Carolina Hurricanes game vs Nashville Predators tonight at 8pm ET

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Visit the Amazon.com slash Amazon Prime for details. Carolina Hurricanes taking on the Nashville Predators in Nash Vegas. As the holiday break is, the mini holiday break is over for the NHL and they roll forward.

It's back to backs. In studio with me right now is the in-game host for Carolina Hurricanes broadcast on the radio network, Dennis Cox. Dennis, the Carolina Hurricanes have been struggling a bit.

To say the least. One in four in the last five games, struggling on both ends of the ice. We always talk about the ice being tilted. The one thing you see tonight for the Hurricanes to get the ice to tilt back in their favor would be... Goal tending. I think it all comes down to that. When they've had consistent good goal tending, they've been in games.

It's as simple as that. Look at the last, with the exception of the game on Saturday against the New York Islanders, where Kochekov wasn't good, but I think he also was a little bit worn down. Because as soon as they sent Ronta down, they were riding Kochekov. But when Kochekov, in the previous five games, was 3-0-2. The only two losses were shootout losses. One against Pittsburgh, one against the Washington Capitals, where he only gave up one goal during regulation. And his save percentage was about 95%.

And they were in every single one of those games. And played well, including that dominant 6-3 win that we talked about, you talked about yesterday, against Vegas. Yeah, it all comes down to goal tending for this team right now.

Simple as that. You see the stars stepping up in the wins. If you look back, 30,000 feet, Dennis. High level hockey here. Just basically looking at stars of the game. In games where this team, this Canes team, has won, the stars have been shining.

And we talk about stars, and we talk about having a balanced group and whatnot, but let's be honest. You pay Sebastian Ajo to score goals. Sebastian Ajo is scoring goals. He's doing it on the power play, he has assists on the power play, he's all over it. Seth Jarvis, who is, again, a guy who stirs the drink, 11 goals, lots of helpers in his column as well. Andrey Svechnikov trying to get his feet under. And the other star, the consistency has been Kochekov, as you've mentioned.

Feels like he's been worn down a little bit. When you look at the losses, again, I'm looking at 30,000 feet. I'm not talking about individual in-game play or whatnot. In the losses, it's everybody else on the roster.

That's not... Some of the criticisms of the Carolina Hurricanes have been that they don't have the one horse. The Austin Matthews of the world, the Connor McDavid, not Connor McDavid, but Leon Drysile. I'm looking at those guys. Matthew Kuchuk.

The big guy who you know, the scoring center, or the winger who just lights it up because they picked their places. Rod Brind'Amour called them out during the Canadian trip. Said, hey, our stars aren't doing enough. I think they're doing enough. I mean, call me wrong. Call me wrong. I would say some of them are.

Some of them are. Right now, I don't think Gaspar Iacocanemi ain't doing enough. He's not. You look back at his last about 19 games, I think he has two goals. Three goals, I think, during that stretch.

You're the number two center. You got an eight-year contract extension not that long ago. Where have you... I know he started off this season hot. I mean, blazing hot.

Where are you right now? Martin Neches, you're a minus 12 in terms of plus-minus rating. For those who don't know what plus-minus rating is, it's a stat in hockey and it's actually bled over into basketball in the NBA. Where if you're on the ice for an even-strength goal or a short-handed goal, you get a plus. If you're on the ice when the opposing team scores when you're even-strength or if you're on the power play, so the other team scores short-handed against you, you get a minus. He's minus 12 right now. So some of these guys, and he's getting second-line minutes. And Andrei Svechnikov missed the early part of the season because he's recovering from last year's knee injury.

Didn't start off well. Had the upper body injury. Missed a half-dozen games.

Came back. Scored a goal against Vegas. A power play goal too, but he still hasn't been there. And those three guys are actually skating on a line tonight based off their morning skate. Like three guys that are struggling right now.

Tableterra-Vine went cold for a long stretch as well. So yeah, Jarvis, Aho's getting it done, but some of these other guys just aren't. Well, is it part of that Dennis? Is it part of that puck luck?

We're here with Dennis Cox, Carolina Hurricanes Radio Network host. Is part of this just puck luck on this team? Because you look at recent games, and I'm talking about recent games specifically, this team is 17-13 and 2. If you look at the recent games and the losses, they're all one-goal losses. Or overtime or shootout losses. If you flip those on their head and you get dubs, you're talking about 21 wins and only single-digit losses to where you're nearly on par to where you were last year. So is part of this just puck luck for these guys that aren't performing?

Or are they just going cold at the wrong times? I think it's puck luck maybe in some situations, but when it's consistently happening, now it's what you are. That's the way I view it.

If it's always happening to you, it's what you are. For example, you look at athletes that might be getting, they call it the injury-prone. It's like, whoa, that was a bad luck injury. He got rolled up on us.

Well, that stuff still continues to find them. For some reason, this team right now still can't find that way to get that one-goal win. Or they lost 2-1 on that road trip to Canada that you mentioned. Lost 2-1 that first game up against Winnipeg. Lost that one 2-1. Lost the shootout. Lost overtime. During the last 15 games, there's 6, 5, and 4. Four overtime or shootout losses. You flip two of those, you're looking at eight wins in the last 15 games.

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See Amazon.com slash Amazon Prime for details. Almost is actually probably the most dangerous place you can be as a team. It's like, ah, we're almost there. It's one goal, ah, almost there. Shoot out, ah, almost there. Almost there. You're afraid to make that big change because you feel like, ah, we're just right there.

And you're almost there. Almost is probably the most dangerous place that you can be in sports. If you're bad, you're just bad. You just gotta make changes. If you're really good, you keep the engine rolling.

But when you're almost there, it's actually probably more of a dangerous spot that you can be. Because you look at those last 15 games that I mentioned, where they only have six wins. They've scored 47 goals and they've given up 45.

So you're almost there in a lot of games, but yet you're still not winning them. 500. Dennis Cox here, host on the Carolina Hurricanes Radio Network. You can listen to him tonight, wherever you happen to catch the network for tonight's game between the Canes and Nashville playing on the road, back to backs, going into tomorrow night's game back in Raleigh at the PNC Center against Montreal. I was at the game against the Islanders on Saturday in the stands. Wanted to take it in, breathe it in as a fan. There were a lot of murmurs around me and some general frustration.

And this isn't just me speaking because I think if I had put up my phone or had recorded it, you would have heard a lot of things that wouldn't be airable. But there were some moments from some fans that were having a very lively discussion about where Martine Neches fits on this team. How does he fit on this team within the Rod Brind'Amour system today? Is he fixable?

The better question is, is there something that actually needs to be fixed? Because maybe the frustration was misplaced in the fact that the team has been taking such tough losses. I think some of the criticism towards Martine Neches is warranted. And I don't know if he fits in Rod's system because how willing is he to get into the dirty areas, especially in the playoffs.

I do it absent the last part of the season in the playoffs. Martine Neches, as skilled as he is, the guy went absent. And I don't know if he does fit the way Rod Brind'Amour wants to play because guys like Jordan Martinuk or, gosh, the perfect guy is Seth Jarvis. Seth Jarvis fits what Rob wants to do perfectly because he's willing to be physical, he's willing to go into those dirty areas, into the front of the net, and is willing to scrap. I don't see that from Martine Neches as much.

That guy gets lost at times. And there have been multiple times defensively where he's had letdowns this season and it's led to goals against. It's multiple times this season.

I can't remember who they're... I can't remember the exact game that it was, who they were playing. But Martine Neches was covering somebody in front of the net, puck goes to him, and the guy just taps it in. No tie-up, no push of the guy.

I mean, take an interference penalty to prevent a goal from going in, but he just stands next to him and lets the guy just tap the puck in. It's like, what are you doing, buddy? Like, you've been in this system for years.

This is who you are. And I think, honestly, if you want to trade a big piece in order to make a big move, I was saying trade. I didn't say trade.

I'm going there. I'm going there because you look at his age, the fact that he's still in his mid-20s, he's got a ton of skill, but he doesn't fit what you're doing and what you're trying to do. And he has an expiring contract, but he's a restricted free agent. You can get a big-time return from him.

With the moment that we have left here, Dennis Cox joining us, host on the Carolina Hurricanes Radio Network, Cain's taking on Nashville tonight. In a sentence, how do we fix Aunty Ronta to where he can become beneficial to this team in the crease again? Roll the clock back three years.

There's no saving Aunty Ronta. It's all between the years. It really is. It's amazing how confidence in sports can go in the matter of a moment, and it takes forever to get it back. It's all between the years for that guy right now. Well, Pyotr Kachatkov can get the start tonight.

Most likely, Ronta will go at home against Montreal on Thursday night. Okay, round two. Name something that's not boring. Laundry?

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