Through nine games, the Carolina Hurricanes are 6-3. That is a perfectly find start, and the 109-point pace is easily good enough for the playoffs. And results and points in the standings trump all else. So by no means is the sky falling on the Carolina Hurricanes after nine games. But at the same time, the team has now lost three out of four with two clunkers in three tries on the West Coast. Right now, I think the team is trying to transition from just being hot to having a repeatable formula. In the early going, the Hurricanes just looked like they were better than every opponent with an ability to score in bunches and outrun some stretches of poor play.
There is nothing wrong with playing successful ‘find a way’ hockey, but in the long run having an identity, a style of play and a repeatable formula tend to have more legs. In 2018-19, that formula was a relentless forecheck that set the tone in two ways. First, hampering opponents before they could even get out of their own end significantly decreased the pressure on the defense simply by minimizing the amount of time under duress. On the offense side of the puck, the forecheck could generate quality scoring chances across all four lines and was a catalyst for balanced scoring even if maybe the Hurricanes were light on pure scorers.
Fast forward to 2019-20 and I would argue that the forecheck was not a significant factor in most of the team’s early wins. The defensemen reeling off goals and a strong power play in the early games helped the Hurricanes win more with non-forecheck-driven offense. Images from the early going were heavy on the defensemen sniping goals and the Svechnikov-Hamilton-Teravainen triangle making things happen on the power play to the tune of Erik Haula goals.
While there was changeover in personnel that could affect the team’s style of play, I think more so correcting this is just digging in and getting back to work. The Hurricanes still have 70 percent of the 2018-19 roster that very well knows the recipe for success. And because of that success lingering in the players’ very recent memory, Brind’Amour should be able to get mind share with the recent losing trend also making the players receptive to adjustments.
As fun as just scoring in bunches was, I think the next leg up for the 2019-20 Hurricanes will come from getting back to their roots establishing a consistently strong forecheck that makes the team difficult to play against in addition to cleaning up some sloppiness that has manifested itself in the Canes recent play. With five days off between games, Brind’Amour should have time to drive home the need to push with the forecheck and also work to decrease penalties and improve both special teams units.
The Holy Grail would be for the 2019-20 Hurricanes to both find a higher gear in terms of raw scoring ability and at the same time re-find the 2018-19 forecheck.
What say you Canes fans?
1) How would you rate the 2019-20 forecheck compared to the 2018-19 version? Do you think I am correct in stating that it has been much less of a factor even in the wins?
2) How significant do you think the forecheck is to the team’s success? Is it possible that simply cleaning up penalty woes, special teams and puck management is all that is needed to find the next winning run?
Go Canes!
Without a dominant forecheck, the Canes won’t make it past the 1st round. Talent and scoring can get you to the playoffs, but grit and forecheck will win you playoff rounds.
The Canes lost some key punch this offseason, but they now have that long-awaited scoring talent. The good teams will gel both styles. The Canes need to get their overwhelming forecheck back if they want to take next steps.
1) This year’s forecheck hasn’t driven a lot of scoring so far, but has been instrumental in driving possession in games such as the Tampa Bay game. Probably a matter of tweaks to transition to high danger opportunities once they get the forecheck going again. I think I commented after one of the games that it was odd to see the puck carried into the zone followed by a dump. The post-entry / post possession off-forecheck game needs a couple of tweaks. It is also possible that is something that suffers given proper positioning for the preceding situation.
A defense can’t take everything away and an offense can’t be in position for everything all at once.
2) Good questions. I am not a fan of “mistake elimination” as an objective, but rather a focus on hot reads and execution. Probably a matter of semantics.
I see “game condition” as an issue. The guys looked to be dragging in the last few games. While everyone came to camp in shape, they also needed to refill the tanks after an incredible run this spring. The bodies have to transition back to “in-season” mode. I think the same thing happened last year at this time.
The RBA system is a beautiful to watch when it is clicking, but takes perhaps a league best game conditioning.
WHich version of last year’s forecheck are we comparing – the early season?, or the post-New Years?
After last year’s 5-0-1 start (which included some high scoring games with teams not named the Isles – remember the 8-3 Rangers game?) the team started to sputter. The comments you were making then, Matt, had the team still looking for it’s identity while other teams were already settling into theirs.
Deja vu all over again?
ac correctly mentions that we have seen some games with a solid forecheck driving possession and wins. And we saw on the West Coast that if we don’t play with that forecheck – for whatever reason – we are flat.
2. We have more offensive skill this year that still is trying to gel together, so there is some validity to this thought. And we had lost some of the grit/grind from last year – that grit/grind/forecheck allowed us to play over our talent level after 1/1.
I really think it may be more a matter of finding the balance between skill and grit/grind.
I would slot the forcheck under what you have termed, attention to detail. There have been glimpses of the forcheck as in the TB game and the last two periods of the LA game. I agree that the guys are a bit comfortable and don’t feel compelled to work the system.
I think it goes much deeper than the forcheck. Guys making basic mistakes is killing the team. Cheating on defense it getting to be an issue. Some of the younger guys are missing their assignments, but I guess you have to expect that.
The bottom line is these guys have a good bit to improve upon. They may need a little losing streak for Brind’Amour to have their attention. Not having a vocal leader like Williams probably hurts a bit as well.
Here’s an attempt to put the loses on the schedule in context. The Canes started the season very busy with 6 games in 10 days. The loss to Columbus was the 6th game and the back end of a B2B. The road trip was then 3 games in 4 nights beginning with a 6 hour, 3 time zone flight. First was a win against LA, a team at the bottom of the Western Division. The next night was against a rested SJ, who had not traveled or played for 3 days. This game, with travel the night before and the second game in 2 nights on the west coast was virtually a scheduled loss. The third game was against a strong, rested and waiting Anaheim team, with a record identical to ours. Another scheduling nightmare.
The smallest sample size that reliables gives a valid indication of how good (or bad) a team is 20 games. While we had a bad road trip, American Thanksgiving is about the earliest this team can be given a “pre-mortem”. For me, being an eternal pessimist, that is hard to do. This 6 day break from Canes hockey doesn’t help me, but should be very good for the Canes, who get a valuable reset for the next stretch of games.
Very good point on the scheduling land mines that are not an excuse (every team has them) but do play a part in explaining sudden down swings sometimes.
Tampa was a juggernaut last season. Still they lost 20 (25%) of their games. You can’t win them all.
The upcoming schedule, following the break looks more favorable. The long break before playing Columbus again is beneficial, yet worrisome. Long breaks encourage rust. After that the rest of October is at a slower pace than the last 9 games. There are 3 more games in the rest of the month with one and two day breaks in between. November is busier with 16 games. But their are only 2 B2Bs with one or two day breaks between games. We will know who we are come Thanksgiving.
Surgalt. Again! When you can’t find a pithy article to link, you write one of your own.
In watching the games I thought they looked tired.
Ashevillecaniac. I found your post to be on target. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
I do disagree with one thing you said. The difference is not a matter of semantics. Your observation (hot reads and execution) is right on. Matt sees things from avoiding mistakes perspective. I have been seeing recently a player who has spent his entire NHL career trying to avoid mistakes. Now I see a baby bird trying to trust his wings. He’s taking risks and they are paying off.
Our guys are taking risks. They are facing physical teams and pushing back. Yes. We are taking penalties. But they are the results of risk taking. Not being beaten on the ice.
We don’t need to work on playing a cleaner game. (Remember the wise words from Roddy, “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying. “). We need to work on the pk.
Congratulations on your first NHL goal, Haydn. Keep up the good work.
Hey pwrless…Enough with targeting people and going out of your way to jab at people.
Disagreeing (respectfully) and debating opinions is one of the best things about Canes and Coffee. There is nothing wrong with respectfully taking the other side of a point or discussion.
But there is no place here for just starting a comment to needlessly take a shot at someone.
At whom do you think I was taking a shot? I was praising surgalt, ashevillecaniac and Haydn Fleury. I was disagreeing with you. Sorry if you took offense.
I’ll tell you what, Matt. I will leave the site. Then you won’t have to worry about me.
I think the next slate of games will reveal a lot about this season. I agree the first 9 games were a bit of a scheduling nightmare for the team, I should check the schedule to see whether we have another batch this challenging, and the team managed a 6, 3 record, I’d say they got a bit lucky, a 5, 4 is a more realistic picture of how they played, but good teams earn their bounces, and as bad as the Canes played in recent years we can definitely argue that our puck luck was not exactly overwhelming.
In what little I could see of he west coast games the team looked tired (as was I, I barely managed 20 minutes + seeing some of the lowlights).
I said in a comment before the trip that a 1, 1, 1 record + a win against Col would give the team a 7, 2 1 record for the first 10 games and that would be real good.
While no longer possible a 7, 3 record for the first 10 games is pretty awesome.
Technically the team only has to play at 2 to 3 over 500 from here on to make the playoffs.
As we all know, even playing break even hockey takes guts, talent and establishing your identity, there is no such thing as an easy win in the NHL, but this is a good position to be in as you start addressing your issues.
You might want to look up the word pithy. Then you might want to look up my history with surgalt. He submits many links to pithy articles, for which I praise him. I praise him because I believe that he deserves praise for giving us articles of substance that inform us (or, at least, me). I will miss him or her.
Please stop taking my money.
Thank you.
Pwrlss, don’t let an issue over the use of one word (pithy) cause a problem. I don’t even know what the word means, but apparently Matt has taken it to be a demeaning term. I don’t know if you intended to “take a shot at Surgalt. If you did, you shouldn’t have. If you didn’t, forget it and let’s move on to tomorrow’s topic(s). Surgalt, you, and everyone else make the site fun. Let’s not let an “oops” cause a stir. Keep writing. If you have to go easy on a word or two, so be it. Holy smokes, God only knows some of the trash, er…poor choices of words I have written probably have ad more than one reader cussing under their breath.
In the last sentence the word should be “made” not “ad”.
No it isn’t…it’s “had” and not “made” or “ad”. (And I am instructing you on the use of words.)
For this particular entry I don’t see what the problem is. I think the powerless (who is a lot more powerful than he lets on) actually made a good point and did not demean anybody on this site.
We don’t always agree but this user adds character and a different perspective to the site, which I appreciate, and though things sometimes get out of hand, as things can do when we want our guys to win but have different ideas on how to make that happen, I still think we’re all in the same boat, and that boat is sailing right now.
Let’s all try to set our differences aside and enjoy the ride.
I agree entirely with you.
Matt, are you there? You thought you knew what you were doing when you chose to publicly humiliate me. Be man enough to publicly acknowledge that you will accommodate my demand that you stop taking my money from my bank account. You are no longer welcome to it. Take one more penny, and I will consider it to be theft. Having any trouble with my words here, Matt?
Thank you very much.
Good bye, everybody.