Mikko Rantan is in the process of a slow start with the hurricanes: Is it time to panic?

Raleigh, NC – We are five games in the Mikko Rantanen era with Carolina Hurricanes, and panic among the fan base is already put in.

Since he was acquired on January 24 in a shocking trade that brought him and Taylor Hall to the hurricanes and sent Martin Necas, Jack Drury and Draft Picks, Rantan has a goal and an assist in six matches and he has not been able to pull Carolina’s power play out of its funk.

Is Rantan a bad fit? Does Coach Rod Brind’Amours System talented players? Would something solve the hurricanes’ ailing power play? Did Rantan Nathan Mackinnon’s Coattails in Colorado?

Let’s dive in.

Rantan in red

In six games since trade, the hurricanes are 2-3-1 with 12 goals (2.00 per match) for and 14 against (2.33). Before the agreement, Carolina was an average of 3.37 goals per year. Fight and allowed 2.76.

Since trade, Carolina’s Power of Power is 0 for 12 (currently 19.6 percent for the season), and the hurricanes are an average of 29.3 shots on target compared to 32.1 before the acquisition of the Rantan and Hall.

Let’s see a touch deeper.

The line of Sebastian Aho Centering Rantan and Rookie Jackson Blake Outscorated opponents 2-1 at five-on-five in the first five games. These numbers are not “dominant first line-esque”, but the details tell another story.

The trio had 66.04 percent of the shooting trials on five-to-five, the outshot opposition 26-14 and outchance them 33-13 (including 13-8 in chances with high-dinger).

On Thursday in the Minnesota, Brind’amor juggled the lines, and the Rantan played primarily with Aho and Seth Jarvis. The line ended the game with five-to-five advantages in shot attempts (17-8), shots on target (7-4) and scored chances 7-3), and trio 1). They scored neither nor allowed a goal.

In the six matches since the trade, the Rantan’s 21 shots at the goal are most of any Hurricanes player, and 15 came at five to five. His five-to-five shooting percentage is 6.7 percent compared to 13.38 percent over his 10 seasons with avalanche. The Rantan has also hit the position twice, and the cross bar once in six games with Carolina, and a Blake-Power-Play goal against Winnipeg on Tuesday was overturned by the review when it was decided that the Rantan had mixed with jet’s goalkeeper Eric Comrie.

Looking back

The hurricanes also made a large mid -season addition last year, which traded for Jake Guentzel at the trade deadline. Guentzel’s time in Carolina Borset from the team’s inability to sign him-considered widely as a success.

In 17 games in regular season with Carolina, Guentzel finished with eight goals and 25 points. At five-to-five before the playoffs, Guentzel had three goals and 10 points, plus he had a goal and nine points on Power Play. Half of his eight goals in the season with the hurricanes were empty networks.

At five-to-five, Guentzel’s shooting percentage was 7.69 percent-it was 13.84 percent in eight seasons in Pittsburgh and are 13.33 this season with Tampa Bay.

Guentzel’s power-playing tracks with Carolina meanwhile seems unsustainable in afterwards.

In Guentzel’s 17 matches of the season, Carolina was 15 of 52 (28.8 percent) and the team was 26.9 percent for the entire season. While these numbers do not appear to be out, this one does: he was on the ice in 17.4 power-play targets per day. 60 minutes, more than twice the 7.7 he had with Penguins during his career and still well over 10.3 HE has with Tampa Bay through 51 games this season.

Let’s also look at Guentzel’s first six games with the hurricanes.

Despite the trade that was made on March 7, Guentzel first debuted on March 12 due to an injury. Guentzel certainly gave it more time to be settled – personally and professionally – than the Rantan had, even though he also had rust to beat.

Guentzel had two goals and eight points in his first six games with Carolina, with one goal and five points that came on five-to-five. He had 18 shots on targets, with 13 coming in five to five.

Guentzel did not play exclusively with a line when he first joined the hurricanes, instead of beating Necas and Evgeny Kuznetsov his first 2 1/2 games before moving to a line with Aho and Jarvis.

Overall, when Guentzel was on the ice in his first six matches, Hans Corsi was 58.52 and Carolina overcended opponents 54-40 and outchant them 51-30, including 18-9 in High Danks.

Carolina’s violation clicked before Guentzel entered the lineup, scored at least three goals and average 4.17 goals in the five games before, and it continued after the 1-0 loss to Rangers in his debut. The hurricanes scored 29 goals in their next six games (4.83) and average 3.71 per year. Fight during Guentzel’s regular seasonal matches with Carolina.

Hurricanes’ Power Play was also 4 for 17 in Guentzel’s first six games with the team, though it is worth noting that it did not score on the first seven chances. The team was 5-0-1 in these games.

Others forward -looking forward by the hurricanes during the season in the Brind’Amour era had mixed start to their office periods in Carolina.

Vincent Trocheck, which was traded until the deadline 2020, played seven games with the hurricanes registration of a goal and an assist, neither at the five-to-five-five league was shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. He was on the ice for only a five-to-five goal and six against, and underlying numbers skewed in favor of the opponents in these games.

Max Domi, acquired at the deadline of 2022 in a three-team trade, had a better start with Carolina. In his first six games after being shopped, he had three assists (all at five-to-five), his on-ice five-to-five target differential was 4-1 and his underlying number were good but not large. He finished the normal season with two goals and seven points in 19 games, although his term of office is likely to be remembered for his two-goal, one-assisted game 7 win against Bruins in the first round.

However, neither trocheck nor Domi bring the pedigree to the Rantan nor Guentzel.

Ride shotgun to nate

There doesn’t deny that someone who plays with Mackinnon will benefit from it, and the Rantan did it determine. With an assist from the Natural State trick, here’s a look.

Since the start of the season 2022-23 at five to five together, Rantan and Mackinnon had a 56.78 Corsi for percentage, 55.22 percent expected target percentage, 55.89 shots for percentage and 59.55 targets for percentage, and they Outchanced Modonents 59.11 percent of the time and 53.77 in options for high colors.

Rantan’s number of dip without Mackinnon: 45.92 percent Corsi, 45.78 percent expected target, 46.90 shots for percentage, 45.92 dimensions for percentage, 49.01 percent scoring options and 43.58 percent high-dancers chances. Mackinnon’s numbers, meanwhile, remained about the same.

It has not always been true. From 2019-20 to 2021-22, Rantan’s underlying number was better without Mackinnon than Mackinnons was without Rantan-beautiful both were still best when they were together.

I suppose you could say that the acting of Rantan has dipped the last two-Plus seasons, but it’s hard to come up with that argument as he had 273 all-situation points in 211 games. The next nearest avalanche forward behind Mackinnon (331 points in 208 games) is Valeri Nichushkin with 117 in 128 games.

The Rantan’s 67 five-to-five assists during this time are the same as the Artturi Lehknonen, the No. 3 front, had in points. The Rantan also added 66 goals, only five fewer than Mackinnon.

What we’ve learned

Obviously, things have not gone well for the hurricanes since the trade. The team has struggled to score, Power Play has been not -existing, and the Rantan has been unable to produce on the score.

Is there cause for concern? Sure-carolina not only traded with important pieces in Necas and Drury to land the Rantan and Hall, but there are no insurance policies that will not sign after this season, especially if things do not turn around.

Here it is: they should. Like any team during an 82-match season, the hurricanes are in a corner now, and the stick is pressed harder and harder with every game passing low scoring games. But you would be hard pressed to find a team that has not scored one or fewer goals in consecutive matches this season.

The top-scored jets have twice, just as Lightning-they are third in goal per year. Match, but had three straight matches in January with only one goal. The capitals, number two in the scoring, have avoided it, but the high -flying oilers have been blank four times and Panthers were shut out in consecutive matches two different times.

The hurricanes have not had consecutive matches like this all season so far, and the team is still in the top 10 in the NHL in the scoring. The same can be said for the Rantan, who does not continue to convert to half of the rate he has before.

Power Play, on the other hand, has fallen at hard times after an early hot start, and it got no help on Tuesday when the aforementioned Blake goal was taken out of the board. The team undoubtedly hopes that when the Rantan finds his foot, he will also increase the ailing power play.

Power Play also needs more from quarterback of the upper device. Shayne Gostisians were elite at the beginning of the year with 17 power-play points in the first 27 games of the season. Since then he had a power-play point on December 17, was drying the next four games, was injured and missed eight games, and he has zero power-play points and two all situations assists in dozen games since he returned.

Brent Burns moved to the No. 1 device two games ago, but he has only one power-play point this season, albeit in more than one minute less ice age per day. Match than last season.

Carolina has another game-Saturday at home against Utah-Turn on the 12-day break around 4 Nations Face-off. It can be an opportunity for Aho and Rantanen – alternative captains for Team Finland – to continue working on their chemistry.

It can also be a long time to consider whether the hurricanes were doing the right step at all.

(Photo by Mikko Rantanen: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)