Happy Martin Luther King Day!
“The time is always right to do what is right.” –MLK
Today’s Daily Cup of Joe has a short list of Canes trends both positive and negative.
Positive
Where it matters
First and foremost, after a generally tough week and rough stretch that reaches back even farther, the Hurricanes now have a one-game winning streak and two-game point streak. The NHL season is a long one that has its ups and downs even for good hockey team. Being able to scratch out a few points to stop the bleeding and make progress points-wise despite the recent struggles could prove to be huge come April.
James Reimer
James Reimer is 3-0-1 in 2020 for a four-game point streak. He has recently been the duct tape holding the team together such that it has not just exploded recently. As noted in my game recap yesterday, Reimer is 2-0-1 in his last three starts for five points in the standings despite receiving only a single goal for support in each game (not counting an empty-netter).
The blue line minus Dougie Hamilton
The Hurricanes continue to struggle a bit offensively which is definitely an area where Dougie Hamilton could help, but defensively the blue line has been pretty solid in two games minus Hamilton. The breakdowns that the Hurricanes have had in the two games minus Hamilton have been more by the forwards. The sample size is tiny, but so far the blue line has been competent even if maybe light on offensive help.
Negative
Scoring woes
Since winning a wild 5-4 game against the Flyers on January 7, the Hurricanes have scored a meager seven goals in six games not counting a pair of empty-netters. Though Reimer has somehow made this work for points in three games recently, winning with a goal per game is obviously not sustainable.
Power outage
The Hurricanes have not scored a power play goal since January 3 and are 0 for 19 in the eight games since. (Someone check my count/math, as I did manually late at night.) There is an element of luck to this, as I think the power play has been good at times despite not scoring. But in the midst of a scoring drought currently, a bit of special teams scoring goes a long way.
Traveling the East
The Hurricanes have lost five consecutive road games against Eastern Conference foes, all in regulation, which makes for 0 for 10 points in those games. The deciding factor for making or missing the playoffs could well be the Hurricanes ability to beat familiar foes from the Metropolitan Division and broader Eastern Conference.
What say you Canes fans?
1) Which, if any, of these trends surprise you?
2) Who has other trends, positive or negative, to add to the list?
Go Canes!
You called it, Matt. Reimer seems to have taken over as the #1 goaltender, at least for now. Other than a couple poor performances he has been the better goalie. It would be nice to see Mrazek rise to a higher level, but his history suggests that he is what we are seeing. An inconsistent goaltender who can play well in spurts.
At this point we are living and dying with young players. Well, some of they aren’t so young. I guess you can expect consistently from young players like Aho and Svechnikov, but that’s what the Canes need. Teravainen really isn’t a young player anymore. I’m not sure if he is injured, but he is playing even softer than normal. It’s effecting the top line in a big way. Hopefully the break will be good to him.
The defense hasn’t been terrible without Hamilton. They miss his offensive spark, but they’ve held their own in their end. The Canes definitely should be looking for a rental defenseman, or maybe a non rental, at the deadline. I like Martinez as he adds a lot of experience, but I haven’t watched him play since he returned from injury. I would think Justin Williams could give the Canes a good scouting report on him.
The most troubling trend is being unable to beat Eastern Conference, and specifically Metropolitan Division, teams in general. No chance they make the playoffs if they don’t fix that pronto.
Turbo is apparently playing through something – RBA referenced it in a post-game video after a game a few weeks back and it came up again when Oshie was selected over him for the ASG – that the downtime would be in his best interest.