Carolina Hurricanes vs NY Rangers tonight in NY!

Okay, round two. Name something that's not boring. Laundry?

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Not really. I mean, it's a little bit tough to stick to, so. We have daily resolutions. Let's see if we can get through those. Are those daily resolutions centered around continuing to be about 42% on the power play?

Oh, yeah. Well, if we could continue that, that'd be huge. Obviously, it's probably not quite sustainable, but, you know, it's such a big part of the game. Maybe we're going to need it tonight, that's for sure. Yeah, that's what the Rangers are about. But specific to what has gone well on your power play, is there any, you know, obvious difference for you other than the puck is finding the back of the net? Um, well, I mean, listen, we made a couple subtle changes with personnel.

A couple guys, you know, switched units and made Jack, Jerry's been on it. Shazie came in on it. But really, Sesh coming back, do you tell one of your best goal scorers is not in the lineup? That's going to affect not just your 5 on 5, but it's going to affect your power play. So, having him come back has been a nice boost. But at the end of the day, really, I think it's just been, we've been getting the puck to go in, which, you know, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Yeah, it's obviously been great. The numbers don't lie, not just the last handful of games, but the last 10 games. It has been, you know, 15 power play goals, even multiple power play goals in just about all of those games. Sebastian Ajo, for the first time in seven years, maybe six years, the Carolina Hurricanes have somebody who was named first star of the week. What has his game been like other than the production lately? Yeah, that's huge.

I mean, I think, you know, it's hard to put your finger on. Is he playing that much better? I mean, I just think he's getting results. You know, I think he's always played that pretty solid game and just doesn't necessarily got rewarded. And certainly, these last few games, everything he's touching is turned to gold.

So, hopefully that continues. Maybe you should play him more. Yeah, well, I think I got him at a pretty good number.

But trust me, I get him out there every chance we can. So, you and I have talked about the SAT line, Svechnikov, Taravon, and Ajo together. And over the past years, it has not really produced.

You went to it coming out of Christmas. What have you liked about the results, at least, from whatever limited? Because there's been so much specialty play. What have you liked about their five-on-five game as a group? Well, it's been fairly solid, right? I mean, I don't know that they've produced a ton of goals. Like you said, most of it comes on the special team, the variety. But, you know, it's certainly putting those guys together. But really what's happened is we moved Garvey to play up with Giordo. And, you know, we're trying to just get a little more balance to our attack.

And, you know, I don't know that it really paid off in droves. But we're getting a different look, especially on the road where the matchups are a little tougher. It gives us a little more depth.

What do you like about SAT's fit with Martinuk and Stahl? Well, I think, you know, for one thing, playing with Marty and Giordo, they're going to get a lot of zone time. And, you know, you get a little quicker guy in there, maybe a little more touch. You know, they create a lot of chances. So you hope that, you know, maybe putting him there gets a little more, you know, a little more offense. And, you know, Garvey's been getting tons of chances.

So, you know, I think he hasn't even been rewarded for all the opportunities he's been getting. So hopefully, you know, be able to cast in a little more. Rod, Brendan Moore is joining us before the Hurricanes take on the Rangers tonight. When you put SAT there, it meant that you moved Jesper Faust out and he will not play tonight. And I thought, especially in the first two games out of the holiday, I thought you could make the argument that he was, if not your best, certainly one of your best two or three players in those two games.

That's a tough miss for you, especially in New York. Yeah, definitely. I mean, again, he's one of those guys that probably doesn't get a lot of credit. But, you know, he counted on immensely to number one either. He's with Jordan playing against the best players, kind of shut them down. And he's a big part of the penalty kill. So, yeah, he's totally missed. But, you know, that's what happens. So you got to move on.

All right. We went this far. We haven't mentioned Piotr Kicekoff. Six of his last eight starts. He's allowed two goals or fewer. You've got points.

I think it's 4-0-2 in that stretch. He has been great of late. What have you seen from him? Do you see confidence building? What has been the difference, you think, for him?

Yeah, I wish I could tell you. I mean, I think he's just, for sure, you know, he's made some great days. That's really, for me, in the games we've won or certainly, you know, played better. He's not letting any ones where you're like, oh, man, I can't go in.

So I think those are the big differences. We need just consistent play out of him. And if he's great, that's awesome. But just, you know, keep holding us in the games and giving us a chance to win. Can you gain confidence from allowing a goal?

Because I still don't understand why Toronto's second goal was, I mean, I don't, did we get a view that that showed that puck was in the net? The Pack Therapy podcast is in session. Tim Donnelly here, host of The Drive-In, your guide for Pack Therapy. Every episode is your chance to score inside information on the Pack. We set you up for Wolf Pack games all season long. And we break down the ACC competition, what to watch for as we roll towards the tournament madness. Plus, special guests to keep your Wolf Pack hope alive.

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No purchase necessary. Yeah, you know, now we're going to the review system and, you know, my thoughts there. So you're down to some guy's bias in a lot of ways, I think, in those calls.

So I don't know. Thankfully, it didn't matter. It was kind of a non, you know, at that time of the game, it makes no difference. But yeah, it took away probably a save of the year, that's for sure. It was a great save, an absolutely incredible save.

I know you gave Jacob Slavin the t-shirt. How good, people don't, people look at numbers and all that. How good has he been, especially lately?

Well, I don't know if I could say even lately. It's kind of, in general, every night he's pretty solid. And that's the, you know, mark of a great player. You know what you're getting every night.

You know, if he's not one of the better players, defenders in the league, I don't know who would be. So we know how important he is to our group and, you know, he just does it nightly. All right, before I let you go, the mission tonight against the Rangers, we know they have an elite power play. We know they have a great goaltender. What is the plan tonight?

Yeah, well, I mean, without talking about the obvious, staying out of the box would be huge. And then just try to, you know, get the game going that we play well at is, you know, put the puck in on them and stress on them and try to, you know, pressure them into making some turnovers. And obviously, you're going to have to get a lot of pucks in there to speak on. You know, like you said, he's a world-class goalie, so he's not going to give you a freebie. So we got to go earn one.

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