The task at hand for the Carolina Hurricanes is to win a single hockey game and then go from there.
That ask is not that outlandish. The Hurricanes have been a great hockey team on home ice throughout the playoffs and the team’s first loss at PNC Arena on Tuesday was actually not that far off base on a night when the team arguably deserved better.
So asking for and receiving a win on Thursday is well within the realm of possibilities. Today’s Daily Cup of Joe writes the script for that win.
Repeat of the start
The start really needs to be no different than Tuesday’s. The Hurricanes had an 11-1 shots on goal advantage when Justin Williams and Torey Krug went off the ice with matching penalties, changed the flow of the game a bit and offered a small amount of relief for the Bruins. So in terms of intensity level, pace and just about everything else, the team is simply looking for a repeat of Tuesday without offering the Bruins breathing room by taking penalties.
…But with finishing
The difference in Tuesday’s game was the fact that the Hurricanes were unable to convert pretty much a full period of sheer dominance into anything on the scoreboard.
The Hurricanes simply missed the net multiple times with Teravainen’s miss 18 seconds in and Svechnikov’s back door miss being the most notable.
Tuukka Rask, who was also incredibly good on a number of shots, was also flat out lucky on multiple occasions. Justin Williams nicked the cross bar. Rask had one shot through a screen that he did not even appear to see wind up in his glove somehow. And he had another shot that he deflected with his stick that somehow found his glove after that. Thursday would be perfect timing to regression to the mean in terms of puck luck for Rask.
The Hurricanes are also way overdue to catch a random bounce and net a goal from it.
Seeking a snowball effect
Then if the Hurricanes can collect some volume of breaks, Tuukka Rask being human and some finishing, the objective is not just to win but to violently drag Rask and the Bruins in a way that introduces them to doubt for the first time in this series. The odds are long, but since the beginning I said that the trajectory of the series shifts significantly if at some point the Hurricanes can break Rask.
What say you Canes fans?
1) Is a single home win on Thursday out of the question?
2) What are the chances that the Hurricanes bust out in a big way such that a lopsided win has the potential to affect the Bruins even heading into game 5?
Go Canes!
1. A win is not out of the question, but I’d say the odds are 80/20 against. The Bruins are a good, playoff experienced team that smells blood.
2. Almost no chance. Even if they do win in a lopsided, fluke game it won’t affect the Bruins going into game 5. Too many star players, and too much experience. A win would be good to get on home ice and provide the fans a chance to celebrate one more time, but I believe it would only delay the inevitable conclusion of a loss to a very, very good team that will be the favorite no matter who gets in from the West.
A W tonight is quite possible, I hope the Canes go out and give it everything they got (minus taking stupid penalties).
A blowout W, not so much, Bruins are simply too good for that.
I think I am in the minority in not beating the “Bruins are so good” drum.
They are a good hockey that is hot right now but nothing more. Rask who has a history of large swings in terms of level of play is playing at 100/100 with a good amount of luck (missed nets and couple bizarre saves) right now. Past that, the team has a great first line and mostly just solid depth that plays the system well after that.
I’m not a gambler Matt but I’ll take a hot, good team with a hot and lucky goaltender over a decent team that is spent from 5 months of must win hockey games playing with two career back-up goaltenders. Just saying! The Bruins aren’t a dynasty type team but neither was Washington last season. They’re not that good but they were always considered one of the 4-5 best teams in the League.
We’ve got Boston right where we want them – up 3 to 0 and feeling smug. It’s not over yet. Go Canes.
No, not out of the question
Here is how I see it (rose glasses of course)….
First, the layoff killed us. Layoffs have hurt all year. We had been playing playoff hockey since January, we won six games in a row in the playoffs (WOW!).. then bam.. we sit for awhile. They are only human. The adrenaline drained from their bodies…even though they guarded against it. It was inevitable.
Then we play again. We start OK because we have great leadership and quality players…. things don’t end well. boom, more adrenaline gone and more mental stuff creeping in. The next game was the culmination of all the bad stuff that can happen. Bad mental thoughts, rust, focus, etc. (and a good team with a HOT goalie).
Then being the quality people they are with the leadership they have, game 3 comes and they have picked themselves up, mentally better… but rust, some focus, and mainly manufactured confidence (not real confidence “I know I can do this” instead of it even being a question) was still there a little bit and kept them from being as crisp and focused as they could be. They were closer to themselves but not quite.
Now… they have gotten over the mental and the rust should be played out. They should be back to being able to focus and finish, being able to get to their game without thinking about it. If they can finish early, they build off of it and here we go. They are the team we know they can be.
And, if we can get there… game 7 was made for us because it is a back to back! No layoffs, we are good B2B, younger, recover better/quicker….. so Wow. Sit tight folks. Here We GO!!!!!!!
(I didn’t think I could type that many words 🙂 Go Canes … and thanks to Matt and all of you guys for the great reads over the years!)
So you’re saying there is a chance?
Yeah, sadly I was right in thinking the Canes were just done with the season and had been outplayed, out hustled and out talented by the Bruins.
It stings a little bit, because this series just felt like the Canes lay down and let the big bad Bruins walk all over them, and we saw what a real fist line of star players can do (while our first line disappeared completely), but at the end of the day I think it just came down to the fact that magic and adrenaline can only take you so far and eventually the magic ends. We saw this in ’09, we saw it again now.
But there is an important difference. We achieved this success with a young team, with more quality in the pipeline, with the cheapest roster of the NHL. There is a huge upside, and maybe playing through this teaches the players belief but also reminds them what needs to be done to take it to the next series. It was an incredible run from December 31st on, gave us a lot of highs and I am really proud of the boys.
I have loads of thoughts on how to take this squad to the next level, but I just want to take a breath, toast to the team, pretend tonight’s game never happened and feel excited about a fun summer and even more excited about the next NHL season.
Let’s not forget that the Checkers start their AHL playoffs tomorrow, go Checkers!