In a game that was very much a mixed bag, the Hurricanes led but ultimately fell 2-1 in overtime the Nashville Predators. In total, I though the game was a lackluster effort that did have some positives but overall was not great. Reduced to something pretty similar to last year’s group with injuries to Jake Gardiner and Ryan Dzingel the power play was ‘meh’. The offense in total was uninspiring. The forecheck was not overly effective which forced the team to rely on an intermittent collection of individual plays to generate offense. And maybe of greatest concern, the team’s defense had a few too many break downs. Whereas the team was rolling at this time last year, the group seems to be sputtering a bit right now and also suddenly facing some injury issues.
Below are my short notes on the game:
1) Slavin/Hamilton
This defensive duo seemed to start okay and then just degrade as the game wore on. The low point occurred in the third period when they took turns pinching and getting caught out of position to generate a 2-on-1 against the other. Hamilton in general had one of those games where his decision-making with and without the puck was not great. Slavin also had some issues. Many may not remember, but this duo actually struggled early in 2018-19 before later being reunited and playing better. A couple good games to start the 2018-19 season were followed by a tough adjustment period for Hamilton that gradually saw Slavin catch the disease and also take a step down in play. Both players later rebounded when they were separated and Hamilton was temporarily relegated to the third pairing to get his feet under him. That history is worth watching heading into the regular season.
2) Warren Foegele
He is really fighting it. He had four decent chances with the puck on his stick in close and chose to pass each and every time. He just seems to lack confidence and be overthinking things right now.
3) Sebastian Aho
Especially early in the game, I thought Aho was a positive. He was buzzing around the offensive zone and dangerous especially in the first period.
4) Andrei Svechnikov
Svechnikov’s game was two sides of a coin. On the positive side, I thought he had a strong game offensively despite not scoring. But on the negative side, he took two minor penalties, and the second one especially was a poster child for his intermittent issues with taking brief pauses, being caught out of position and then lifting his stick to pick up an automatic obstruction type penalty.
4) Petr Mrazek
Mrazek looked very sharp through two periods of play. Earlier in preseason he caught some ice time where he was mostly untested, but that was not the case on Friday. He had a few good breakaway saves and others from point blank range on a night when the Hurricanes defense was a bit porous.
5) Gustav Forsling
Forsling too regularly lets players get behind him. He had two more such episodes on Friday.
6) Julien Gauthier
He was not as impressive as he was in the first couple preseason games, but he did make plays to get the puck to the front of the net again and also to take shots. At some point production is necessary to get credit, but so far I am content to believe that if Gauthier keeps playing the way he is that enough points will follow.
Next up for the Hurricanes is the preseason finale on Sunday.
Go Canes!
It’s only preseason—but I think Sunday the team will be trying to do all it can to win. Because the team last night resembled the tam from November/December 2018 much more than February/March 2019. They struggled to generate good chances and when they did get one the shots were uninspiring.
As you mentioned, Aho looks good. Teravainen is also generating chances. But again, this is much like the “here we go again” version from early last season.
I hope Haula is rounding into playing condition. He hasn’t looked especially dangerous and the speed we all expected has yet to really make a difference.
While it will no doubt pain pwrlss, Fleury could have been the second best defenseman for the Canes—that is truly damning with faint praise on a night when Matt is correct that the D had far too many lapses.
Lackluster effort was the key to me. This team seems a bit to confident in itself at this point. They aren’t that talented to cruise into games. I hope I’m wrong, but the hunger we saw last season doesn’t appear to be there.
Huala. I thought this guy was supposed to be fast? He’s been a whole lot of nothing. I was able to sit close to the ice last night. He appeared to be laboring coming off his shifts. Did he show up out of shape?
I liked Forsling at first. Not so much now. He makes nice looks when he has plenty of time and space. He makes turnovers and gets toasted other times. No good.
Edmundson was better than I had hoped, but his penalty was a bad one. Can’t be doing that on a regular basis.
Finally, the Canes power play. Enough about systems. This is about execution. Standing still and stickhandling is NOT the way to execute any power play. Aho and Teravainen are kings of this. The puck must be moving or at least their feet need to be moving to get the PK to shift and create lanes. None of that is happening. Faulk was the same way. That is why Gardiner and Necas look good to me on the PP. They actually move the puck. Not sure how you get these two fixed. Maybe pull them all together.
Lts—you almost sound like Ray Romano there. Overconfident, not hungry, poor execution. Those are criticisms that relate to coaching as well as individual players.
Rod Brind’Amour is overconfident and unprepared. Haha. Good one.
This game was not on NHL.tv, so I’m in the dark as to how players looked. From all reports, Mrazek was sharp. How did Reimer look?
I think ct is right, the team should be striving to win on Sunday and do their best to gel heading into the opener. Big opportunity for Forsberg, he may have the inside track to the backup job. As for skaters, likely big opportunity for Fleury/McKweon and Gauthier if they get the call.
No real negative on Reimer. He was beaten on a breakaway for the first shot he faced, beaten again from in close in overtime and did a pretty good job holding the fort in between on a night when the Canes D was leaky.
So two goals against is not great, but Friday was not a negative for Reimer in my book.
Thanks for the update! The backup goalie position should be intriguing. I can see this going either way.
Lousy game over all with the team playing with no intensity. The goalies played well. NO ONE ELSE came close to playing a good game unless you grasp for straws and are content with a couple of attacks on the net by Gautier or loved the shot by Staal on the two on one. Oh yeah, Haula won some faceoffs. Any player trying to win a job who played last night probably took a step backward. I’ll leave it up to RBA which players he keeps as the best of the bad looking group right now.
It was a rather ugly game, thank goodness it’s just the pre season.
Goalies were solid, both of them, the Canes have never been this deep at the goalie position.
Aho showed flashes of mad skill early on but faded.
Staal’s line was decent, especially the big man himself, but Nino has looked rather lost since he was on fire last season and a bit into the playoffs.
Hala and Dzingle have so far failed to make an impact, but it takes time to gel with a new team and build chemistry. Still, I was hoping they’d try to impress.
Fleury actually was the one who impressed me the most (maybe due to relatively modest expectation, but I’d label him the second best Canes D on the ice yesterday).
Slaven was a bit slow and rusty, Trip commented on it.
The powerplay appears to be rinse and repeat of recent years (5 chances in the second period alone, no goals, maybe 2 high danger shots on goal.
RBA is a great motivator and I think a pretty durn good headcoach (I had my doubts about him, but he sure did his part to dispell most of those last year), but he is not a strategic coach and has not done well with special teams, especially the powerplay.
He’s been in charge of the PP for years and the PP has been consistently near the bottom of the league for years, that is on the coaching/strategy.
I wish the Canes hired an assistant coach with experience of special teams, let the Rod focus on what he does best, motivation, atmosphere, conditioning and 5 on 5 play.
It was the special teams, more than anything else, that cost us the Bruins series. The PP was abismal, the PK did not adjust.
I believe these things can be improved through strategy.
Last night was a mixed bag for me. Haula’s speed seems to be coming back. But it isn’t back yet.
Conditioning? Of course, at least in part. He missed most of last season with a major leg injury. How does one stay in shape when one cannot skate or run or cycle? But most importantly, a player having been so badly injured will take time to trust the leg again and to play his way into the confidence in his body and talents he had prior to the injury. In my not-very-humble opinion, he’ll be fine.
Edmundson looked good. He is with a new team: a new coach with new teammates.
What was not new to him was the Preds. He comes from a team in the same conference as the Preds. Given Eddy’s style of play, it is unlikely that they would greet him in a friendly way. There are likely more than a few unsettled scores going on there.I noticed a few times where they took some runs at him. He ran at them. The crosscheck was really nothing big. It would likely not have been called in regular season. Come on, boys and girls. This is, after all, not “today’s NHL. It is the REAL NHL.
Mrazek and Reimer looked good. Svech was great. He and Foegele annoyed the poo out of the enemy. They both kept going to the net.
I agree with much of what Matt said he observed.
But I am very sad about what I saw from our Haydn. It was obvious that he was giving it his absolute best. I recognized it because I haven’t seen this kind of effort from him, ever before. I won’t dwell on his skating, his shooting, his passing, etc. It was all sad, but I am tired of picking on him. Last night he tried to be physically aggressive. Our Haydn doesn’t do the physical thing. But last night he did. And he failed miserably. He ran into the corners and tried to push the enemy off the puck. He bounced off or was easily pushed away. This happened more than once. More than twice. Actually more than three times.
I feel sorry for the kid. I am ashamed of myself for giggling every time people in the stands around me shouted, “Hit him with your purse, Haydn!” last season.
This season, I will no longer giggle when they shout that.
I only hope that Roddy saw what I saw. I hope he shows mercy by recognizing that our Haydn is way out of his league in the NHL. Send him to the AHL, the ECHL, or home to his mommy. Anywhere but here. Please!
While one can always find individual screw ups and misplays defensively, this team, even with all the AHLers that have been on ice, has been effectively sound defensively through the entire pre-season. Defensive pairings have been largely experimental and remain works in progress (Our GAA is well below 2 for the 5 games played.) My concern is the anemic offense. 5v5, and power play are just toothless. Scoring chances are infrequent, failure to finish frequent. The total of 3 goals in the last 3 games has me much more concerned than any individual or the team on defense collectively.
Other than the Staal line (with Nino on his correct side), Edmondson playing a beast of a game, and Gauthier almost showing (almost!) that he is ready, there wasn’t a whole lot to like in this game. Very uneven across the board. Svech forgetting to keep his stick on the ice and getting called for it a couple of times. Reimer doing his best imitation of Darling’s leaky 5-hole. Gibbons forgetting to sharpen his blades before the game (at leas he has already cleared waivers). Forsling as a whirling dervish, although not quite on line. Slavin getting beat repeatedly. Overall a disappointing effort.