As luck would have it, I was pulled away for family stuff midway through the last of the west coast part of the Canes road trip and watched the second half of the game on DVR even later than the regular schedule. Like many other Hurricanes fans, I will be happy to be back in the Eastern time zone this weekend but am happy I stayed up for the western finale.
Above all else…
…The Hurricanes desperately needed a win of any kind, so the result is HUGE. With the Hurricanes sputtering on the road, and the majority of the Metropolitan Division playing well, the season was starting to slide down the hill. The Hurricanes know from recent experience just how hard it is to make up too much ground in January through April if you dig a hole, and digging a hole is exactly what they have been doing of late. At least on Tuesday, the Hurricanes were able to dig a foot into the ground and at least temporarily halt the slide. Everything else is minutiae compared to the top line result at a time like this.
Cam Ward wins #300
The other big headline is Cam Ward earning his 300th career win which is an impressive milestone and even cooler when one considers that all of those wins have been in a Hurricanes uniform. Ironic that win #300 came via shootout win just like win #1 many years ago.
The game itself
The game was a gutsy effort by the team. Having played and traveled the night before, Vegas entered with a physical edge, but the Hurricanes matched intensity and pace through most of the game. In retrospect, perhaps the odd Marcus Kruger goal that saw him double deflect a pass while forechecking and have it end up behind Marc-Andre Fleury before he knew what had happened.
But then things returned to the bad version of recent normal when the Hurricanes yet again lost the second period by a 2-1 margin. When the Hurricanes outshot the Golden Knights by a 15 to 6 margin in the third period but were not rewarded, it was hard not have an ominous feeling entering overtime and an even more ominous feeling when the game entered the dreaded shootout. But the hockey gods looked down on the Hurricanes who needed a win and Cam Ward seeking his 300th win and threw us a bone. The Vegas mostly fired wide with Ward in good position at one end of the ice surface, and depth players Brock McGinn and Phil Di Giuseppe scored huge goals to win the shootout.
Notes from the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 shootout win over the Vegas Golden Knights
Noah Hanifin
With the back-to-back, it is maybe no surprise that youthful Noah Hanifin had his skating legs, and Peters recognized it. Hanifin vaulted up the blue line ice time rankings logging the third most minutes and finishing only about 30 seconds behind leaders Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce.
Brock McGinn and Phil Di Giuseppe
One cannot say enough about how clutch the McGinn and Di Giuseppe shootout goals were. Had McGinn missed in the Hurricanes’ third attempt down 1-0, the team would wake up tomorrow with a five-game losing streak, win-less on the road trip, carrying a growing overtime monkey on their backs and just generally in a bad place. Instead, McGinn scored to keep the team alive. Two shooters later Di Giuseppe finished and broke into a great version of his usual goal celebration. Hockey is a team game obviously, but it is not outlandish to say that the duo earned the team a point in the standings on Tuesday.
Cam Ward
Ward gave the team a solid outing and a chance to win which it ultimately did. Just like the team in total needed to put an end to a slide, the goalie position did as well. Here is hoping that Ward’s game on Tuesday puts a stake in the ground and starts the next move upward for the Hurricanes’ goaltending.
Victor Rask
He continues to play better hockey after his short stint in the press box. Kudos to him to responding favorably to what was probably a low point of his tenure in the NHL.
Justin Williams
Not counting the bizarre Kruger goal, the Hurricanes have scored exactly two goals in the past two games. Both have featured Justin Williams creating chaos at the top of the crease. On Monday, a Williams’ tip netted a goal. On Tuesday, he managed to create a mess in front of the net before the puck ultimately found Trevor van Riemsdyk for a quick finish. Here is hoping that the coaching staff is showing this video over and over aiming to increase the volume of time that the team spends near the crease for the entire forward lineup.
Results matter
With the win the Hurricanes are suddenly 1-2-2 through five of six games on the road. With the finale against a Buffalo Sabres team that continues to struggle, a .500 road trip is suddenly within reach. It has not been easy or pretty by any stretch of the imagination, but if the Canes can scratch and claw their way to 2-2-2 on a tough trip, the 2017-18 season that was on life support just might improve.
Next up for the Hurricanes is a game in Buffalo on Friday night and thankfully for Hurricanes fans a return to normal east coast start times.
Go Canes!
Although with one game remaining it is still early, we are close to hitting “hockey .500” on this road trip which I remember you indicated would be “acceptable”. I am not sure it is will prove to be enough, but I also didn’t think we would hit this mark after the past 4 games.
I stand by my original “acceptable” level of 5-4 for the 9 games that end with the Nashville game before the team returns home in earnest. That mark is not great by any stretch of the imagination, but it keeps the season alive and leaves the door open for a single hot streak to push the team up into the playoff mix.
Friday’s game is huge against a beatable team to finish the road trip.
This is the first game I’ve actually watched in quite some time. It was actually promising. But I refuse to get my hopes up that the Canes can continue to bring that intensity and desperation. I still think some guys like Faulk, Skinner, Staal, and Aho are gripping their sticks a little too tight, and if they really are going to make a meaningful push up the standings basically all of them are going to have to snap out of their respective funks. I’d really like to see Faulk start finding twine like every other game and Skinner go on one of his runs. But, you know, at the same time, which never seems to happen with us… Its either the TSA line OR Skinner OR Rask OR someone else… Can we just click as an entire team like for a little while? I mean just like a 5-6 game winning streak. Too much to ask? This team has to figure out how finish, in both sense of the term. When they have a lead late in the game and suddenly look terrified and like they know they’re gonna lose. And when they have the puck on their stick right on broadway with the goalie in no man’s land on the other side of the cage. I mean how many golden opportunities did we have AGAIN to win in regulation last night that Lindholm or Skinner or everyone else just wasn’t able to bury? These guys are professionals, right? At some point there has to be some kind of breakthrough. On a more positive note… I thought Slavin and Pesce were back to their defensively dominant selves, but what was that garbage penalty when Neal dove like a little punk because he couldn’t get around Slavin, when honestly the penalty probably should have been on Neal for holding him with the free hand AND for diving afterwards, Slavin didn’t even deserve his first penalty of the year!! Imagine that. Hanifin was excellent, moving his feet and gaining entry into the zone all night as you noted, Rask looks like a completely different player, and Cam matched Fleury tonight for the most part. I guess it is time to see if Cam can go on a similar run to the one he had last year, when the team couldn’t score but he was playing the best hockey of his career and keeping us in games we had no business being in. This team desperately needs that. Hell, Darling desperately needs that, honestly. We know that even if Cam DOES have a run in him, its just that. A run. It will end. But maybe it will give Darling a chance to recollect himself, work with the goalie coach, even see a sports psychologist if necessary, and figure out what is going on. Scott is a good goalie. He has to find a way to get past this. Then, just maybe, this team can put together a stretch of hockey that makes them relevant again. But if we come back in Buffalo and lose on Friday… I’ll go back to tank mode.
Gritty game. It is very seldom that the team does not have effort. We just never seem to totally put it together. It is offense not scoring, defensive breakdown or bad goal tending. On most nights they play hard but something is usually broke.
I thought we were toast when Vegas scored on the 3rd shootout attempt. Hats off to McGinn and DiG. I know BP wants to build Faulk’s confidence, but Faulk in a shoot out, you gotta be kidding. I totally disagree with that move.
Ward plays well most of the time. Darling is the problem. IMO Darling should sit for a while, and regroup with the goalie coach. We all know if Ward is overworked he will fall off but I think it is time to ride him for a while. I am not sure what Darling needs to do but he has been costing us games rather then winning us games. The disparity with other goalies is pretty evident. With reasonable goaltending from Darling we would have had a couple more wins on this road trip.
Do I believe he can be what we thought he would be, yes. But he is in a bad place right now.
We have to win the Buffalo game if we have any intention of staying in this race. I wish others would take William’s lead. Its debatable how much difference a captain makes, but Williams should have been captain.
Haven’t posted for awhile but still reading and watching every game till the end even on the road trip. Although I do have to mute the sound sometimes because Chip does grate on my nerves with his constant gabbing about mundane stuff.
On last nights game, I agree with Matt on Hanifin. I think BP has more confident in him and thus the minutes. I even see him getting more involved in the offense and becoming more of a play maker the way Slavin use to. I don’t know what is going on with Slavin. He seems tentative and slower and not the beast he was last year and the first of this year. I think Rask is back. He was the best forward on the ice last night both offensively and defensively. Boy do they need some work on the PP. It is pathetic. Did you notice how Vegas would position a man right in front of Ward when they could on their PP’s. All we do is post a man down low net side and pass around the perimeter waiting for that perfect shot. We don’t have the snipers to make the perfect shot all the time. We need to disrupt the goalie and create chaos for him. We don’t have anyone other than Williams who will do this. I do think we have prospects in Charlotte in Roy, Foeggle, and Goat that will fill this void. But this year if we are going to make the playoffs we have to improve on the PP. Here’s to winning this weekend games.