Stepping into familiar shoes, the Hurricanes will take to the ice on Thursday and again look to rebound. On Saturday in Raleigh, the Hurricanes ground out a spirited even if not pretty home win against the Florida Panthers. Many, including myself, thought had a different tone to it and that it had the potential to be a turning point. But Tuesday’s kick off of a six-game road trip fell flat with a 3-0 loss that continued the 2017-18 season on its path of ups and downs.
Thursday night’s game in San Jose represents a second try to start producing on an all-important December road trip. Right now the Hurricanes are below the playoff cut line and chasing a large pack of teams in the Metropolitan Division who are gradually climbing above the .500 break even line that has mostly been the Hurricanes home. “Must win” for any single game in December is an overstatement, but the sense of urgency is clearly rising.
Against that backdrop, here is what I will be watching for the Hurricanes 10:30pm “coffee special” against the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night…
What I’m watching
1) A return of the fire from Saturday
I do not think it is necessary for the Hurricanes to pick up two fighting majors to be engaged and play the right way, but I do think this team has yet to build the right level of hunger, desperation, heart or whatever else into their every-game formula. The team was different on Saturday. The fights might have been the visual, but it ran deeper. Heading into Tuesday’s game in Vancouver, my burning question was basically whether the Hurricanes could muster up desperate when things were not desperate. They could not. Instead the game looked like an exhale and reversion to the old way with the desperation and hunger shelved until some point in the future when things returned to desperate after a bad loss, losing streak or whatever.
So on Thursday, I will be watching to see if the team can regain the higher gear from Saturday. I will also be watching to see if Justin Williams can spark things, possibly get help from lieutenant Brock McGinn or even better see the fire spread to another key player or two such that the number of people at the front of the line on an every night basis grows and becomes contagious.
2) Goaltending
From the category of ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’ goaltending has again pushed its way to front and center in most game previews reclaiming its regular spot from recent years. My wild guess was that we might finally see a diversion on Tuesday with a Cam Ward start that for the first time diverged from the #1/#2 pecking order. That did not happen. And to be clear, a Cam Ward start in the second game of the road trip would not be that diversion though a strong performance and follow up start on Saturday would be.
Regardless of who is in net on Thursday, the crease has again become a point of weakness such that it is jeopardizing playoff hopes. As such, I will be watching on Thursday to see if whoever plays net can be a positive and better than his counterpart at the other end of the rink.
3) Leadership
As noted above, the urgency level is heightened right now. A loss would put the Hurricanes back at .500 officially at the one-third marker for the 2017-18 season. Depending on exactly what math one uses, it would also put the Hurricanes 4-5 points out of a playoff spot which is right where the team was last year.
If there is a time for the leadership of the team to lead, it is now. I will be watching to see if some combination of Jordan Staal, Jeff Skinner, Justin Faulk or others can pick the team up, put it on their backs and drive a victory on Thursday.
The puck drops at 10:30pm Eastern on Fox Sports Carolinas with John, Tripp and Mike.
Go Canes!
I expect much better results starting tonight. In fact, I think the Canes are back in the playoff conversation by New Years. Just a hunch.
While I love the C&C regulars, sometimes I find myself in a totally different place. The whole captain thing is a non-issue. The proof to me is Toews and Karlsson. Neither is lacking the necessary fire. Their teams are simply struggling. Once you get past high school having a “true leader” as a captain makes little impact. Winning makes it look like someone is stepping up. Passion undoubtedly helps some athletes, others not so much.
The organization made three good moves before this season—Darling, Williams, Bales. Adding Kruger and Jooris was positive. Unfortunately all have only paid benefits in the same game a few times. Unless you think all those things weren’t positive, then RF (and to some degree BP) deserves credit. I am as frustrated as others—thus fewer comments.
Still when I think more than feel, I like the potential for this season. As I said my hunch is all the improvements start working in unison tonight.
All good points. Something else that doesn’t get mentioned is Francis’ limited budget. A lot has been said about how close the teams are these days, especially in the Metro, because of the salary cap. But the Cane’s aren’t even spending to the salary cap, as I understand it. Please correct me someone if I’m wrong about that.
My point is that I think Francis has done the best he could with what he’s been given to work with, and that the team is doing pretty well considering that they’re missing elements that more spending might bring. We can only hope that after today’s announcement Francis will soon have more to work with.
I believe the cAnes are 30 out of 31 spending wise. BUt nobody cares about the best team per dollar, they care about the team that wins the race.
And in such a sport not investing in players means that the fans don’t show up (Canes arsecond to last in homegame attendance and dead last in overall attendance), which, in turn, means less money to work with.
I mean the average attendance now is just under 12000, if we sold extra 6000 tickets per game, at a modest $35 average, that is $200000 per game, times 42, 8.5 mill (you can get a decent talent for that).
You ar not “spending on players”, you are “investing in players”.
It’s one thing to look for diamonds in the rough, players that fit your style and are overlooked or underrated by other teams, that is smart investment, ditto avoiding to pay a single player or two 30% of the team salary (I don’t care how good Conor is, I think the Oilers investment was misguided, salary 2 mill too high and commiting that kind of crazy money to Dreiseitel is madness), that is spending money.
But the Canes are going to far in the other direction. They are actually spending pretty decent on goaltending, especially for what they are getting out of it, but with a quarter of the team core coming off entry level contracts, this was the year to bring in pricy short-term help to change the team culture.
I’ve said it before, and I think Puckgod has occasionally even hinted at something similar.
RF has always said he had the budget to invest in a difference maker if he found the right person, (but maybe a general manager has to say that whatever the reality).
But the thing is I am not so convinced the team is that much better than in years past. We were all high on Zack Boychuk, Chris Terry and that other dude (who tore it up in the AHL but scored one or two goals with the Canes, then signed with the canadiens and disappeared).
Potential is great, it allows us to dream, but the true measurement of where the team is is the points they are getting, and judging from those, so far the team is no better than in years past. I hope it will change, but I am not optimistic, unless new owners infuse some extra talent and shake things up a little bit.
My my my.
I’ve long wondered if Doc was our 1C. Not in a league standard way, but on our team. He has been a leader everywhere he played. The first period is a ridiculous small sample size, but fun to watch so far.
Ryan has basically been stuck propping up Skinner, a player who makes other team mates look bad. More accurately, an FBI profile would say Skinner is a “disorganized scorer”, a player who thrives on chaos, creativity, and lack of planning. While fun to watch, it is hard to be his line mate.
Aho and Turbo are “organized scorers”, they thrive on repeatable processes for success. Doc is like them, it is a tribute to him that he could be successful with Skinner, but not necessarily the best way to deploy him on our team.
The line maybe called the 5-11 line, for physical attributes. My vote is for the “killer bees”, for the way these not-large guys buzz in the offensive zone. They make opponents look like raccoons being buzzed by bees.
Early and small sample size, but good call by Peters. But is the “killer bees” line a sustainable and consistent option? Only time will tell.
If this new owner is either good at playing goalie, or willing to establish a team behavioral sciences unit, he may make big difference.
The goalie deal is probably not happening.
However behavioral sciences are not generally leveraged other than capturing criminals. It may be equally valuable for capturing champions.