Five takeaways from the Carolina Hurricanes’ 5-4 win Saturday over the Los Angeles Kings, their eighth road win of the season:
— Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour had a blunt assessment: “At the end of the day it was a bad game for us. Really bad. We’re fortunate to get that one.” Is that blunt enough?
Goaltender Frederik Andersen won his 11th game with a season-high 39 saves, and Sebastian Aho and Derek Stepan each had a goal and assist for the Canes (14-2-0). Rookie Seth Jarvis scored again and goal by Martin Necas with 34 seconds left in the second period gave the Canes the 5-4 lead.
But Andersen had to stop 20 shots in the third period, with the Kings sending a flurry of shots his way after pulling goalie Cal Petersen for a sixth attacker in the final two minutes of regulation.
“He had a great third,” Brind’Amour said. “That was the difference. He held us in. We were doing nothing, just surviving.”
— Jarvis should be playing his 10th NHL game Monday at San Jose. And his 11th on Wednesday at Seattle. And his 12th ...
Any guesswork is over now. No way the Canes will send the forward back to junior hockey. Jarvis, who has scored in the past three games, will soon be earning his NHL salary from the first year of his entry-level contract.
“They haven’t talked to me about it but it’s clear what’s going to happen,” Brind’Amour said. “I could have told you that eight, nine games ago. I guess they love the drama.”
— The Canes had some loose, disjointed play in the defensive zone Saturday and often struggled to keep up with the Kings’ speedy transition game. But their best D-zone play came a man down, on the penalty kill. And from the man in net, Andersen.
“During the season you’re going to have games like this where you don’t have your A stuff, but Freddie was able to bail us out and that’s what good teams do,” Stepan said. “He stood tall and there’s the difference.”
Brind’Amour’s mantra is that special teams decide game. The Kings scored shorthanded Saturday, thus had the special-teams edge, but the Canes’ penalty killers did their job as the Kings were 0-4 on the power play.
— Brind’Amour decided to make Steven Lorentz the forward scratch Saturday and get Stepan back in the lineup on the fourth line. But Brind’Amour also kept Jesperi Kotkaniemi at center on the line, using Stepan on the wing. Good coaching decision. Stepan and Kotkaniemi both scored. Stepan had a shot go off a skate and Kotkaniemi scored off a quick backhander as Stepan hopped out of the way.
Brind’Amour said he is not fully committed to keeping Kotkaniemi at center, but added it appears to be helping his adjustment to Brind’Amour’s system. Kotkaniemi was used mostly at center with Montreal but was on the wing with the Canes until the past few games.
— Remember when Andrei Svechnikov was scoring seemingly every game in October? The power forward, new contract in hand, began the season with seven goals in his first seven games and had many guessing how many he could score in an 82-game season.
But the Kings game marked the ninth straight game without a goal for Svechnikov. Rough game for No. 37. Had two penalties and it was his weak power-play pass that was picked off and converted into a short-handed score by the Kings’ Adrian Kempe in the second.
Svechnikov has said he wants to be more consistent this season and the Canes need him to be. One thing about it: he’ll work at it.
