Tweetmail No. 249: Themes, Shootouts & Reverse Retro

Hello and welcome to Tweetmail presented by Segra. This is a regular feature on Hurricanes.com in which I answer your Twitter questions, which are mostly about the Carolina Hurricanes and sometimes about travel or television or food. It's a mailbag of tweets. It's Tweetmail. Maybe you learn a little something, and maybe we have some fun, too.
We start this week with an email question, so let's get to it.

The first one: During this season, will there still be designated Pride Nights and things like that even without fans in the arena?
The second one: You mentioned that Ryan Suzuki might have the opportunity to spend some time in the AHL while waiting for the OHL season to start. However, it was my understanding that there's a CHL rule stating that their players couldn't play in the AHL until they're 20, and Suzuki doesn't turn 20 until May. If that rule does in fact exist, is there a chance the CHL/OHL might allow exceptions for this season? - Alex P.
Thank you for the email questions, Alex!
First question: Yes, the plan is to still "host" a limited number of theme nights, including Pride Night, throughout the season, even without fans in attendance. Sunday's game, for instance, is the Canes' third annual Hockey Talks night, as the team raises awareness and promotes the importance of
mental health
.
Second question: You are indeed correct that the transfer agreement between the Canadian Hockey League, which includes the OHL, QMJHL and WHL, and the National Hockey League stipulates that a player must be 20 years old (or have completed four seasons of junior hockey) before joining an NHL team's American Hockey League affiliate.
However, since the start of junior seasons have been delayed, prospects like
Ryan Suzuki
,
Jamieson Rees
and
Seth Jarvis
can compete with the Chicago Wolves until they have to report to their junior clubs. Think of it as a temporary pause on the transfer agreement.
Since the WHL has targeted Feb. 26 as its start date, Jarvis' time with the Wolves could be more limited than Suzuki's or Rees', given than the OHL's season remains up in the air.
In any case, this time in Chicago is extremely valuable experience for three of the Canes' top prospects. If they're not yet NHL-ready, jumping into game action at the next highest level is a boon to their development given that their able to compete against bigger and stronger talent.
"Any time an athlete has the opportunity to play at a level that is higher than their current club is a learning experience," Darren Yorke, now an assistant general manager for the team, told me about a month ago.
If a game is scoreless until the shootout, do both goalies get credit for a shutout? Technically, neither gave up a goal that counts on anyone's stats. - @toddamcgee
You're exactly right, Todd. The shootout is a mystical black hole of statistics. It's kind of like "Interstellar," traveling from one dimension to the next, trying to figure out when in time and space you are and which stats count where.
Games tied after regulation and overtime are officially decided in the shootout - one team and one goaltender lose, while one team and one goaltender win. Those stats count. But, goals and saves from the shootout itself have their own statistical sub-category; if Sebastian Aho scores the deciding goal in the shootout, it's not added to his goal total and doesn't count as a game-winning goal even though, well, it kind of is.
A single goal is added to the goals for (win) or the goals against (loss) column for a team in the standings, which makes sense given tiebreaker scenarios. But! The league's official goals for per game and goals against per game statistics do not include the extra shootout tallies.
To draw another parallel to the film and television medium, what happens in the shootout is kind of like what happens to the two percent of the world's population that suddenly disappeared in "The Leftovers" - something happens to the stats, just like something happened to those 140 million people, but we're just not sure what or where or why.
So, to answer your question, Todd, yes, if the score of a game is 0-0 at the end of overtime, both goaltenders are credited with a shutout, and then one of them is also credited with an overtime loss after the shootout decision.
This is a timely question, especially given the track of Thursday night's home opener. Had Jordan Staal and Martin Necas not hooked up for
a beauty of a game-winning goal
, we might have seen dueling shutouts for Petr Mrazek and Andrei Vasilevskiy with the way the two netminders were battling it out for 60-plus minutes. Then, one of them would have tacked an OTL onto their record for the season, despite also posting a shutout. Weird!
After the Golden Knights COVID coaching issues, who would the Canes use if the coaches had to quarantine? If Don Waddell was the head coach, would the assistants have to sport turtlenecks as well? - @ZachBradshaw6
Don Waddell already wears two hats as the president and general manager of the Canes. And, in the last week, he's been joking that he's now "Dr. Don" after being involved in regular conversations with team and league medical professionals. So, might as well add another title in "head coach" to his job description.
He does, after all, have previous head coaching experience in both the International Hockey League and National Hockey League. It's been a while - he last coached the Atlanta Thrashers in 2007-08 - but I would imagine it would be like riding a bike, right?
Plus, from a practical standpoint, he's among the very small group of staff that are being regularly tested and can thus be around the team, so it would make sense that he would be the EBUHC option. Mock turtlenecks optional.
Has there been confirmation that our opponents on the Reverse Retro nights will be wearing their Reverse Retro jerseys, too? - @Andy\_Elliott78
The Canes will wear their new
Reverse Retro
jerseys twice, both against
Original Six opponents
: Feb. 19 vs. Chicago and April 10 vs. Detroit. In both games, the opponents will be wearing their standard white road sweaters.
The Canes are scheduled to see opponents' Reverse Retro jerseys thrice this season, including once at home: Feb. 25 at Tampa Bay, Feb. 27 at Florida and March 4 vs. Detroit, when the Canes will wear their standard home reds.
With
CanesCast
moving to Wednesdays this season, we're moving Tweetmail to Fridays. It's like a network television schedule. Is that an outdated reference now? Am I old? Oh no.
Anyway! Join me next Friday for more questions and more answers.
If you have a question you'd like answered or you remember chasing your favorite TV show around on a network's ever-changing schedule, you can find me on Twitter at
@MSmithCanes
, or you can
drop me an email
.