On Monday night, the Carolina Hurricanes came within five minutes and 11 seconds of the second-longest penalty-killing streak in the NHL since 1987.
A Toronto goal with six seconds left on a Tim Gleason holding penalty ended a streak of 29 days and 875:48 of ice time—13 full games—since the 'Canes had last allowed a power-play goal, killing 36 consecutive opponent opportunities over that time span. They fell just short of tying the 2012 St. Louis Blues for the second-longest streak since '87.
Carolina still killed three of four Maple Leafs power plays in Monday's 4-1 win to remain fourth in the league with an 87.0 percent kill rate.
It's a special teams proficiency not seen in Raleigh for years and a satisfying bright spot in Bill Peters' debut season as head coach.
Peters preached the dire need for special teams improvement after his introduction last summer, and his promises were not without reason: The Hurricanes' power play hadn't ranked higher than 18th in the NHL since 2007-08, and the penalty kill hadn't ranked higher than 17th since 2006-07.
Along with current a ...
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Article written by Mark Jones
Bill Peters Delivering on Special Teams Promise for Carolina Hurricanes
January 19th, 2015 by Mark Jones Leave a reply »
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