Hurricanes make accidental history when 67 shots aren’t enough against the Predators
Allan Bester is now 58 years old. He finished up his hockey career some 25 years ago with the Orlando Solar Bears of the International Hockey League, where his general manager was one Don Waddell.
Waddell, on Wednesday night, was seen striding grimly through the Carolina Hurricanes’ locker room at PNC Arena, where moments earlier on the ice, Bester had been wiped from the pages of that franchise’s record book.
That’s how deep into the historical record this one went, a hockey game so outlandish, a result so freakish, it was less a statistical anomaly and more the precursor to an archaeological expedition. The last time the Hurricanes took this many shots, it was against Bester, in net for the Toronto Maple Leafs on March 15, 1984, against the Hartford Whalers.
The Whalers won that night, scoring five goals on 65 shots for a 5-3 win. Later, as you may have heard, they packed up and moved south and won a Stanley Cup and engaged in jerkish behavior and so on.
The Hurricanes took 67 on Wednesday, against Juuse Saros and the Nashville Predators, in a 5-3 loss.
Gave up five goals on 25 shots, and lost.
Scored three goals on a franchise-record 67 shots, and lost.
And hey, if you think 1984 was a long time ago, Saros’ 64 saves were tied for the second-most in a regulation game in NHL history. Nobody had made 60 saves in a game in more than 30 years. Say what you want about the Hurricanes’ inability to finish their chances — oh, when has anyone ever made that complaint about them? — but this was historic stuff.
So historic, it was like an unscheduled throwback night to the first Paul Maurice era, although those teams would take four games to post this many shots. Great zone time! Ran into a hot goalie!
“Listen, we played a good game,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “I’m not going to put any negative on this. You put up 70 shots, you’ve got to win the game. Now, we didn’t. You’ve got to bury those. What you’ve got to do is give credit where credit’s due. That guy played as good a game in the net as you’re ever going to see.”
It got comical by the end. Andrei Svechnikov, newly anointed All-Star, tried his lacrosse move. He had eight shots and four high-danger chances all by himself. And he had a point-blank look at Saros in front in the final minutes. Saros somehow got a piece of it.
“I kind of shot it and he saved it,” Svechnikov said. “He was unbelievable tonight.”
There’s no language barrier or lack of imagination there. It was such an obvious chance, Svechnikov was basically out of words to describe something so simple.
Still, three goals has been enough for the Hurricanes lately. Pyotr Kotchetkov wasn’t great, but he wasn’t terrible either. It took a team effort to lose this one. They lost track of red-hot Filip Forsberg on the power play. Got crossed up defending a faceoff. Three guys all thought the other two had the guy at the post, and Cody Glass may never be that open again. Throw in a tipped goal and an empty-netter, and that’s five.
“We obviously played a good game,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. “We had the puck most of the game. It is what it is. We’ve got to keep creating that, try and create as much offense as we can, and keep the puck out of our net.”
Not great. But the Hurricanes had the chances to score 15. It was only the fourth time in NHL history that a team had six or more players take six or more shots and the first time since 1981. Only Jesperi Kotkaniemi failed to record a shot on goal, and even he was credited with three attempts blocked.
“That’s just how it goes sometimes,” Brind’Amour said. “Again, that’s a tough loss because you should win that game. But I think the lesson is we took a couple breathers there, where we just didn’t quite bear down and boom, there’s the game. That’s hockey sometimes.”
Sometimes.
But not like this, not very often. Not in decades. While the Predators will probably hang a banner back in Nashville — 64 saves! — Saros will be the age Bester is now in 2054. Bester occupied his little niche of the Hurricanes record book for almost 40 years, long enough for his minor-league general manager to become general manager of the franchise that once peppered him with 65 shots and, decades later, found a way to take 67 and lose.
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This story was originally published January 6, 2023 at 6:30 AM with the headline "Hurricanes make accidental history when 67 shots aren’t enough against the Predators."
