Andrei Svechnikov’s first goal lifts Carolina Hurricanes to comeback win over Columbus

The Carolina Hurricanes have played the first 20 games of the regular season. So, what do we know?

We know the record: The Hurricanes are 12-8-0 after a 3-2 comeback win Sunday over the Columbus Blue Jackets at PNC Arena.

Andrei Svechnikov’s first goal of the season, with 1:55 left in regulation, gave the Canes the lead as the arena rumbled, 18,700 fans celebrating en masse along with the popular power forward. It was the first goal since March 9 for a player who tore an ACL two days later, missing the playoffs and the first eight games this season.

“I knew it was going to come. It was just about the time,” Svechnikov said. “It was the right time and the right moment and a huge win for us.”

The Canes’ comeback Sunday was terrific — three goals in the last 10 minutes. Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s score from the slot made it 2-1, and Brady Skjei then tied it with 3:09 left as Svechnikov assisted.

Kirill Marchenko’s score 13 seconds into the third, on a deflected shot off Skjei’s stick, was the game’s first goal. Johnny Gaudreau added a second for a 2-0 lead, but the Canes, who did not have a penalty in the game, rallied against goalie Elvis Merzlikins, so solid the first 50 minutes.

The Canes are not leading the Metropolitan Division, which they’ve won the past two seasons. They also played 11 of the first 15 games on the road, never ideal.

“I think the record is not as good as it should be. I don’t like that,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said before Sunday’s game. “I also know we need to be way better. The fact we’re where we’re at, record-wise, in the middle of the pack, considering what’s going on, I think is pretty good.”

Here’s a 20-game look at the Canes at the first quarter pole:

The 82-game chore

Veteran teams accustomed to making the Stanley Cup playoffs often have to fight something of a malaise. Mainly, that the regular season is not a necessary 82-game chore to get to the “fun” games.

Brind’Amour has deflected some questions about this year’s spotty start but did go into more depth before a recent win at home over the Edmonton Oilers.

“The older you get as a group, it becomes a little more challenging,” he said. “Everybody understands the end of the year is where you want to be. But you’ve got to remember, the hardest part of the year is this part (regular season). It’s getting to that part and you can’t just fast-forward there, even though you all want to.

“They all know that’s the fun time. But there’s a race that’s going on that you have to win before you get there and that’s the whole key — staying with this race before you worry about that race.”

Brind’Amour said with a core of veteran guys it can be hard maintaining their game-to-game focus in the grind of the regular season.

“The young guys, they race all the time, in their heads,” he said. “But with an older team that’s what sometimes happens. But because they understand it, you can snap them back into it real quick.”

The goaltending

Anyone care to guess when goalie Frederik Andersen might be back? The Canes say he’s dealing with a blood-clotting issue and continues to be sidelined indefinitely.

Does “indefinitely” mean a month, two months, longer? When he does return, will there be any travel restrictions concerning plane flights?

Brind’Amour said he did not have a timetable for Andersen’s recovery. Off-ice workouts? Brind’Amour said they have been “very light.”

The Canes apparently will keep riding Antti Raanta and Kochetkov, although Brind’Amour said there had been “ongoing discussions” about goaltending help.

Kochetkov looked sharp Sunday, making a diving poke check to deny Blue Jackets forward Justin Danforth in the second period of a still scoreless game.

The defense

The Canes went into the season with a surplus of defensemen, still have it and are in something of a quandary. The power play is better when Tony DeAngelo plays, but the Canes have been better 5-on-5 with Jalen Chatfield in the lineup and paired with Dmitry Orlov.

Orlov seems more comfortable and effective paired with Chatfield while he continues to adjust, which has taken longer than some expected.

“It takes a little time to get used to what we’re doing,” Brind’Amour said Sunday. “It’s a little different role and that takes time, too, to figure out.”

Entering Sunday’s game, the Canes had scored 63 goals and allowed 65. Getting blasted 8-2 by Tampa Bay on Friday did not help that differential, but Carolina was allowing 3.40 goals a game.

The third period of the Tampa game was abysmal for the Canes as the Lightning peppered Raanta with five goals. Defense? Nonexistent.

That came after a first period that was almost precision perfect. Tampa Bay had one shot — from the red line — and little space to operate. In the third, Tampa had all it wanted. There have been a few too many loose defensive periods from the Canes this season, although better Sunday.

The Canes’ top four on D remains solid — Jaccob Slavin and Brent Burns, Brady Skjei and Brett Pesce. All are 29 or older (Burns 38) and have put in a lot of miles, combining for more than 3,000 regular season games (Burns with 1,353).

The offense

The Canes were averaging 3.30 goals a game entering Sunday’s game and had scored four or more in a game nine times. That’s all well and good, but they’re still waiting on some guys to help out more.

Svechnikov did not score in 11 games but now has his first. Jordan Martinook has yet to score. Captain Jordan Staal scored in the opener and has not had a goal since.

Sebastian Aho, with five goals in the 20 games, is on pace for about 20, but should heat up. His Finnish alter ego, Teuvo Teravainen, has a team-high 10 goals in the first 20 games, shooting 26% to rank fourth among NHL skaters who have played 15 or more games this season.

Turning an ‘L’ into an ‘O’

The Canes have played through four overtime games and won them all, a good thing. Three were decided in overtime — take a bow, Martin Necas — and one in a shootout with the L.A. Kings.

The rub: too many regulation losses, the dreaded “L.” The Canes are playing too many games where they have not been able to get into overtime and squeeze out a point in some of the losses.

Coaches and players always insist every point is valuable, whether earned in October or March, and that stacking them early is valuable. The Canes have left a few out there.

“It’s not going to be pretty every night but the effort and the thought process have to be there,” Aho said last week. “It’s not that we’re not working hard. But it’s about taking care of all the details and having the right thought process going into the games about how we want to play and how we want to execute things..”