Saturday night’s 10pm Eastern Time start against the Los Angeles Kings marks the third game of six in the current road trip. Thus far, the big winners have been the Canes fans who are not late-nighters and therefore have not had to endure the first two games.
The first game in Vancouver saw the Hurricanes unable to carry forward the extra juice that they had when they ground out a win on Saturday. Lackluster is the term that comes to mind for Tuesday’s 3-0 loss to the Canucks.
The second game saw the Hurricanes have every bit of what they needed to claim a much-needed road win. The Hurricanes sprinted out to a 3-0 lead in the first period and did a decent job of making a couple big plays late in the second period to defend the lead. But when the San Jose Sharks pinned their ears back and went from broke in the third period, the Hurricanes wilted under the pressure. Implosion is the word that comes to mind for Thursday’s 5-4 overtime loss.
On Saturday in Los Angeles, the Hurricanes will take a third try for a first win on the current road trip. The opponent is a good one in the Los Angeles Kings who currently sit atop the Western Conference standings and are 7-2-1 in their last 10 games.
But at this point in time for the Hurricanes, it is not about looking outward at the opponent. Rather, it is about looking inward to see if the team can stop the bleeding before the 2017-18 season rides off into the cold December nights.
‘What I’m watching’ for the Carolina Hurricanes versus the Los Angeles Kings
1) Heart, determination, resiliency, etc.
The team has clearly reached the point when the Xs and Os, match ups, statistics and other analytical angles take a back seat to the mental state of the team.
When pressured in the third period on Thursday, the team collapsed in every way imaginable – defensive break downs, puck management errors, ‘meh’ goaltending, etc.
The first check point for Saturday’s game is to see whether the Hurricanes can put Thursday’s late-game collapse behind them and immediately get back to what they did in the first period that was actually a very good one.
2) Special teams
Thursday’s loss was a 100 percent debacle in terms of special teams play. The penalty kill allowed two goals on three tries for the Sharks power play, but somehow were topped by a power play that also allowed two shorthanded goals on three tries. In total, that is a nearly impossible minus 4 on special teams.
On Saturday, I will be watching to if the Hurricanes can right the ship in terms of special teams play.
3) A sounder brand of hockey
No doubt, the Sharks pushed desperately with all they had trying to play their way back into the game in the third period. But a key ingredient in the comeback was shoddy defensive play and decision-making. ‘Iffy’ defense that has been a problem in other recent losses too reared its ugly head in a massive way on Thursday.
On Saturday I will be watching to see if the Hurricanes can tighten things up defensively.
We have reached the point where I have absolutely no idea what to expect from the Hurricanes especially in a game like Saturday’s. But with coffee ‘additives’ and Dramamine in hand, I will be ready to board the roller coaster at 10:30pm on Saturday for the opening puck drop with John, Tripp and Mike on Fox Sports Carolinas.
Go Canes!
I applaud your ability to keep a level head and write anything meaningful and well thought out about this team right now. I agree on all your points. This team is lost right now. They have no sense of direction, I don’t see any leaders out there on the ice outside of the occasional shift from Williams and Staal, we hear the same garbage excuses and explanations in the locker room after every ridiculous choke job, they have zero confidence… They have to decide they’re not going down this path again, come together as a team, and build an identity with each other and for each other. Teams are supposed to be brotherhoods, where you’d do anything out there to fight for the guy next to you. I am obviously not in the room, but I do not get that vibe off this team whatsoever. I played travel hockey for 13 years. I would give anything to still be able to be around those guys, go on road trips all over the country with them, and get to play with them. But it seems like this is just a job to the Hurricanes, and honestly like they don’t really care if they get into the playoffs or put out a team that people want to watch and be a fan of. They don’t look like they have the love and passion for the game you see sometimes. I dunno, maybe that’s just my impression and I’m just angry but… There’s just an ongoing list of problems and I am almost a little surprised we haven’t heard anything on the Bill Peters front yet, especially since a decent chunk of those problems can, at least to some degree, be placed on him. If this road trip continues on the path I think it is going to, Bill probably won’t last til Christmas. And I don’t think he should. I know its been said on here many times, but the team needs a major shakeup before another season is down the drain. On the one hand, Filip Zadina, Andrei Svechnikov, and Brady Tkachuk look pretty good. But… The fact that I know that and spent as much time as I have recently looking up the top 10 picks in the 2018 draft should tell you everything you need to know; this isn’t how it was supposed to be again, much less in December.
I also give kudos to Matt for hanging in there and writing good commentary when it is not so fun to write. This is still a great place for people to share their opinions, even if the teams is underperforming.
I concur bw. We unfortunately will be good enough to not get a decent draft pick.
I think the lack of comments on this posting kind of tells where everyone is at on this team. I want to be positive but the continuous mistakes just kills any optimism.
Hope we have a better games this evening.
Maybe the inaction by RF is his way of getting THAT TOP 3 DRAFT PICK (before Dundon FIRES HIS ASS)?
The way this team is FAILING to perform…Arizona, Edmonton, etc will have competition for the worst team and the high draft choices!
I don’t mind staying up late (last night about 4AM), but watching this team will definitely run up my alcohol bill…!
I am not sure it is FR’s fault. PK could have directed him not to spend (regardless of what they say publically). There is talent on this team. I have to ask what BP is doing. It is really looking like flailing, trying anything to get a spark. The mistakes are so frustrating. Only my opinion but I think BP may be on a shorter leash then RF. Brindy needs to go. I am not in disagreement with you puckgod, I said on the other post it was time for heads to roll.
I said inaction (not spend money), like fire someone, trade, or bring someone up! He sees this cluster f*c#, and does bupcuss, sits on his ass!!
…some GM…BLEAH…WORTHLESS!
I agree with all comments, and Matt…you’re going to need a vacation soon!
At the end of the day I just think the hockey trust placed too many chips in the analytics basket for the current roster. I also think they see teams like Ottawa last year and say ‘hey they didn’t have a 1C and we can be successful the same’…yet that is an anomaly.
I’m all for analytics to some degree, but hear me out. We are a solid possession team who shoots the puck like crazy and the data says we are amongst tops of the league. Great!! The problem is we lack the appropriate amount of snipers (aka guys who don’t have to shoot the puck 30 times to pot one goal). Therein lies a recurring problem with this team and why the Canes have been maddening to watch the last few years. This is why the team can look so good and dominate games, only to be deflated by another team making good on their 10th shot (while we fail on our 25th). And when we do have the lead, a majority of our defensive breakdowns and goaltending oopsies are a result of forcing the play due to fragile thinking as they watch their opponents gel in the ways we try so hard to (this is the leadership issue).
The one position we needed most this offseason was a 1C or close proximate to this. We also needed a veteran defenseman to replace Hainsey’s departure. We needed leadership and a player or two to make others around them better. Okay, Williams was a start but we needed more up front.
At this point we have an over-abundance of puck possession guys, all good doobies following the system but they need to play with a few more snipers to be effective. Trade one to a team needing such trait, in return land a front line center/wing who provides net presence and makes players around him better.
With Dundon soon able to absorb financial risk, I’d be making calls to Buffalo for O’Reilly. Or Montreal for Galchenyuk. That’s just a start towards resolve.
I applaud you folks who have the energy to stay up )then, again, I am home with 3 kids age 10 and under, so I know the Sunday will start at 7am whatever I do and I don’t have the enthusiasm to stay up past midnight, this is the first year I don’t.
There were rumors of talks between Carolina and the Habs around Faulk, something like Faulk for Max would be interesting, or Faulk for Alex and a decent prospect (straight up swap of Faulk for AG is an over payment in my opinion, given the time AG has been spending on the forth line and in the doghouse).
Rod should have been replaced as a PP coach 2 years ago. A fantastic athlete, a legend, not a good systems coach (Michael Jordan sucked at baseball, being good at one thing does not mean you are good at something else).
I have officially given up on the season (playoffs), but I am still going to go to a few games and try to have fun. I just sincerely hope we have the commonsense to bomb properly for the remainder of the season and be bad enough to draft a difference maker.
I also hope we can start bringing up some Checkers to see how they do on the big stage. Why guys like Zykov have not been brought up now (since he is our best potential fit for the glaring weakness that is the lack of netfront presence) is beyond me.
I think Don Wandell should also be replaced. Why we hired a member of the Atlanta Thrasher management aight after the franchise was forced to relocate has always been a mystery to me. He is not responsible for player personnel but he is part of the “star focus” marketing, which really does not work when there are no stars.
The Pratchett saying “An ass may do the job of an ox in the time of no horses”, does not work well for hockey.
I bought a case of beer, in case this turns into the usual debacle. I’m staying up to watch, because if everybody plays like Aho, Williams, and McGinn, we can still salvage things.
And as far as knocking GMRF for not trading for a 1C, Matt Duchene has the same number of points and one more goal than Derek Ryan at this point. So hoping Aho and/or Necas can do the job.