Hurricanes blow through Detroit in season opener

Teuvo Teravainen #86 of the Carolina Hurricanes celebrates with Nino Niederreiter #21 of the Carolina Hurricanes after he scores a goal during an NHL game against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on January 14, 2021 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Carolina Hurricanes carried plenty of patience to come into the 2021 season as winners Thursday night. Pushing well ahead on offense, the shots from their side were too much for the Red Wings, who went down with an answer losing 3-0 at Little Caesars Arena. 

Detroit came into a brand new season hoping that despite the situation the world finds themselves in, they can return to the game the team loves. For Larkin, the Red Wings 37th captain in franchise history, he begins the new chapter as leading a different lineup in the past few years. After seeing their 2019-2020 season shortened, they knew that they had to prove the rebuild made significant improvements. While fans couldn’t be in the stands, Detroit got back to business against the Carolina Hurricanes. Both teams expected to shake off the rust for 60 minutes, but couldn’t wait to get back to work on the ice. 

Detroit got moving well with the puck, as Anthony Mantha fired the puck at former Detroit goaltender Petr Mrazek. For four minutes, they had good puck possession until a turnover in the neutral zone spelled trouble. Sebastian Aho moved into the Detroit zone with Nino Niederreiter finding open ice between himself and Thomas Griess. A deke or two soon led to the puck getting into the net for the 28-year-old right-winger. 

Detroit left too much of the ice open on that play but continued to show their push to drive the offense at Carolina. Detroit managed two shots and spent time having the Hurricanes steal the puck away and go after a second on Griess. The German netminder didn’t let the lead increase against the Red Wings stopping six shots. With four minutes left, Detroit made a push with Mathias Brome in his first NHL game, getting a piece of the crossbar. 

Detroit got the defensive coverage working better in front of Griess, which brought an end to the first with the deficit short. Carolina shot a total of 12 to the Red Wing’s four. When the second stanza opened, Detroit was chasing down the Hurricanes who were covering the Detroit end, giving Griess a lot of action. At times, the Detroit defense covered up the firing lines while clearing out second chances for Carolina to fire the puck. 

The Hurricanes had their first man advantage but faced a strong Red Wings PK. Detroit got out of trouble and gave what they could at Mrazek. They caught a break at 13:34 with a penalty to Brady Skjei. It helped Detroit get more pucks to the net, but the former netminder for the home team stopped them. The Red Wings made a statement before the end of the second with Sam Gagner going at it with Carolina’s Dougie Hamilton. The 6’6 defenseman had leverage on the forward, taking him down after a few swings to one another. It didn’t help level the score for Detroit as they were outshot 12-6. 

Detroit quickly opened the third with their second power-play but Mrazek stayed tight in between the pipes, locking them out from scoring. Once back to even strength, Carolina dictated the first seven shots of the period. As they controlled the pace, Detroit chased them down, making very little impact on offensive movements. Detroit notched their first shot on goal halfway through but time worked against them with the team trailing. 

Carolina pressed forward, nearly having the second with an open window but missed their moment. Detroit was stuck in their zone fighting off the Hurricanes, having made just one shot back at the halfway mark of the period. Things got worse, as Carolina earned a power play on Dylan Larkin’s tripping penalty. They spent a lot of time looking for a shooting line but had Detroit’s PK in the way. Just when they were about to kill the penalty, they gave the Hurricanes another one with three minutes left. 

A shot from Martin Necas skipped off of Ryan Dzingel and into the net for a 2-0 stand with two and a half minutes to play. The Red Wings eyed their first loss with no chance to tie it. Andrei Svechnikov made it worse when Detroit went for the extra man and allowed him to slide one across the ice and into the empty net. Carolina had plenty to be happy about as they dictated well against Detroit outshooting them 43-13 in an impressive output.