As I was away for the weekend for higher priorities and just scampered back into town around 3pm before attending Sunday’s game against Anaheim, my context is admittedly not complete for Sunday’s game. But looking at that game by itself, my recap follows.
At the all-important ‘results matter’ top level, Sunday’s game was not a complete loss with an overtime loss point earned. But in terms of what was possible, Sunday’s game was a missed opportunity to earn two points on multiple levels. First, the match up that saw Anaheim play last night and then travel should have been a favorable one for the Hurricanes. Second, even after a slow start on the scoreboard, the Hurricanes had two points in hand late and could not close it out. Finally, overtime and the shootout represented a chance for redemption, and the Hurricanes actually played a phenomenal overtime, but in the end that chance was not redeemed either. I would put Sunday’s overtime loss in the ‘half empty’ category where it seems reasonable to want more.
As for the game itself, the first period had a few of the most common problems for 2017-18. The Hurricanes did okay with puck possession and decent defending in their own end in the first period, but Anaheim’s aggressive forecheck that regularly saw three players in or close to the Hurricanes defensive zone stymied the Canes early. Even when the Hurricanes did have the puck, nothing much productive happened from it. Then to compound the problem, the Hurricanes mostly squandered two power play chances to jump start the offense. The two efforts looked as bad as any from what has generally been a tough season with a man advantage with significant problems even gaining entry to the offensive zone with possession. And along the way, Scott Darling had a tough period getting beaten twice from odd angles with one clanging of the post and also being beaten five hole on a defensive breakdown. In short, the first period was a case study for many of the struggles of the 2017-18 season and seemed destined to end with a 2-0 deficit.
Then it happened. Jeff Skinner crashed the crease and scored an ugly goal that saw his stick fly behind the net and the puck somehow end up in it. And as has been the case for the Hurricanes for awhile now, the order of get goal=>change momentum happened.
The Hurricanes were by far the better team in the second period, and when Justin Faulk scored with 1:27 remaining to take the lead, the game seemed to be trending the right direction.
But more of the Hurricanes 2017-18 problems emerged in a big way in the third period. Below Slavin/Pesce, Peters’ latest try at defense struggled mightily, and Darling was again beaten on a shot he would like back.
The Hurricanes at least held on to get to overtime, and then played one of the best overtimes I can remember but failed to score before ultimately losing in a shootout.
Notes from the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks
Blue line troubles below Slavin/Pesce continue
There is a more basic level of just not capitalizing and closing out, but at a more specific level, I think one of two big stories in the game was the Hurricanes defensive struggles below Slavin/Pesce. The second Anaheim goal did feature an inopportune turnover by Jeff Skinner, but it also a train wreck in terms of positioning for Justin Faulk and Noah Hanifin. It starts with Hanifin pursuing a Ducks player on the other side of the ice despite the fact that Faulk was already on him. Hanifin chasing the puck resulted in the puck going around the boards. Instead of Hanifin claiming it in a harmless place in the corner, the puck went all the way around to even with the face-off circles. When Hanifin lost that puck battle, the puck quickly found a Duck right out in front of the net with a prime scoring chance. Like Hanifin earlier, Faulk was wandering around a bit and not defending that player. And bang, Darling was beaten five hole.
Trying to find something that worked Peters demoted Hanifin and replaced him with Haydn Fleury before the start of the third period. The results were even worse. On one shift, Fleury’s overly passive play allowed Duck players to twice step into face and shoot from a prime scoring area. On another shift, Fleury twice turned the puck over in the corner and back toward the net in the process. In total, Fleury did not look even remotely close to being part of the solution to build a sound and steady defense pairing. Important to note is that it was a first try in the top 4 for a young player who will certainly grow during the course of the 2017-18 season, so it is at least possible that he just needs time and the chance to suffer through some growing pains.
I was a strong advocate for adding one more #4/#5 possible defenseman as depth over the summer, but that obviously did not happen. Peters does not have a ton of options at his disposal, but he needs to figure something out fairly quickly.
A night that Scott Darling could have been better
I did not think Scott Darling was sharp at all in the first period. He was beaten twice on odd angle blasts that seemed to be largely a result of missing his angle. In addition, he was beaten through him on the Hanifin/Faulk miscue. He was admittedly in tough spot, but ideally he at least squares up to the shooter, challenges as much as possible and forces the shooter to hit a corner to beat him. Finally, the late tying goal by Anaheim was a back breaker. He was screened by Slavin which is not his fault, but in being slow to get down in time for the shot, he had a second puck find its way right through his legs and into the net. A sounder game on Sunday night from Darling, could easily have been the difference.
Victor Rask
Again, I have yet to watch the St. Louis Blues game which I have on DVR, but carrying over from Thursday’s win, I thought Rask looked strong on Sunday night. He had a couple really good chances including the best chance of the overtime which seemed to label for the corner of the net only to be robbed by Ryan Miller.
Jeff Skinner
He scored yet another huge goal on Sunday when he salvaged a poor first period with a late goal. The goal was an ugly one to say the least but very clearly necessary fuel for a higher gear.
The captains carry the mail
Interestingly, the three goals were scored by the three captains. Jordan Staal finished a pretty Sebastian Aho pass, and long overdue Justin Faulk scored what could have been the game-winner on a blast.
Overtime
The overtime really was as good as any that the Hurricanes have played after checking what my memory bank can serve up. They had the puck for the majority of the extra session, gave up very little when they did not have the puck and had four really good scoring chances, a couple of which seemed labeled for a corner to win a game. Credit to Ryan Miller for stealing a win. Hopefully, this performance can be replicated because I think it is a winner much more often than not.
Next up is three days off before the Hurricanes travel to Colorado to play the Avalanche on Thursday night.
Go Canes!
At least the canes ended up with an acceptable (if not great) 1, 1, 1 from the last 3 games.
It should have been 2, 1, 0 but it didn’t happen.
Lack of a scoring forward and depth defenseman is no news, and is getting clearer every game.
That being said, it was a very fun game, the overtime was electric, and I have to hand it to Miller, he snatched an extra point for the ducks almost by himself.
In terms of entertainment value, I am happy with the game, even if I wanted that little bit more in terms of results.
I thought tonight’s first period was period 4 of the Blues game. Everything that was ugly about that game was on display in this game. And I was left to wonder – even with Skinner’s ugly goal – was it even possible for the Canes to compete with the grinding, heavy checking teams at all.
The 2nd was a totally different beast, even for much of the 3rd. The Canes can play their game against these teams – not sure how much might have been Ducks’ fatigue, though.
Peters pulled no punches in saying what he thought about the second pairing – but interestingly, while both Hanifin and Fleury had their gaffes it was TvR with the lowest TOI for D-men. Both Fleury and Hanifin moved the puck and Hanifin almost won the game in regulation but hit the post instead.
I was surprised to realize the Skinner-Ryan-Kuokkanen line was -3 today, but I liked Kuokkan’s game. He was active. He skated. He seemed to be in position in both zones and moved through the neutral zone well. He took a rookie shot after his takeaway in the third, but I was definitely hoping he would end up on the scoresheet today.
And today McGinn looked lost – only one hit actually.
In the past 2 years, we have had turnovers in November and December. As PO’ed as Peters sounded afterwards, if we don’t find demonstrable success against the Avs and Yotes I imagine we may see some shakeups at the start of next week – although the Checkers will be in the (relative) Far North until the middle of November.
On at least one of the Fleury turnovers, he had a second Duck sneak up on him to take the puck away. Someone missed their communication assignment to let Fleury know he was in trouble.
I believe this has to be the worse loss of the young season. Playing a team that is in its 2nd game in 2 nights, has a star player go down in the first shift, have 6 starters already injured, and the Canes didn’t have to travel. Yet they allow the Ducks to show more energy on the ice for more than half the game? Inexcusable! I hope Peters skates their sacks off Monday and Tuesday.
Another strategy needs to be had to get out of the D zone. Almost the entire team has blown exits leading to a goal or a scary scoring chance. Way too many in a 10 game span.
GMRF needs to make a change even if small.
Unfortunately RF is the king of SMALL CHANGES…almost exclusively!
NHL .500 is a misleading win percentage. While we are NHL .500 after 10 games (4-4-2), most players will tell you the team is (4-6).
Say what we will, but this is not a playoff team. We remain one higher-end offensive catalyst and one veteran defenseman away from honestly competing with the bigger grinding teams. There is too much pressure right now on young players both offensively and defensively. Gripping sticks too tightly and fumbling passes is a sign of trying to do too much. The results are clear so far.
1. The team was not ready to play (a habit it has demonstrated over and over again). We are giving away the first period in virtually every game with exception of Toronto game.
2. The team has no identity in its play. The other team dictates how the game is to be played. The formula seems to be lay the hits on the Canes and they revert to a pass happy avoid the hit style of play and play on the periphery of the ice in the offensive zone.
3. Ward and Darling have played very well in virtually all of the games. Shot counts mean nothing. They have had to make many very difficult stops on opponents while our 30 or so shots include very few bonafide scoring chances in a relative sense.
4. Coaching has me mystified. No Skinner on the ice in overtime. Why? Pulling goalies with three minutes to go. Why? A power play that has problems even bringing the puck up the ice. Why? This team is not performing anywhere near well on any consistent basis. Why? A coach who seemed to take this team into a prevent defense with only a one goal lead and proclaiming after the game that because when we score three goals we should win the game.
5. Live_free_or_die has some good observations IMO. We absolutely need another scoring forward, a first line center. This is RF’s responsibility.
Look, the season is young and many teams are having problems (Montreal, New York, Washington, etc.). I’m not going to get a negative attitude about the season yet. But, we have thrown away a beautiful opportunity to have this team right up there in second place in the conference/division and instead have ourselves starting into putting ourselves into the catchup mode. This team has to play better now. That starts with the coaching getting better and holding players accountable for lack of effort. RF needs to find a scorer and not fall into the Sakic mode and overvalue our players and undervalue our needs. ctcaniac, who I disagreed with at one time, had the right idea. We need to use one of our defensemen to get a bonafide scorer now. If this team continues to flounder along and maintain its reputation for being non-competitive for a playoff spot, then ever building back the fan base is an impossibility. It is no fun watching a team that has no chance for the post season in an empty arena. Botttom line!
consistency is a problem! Rask is skating in mud. powerplay has no energy. Darling had a bad night. I do love that we don’t give up. Skinner is really becoming a team leader. His energy has been on point all season so far. We are so close to turning that playoff corner.
I can’t help but be pretty disgusted with this team. You just can’t lose this game. They lost their captain and best player and were playing their third game in four days. You can’t blow it in the third period in front of your home crowd you haven’t won in front of since October 7. Peters and Brind’Amour need to start being held accountable. Unacceptable.
Most people here are spot on! We have problems…AND RF needs to do more than DITHER!
Bringing up a player (or two), would be a start… BUT, IS INADEQUATE! Ronnie, USE SOME OF THAT MONEY YOU’RE SITTING ON – get us a good player!!!