Kochetkov’s bad day costs Hurricanes a point, but goaltending is a big-picture concern

To listen to Rod Brind’Amour, you’d think the Carolina Hurricanes won by six. And he wasn’t wrong. The Hurricanes did just about everything right, outshooting the New York Islanders by a three-to-one margin, dominating play, whizzing up and down the ice.

“I loved the way we played,” Brind’Amour said. “Every part of that game was solid. Everybody was solid, did their jobs. Tons of scoring opportunities. Three or four goalposts. And still scored four. We limited what they were doing. That’s the beauty of it.”

“Everybody” is doing a herculean amount of work there. You can’t win in the NHL giving up five goals on 16 shots. Especially not when you score four yourself, more than enough. You just can’t. The math just doesn’t work.

After the Hurricanes needed a goal with 2.5 seconds left to even force overtime and salvage a point in a 5-4 loss, Brind’Amour couldn’t flat-out say what everybody knew. Pyotr Kochetkov wasn’t good enough in net. Not even close. This was on him. There were others who contributed to the Hurricanes’ demise, Seth Jarvis and Jesperi Kotkaniemi foremost among them, but the Hurricanes allowed only four shot attempts in the second period — on goal, missed, blocked, whatever — and two of them went in. The Islanders pulled the trigger on shots four times in 20 minutes, and scored twice.

That just can’t happen.

Kotkaniemi let Pierre Engvall beat him off the wall and into the crease for a goal. Unacceptable. Jarvis turned the puck over twice going the wrong direction, leading to a short-handed goal and the game-winning goal. (He also took a penalty to nullify a power play.) He owned it afterward, to his credit, but those errors do happen, even on a night when the Hurricanes played as well as they did. They can’t all end up in the back of your net.

“‘Koochie’s’ been good for us lately,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. “I’m sure if you talked to him, he’d like to have a better game. There was an opportunity for us to win. The chances we gave up were bigger chances than normal. We’ve got to limit those and make sure that when he’s sitting there for that long they’re not Grade As coming at him. That’s tough for a goalie.”

Three goalies under .900

The overtime goal wasn’t terrible, and it came after a good save that kept the Hurricanes in it, but Kochetkov hedged the pass instead of challenging the shot on the short-hander and got beat on the shot, was small on two other goals and let Engvall’s shot beat him between the wickets. These were stoppable shots and the Hurricanes needed a save on one of those. Otherwise they might as well have Scott Darling flailing away and toppling over back there.

This was just one night, one very, very bad night for Kochetkov, and the Hurricanes have every long-term reason to let him play through this as they usher him along his developmental curve. He has a bright future, and he’s played well at times this season, and there will be growing pains like this. They got a point out of it, after all, even if it was really a point lost instead of a point earned.

But there’s also no question that goaltending has gone from a strength to a massive concern, both in the big picture — all three goalies have a save percentage below .900, the bare minimum standard of goaltending competency, and the advanced metrics are even worse — and game to game, where the Hurricanes never know what they’re going to get.

Kochetkov stopped 49 of 52 shots in the past two games then shrunk into the shadow of his crossbar Thursday night. Antti Raanta has looked like a world-beater some nights, not so much others. Just last weekend against Tampa Bay, Raanta gave up eight goals on 14 shots, although there were certainly some extenuating circumstances there. He’s always been better on a limited schedule; at 34, his workload needs managing.

All of this is magnified by the uncertainty surrounding Frederik Andersen, shut down while he deals with a blood-clotting disorder. Not only will it take some time to get his medications dialed in, he can’t fly or get on the ice until he does. You don’t want to be around skate blades while you’re experimenting with blood thinners. Ideally, he’s the workhorse, and the Hurricanes won five of his six starts, but his durability is always a concern.

Frederik Andersen’s absence is different. Hurricanes still know how to win without him

A new trade-deadline need?

The Hurricanes took a look at Jaroslav Halak and passed, and seem content to muddle through with Raanta and Kochetkov the way they did last year when Andersen was out. But Kochetkov went on an epic, month-long heater last winter that he hasn’t been able to replicate and Raanta’s a year older with everything that comes with that.

The longer Andersen remains out, the more unpredictable Raanta and Kochetkov continue to be, the more likely the Hurricanes are going to have to use a big chunk of their trade-deadline cap space on a goaltender, if there’s even one available worth spending it on. That wasn’t the plan coming into the season, but it may become a necessity.

Because you can’t squander goals from Jalen Chatfield and Jack Drury and a goal and assist from Staal — his first marker since the opener, newly shorn of his mop of hair — and dominate play like that and end up with only a point. Mistakes will happen, even on a night when the ice is as tilted as it was Thursday. They can’t all lead to opposing goals.

“He knows he’s got to have a couple saves,” Brind’Amour said. “That’s the difference. You can’t go through a game without giving up a couple Grade A opportunities. So we’ve just got to get a few of those (saves). And he will. He has. He did the other night. We’ve just got to get that consistency at that position and then we’re in real good shape.”

Consistency, though. If this were a one-off, an aberration, that would be one thing. But it’s been an issue all season, and now that the Hurricanes have responded to Staal’s come-to-Jesus message to get back to the game that has made them successful, going 4-1-1 in the two weeks since then, they need better from their goalies and they need it on a more regular, more predictable basis.

Because it doesn’t matter how well they play if the few mistakes they do make end up in the back of their net.

Everybody means everybody.

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