From Road Warriors To Roadkill

There's a saying in the NBA that goes something like "No playoff series truly begins until the road team wins a game", and it appears that the Carolina Hurricanes are testing that theory entirely as they went into Madison Square Garden looking to win their first road game of the playoffs, but will head back to Raleigh, North Carolina tied 3-3 in their series against the New York Rangers. It's hard to explain Carolina's inability to win anywhere by PNC Arena this spring, but tonight's loss was the sixth-straight playoff road game that they lost in this postseason, and one has to believe that if the Hurricanes want to play in the Stanley Cup Final, they'll need to figure out their woes on the road.

What makes this dubious record where the Hurricanes became the first team in NHL history to start a postseason 0-6 on the road hard to fathom is that the Hurricanes were tied for the most road wins in the regular season this year with 25 wins away from PNC Arena. 20 of 24 of those wins came in regulation time while another three were won in overtime, so it's not like the Hurricanes struggled on the road this season whatsoever.

Their road goal differential was +29 and they scored 3.46 goals-per-game on the road while giving up 2.76 goals-per-game, so they were playing quite well when in white. Sebastian Aho was the most lethal Hurricane away from Raleigh with 23 goals and 38 points including 15 even-strength goals and 26 even-strength points. Five more players were in double-digits in goals, so it appears that Carolina was set and ready for winning on the road in the playoffs.

Where Hurricanes struggled, though, was in the crease as Fredrik Andersen was the guy who did the most damage while wearing white. Andersen was 17-8-1 away from PNC Arena while Antti Raanta was just 5-3-3 away from Raleigh. Combined with Pyotr Kochetkov and Jack LaFontaine, Carolina goaltenders not named Andersen were 8-4-3 outside of North Carolina.

As it stands, Raanta is now 0-5-0 while Kochetkov is 0-1-0, and their stats have exploded in the wrong direction. Raanta went from a 2.87 GAA and a .900 save percentage in the regular season to a 3.96 GAA and an .872 save percentage in the playoffs. Not all of those numbers can be placed squarely on Raanta's shoulders as his defence has to help him out, but it seems like everyone on the Hurricanes' roster has forgotten how to play hockey while wearing their white jerseys.

Jordan Staal leads all Hurricanes in scoring on the road with one goal and two assists. Aho, who led the team in regular-season road goals, has just two assists. Jesper Fast, who was one of the players with a double-digit road goals total, has yet to record a point. The team has scored just one power-play goal on the road in the playoffs - a 4.2% conversion rate compared to their 19.6% success rate in the regular season. If it can go wrong for the Hurricanes on the road, it seemingly has and is continuing after tonight's 5-2 setback to the Rangers.

Game Seven will be played on Monday at PNC Arena in Raleigh where the Hurricanes are 7-0, so they need this playoff trend to continue for at least one more game. If that's not a trend they want to lean on, perhaps they can lean on history as Carolina has never lost a Game Seven at home and have won six-straight Game Seven games, and its last Game Seven loss came three decades ago while they were still the Whalers. The Hurricanes have also never lost a series after leading 3-2 in the series, going 9-0 in those series.

The only thing they need to remember is that the Rangers are 7-1 in their last eight Game Seven games, and it's been 13 years since the Rangers dropped a Game Seven on the road. That loss was a first-round seven-game series against the Washington Capitals in which Sergei Fedorov scored the game-winner in a 2-1 Game Seven victory after overcoming a 3-1 series deficit. Needless to say, that's not the story being written here.

If you're a Winnipeg Jets fan, you may be cheering for the Rangers on Monday as a Rangers win will give the Jets a second first-round pick in the NHL Entry Draft this summer thanks to the conditional second-round pick the Jets received for Andrew Copp. The condition on that pickstates that the second-round pick upgrades to a firsr-round pick if Rangers win two playoff rounds and Copp plays 50% of those games. Copp, as we know, has played in more than 50% of the games as he's dressed for every playoff game, so Jets fans might be cheering for the Rangers on Monday night.

Of course, maybe you're of the mind that all the numbers go out the window in a Game Seven. It's all about winning - winning each period, winning each shift, winning every puck battle, winning every face-off. Stats means nothing in a one-game, winner-takes-all contest unless we're talking about the score, so score more than your opponent and you'll be fine. The rest will take care of itself, right?

There's no Mr. Game Seven in Justin Williams on the Hurricanes roster this year. There's no Stéphane Matteau on the Rangers rosterm for an overtime wraparound. We may see a new hero emerge in Game Seven this year, but we shouldn't forget that Max Domi and Artemi Panarin both have Game Seven game-winning goals already in these playoffs. Perhaps these two teams will look to them for a clutch goal to move them to the Eastern Conference Final!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!