Some injured Hurricanes return as Carolina fine-tunes power play on home ice

Raleigh

There was a mild celebration Monday as the Carolina Hurricanes put in a practice at the Lenovo Center.

Seth Jarvis had scored a goal. On a power play. There were cheers and raised sticks all around with a “mission accomplished” feel to it.

The Hurricanes were back on home ice after their two-week, six-game road journey. They will go into Tuesday’s home game with the Vegas Golden Knights with a 6-2-0 record, after winning four of the six away.

Defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, out three games with a lower-body injury, was back at practice and quarterbacking the first power-play unit. Also on the ice was goalie Pyotr Kochetkov, who has been dealing with a lower-body issue that kept him off the trip.

Missing from practice: defensemen Jaccob Slavin and K’Andre Miller, and forwards William Carrier and Eric Robinson. Miller could return soon, Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said, adding that Slavin is “still a little ways away,” but that Carrier and Robinson will be sidelined for a “long time.”

Having Gostisbehere back is a plus. The Canes will go into the Vegas game 32nd and last in the NHL on the power play. They’ve had 29 opportunities and scored twice, which equates to 6.9%, thus the “celebration” Monday when the puck found the net.

What needs to change?

“Goal scoring helps,” Jarvis said. “I think just being more simple. We find ourselves maybe looking for too many perfect plays. The best play sometimes is just getting it on net and then create chaos off the rebound.

“So I think it’s simplifying it. We have all the talent in the world and we all have great shots. So being able to utilize ‘em and not being afraid to let it rip.”

The Canes ended the road trip, their longest of the season, with a 3-2 loss to the Dallas Stars. The Stars scored the last two goals on the power play and were 2-for-4 for the game, while the Canes were 0-3 with the man advantage.

With the score tied 2-2 in the third, the Stars’ Nathan Bastian was called for slashing Sebastian Aho. Advantage, Carolina. But the Canes’ power play lasted 24 seconds before forward Taylor Hall crunched the Stars’ Roope Hintz into the wall for a charging penalty.

When Jarvis was called for holding Mavrik Bourque, the Stars had a 4-on-3 power play and converted 17 seconds later on a Miro Heiskanen goal.

The Canes were 0-for-4 on the power play in their first loss — 4-1 to Vegas on Oct. 20.

Asked Monday about the power-play failings, Brind’Amour said, “That’s a concern. The top guys have got to be better. At the end of the day we’ve got to find a way to connect.”

Forward Nikolaj Ehlers is one of those “top guys.” New to the Canes this season after 10 years with the Winnipeg Jets, he can offer a new perspective on the power play. He had six goals and a career-best 22 power-play points with the Jets last season, but has not scored for the Canes.

“I think at times we’ve tried too much,” Ehlers said Monday. “Sometimes, you’ve got to make it simple. You look at goals being scored now, and most of them are off shots where you get the rebound, and then you make the plays to put it into the net.

“We’re passing it around, passing it around, getting ourselves in trouble but not just getting guys to the net and shooting the puck. I think for us that’s been the biggest problem.”

For the record, Miller had a power-play goal in the season opener against New Jersey and Jarvis scored against the Anaheim Ducks in the fourth game. That’s it for the Hurricanes, who were 19th in the NHL on the power play in 2024-25 at 17.5%.

In Monday’s practice, Gostisbehere was the power-play QB with Aho, Ehlers, Jarvis and Andrei Svechnikov. The second unit had defenseman Sean Walker with Hall, Jackson Blake, Logan Stankoven and Bradly Nadeau.

“As long as we keep working for something we’ll get it right in time,” Aho said Monday. “To be honest, it hasn’t been costing us much lately, but obviously you have to get going at some point. It would be nice to help by taking the pressure off the five-on-five play a little bit

“Trust me, we’re working on it. But we’ve definitely been overthinking it a little bit. It’s a matter of finding the right spots and the right shots, but also being selfish at times and taking the shots you need to take and not always be looking to pass.”