Recap for Hurricanes 4-3 loss to Flyers
A regular problem for the 2016-17 reared its ugly head again on Sunday and fairly quickly turned a 3-2 Hurricanes lead into a 4-3 loss. The game marked the fourth time in only 8 games that the Hurricanes scored 3 or more goals but still lost. The primary culprit was a familiar one. With a lead, the Hurricanes lack of attention to detail cracked the door open for the Flyers who then burst through it to claim a win.
Playing a Flyers’ team that played and traveled the night before, the Hurricanes were the better team early. Five minutes into the game, the Hurricanes had a 4-1 advantage in terms of shots on goal and had the better of the play. But Michael Neuvirth was good early, and the Flyers seemed to find their skating legs at that point and were actually the better team through the rest of the first period. The Flyers’ Shayne Ghostisbehere scored a power play marker that seemed to deflect off of Brett Pesce and past Cam Ward late in the first period to get the Flyers on the scoreboard first. Justin Faulk answered with a wrist shot from the point through a Lee Stempniak screen early in the second period to knot the game at 1-1. Radko Gudas then scored from the blue line at the wall on a fairly harmless looking shot that found traffice and a place in the net behind Cam Ward. The Hurricanes struck back with goals by Jeff Skinner (surprise, surprise) and Viktor Stalberg finishing the second of 2 breakaways that he earned with his speed on Sunday.
Stalberg’s goal boosted the Hurricanes to a 3-2 advantage at roughly the midway point of the game and unfortunately set the stage for another series of mistakes to cost the Hurricanes a winnable game. First, a relatively harmless neutral zone turnover by Sebastian Aho escalated quickly when Ron Hainsey did not take away the passing lane to the front of the net on a Flyers’ player in the corner and Justin Faulk got to the front of the net but failed to find Claude Giroux who received a pass right between the face-off circles and beat Ward from in close. Another series of errors gifted the Flyers a shorthanded game-winning goal in the third period. Victor Rask again made a fairly harmless turnover in the offensive zone but did a decent job slowing down and tying up the Flyers player in the neutral zone. Noah Hanifin then gets mesmerized by the play watching Rask do a pretty good job defending the player with the puck as he drifts over to the boards putting him out of position when the puck suddenly is won and passed across to a streaking Brandon Manning who beat Ward off the rush 1-on-none. And with a 1-goal lead in the third period, the other players on the ice need to have significantly more urgency to get back on defense to help out just in case it is needed.
After a feel good win in Friday’s home opener, Sunday was a return to the struggles from the 6-game road trip.
‘What I’m watching’ review
You can read the full game preview here if you missed it and care to read it for reference.
1) Same brand of hockey as Friday
I would not put the Hurricanes breakdowns on Sunday into the same category as a couple of the road debacles. The size and volume of the mistakes was actually less, but the result was the same. The team’s attention to detail needs to be better with a lead in a game like this.
2) Cam Ward
While I do not think it is fair to hang Sunday’s loss solely on Ward, I also think it could be fair to expect another key save or 2 which in the NHL is the difference between 2, 3 or 4 goals against. Neuvirth was better, and Ward was not great.
3) The Skinner surge
Jeff Skinner continued his scoring ways notching another goal and also an assist. He continues to be the team’s best player and do all he can to lift it up.
4) Justin Faulk
Overall, I thought Faulk’s game was fine and the assertiveness from his game on Friday carried over. And he netted a goal. So on the whole, I would say it was a solid game for Faulk. But the play that saw him defending the front of the net but not finding Claude Giroux or the passing lane to him for the tying goal is what separates good defensemen from elite top pairing shutdown defensemen. I still like the general direction of Faulk’s game.
After a solid 60-minute effort in Friday’s home opening win, Sunday’s loss to the Flyers was a regression back to some of the issues from the road trip. Was it just part of the inevitable roller coaster road of a long NHL season? Or as a it a sign inconsistency is an Achilles’ heel for this team. Tuesday’s road match up with the Senators in Ottawa is the next chance to track the story line.
Go Canes!
Matt don’t watch the tape. It will death by a thousand cuts. Classic Cam Ward. Fabulous one day, mediocre the next. You’ve seen this movie before, we will give you the day off on this one . You deserve it.
Pitiful performance all around with exception of Skinner, Aho, and Staal. Defensemen did not skate. They got the puck on their stick and either stood there looking to pass it up the ice or they just threw it away to no one in particular. Ward had a classic Ward game. A couple of freebees and no really significant stops. This game reminded me of the Muller days. I was disappointed that after the first period the coaching staff seemed to do nothing to get the players to skate the puck up the ice. Terrible hockey. The type of game that insures any fan attending for the first time won’t return.
And……only a little over 10,000 people were there to witness the sloppiness. 5:00 PM Sunday games…..who’s idea was that? Flyers players mentioned it during the post-game that it was tough after playing Pittsburgh in Philly the night before, to come to an empty arena with no energy and get up for the game. Not a great game by either team and I was shocked it didn’t go into OT or shootout, it sure felt like one of those duds.
I would not blame that loss on Cam. I believe three of those goals were deflected by us and another was point blank range. Poor gap control and unforced turnovers is what killed us. plus how do you not pick up Claude in the slot (Faulk). What shocks me the most is just how far Faulk’s defense play has fallen. He is no longer our best defenseman. we had really poor puck protection and just poor passing in general. Hanifin is suppose to have great skating ability. too bad he only shows it once a game. I want to see him flying around all game! Where is the energy!!!
It was a team loss for sure and there is plenty of blame to go around. But when your goaltender has a 85% save percentage, and every goal was last touched by the goaltender before it entered the goal it is hard not to include the goaltender in the placement of blame. Had the Flyers lost, Neuwirth would have clearly been the goat. But he didn’t have to be good, just a little better than Cam. And he was.
I agree with Surgalt that you shouldn’t bother watching the tape. From your “What I’m Watching” column, items 1, 2 and 4 were complete failures. Item 3 was the lone bright spot, but goal scoring doesn’t mean much if the team defense and goaltending is giving up more goals than the team can score.
I agree the should have been a 7:00 start. Funny, talk about not full, Panthers stadium was half empty. Flyers players need to shut their holes about start times, attendance or atmosphere.
The Phil teams, all of them are in the top 5 most pathetic of all time.
Losers for years, have not won anything in decades (except Phillies and they do not count, baseball is so boring).
Pittsburgh and Flyers is a one sided rivalry. Flyers the losers for decades and Pens keep winning (when Flyers best them, that is their Stanley Cup each year).
Flyers should keep comments to themselves, we have a Cup in past ten years, they have won nothing (over 40 years of pathetic, chasing Cubs irrelevance).
After watching european hockey for 30 years I may look things in a different way but in my opinion the first priority for the Canes should be finding another line that could score 5 on 5.
The reason why only the first line is working is that it is the only line where all three forwards can keep the play alive in the offensive zone. To be able to do that you should either have enough muscles (Staal) or an excellent hockey IQ.
Nordström – not good enough
Di Giuseppe – not quite good enough
In my opinion the second line should be Lindholm-Staal-TT/Aho. Those are the four guys who I think can create scoring chances and not give the puck away in the offensive zone. TT and Aho may not work on the same line so that is why I would only pick one Finn. I would first try TT there, because he is more experienced and I think the Canes can expect him to be able to play in a top 6 role.
I understand that Staal is the best center for shutting down the best lines of the opponents but in this team he needs to play in an offensive role, because there is no-one else good enough to play the center on the second scoring line. The Canes can’t afford to sacrifice Staal’s offensive ability by playing him with Nordström.
For the third line that would leave Nordström, Di Giuseppe, Aho and Stalberg. Who would play the center? I think you can create a decent 3rd line from those four.
Hi Finnish…Thank you for chiming in and joining the conversation.