WHO might be starting for the Carolina Hurricanes??

Hurricanes are in Columbus tonight.

If you are in Raleigh, Stormwatch starts at 630. The drop of the puck just a little bit after 7 o'clock. Hurricanes have lost four games in a row.

If it wants to come to an end, it, meaning the streak, has a life of its own. If we want to see this winning streak come to an end, we should be rooting for a solid, goal-tending performance. And, as we bring in Tripp Tracy, the analyst of the Carolina Hurricanes, Freddie Anderson was on the plane. I know, no morning skate, so we're not sure.

What are your thoughts? Well, obviously, no morning skate, A.G. I am extremely hopeful that, you know, I'm guessing that Freddie himself is skating right now. You know, even without the team warning skate, and that I don't see if he's good to go, why you wouldn't use him tonight.

I thought, actually, even on the bus and the plane ride back here in Columbus after Saturday's game, that it's the perfect time. You know, because he's your guy. You need him. And, you know, Antti, who's not on the trip, nothing significant, from what I'm told. Antti is Antti.

You know what you're going to get from Antti. And, you know, Kochekov, after his run of supreme brilliance, now in three starts, has, without question, come back to earth. Does it at all reduce my belief in the big picture of Piotr Kochekov?

No, not at all. But, you know, some things that I think need to be cleaned up, you know, to become less predictable as the league gets to know him. And, you know, to utilize it as a big building block experience for him. And we know what his excellence has been and will be again. But, yeah, Whitehorse, you know, Freddie Anderson, a team not having won in four games, this certainly tonight would be the perfect time for Freddie to reemerge in the crease. And here's the problem that a lot of people have, is that at the beginning of this season, Frederick Anderson was not playing well. He was just okay at best. But the Frederick Anderson who played the majority of the regular season last year until the injury in Colorado was one of the best four or five goaltenders in the entire NHL. What is more likely to be true, I think it's a lot closer to last year than what we saw for the first month, really not even a month, of this season. But let me ask you what the most difficult thing is going to be for Freddie, having not played now for 67 days. What is the most difficult thing for him going to be getting back in it? Well, a good statement and question, just a quick add on to your statement, my belief and hey, I could be wrong, but my belief based on the veteran nature of Frederick Anderson, assuming he stays healthy.

That's the asterisk, right? But assuming he stays healthy, I think you're going to get any anywhere between solid and illegal attending from him. I don't think it's going to be less than solid. I think it's going to hover somewhere between solid and elite, assuming he stays healthy because of the veteran nature of how long he's been a goaltender in the National Hockey League. And playing into that, something that hasn't happened in the last four game segment and was happening with tremendous regularity prior to that is you were getting, you never know when they're going to come. It just so happened that they needed to be at the end of both periods against New Jersey on Tuesday, those timely stays.

So the biggest challenge would be for a goaltender. If you rang in the new year with someone special and you're starting a new chapter in your relationship in 2023, Indochino can help you look your best on your big day. With their huge variety of customizable details and fabrics, Indochino lets you design your own unique look from made-to-measure blazers and suits to a custom, portrait-worthy tuxedo, all with no tailor necessary. Shop online to set up your measurement profile and choose your fabric and customizations. Or if you prefer an in-person experience, book an appointment at an Indochino showroom to work with an expert style guide. Then sit back while your suit is made for you and delivered straight to your door. Suits aren't just $4.49 and premium fitted shirts start at $89. So if you're ringing in 2023 with wedding bells, plan your custom look with Indochino. Go to Indochino.com and use code NEWCHAPTER to get 10% off any purchase of $3.99 or more.

That's I-N-D-O-C-H-I-N-O dot com promo code NEWCHAPTER. The mental portion of it, very similar even though a different position to a Max Pacharetti and talking to Justin Williams with that identical injury, now that Max has played three games, is being able to trust that you're good to go. And that's why Max said that he made a point to be physical, whether it be giving hits, taking hits early in that game, his first game against Nashville. The movement that's required for a goal tender lower body injury, being able to convince yourself in the National Hockey League game mentally that you are just fine. Once he does that, I think that everything else will fall into place. You'd love to see him feel the rock, you know, quantity, not quality. But I think it's a mental challenge more than anything else, A.G., to know that, you know, that you're not thinking about, you know, the subtle differences for a winger in Pacharetti's case and a goal tender.

And mentally, go for yourself and or tell yourself that you are good to go. Tripp Tracy is joining us, Canes and Columbus coming up later on tonight. All right. So the just to get back to Kuchetkov, because to me, the first two goals, I think, shook him. And from that point on, the other two goals, I don't think were bad goals. But my my feeling was that a confident Piotr Kuchetkov, those don't even become shots because he is Piotr Pokhchetkov. And I think both of those plays, he would have at least attempted to poke check away. But I think I think for the maybe for the first time, we saw his confidence really shaken. I agree. I even just look at his three starts since coming back from his injury in New York, home against Nashville, the UC Siro show, still were able to put some goals on the board and the game against New Jersey.

If Kuchetkov is going like he was prior to his injury, I think he went all three games. Yeah. And, you know, it's it's it's it's just subtle things. It wasn't as much against New Jersey, but I thought in the games against the Rangers and the Predators, he was playing small at times. And the Rangers and Preds use utilize the upper half of the net. It was clear that the New Jersey Devils felt that they could exploit the lower portion of the net by taking advantage of an active stick when it didn't need to be active. You know, when the sticks and it's not square and then say on the game winning goal in the third period, a player on the backhand that Mercer was, that's where you go with the stack.

Yeah. So your player, you know, off balance a little bit, being pressured by Coughlin, who had a tough night. But, you know, that's that's it's all about reads for any player of any position. I just think that his confidence is falling off, not something that is abnormal for anybody. And, you know, goaltending coach Paul Sean Felder, Jason Mazzotti in concert in the development category, they'll work with him on this.

He'll be better for it. But I do believe that the coach checked off in, let's just say, December of twenty twenty two when he was as good as any goalie in the NHL. He finds a way to beat your circuit in New York, even with sorrows being stellar with a capital S and then Vana check. I think it is form in December that you would have won all three of those games. The late period goals were the ones that were really killer against New Jersey.

They that second power goal, this reverse V8 that all these goalies use A.G. instead of squaring up like the old days. It was just subtlety. That pad was not snug against the post. So that sharp angled shot, which was a dagger. I mean, it was a dagger.

There's a little bit of a cushion that allows that ricochet effect. It's it's a combination of mechanics and confidence that has just fallen off that no doubt about it can be recaptured, but just plays that much more into the timing. This being the perfect time for Frederick Anderson to reemerge.

Final thing. And you and I talked about this before the game on Tuesday night. Sebastian Ajo did look like he had it going. Thabo Terevinen had his moments. I thought Thabo I thought Thabo had some really I think his best probably was defensively in that game, especially shorthanded. I thought Carolina was really good shorthanded.

They were arguably better shorthanded than they were on their own power play. But I thought Sebastian looked like the old Sebastian. And I'm sensing a little bit of a Sebastian Ajo surge here. I both guys, I thought, first of all, in the morning skate, I noticed that parks for Ajo were going bar down off the post in it. And I don't read too much into a morning skate, but based on the rut that that he had been in, I made note of that. And then boom, right from his first shift and in particular, you know what he did, shorthanded.

But he looked like Apple. I mean, in the first period, you have a second consecutive penalty to your captain, Jordan Stahl, a key penalty killer. He needed to step up.

He did. And then a beautiful goal that should have been the backbreaker to make it on from Thabo and Thabo on being able to undress Dougie Hamilton. It wasn't the backbreaker, but I expect him like you do to go on a run and for table. Yeah, there were some moments both ways.

But I thought it was his best game in a while. And I even look, you know, at eventually cocaine, the Emmy shorthanded goal. Again, you have Jordan Stahl on the box. Ajo had set the tone, shorthanded table, got a puck out, killing a penalty and got it to. Yes, we're fast.

Yes, we're fast. It was a can of corn. Save her Vanna check, but force Vanna check to take a defensive zone draw while kill while being on the power play for New Jersey. And that leads to nature's very smartly going forward and going to cocaine. So you back that one up for me all the way to the table. Clear. And then all those shorthanded goal work comes free before skill. If you look at the defensive blue line where it all started, table moving his feet with compete beat Andre Paul on a multiple times Stanley Cup winner up the ice before his playmaking finishes off to give and go to Apple. I thought he was willing to shoot the puck, even though Carolina's power play is still a work in progress.

I thought he was willing to shoot the puck period and not only willing to shoot it. He, they were heavy offerings. So I'm hoping for both players, albeit in a loss. They were two bright spots for me.

Tripp Tracy. We'll see you at home on Saturday and Sunday. We got a back to back coming. You got it. I guess it'll just be TBD whether Adam will be wearing that very sharp scarf. But I don't know.

Maybe you want to change it up because they haven't won the last couple of home games. That sharp scarf that you adorn at PNC. Thank you very much.

I'll consider it. The scarf. Actually, I wore it yesterday.

Had it on all day yesterday. It's cold in the arena. There's a lot of ice in there. Right. It's cold.

And as you pointed out yesterday, I'm old and I'm just trying to keep myself warm. I might go full wool slippers. There you go. For the game on game Saturday and Sunday.

Anyway, thanks to Tripp Tracy. If your big plans this year include your big day, plan your look with Indochino. Customize every detail of a blazer, suit or tuxedo online or at a showroom with an expert style guide.

Then sit back for delivery straight to your door. Suits start at just $4.49 and premium fitted shirts at just $89. Go to Indochino.com and use code NEWCHAPTER for 10% off any purchase of $3.99 or more. That's Indochino.com. Code NEWCHAPTER.