked me on Twitter, no love for Piotr. And he was good, but he was sort of a spec... Other than a couple of really good saves he made in the first period, which are important, he had a great seat for what happened in front of him. I think that the Islanders only had like 20 shot attempts in the last two periods.

Yeah, I mean, it was an absolute clinic and you're right. I mean, he didn't have to do a whole lot, but you know, there's two kind of great goalies in history, right? You've got the Dominik Kacek who make 55 saves and they're rolling all over the crease and making great saves. And then you've got the Martin Brodeurs who face 18 shots, but when they face those 18 shots, they keep the puck out of the net. And Kacekoff has shown a little bit of both already in the early part of his career, hasn't he? Yeah. So let's get to that real quick, because this is, to me, will be over the next couple of weeks, the most fascinating conversation about this team this year.

There's no, I mean, the data proves it. He's been their best goaltender. And frankly, it's not close the way he has played versus the way Freddie Anderson before his injury played and Antti Ranta played.

And now he's sort of banged up and I don't even know how available Ranta is to start. He is the backup to Kacekoff and he has been, who's played, I think, nine of their last 10 games, Kacekoff has. But what happens when Freddie is healthy, Corey?

What do they do? Well, you know, I asked Don Waddell that last week and he told me, well, you know, we'll have, you know, it's early in the season and we know these two goalies that we had last year can carry us and we'll, you know, we'll get Piotr some games back in Chicago so he can play. And then I asked Rod Brindamore kind of a similar question today, and it was kind of a, well, this is pro sports and you got to play your best players.

And I said, well, is he your best? And Rod said, uh, he might be one of our best players overall, not even among the goalies. So, uh, you know, I'm sure Don is being smart and playing the card he should play with a couple of veteran goalies, but at the same time, kind of hard to deny that the young kid has been their best goalie and is their future too. And oh dear, this franchise has a history of young goalies doing something special. Yeah.

Well, that is certainly something to file away in the back of our memory. Corey Lavelette, North State Journal and The Athletic is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. That is again, the conversation will be fascinating about what happens with goaltending when everybody is healthy because you're paying the other guys a combined six and a half million dollars.

And you're probably not keeping three goalies, but right now they're not healthy. Freddy Anderson wasn't at practice today after practicing twice last week. He was not at practice today. Do we know if it was a setback or is it he just didn't practice today because he's not going to play tomorrow and I assume it will be Kachetkoff again tomorrow. Yeah, I didn't see him at all.

You know Ranta, like you mentioned, Ranta's been a bit banged up. He seemed fine. We had a long conversation about his on-the-shelf plans for his kids. So that happened. Is there going to be a story about this?

No. We were just chatting. He got the pointers from Jordan Martinok.

He told me some ideas. Rod said he believes Kachetkoff will probably go tomorrow. They haven't discussed it yet.

Why not? The kid's been fantastic and has kept his cool the whole time and hasn't shown that he's rattled by anything yet. Maybe he doesn't know better, but you have to run with the hot hand and the team's playing well right now with him in net. The team is playing well with him in net. I thought the most interesting thing to me about Saturday night against a good team that had just beaten a stuffing out of the Devils the night before is Piotr's prior game, the one in Anaheim, was not a great performance. I thought the first goal and the last goal could have been saved and they weren't. So it was probably his shakiest game in this run of games that he has played, but especially in the first period when he was more needed.

I mean, he was there. Not only the save on Cal Clutterbuck in the deep slot, but getting to the post and denying Brock Nelson on the power play. Both outstanding saves to Sebastian Ajo who missed practice twice last week, didn't play on the island, was not at practice again today, nor was Jesper Faust. Any update on the length of time they will be without either or both players? Well, you know, we asked about about Ajo and Brendan Moore said it's not any more serious than they thought it was. It's one of those things where if you can play if you can if you can dress guys and not make him play then why play him if he's not if he's not feeling his best, you know better to get him healthy for the long haul than anything else. I saw Jesper Faust very briefly.

I was talking to someone else, but he was he was in the building today. No update yet on him, but I'm you know, I think the same situation of you know, you've got the bodies and you know, especially with how they played on Long Island, you know, you might as well maybe give that lineup another kick at the can here against Detroit. Yes, and look this is no disrespect to Jesper Faust and we all respect as a player. It's becoming pretty apparent that that line is Jordan Martinuk and Jordan Stahl. I hope I know Martinuk got a little bit of facial work done. Somebody's stick came up late and he was being repaired on the bench. But as long as nothing in his in his core or his legs is compromised.

I mean Martinuk's been one of their like if you were naming a three stars of the Hurricanes Martinuk has to be one of the three right? Geico asks, how would you love a chance to save some money on insurance? Of course you would and when it comes to great rates on insurance Geico can help. Like with insurance for your car, truck, motorcycle, boat and RV. Even help with homeowners or renters coverage. Plus add an easy to use mobile app, available 24 hour roadside assistance and more and Geico is an easy choice. Switch today and see all the ways you could save.

It's easy. Simply go to Geico.com or contact your local agent today. With the new Chevy Silverado, you might be driving in this, but with the Silverado's redesigned interior and large infotainment screens, it'll feel more like this. Introducing the new 2022 Chevy Silverado. Find new upgrades. Find new roads.

Chevrolet. He's done a great job of selling that selling that mean we need to write a role and you know, you have to is there anything wrong with him beyond that? He, you know, rod during practices will, you know, after a drill, blow the whistle, put a puck at center ice and call on someone to try to shoot out.

And he called on, I'm Marty today. Oh gosh, Marty, Marty picked the puck up, pushed it ahead of him, did a, did a 360 turn and then went in and he didn't score, but he's definitely feeling it a little bit with the confidence and yeah, he's been great. And if he can stay, if he can stay healthy, I mean, he's a great fit for the way that line plays. I mean, let's be honest, playing with Jordan stall is, it is probably a dream for just about anybody who's not an ultra talented player because if you play the right way, good things are going to happen.

There's no question about that. Martinook has got 14 points this year. His career high is 25. He's got 14 points already.

We are just at the one third mark of the season. I like Stefan Nason playing on on the right side of that line as well. So I know Marty Natures took a couple of shifts there, but I think Nason looked awfully comfortable playing next to stall and Martinook.

Let me ask you about yes, Barry Kotkaniemi who with added responsibility and we go back a year ago during the covid time where Carolina dressed just 10 forwards in one game and then the next game. They were still missing a bunch of players where he played arguably his two best games of the year. I thought he was really noticeably excellent in the game on Long Island.

Did you see the same thing? Yeah, I think it's good to get lost in the bowl and think, oh, he scored so he played better. And I think the same is true for Paul Staffney. You see it going like, oh, they played better. But if you look at the fine details, both Kocianeni and Staffney played maybe their best game of the year in that situation. I thought, you know, I thought KK was really, really good, you know, defensively and being, you know, assertive offensively. The big thing for him is shooting the puck. He had five shots on goal.

That's one short of a career high for him. If he shoots the puck, he's got a good hit. It's a little bit of like a terrifying in junior at times, a little bit where he wants to defer and get other people a chance to score. And he has the ability to score too.

So good to see him have a really good game. I, I, you know, I know a lot of people are down on him because the points aren't there. I've seen a lot of people talk about, well, we should have kept Vincent. Trochek is the tweet I always get sending at me.

And I mean, you look at the points and you're like, well, that makes sense. But if you watch, if you watch the games and you take the points off the board, I don't know that Vincent Trochek has played any better this year than, than yes, very Kocianeni has. Like if you really watch Rangers games, I don't think Trochek has been anything particularly special for them. And, you know, he's not really producing other than on the power play. And when you're on one of the best power plays in the NHL, that'll happen. So I, you know, I don't, I still think that the kid's got a chance to be a really good player. At worst, I think his floor is a, is a, is a third line center. And even at the dollar amount he makes, that's not bad.

Yeah, no, I, I agree. He's, he has, he still has it. He's 22. I mean, we, you could just fall back to that.

Whether, you know, the contract we had, we can have a conversation entirely just about that. But as a player, he definitely still has a chance. But I loved, I loved his game before the goal. I, and I think Stasny has been gearing towards what we saw on Saturday night. He had, I thought Paul Stasny had been playing much better over the last couple of weeks. He just hadn't gotten the goal. Also, I know they didn't score a power play goal. They only had a power play in a quarter, but maybe not even a power play in a quarter. But the full power play they had was pretty snappy. It just didn't score.

And it looked like we had the full Tevo-Terevinin effect on that one. I'm optimistic that Turbo will be back doing Turbo things very soon. Yeah, I think he's, I think he's right on course to, to be who he normally is for the team. And it's just a matter of where does he fit in both at even strength and then also does he work his way back into that top power play unit, which I think that's what your end game has to be. The question just becomes who comes off of it. And while Stefan Nason might be the logical name there, it's kind of hard to pull him off of there when he's been as good as he's been in front of the net.

He's been very good. There's no question about it, but these are all good problems to have. And I can't wait to have another conversation with you about goaltending when all three are healthy because that is going to be a great experiment.

Corey Lavallett at Corey Lav on Twitter. I thank you very much, ma'am. Hey, having a chance to come out here is a good problem to have too. Oh my gosh. Sucking up will get you everywhere. Thanks, brother. Take care, man. You got it.

Corey Lavallett, North State Journal. What a lie though. No. What a blatant butter me up lie. Geico asks, how would you love a chance to save some money on insurance?

Of course you would. And when it comes to great rates on insurance, Geico can help. Like with insurance for your car, truck, motorcycle, boat and RV. Even help with homeowners or renters coverage. Plus add an easy to use mobile app, available 24 hour roadside assistance and more and Geico is an easy choice. Switch today and see all the ways you could save. It's easy. Simply go to Geico.com or contact your local agent today.