As unkind as the hockey gods are these days, the ice cream gods threw me a lifeline. Hidden in the back of the refrigerator was a healthy size serving of Goodberry’s mint chocolate chip ice cream – just enough to make it through another tough game recap. 🙂
The Hurricanes entered the game with their playoff life hanging by a string, and ending the game using a pair of scissors.
The match up was the second straight against a team expected to be in the 2018 playoffs but having already resigned themselves to the fact that it was not going to happen. Last Thursday, the Hurricanes defeated the Blackhawks by a narrow 3-2 margin to keep hopes alive as much as possible. On Monday, a depleted Rangers team that traded away a chunk of its roster and was starting an AHL goalie defeated the Hurricanes 6-3 (with two empty net goals) to push the Canes a step closer to the brink of playoff extinction.
The summary is very much a who’s who of the Carolina Hurricanes struggles throughout the 2017-18 season.
The Hurricanes completely dominated the game in terms of shots on goal but never really converted on the scoreboard do to the usual murky combination of lack of finishing and maybe just not getting as much quality as the quantity might have indicated.
Despite playing a #3 goalie, the other team was better in net with a couple ‘iffy’ goals against.
Some combination of defensive break downs and less than stellar goalie play generated plenty of offense for the opposing team despite the lopsided shot count statistics.
The Rangers struck first when a defensive zone faceoff loss very quickly led to a goal against. A clean faceoff win pitched the puck to the point. A shot wide of the net found Mats Zuccarello on a carom off the end boards to the other side of the net. Justin Faulk failed to cover him, Scott Darling was unable to get all the way to the post in time, making it 1-0 Rangers. But the Hurricanes countered when an ongoing bright spot in the combination of Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen found the back of the net. Teravainen finished a rebound in close on an Aho shot to score his 20th and join him in reaching that level. The period ended 1-1 in a fairly even first period that finished with a modest 10 to 9 shot advantage for the Hurricanes.
The second period was much of the Carolina Hurricanes season in a nutshell. The Canes dominated possession and poured on 18 shots to the Rangers 6 and seemed to deserve a winning fate for the period. But many of the shots on goal were ‘meh’ chances, the other team’s goalie was solid and the Hurricanes only managed to finish once when Lee Stempniak went hard to the net and banged in a Jeff Skinner rebound. But in between dominating play, the Hurricanes had a couple defensive letdowns to generate offense, and Darling let in one thathe would probably like to have back. Pavel Buchnevich abused Derek Ryan when he won a faceoff forward, walked right around Ryan to pick up the puck and fed the puck past Trevor van Riemsdyk who was also a little slow taking away the passing lane. Jimmy Vesey received and deposited a shot behind Darling on a goal that was just way too easy. After the Stempniak goal tied it up, one Darling would like back put the Rangers up 2 to 1 for the period and 3-2 for the game despite being mostly outplayed. The goal was a deflection which is tough on the goalie. But goalie 101 says to be square to the shot, be as big as possible and close up any holes. Had the deflection found a corner of the net up and over Darling’s shoulder, you just shrug and call it bad luck. But instead, the shot went right through his legs as he was slow to get set with the shot arriving.
Victor Rask scored midway through the third period to pull the Hurricanes even at 3-3, but then it was more of the same. A Derek Ryan turnover in neutral zone led to a rush the other way. When puck squibbled ahead of Jimmy Vesey, it looked like the turnover would prove harmless. Instead, Vesey beat Darling short side on another head shaker of a goal. The Rangers then added a couple empty-netters to make the final score 6-3.
Notes from the Carolina Hurricanes 6-3 loss to the New York Rangers
1) Scott Darling
It was another tough night. Whereas last Thursday two bad goals against in the first period were buried under a comeback, two decent periods of goaltending and a win, the hockey gods were not so generous on Monday night in New York City. The margin for error for an NHL goalie is small. A couple bad players are often a couple too many. And as has been too regularly the case, the goalie at the other end of the rink was better despite the fact that he was a no-name AHL call up making only his fourth NHL start.
2) Aho/Teravainen
The duo continues to be a bright spot notching another goal in the first period when Teravainen finished a rebound on an Aho shot.
3) Jeff Skinner
He continued an odd run that has seen him generating a decent number of chances and doing a good amount of the buzzing around that usually results in goals for him. He did collect an assist on Stempniak’s rebound goal but was held out of the goal column again despite having a couple chances and a few other near misses.
4) Derek Ryan
He had a tough game in terms of puck management and defense as detailed in the couple scoring plays that he was in the middle of. The first Vesey goal looked even worse when watching the replay. That was a big kid working over the little kid kind of play.
5) No Valentin Zykov
And to add insult to injury for the dwindling and beleaguered fan base that is still checking in, Valentin Zykov was returned to Charlotte during the game seemingly eliminating the chance that he would at least play on Tuesday.
6) Might a complete and total collapse actually be best?
Hitting a new level of morbidity in terms of seeking a silver lining, might a complete and utter collapse be the best possible thing down the stretch? Many long-time Canes fans increasingly feel like something just is not right when the story line continues to be same over and over. But the new owner is only a couple months into this. Perhaps a tough ending will help him realize that despite seemingly only being a winning streak or a goalie or a whatever away from success that just maybe the problems lurking under the surface are bigger.
Next up is quick turnaround and a match up on Tuesday against a good Boston Bruins team that is resting in Raleigh while the Hurricanes fly home.
Go Canes!
I think Ned is NHL-ready if he could play against us and not for us…
The game was amusing.
I think BP is trying to make sure he gets reliefed of his duties, why pull darling (as useless as he is) with 3 minutes to go and the puck not even firmly in the o zone.
I think he is actively gunning for tanking spectacularly, and he is doing a durn good job. I wouldn’t interrupt him.
I’m wondering if blindfolding dArling or giving him a chair to sit in and a movie to watch while in goal wouldn’t make him more effective.
It’s basketball season folks, and then golf season is coming up.
And don’t forget to renew your season tickets.
I am not sure what about tonight best summed up the season:
1) Faulk forgetting he was playing defense.
2) Darling unable to cover the short side of the goal.
3) Peters unable to coach his players to a consistent effort or energy; or
4) Zykov being returned to Charlotte after only 36 hours and no time on NHL ice.
Maybe all of the above.
That said, I really think the most important thing we can do before the start of next season is change the coach. That will do the most to change the energy in the locker room and on the ice.
And beyond that being said, I have tickets for each of the remaining home games and I will be there cheering on the Canes every game.
raleightj, good summary. Thanks for saying it as I am all out of gas like the team seems to have been all season. Never have I watched this team play with so little desire night after night as I have for the 70 or so games this year. This team has no soul. It has two leaders I Williams and Jordan who go after it every night and nothing beyond that.
Barf. I hope they don’t win another game this year. This team NEEDS Svechnikov or Zadina. We NEED a real needle mover on offense. Him Teravainen and Aho would actually give us a semi-legit first line. Then all we’d need is a starting goalie and one top 4 D and MAYBE this team would make the playoffs. With a new coach, of course. There are so many problems with this franchise it’s not even funny.
Even still that probably isn’t enough to get us in the top 3 where we’d need to be to get one of those guys. But maybe if we really suck down the stretch we can package Faulk or Skinner and the 7th or 8th pick to get up there and actually draft a player that makes a difference. And maybe with Necas and one of them in the lineup watching us play won’t be comparable to gouging our own eyes out. Still. Another top four defenseman and a legitimate starting goalie aren’t all that easy to come by. Again this team is just screwed. Going nowhere. At least it’ll be interesting with Dundon pulling the trigger on a bunch of moves, some of which will surely be unnecessary, and probably setting us back even further.
The Zykov thing has me most baffled. Why call him up and not play him? We could play with 7 Dmen without disrupting anything. I get the feeling more and more that we don’t have anyone in Charlotte Canes management thinks is NHL ready. If the Canes really thought they could get in and there was help in Charlotte, they’d be using it. To me, this means we either have no help or we know we couldn’t make the playoffs and just don’t want to tell the fan base we’re giving up (again).
I think the latter. Even today, after having slept on it, I think BP’s odd decisions to pull Darling with almost 3 minutes left and the puck not securely in a favorable spot was to ensure we did not get a point.
I see no other logical explanation for this.
Also look at the way the guys play on the ice, Faulk and Ryan practically going to sleep on goals against. This team has resigned themselves to a lost season, that is just clear in everything they do, the lack of fire, the sloppiness, the interviews (there is not even a hint of upset in the interviews), this is a team playing out the string.
I wonder if the direction has come from the owners, tank boys, the best you can do is to position this team for a turnaround next year, losing is the way to go.
Of course it wouldn’t be that explicit, that would be a scandal, but all the signs point to the Canes trying to sink as low as they can, and I agree with that direction.
I think the team has a couple of potential difference makers in the system. Say what you will, a guy that leaeds every other AHL scorer by 5 goals cannot be determined to be useless in the NHL and not even worth a look.
The rookie who is setting records and is a great penaty killer and short-handed manace has potential, no matter what people say, and we have some great prospects lurking behind the Checkers.
I am oddly optimistic that the canes can put together a winning product on the ice if they execute the right moves over the summer. If they do nothing or make the wrong moves, the results will be the same, but this is not the Oilers folks, this team has promising pieces, just not the right pieces in the right order, and this team does not have the right cheminstry, spirit, that can be changed by dropping in the right pieces and change the coaching, and at some point the canes have to get decent goaltending, law of statistics.
Cheers
The Zykov move was odd for sure, but there could be a dozen reasons for this. Perhaps one of the forwards might have been a game-time decision and BP wanted an extra forward on hand in the event, or maybe Zykov didn’t practice well the day before (not sure if they practiced?). In the end we’ll likely not know the answer, but I’m sure there is reason behind this.
As for the game itself, this seals the deal. 8 points back is almost impossible to climb out of at this point.
I’m still not beleaguered. Except by Justin Faulk. Darling did not have a good game, but of the four goals, two were directly attributable to Justin Faulk playing like crap, and the last one by Vesey, yeah it would have been nice for Darling to grab it, but it was also a great shot stick-side high. My goalie play is a bit rusty, but isn’t that the hardest shot in hockey for a goaltender to stop?
Darling played a C game. I won’t pretend otherwise. Justin Faulk played an F- game though, complete with lack of effort. This is inexcusable for for any hockey player, but for a Captain it is simply a travesty. We cannot afford to have leaders who don’t play hard and Faulk looked like he was skating around at 60% last night. Not mentioning the fact that HE TRIED TO KILL BROCK MCGINN!!!!
I’m not hanging Darling out to dry with players like Faulk playing that bad.
Tripp had a good explanation on that 4th goal by Vesey. Darling started out of net to cut down the angle but when he transitioned to the post he backed way into net opening up that corner that Vesey hit. No doubt it was a great shot but Vesey didn’t have a move to the front of the net so Darling could’ve, and should’ve played out more aggressively where he was to start. Stick high isn’t an easy save from between the dots but Darling needs to learn to use his large frame on those wide angle shots.
Agree Faulk looked terrible; tank or not I wish they’d pull his letter, it’s embarrassing. Also, I like Ryan but he is way over matched where we play him. Vesey’s first goal was a direct result of Ryan get muscled out on the faceoff and Vesey’s second was after Ryan got pick pocketed in the neutral zone.
We, according to the BS’er we have as a coach, were playing with the need to win to stay in it for a playoff spot. They were not playing with Nash, McDonagh, Lundqvist, etc. but with only a bunch of wanna be’s. They won. Go figure. Want to watch another season repeating this one? Not me. We were never in it and the players played like the season was over from day one. We aren’t a team, we look like a mob.
We threw in the towel for the season last night. Faulk and Ryan are buying new luggage and will be gone next season. We could bring up Ned to get some scoring help (he scored a goal this week). And do we really need to see more of Darling next year?
Vegas is the new model; start with a clean slate and be successful by creating a TEAM. Let’s hope TD hires a great GM to give us hope.
LOL, one year, not even playoffs yet and Vegas is the new model…
That model sounds better to me than a decade without a playoff appearance, no accountability and embarrassment of comical proportions.