Tuesday night against the Avalanche
The Hurricanes lost to Colorado by a 3-1 margin on Tuesday night. Maybe it should be expected with 1 team completely out of the playoff chase and the other pretty close, but I thought the game completely lacked intensity. It had the feel of an intrasquad scrimmage in September with a reasonable compete level but nothing for physical play.
The hits were 13-5 in favor of the Avalanche.
That’s right. The Hurricanes were credited with 5 hits in 60 minutes of hockey.
The need for physical play inside (not outside) the whistles
I am not going to go down the road of ranting and raving about old school hockey, the need for an enforcer or other relics of hockey from years past. But there is still a significant element of physicality inside of the whistles that makes some teams tougher to play against. You can bet that teams are more wary crossing through the neutral zone to receive a pass against certain teams than others. And knowing you are going to get hit whenever possible does cause players to look over their shoulders when retrieving pucks on the boards and often to unload the puck faster.
I would not say that the Hurricanes are soft in terms of willingness to take hits. But I would say that they are generally easier to play against than whoever they are lining up against in terms of finishing hits and creating some wariness for opponents traversing the neutral zone.
The Carolina Hurricanes roster and its impact
A big part of it is the current roster. Gone is Viktor Stalberg who was arguably the team’s most physical forward as measured by finished checks per minute of ice time. Stalberg had the mobility to get to checks (an important part of it), the size to make it count and maybe most significantly the willingness/consistency to finish checks. With 2.1 hits per game, Stalberg is second on the Hurricanes to only to Phil Di Giuseppe who averages 2.3 hits per game. Both Di Giuseppe and Brock McGinn who also finishes checks when he can were out of the lineup on Tuesday night.
And when you parse through the Canes lineup in general, it just seems light on players who create some hesitance for opponents.
The Hurricanes defensemen generally bring size to the equation, I am not sure any truly play a physical brand of hockey without the puck. I give the group in total credit for being willing to take hits and/or absorb contact to make plays, but I would not put any of the group in the category of player that especially smaller opposing forwards take note of before and during games. The young guns, Hanifin, Pesce and Slavin, are all average or better in terms of size but average only 0.6, 0.7 and 0.3 hits per game respectively. And try to picture any of the 3 really hammering someone cleanly in a recent game. For me it is hard. Justin Faulk rates out higher in terms of hits with 1.5 hits per game, but even with him I am torn on whether he has a completely higher gear of nasty and difficult to play against without playing dirty or chasing hits that take him out of position.
The story is similar at forward. The fourth line grades out okay. Nordstrom is not really a power forward in terms of size, but his game has a level of rugged above his weight class. And as noted above, Stalberg and Di Giuseppe top the list of Canes forwards for hits. But when you look at the Hurricanes top 9 forwards, for me it feels like there are just too many players who have the ‘not my job’ for banging bodies. Jordan Staal tops the top 9 with 1.8 hits per game, and Lee Stempniak is close with 1.4, but that it really it. Past that, there is Lindholm with 1. 2 hits per game but then also Aho, Ryan, Skinner, Rask and Teravainen who check in at 0.5 hits per game or less.
Again, the goal is not to go overboard and start chasing hits such that players end up out of position. But with games to build for 2017-18, I think it could be really interesting to see what happened if all 4 of the players wearing captain letters sat down and all agreed to dial up the physicality for a game. My hunch is that a couple things would happen. First, because it is not really the norm in my opinion, I think it would jump out to the entire bench and set a tone that would be followed throughout the roster. Second, I think it would boost the intensity level across other aspects of the game.
What say you Caniacs?
Do you think there is a higher gear for the team in terms of physical play? Or do you think that is just old school nonsense and not suited for the Hurricanes roster and style of play?
If you do think that there is a higher gear to be had and a benefit to be gained from being more physical, do you think it is a matter of importing a couple more of the right kind of players, or is it a matter of leadership setting a tone and driving it through the ranks?
Go Canes!
There is no doubt in my mind that the Canes will need to add some toughness to the lineup if they want to be successful not just in the regular season but in the playoffs when the physicality ramps up to another level. As you stated Matt, often it is necessary not as much to thwart the opposition but more to get your team energized with a big hit or response to a hit/play by the other team. I’ve watched too many games now that while the overall compete level seems to be there, the passion is not. Nobody pissed off, angry or even jubilant. Never a sense of danger. I’m sure I missed some, but I only can recall a single crushing hit during the season, the one by McGinn in the Winnepeg game in Raleigh. I was there and it changed the dynamics, feel and emotions and put the Canes in another level that they needed against a more talented, and larger/tougher team. One of the highlights of the year actually. Just not enough of those IMOP.
I don’t think it’s much of a question that the Canes need a more physical gameplay, but as much as I love watching Aho try, our team just isn’t built for that kind of game just yet. It will be interesting to see if any of the bigger prospects the Canes have been collecting (Wallmark, Zykov, Gauthier, Roy, Elyniuk, Filipe, Foegele, etc.) can step up and change that for the team, without sacrificing the skating ability. McGinn and DiGiuseppe are a great start, but Gauthier and Roy (both 6’4″) would be crucial to developing a more physical presence, if they could step up and claim a spot in Raleigh. Trading for Galchenyuk wouldn’t hurt there either, provided the price is right.
All of you have made good comments and don’t leave much to add. Personally, I think we have to ramp up our physical game with a Niel (Ottawa) type player. That is a player who can play hockey at a good pace and still dish out some respect getting hits.
Fogger said what I have been thinking (hoping). That the size of the youngsters translates into more physical play and a real “in front of the net” presence. In fact, I would love to see Roy at center with Gauthier and Elynuik (I know he is also a center right now) on the wings. It would be great if they could start the year in Charlotte together and if it works, bring them up as the fourth line in Dec. or Jan. Gauther had strong scoring the the World Juniors, Roy is in the top 5 or so of points-per-game in his league and Elynuik apparently excels on the penalty kill. All are 6’4″ or 6’5″. If they fit, it would be quite the line.
Stahlberg banged people. Staal sometimes bangs people (I like how he retaliated to protect Aho), Lindholm seems like he wants to bang more (though I’m not sure what’s stopping him), and then PDG and McGinn both bang but seem to spend as much time injured as they do on the ice. After that, I’d say we generally avoid contact. We don’t have any of that Lucic/Ovi/Simmons nastiness that Bickell represents.
Same story on defense: I generally think Faulk checks aggressively but no one else seems to. I’m not sure where it’s going to come from or we’d have seen it already and I’m not sure it’s part of Carrick or Fleury or McKeown’s game (though I hope it is).
I agree with tenininumee that a big hit changes a game and we need to add that element to our lineup. Many of our young guys may be big in size but from what I’ve seen they don’t strike me as having the nasty we need. But, we’ll learn more tomorrow: Zykov is getting his first look at the NHL and maybe he’ll bring something heavy with him.
From what I’ve seen of Zykov when he gets the puck in the offensive zone his pattern is to use his size to go straight towards the net and to shoot. I will be watching to see if he does some of this in the game.