Game 1/Round 1 is in the books as a W for the Canes

NHL playoffs began yesterday. It was night one and at PNC Arena.

It was game one of the entirety of the NHL playoffs and one of the reasons I know it's the playoffs, not just the towels being waved, but man press rows crowded. It's cool to see Tom Galitti from nhl.com. They call him a regional writer.

I know he's a big game writer because he was in town and he joins us on the Adam Gold Show. Mr. Galitti, how are you? I'm doing well. How about you?

I'm doing very well. It was fun last night. Should there have been more goals in that game? There could have been. I think for both teams, Sir Sturgen I thought played really well for the Islanders and Ranta and he made some big saves when he was called upon particularly, I would say early in the third and the first couple minutes and then the last couple minutes of the third.

Those were his best moments. So yeah, there could have been more goals. I think both teams probably think they can generate more and we might see more as the series goes on, but 2-1 might be a common score for the game.

I joked with a friend of mine who covers the Islanders and I think it's a race to three. I mean these two teams just played a 2-1 game a little over two weeks ago, two weeks ago I believe Sunday and it looked very similar to this one. I think this one had more scoring chances both ways than maybe we give it credit just going back and watching it again. Whether expected goals really matters, but expected goals had Carolina winning that 4-3. So again, I think both goal tenders played well. Yeah, I think both goalies played well. I do think that Carolina did a pretty good job though for much of the game of bottling things up. They didn't really give the Islanders much as far as in transition or anything like that and that's a good way to win a game. I mean after those first two shots, those chances they had early in the third, one was Lee I remember and I can't remember the second one, after that there was really nothing until the last couple of minutes and the outers just could not get to the neutral zone against Carolina with the way Carolina also pressures them in their end too. That's probably something that's not talked about enough about how good Carolina is playing those games and they're going to have to be in this series because I think it's going to be, like Reza said, it could be a race to three.

Three might be an empty netter if we get there. I do feel like it was a typical game one though. There was a little bit of feeling out and a little bit of back and forth. Carolina had the crowd early behind it and got the early power play goal and then the owners kind of pushed back in the second half of the first period and it kind of went back and forth there. So I think you'll see maybe teams get more to their games as the series progress. The decision for Rod Brindamore to take the Jordan stall line and put it on Bo Horvath, Matthew Barzil and Anders Lee. And I thought for the most part in the first two periods the Horvath line was defending and trying to get the puck from Stahl, Faust and Martinuk. I think it wore him out a little bit but I also think they had their moments. Yeah, they did and I thought that Matt Barzil, I think he'll get better. That was his first game in a month and a half or something like that. And you could see as the game went on he got more and more comfortable and he tried some things early in the game that he was just a little bit off on and then they started coming a little bit more as the game went on. But like you said I thought that Stahl's line did a really good job.

I'm not surprised they went with that matchup. The one thing with the Islanders is that when they were playing well down the stretch without Barzil it was that Brock Nelson second line that played so well and I thought the Islanders, the Hurricanes did a pretty good job of keeping them and holding them in check as well. Yeah, the funny thing and we're talking with Tom Gallidi of nhl.com because you mentioned who that other player was early in the third period with the scoring chance. It was Pierre Engvall who the Islanders got from Toronto and if I'm not mistaken he has outscored Bo Horvat with the Islanders and the Horvat trade happened way sooner than the Engvall trade. The Engvall was more right at the deadline than the Horvat trade which kept a couple of weeks, three weeks or so prior to it.

So yeah Engvall has been a very good addition for that team. The Hurricanes scored two power play goals. I mean I don't know how that wasn't the lead on nhl.com all over the place. Hurricanes power play has just been a mess the last few weeks. Yeah I know they I was looking at the numbers you know since Fechnikoff went out in the 18 games it was like 10 points 10 percent or whatever and the only team the only team in the league that was worse during that time was the Islanders like nine percent so there are two teams that have had issues their issues in the power play late in the season so if I told you that the first game was going to be decided by the power play like oh maybe like I don't know but you know I think one of the keys I had going to the game last night is a team that figures out the power play first is going to have an advantage and obviously Carolina took five seconds to figure theirs out and just you know that can happen sometimes in the playoffs well you you're you're terrible in the power play you're tearing the power play and all of a sudden you score in the right and right away in your first chance and that can spark you and it feels like a completely different season you've seen that before and maybe that's what's going to happen for Carolina I'm sure that's what they're hoping because then they clicked on the second one too in less than a minute so yeah you know it's interesting about the power play and maybe it's a like self-protection but I've always thought that it's just don't lose special teams in the postseason Carolina's four exits the last four years they have just got their other whoever they played Rangers last year uh Tampa the year before Boston the two previous years their power plays just owned Carolina wasn't it Carolina didn't score any power play goals scored a few but ultimately they just couldn't stop giving up power play goals I think if it's a wash I think it's good for Carolina because they're five on five games so good yeah I think it's you know I think you know them getting power play goals is definitely a bonus for them you know it feels like or at least you know and then that can also carry over into their five on five game too like you see the puck on the net and then people get confidence um they're probably you know there were some good chances they had five on five too and and as we said you know the Sisturkin was uh I'm sorry yeah it was pretty really good um Sorokin and you know just one of those you know things where he makes a couple of an inch here and each there they're going to have another goal so um we'll be see well interesting to see if they keep getting chances like that um you knew Sorokin was going to be good right yes so you have you know that that that was basically what you expected too and and then Ranta held up as his end and given up only the one goal which was kind of a flukey play I don't think you can blame him or not I mean I guess you can but it was a missed shot that totally threw his timing off yeah and it wasn't even on net if if if Ranta lets it go it just goes into corner harmlessly yeah so just a fluke play yeah so I mean I've you've seen plays like that before where the goalie gets completely thrown off when the shot is missed or whatever and that was one of those weird plays but you know he didn't that was a good sign with that is that he didn't let that bother him he just went back to top and everything so yeah like two minutes later he had to stop uh Barzel right on a pass from Horvat the best moment that that that line had five on five was Horvat from the left wall to Barzel in front and Ranta was up to the task Tom Galiti from nhl.com is joining us this little corner of the bracket is essentially the triangle where we are here versus the tri-state area there's no team in Connecticut so uh I'm just taking some liberties here um but how did you see this little corner I mean the Hurricanes are not the same team that started the season no I mean I I think you know the Hurricanes are gonna have to you know gut some things out here because they don't have Svetchnikov and they thought they're gonna have patch already and they don't have him so they're gonna really have to grind games out and find ways to win you know maybe not two one but three two so maybe in this series it'll be two one because the owners have struggles struggle scoring as well um but as if they move on it's gonna be you know they're gonna have to find get scoring from you know other parts of their lineup um I thought like Mason getting a power play goal last night was a good thing for them as well you know you're getting a guy you know he's a good guy in front of the net as we saw so stuff goes like that those are the kind of goals you need to score in the power in the playoffs either power play or or five on five just having guys in front of them and score on deflection so those that's what you kind of look for it it's not going to be pretty stuff it's going to be shots and deflections a lot of times and so um I thought that was a good sign for them as well yeah that's their game I mean shots from the point they uh they had more uh goals from the blue line than any team in the NHL traffic in front uh Brent Burns was an elite player last night I mean I know you've seen Carolina plenty um I know Carolina's run through some pretty good players playing next to Jacob Slavin I don't think anybody has played as well as Brent Burns has played especially the last three months um he is he was really good last night yeah really good yeah he's been that way pretty much oh it took it took a while to just get the flow of it for him uh but I think the way uh Carolina plays just uh plays right into what he wants to do as a player he gets some freedom uh to jump up in the play he can use his forward skills uh as well uh real quick who do you like in the Devils Rangers series oh that's going to be a good one um I picked the I picked the Devils but I could see that going either way maybe you know the Rangers experience I think um could help them win that series you know when a team goes to the playoffs the first time some guys there's a learning curve there and some of their young guys in New Jersey are going to go through that um but you know I think I think the Devils speed I like their speed that I like their the use and just throughout their balance throughout their lines it's going to be for them is whether they get enough goal tending from bad check because you know the guy at the other end is going to be really good yes the Hurricanes have dealt with Igor Shostakin before it just seems like last year Tom Galitti at Tom Galitti NHL on Twitter NHL writer I appreciate your time we'll see you at the ring tomorrow day tomorrow Adam