Hurricanes look a class above the Canadiens

The Carolina Hurricanes needed overtime to defeat the Montreal Canadiens in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final Monday night, thanks to an Andrei Svechnikov goal midway through the extra frame.

Despite the bonus hockey played, it was clear for those watching the Hurricanes dominated the Canadiens from the get-go. Carolina outshot Montreal 40-13, including a 13-2 deficit between the third period and overtime. The 5-on-5 expected goals were 3.13 to 1.34 in favor of the Hurricanes, and Carolina took the even-strength Corsi battle at nearly 63% to the Habs’ 37%.

On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discuss the Canadiens’ Game 3 loss and how much of a better team Carolina looked.

Tyler Yaremchuk: The one area you could have exploited in this series if you were the Canadiens is between the pipes. Freddie Andersen is a guy who has his Conference Final demons, and with his health and age, there was a world where he crumbles and you force Carolina into a goalie decision. But you’re not doing it when I look at the 5-on-5 numbers, and Montreal has 15 shots in Game 1, 12 shots in Game 2 and 11 in Game 3.

I come out of Game 3 and get the sentiment where Mike Matheson is coming from when he says, “Hey it’s overtime, it’s two games and if one of them goes the other way, we’re up 2-1 in this series, so there’s no reason to panic.” I get where he’s coming from, but I look at the way these games have been going, and it’s really hard to envision a scenario where Montreal wins three of the next four games.

I watched that game on Monday and thought, “Carolina is just a class above them.” I thought this would be a deep series, and maybe it goes to six, but Carolina feels so in control and it’s hard to imagine a world where they lose two of the next four.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…