The New York Islanders are coming in angry to face the Carolina Hurricanes

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Pulse in your pocket, you can play anywhere. P-U-L-S-Z.com. Hurricanes are at home tonight to the New York Islanders. Islanders who had a six game unbeaten streak. Well, six games with a point. I guess they lost three of those in overtime. Blew a two goal third period lead to the Devils and lost five to four in regulation, not even in overtime. And now they come in here angry.

And this is always a good. I think these matchups have been fun anyway, or at least I don't know about fun, but hard fought. And the Hurricanes are trying to win another one from the Islanders, and that'll start tonight at seven thirty. You can, I don't know, can't warm up with Stu Grimson tonight because he'll be on in the afternoon tomorrow on NHL Now at four o'clock on NHL Network.

But NHL Tonight at eight thirty tonight. So maybe during intermissions, you can flip over and check out Stu Grimson, former Hurricane. How are you, sir? Hey, I'm well, Adam could not be better.

My pleasure to be back with you. Yeah, it's been we have talked to you a few times before. Two hundred and four penalty minutes in your one year with Carolina. Nobody reaches that number anymore in the NHL, do they?

No, they really don't. You know, for guys that did what I did back in the day, one hundred one hundred minutes a year was kind of a baseline. And even with that, if you only got one hundred, you know, you must have had a bunch of healthy scratches or some injuries. But gosh, I mean, even one hundred penalty minutes today is exceptionally, you know, an exceptionally busy year. It's a different game. It's changed a lot. There's no question about it. You may you may want to not even answer this.

I'm just curious. Was it in your contract? Did you get like incentives or did you have to reach a certain number of penalty minutes? No, you know, as tough as the game was, and even though it was a very different, you know, kind of a very different iteration or era in the game, you know, none of us. I do remember there was one player, one kind of one of my contemporaries, Ken Baumgartner. He and his agent tried to work some penalty minute bonuses into the into his contract, but the league disallowed it even way back when.

Yeah, I actually don't even think you're allowed. I don't think they have those. They don't have incentives and contracts, which they haven't been every other sport, but we don't we don't have anything like that.

We don't have them here. One other goofy question that I want to ask you about the Hurricanes. Who was the guy that you either liked or didn't like to drop the gloves with? Oh, well, I mean, if I could avoid Dave Brown, Dave Brown, fists of renown, that was always, you know, that was always a better way to approach any game against Dave's Flyers or San Jose Sharks or is Edmonton Oilers for that matter?

But yeah, Brown, he was a really tough customer. He was he had a he had a left hand that hit like a clap of thunder. And I'll be honest with you out of work, not for Dave Brown and all the other lefties I used to tang with. I'd still be playing.

You are in good shape. He did left. I hated lefty.

I hated him. Mr. Grimson is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. I think what we have tonight is two teams to an extent, maybe to a lesser extent, the Hurricanes, but two teams that are still trying to figure out that maybe not figure out but play to their identity. The Hurricanes and Islanders have both been, I mean, incredibly strong defensive teams over the course of the last several years. And the Hurricanes at one point were averaging allowing five goals a game that was way early in the season.

Now, they are normal, but still not to their own level. They gave up eight to Tampa a couple of games ago and the Islanders have struggled to especially with leads to kind of, you know, get these games across the line. What have you seen from these two teams because it's not early anymore recorded the way through the season. Yeah, that's a fair observation, Adam.

It certainly is. I think these are two teams, as you mentioned, that their identities are well established and quite similar with an important caveat. The Islanders and the Carolina Hurricanes both play with good defensive structures.

They don't give you a lot. You have to earn, you know, kind of every opportunity out there and they're few and far to come from, but both clubs have kind of been off their mark to some degree. I mean, I marvel at last year's run for the Hurricanes. I mean, can you imagine as banged up as they were getting to the conference final and really pushing the Panthers to, you know, I wouldn't say to the brink, but it was an incredibly competitive series. But, I mean, that was an injury decimated Carolina Hurricanes team and they relied almost exclusively on that structure to get as deep as they did.

So I'm a bit surprised, you know, given the way they're built, given the way they're coached, that they're kind of struggling to refine that form. And one other important caveat, I think, is these two teams match up that you're, you know, I'm sure your great Canes fans are very much aware of. I think this Canes team comes with a little more offensive upside than do the Islanders.

You know, that's kind of borne itself out this year. The Islanders are really, they're like, they're built like a 3-2 hockey team. I mean, they're not going to blow anybody out of the rink on most any night. And, you know, they've got to win a lot of games by a one goal margin.

Yeah, that's basically what they do. They do have outstanding goaltending, much more known goaltending commodities than Carolina has right now. They're going to rely on Piotr Kuchetkov.

And Rod won't say it, you know, he won't say it out loud, but it's pretty obvious, at least to me, and I've been around this team a long time, and I cover this team on a day-to-day basis. They want Kuchetkov to be the guy, which is why he's starting his third straight game. Yeah, yeah, and that makes great sense.

I mean, it's, you know, it's kind of the three-handed monster at this point. Ransa being the other healthy netminder in camp as, you know, the group awaits Anderson coming back. But I do agree with you, both Ransa and Anderson would fit that bill.

They are, maybe not initially, but I think if Dawn Waddell and Coach Brindemore were to be, you know, in a candid moment, they're placeholders until Kuchetkov can really assume that role. And I think the group has been rather patient in the process, and I think Fyodor has, I think he has this in his future. I think the number one job for him, and perhaps at an elite level, is certainly within the cards.

I see great mechanics, I see great fundamentals there. He's also a super exciting player to watch at times, whether it's with poke checks or, I mean, he is very good. Sometimes he bites off a little more than he can chew in terms of handling the puck, but he will start the play.

And it has been fun to watch. A guy like Andrei Svechnikov, who was coming back from the knee surgery last year, finally scored his first goal against Columbus on Sunday, then is sick. When you look at Andrei, what kind of potential do you see? Oh, I'm a big fan of Andrei's game.

I really am. You know, I think the one unique element, I think the skill set is, you know, is well identified over time. This is a guy that is capable of, you know, meaningful offense at this level. And really, you know, looking back across his resume, 21-22 being kind of a high watermark, 30 goals, 39 assists. I think this is a guy that, you know, in a perfect year, in a year when he can catch an uptick, when confidence, you know, is measurable.

This is a guy that might be capable of, you know, an 80-point season and 40 goals in the cards. It's a lot to come back from, the two, you know, the two kind of aspects that he's been plagued by, as you mentioned. But the other aspect of his game that I really like is he's got the kind of DNA he can drive a line. He plays with an edge. Sometimes it can be to his disadvantage, and I think as time wears on, he's going to be able to strike a better balance there. Because I think the physical, you know, the kind of antagonist aspect in his game, it can kind of get him off track from time to time. But I'd rather that that player has that in abundance and you're trying to coach it down rather than trying to bring it out of him.

The latter is, it's just always, you know, it's not terribly reliable, it's not terribly impactful. The fact that he's kind of, he's got that as part of his persona, part of his game, I think really, you know, helps him stand out as a guy, as one of those guys with, you know, an offensive skill set, but also that, you know, that snarl, that bite in his game. Stu Grimson is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. Long time NHLer, one year with the Carolina Hurricanes, and he'll be on NHL Tonight, 8 o'clock, 8.30 tonight on NHL Network.

NHL Now, tomorrow afternoon at 4.30. One more thing, quick thing about Svetchnikov. He had a seven game stretch and nine of his first 11 games after coming back, where he committed a minor penalty. Do players, whether it was from your experience or just watching, can players be targeted by officials because they have this reputation for committing penalties?

And a lot of them are kind of shaky, offensive zone stick penalties. Yeah, you know, I will, it's hard to speak for any one official or, you know, or any of the guys that have kind of officiated the games you're referencing. I will say this, just a general observation, Adam, refs are human, right? Refs prepare for these games, much like players prepare for these games. They want to be sharp.

They want to be on top of it. They want to make sure that, you know, nothing goes uncalled where it should be called. So if a player has exhibited certain tendencies over a longer stretch of time, you can bet that refs in the lead up to that game are going to have that player front of mind. So if Svetius is kind of, you know, gained that reputation over time, it wouldn't be a surprise to me that, you know, from a team's fan's perspective, it looks like he's getting whistled all the time. You know, that tendency can come from time to time. I will say this, you know, during my era, you know, it wasn't so much what you did when you committed a penalty, you took a penalty. A lot of times it was who you were when you took that penalty. Refs have certain players on their radar. That's just part of that.

That's baked into the recipe. Yeah, and probably half of your penalty minutes were unwarranted, Stu. Maybe more. Oh, I would agree. At least that amount.

At least that amount. That's a fair assessment. Stu Grimson, NHL Network. I appreciate your time, sir. You can follow me on Twitter. We will talk again down the road. Sounds great.