Potentially with a fit of merciful scheduling, the Hurricanes 1pm game on Saturday will come and go before many Canes fans realize that the game was not the usual night time start.
After a rough December spent falling down the Metropolitan Division standings, the Carolina Hurricanes will finish the month playing the only two teams in the division that are still below them. On Saturday, the Hurricanes play the New Jersey Devils, and on Monday the team finishes the month against the Philadelphia Flyers. The team will need to collect points in at least one of these games to avoid starting the new year in last place in the division.
One positive trend right now is that the Hurricanes have managed to win their final game of the week to salvage something from a tough week in three consecutive weeks. Hopefully, that trend continues for the fourth straight week.
The opponent on Saturday is a New Jersey Devils team that has also struggled in the first half of the 2018-19 season. The Devils are a treading water 4-4-2 in their past ten games but are three games under .500 for the season in total.
But right now, it is not about the opponent but rather the Hurricanes struggling to figure out their own game. The biggest problem right now is the lack of scoring past Aho’s line. In the games when Aho does not surge, the offense has been consistently sparse.
Against that back drop, my watch points follow.
‘What I’m watching’ for the Carolina Hurricanes versus the New Jersey Devils
1) Determination not trepidation out of the gate
Most certainly this team has to be battling some self doubt right about now. Can they channel that into determination and a bit of aggression? Or will they play the same hesitant brand of hockey that they did in a lackluster first period against the Capitals on Thursday? With an eye out for Jordan Martinook who has regularly led the way in similar situations, I will be watching to see if the Hurricanes can play a hungry and desperate style of hockey out of the gate.
2) Sebastian Aho
The way out of predicaments like the current one often requires a player or two to lead. The lettered leaders of the team obviously have a role to play, but the player with the greatest chance to put the team on his back and carry it for a stretch is Sebastian Aho. He has done that intermittently which is maybe all that is fair to ask, but right now the team could use more. On Saturday, I will be watching to see if Aho can lead the way to a win.
3) The rest of the offense
The Hurricanes have settled into a stretch where the the biggest issue is scoring. The team desperately needs to find some offense past Sebastian Aho’s line. The power play has struggled, and no line other than Aho’s has produced much offensively. If that does not change, the team’s fate is mostly decided, so on Saturday I will be watching to see if the Hurricanes can muster some offense past what Aho generates.
The puck drops at 1pm on Fox Sports Carolinas with John, Tripp and Mike.
Go Canes!
You say the biggest issue is scoring. I say the biggest issue is playing a full game with heart and intensity. The team is quite good when it does, of course.
Very good point. The key seems to be both starting strong and being rewarded for it with a goal or two early. When that happens, the team sees to play its game and at least give itself a chance.
The flip side is when the team either starts slow or sometimes starts fine but just does not get rewarded. For whatever reason, this team seems unable to keep pushing when the start yields a deficit.
Ultimately the team needs to start better more consistently, but equally importantly it needs to learn to keep pushing in the games when things do not go their way.
I think the biggest concern is the overall team psyche. Players are smart and understand this team is built very light for scoring. I’d argue the team is built to win a grinding playoff series more than the regular season. Grinders are asked to step up over 82-games and perform like scorers, while those who have been known as ‘scorers’ place added pressure on themselves internally (some trying to do too much) and end up with have hands of stone and miss open nets. The collective result causes inconsistent hustle.
This probably also explains why some of our struggling/inconsistent players of years past turn things around on better structured teams, and maybe why pending free agents over-price themselves during negotiations so that the team lets them free of the mess. The same mess fans watch and bite nails watching a late December game to stay out of the basement.
Bottom line, if you want to fix the problems of this team you have to pay for the right folks in the right places. Right now we are short (2) top-6 forwards and maybe even a defenseman. Maybe management has tried to deal but no takers. Maybe next year we have the pieces, but this year we just do not.
Also the powerplay, having managed 0 goals in the last 20 tries is a pretty sad statistic.
I have been having fun comparing our present team personnel with those of our Stanley Cup champions. The results of this comparison are interesting.
Jimmy Rutherford built that team. Ronnie Francis built this one (plus, of course, a major trade by Don Waddell).
Jimmy recognized the need for speed as well as scoring skills. So did Ronnie/Don.
Jimmy recognized that the center position was a very important part of a winning team: E. Staal, Brindamour, Cullen, Vasichek/Weight. Staal was an unknown quantity at the time. His first season (2003-04) was a big disappointment. He scored 11 goals. He was a non-factor in most games. Then came the lock-out season. He played the season in the Canes’ AHL affiliate, the Lowell Loch Monsters. He was vastly improved. In our championship season, he took off like a big bird. He scored 43 goals.
E. Staal is a large man. But he was soft. We paired him up with a fast skating large strong man who was mean and nasty and very protective of his center. Oh! And yes. He could score. Eric Cole was the typical power forward. I liken him to a combination of TT and Ferland.
The rest of the ’05-06 Canes were relative unknowns. Even Roddy was know only as a good two-way player.
Goalies? Gerber and Ward? Martin Gerber had never played as a #1. This was to be his first year as not a back up. Cam Ward had never played a minute of pro hockey going into the 05-06 season.
The big difference between the teams is the defense. Ronnie believes in the conventional wisdom of the “new NHL”. Speed and scoring skills are paramount. Our entire defense corps is soft. We pay for that in each and every game. Winning battles for the puck in the corners as well as behind the net is not our strength. More importantly, keeping the slot and the crease clear of enemy skaters is a constant weakness of our defense. Was that a problem for us in 05-06?
Absolutely not. We had slick scorers on our defense: Hedican, Kaberle, Teverdivsky. But we also had strong and mean stay-at-home types: Aaron Ward, Mike Commodore, and Nikki Wallin. Wallin was nicknamed King Kong by his teammates because he was the strongest man on the team. The crowd loved it when he would lift a larger enemy forward off the ice as he would ram him into the boards. Aaron Ward preferred to catch enemy forwards a on open ice as they attempted to cross our blue line. New inexperienced coach Peter Laviolette taught him that he could also score. Then we had Mike Commodire. He was 6’5″ and had 138 PIM in the 05-06 season. The fans loved him. He once did an interview wearing a white bathrobe. The combination of his shock of red curly hair and the white robe was impressive. One of the home games in the playoffs that year, the majority of the fans wore white bathrobes and red curly hair wigs. It was fun.
But I digress.
Jimmy knew that the defense needed offsetting partner combos. This is our main lack. We need to bring up Caj or Carrick. Let one of them partner with Dougie. Hopefully, a nasty stay-at-home partner will help Diugie find his scoring mojo.
As should be obvious, I think we need a Caj-type d man to fill out our team in order to have a winning combo. Such a man can wake up the latent player in each of his teammates.
Oh! And one more big and strong and aggressive physical forward couldn’t hurt either. Gauthier?
pwrlss…you sure have made some very good points in an excellent writeup IMO. I agree with you and could not have stated them better. I would add one thing about the defensemen expanding on your points. Our defensemen need to be more offensive (produce points goals + assists) and as you say, more physical on defense. Both Caj and Carrick would be worth a try IMO.
I think these are great ideas. Sadly, the management doesn’t. They just waived one of the two big nasty D men
http://gocheckers.com/articles/transactions/cajkovsky-placed-on-unconditional-waivers
0 for 22, or is it 23 on the PP + a shorty against.
Kuakanen’s NHL stint is a bust, send him back to Clt and bring up our other big nasty D men and Gauthier, I think that’s a pretty good idea.
A team does not win games when it plays 10 minutes of the 60, but we can keep those discussions for the recap thread.
It’s interesting that Jack Dreury, (or however you spell it), the guy we draftd in the second round is playing great at Harvard, as is Michael Fox. Hopefully they can convince each other to go all in and join the Canes next season. If they can convert their play to the NHL (far from a guarantee) that may help transform the listless team into something.
But that’s all speculation for the offseason.