On Friday night in Raleigh, the Carolina Hurricanes play their first game of the season against division foe Columbus. The 2015-16 season has been rocky for Columbus. After starting slow in 2014-15 and then surging in the second half of the season the Blue Jackets became a trendy pick for rising team, Metropolitan Division leader and even Cup contender. The actual results could not be further from those expectations. A horrid start saw an early coaching change that brought fiery John Tortorella to the Columbus bench. Continued struggles and a spat with Tortorella saw young leader Ryan Johansen traded away just this week to Nashville for Seth Jones. Absolutely no one could have predicted where the Jackets are right now which is in the middle of turmoil, trying to reset and sitting firmly in last place in the entire NHL with only 33 points in 41 games.
One would not have expected it when the NHL schedule was released, but the Carolina Hurricanes are the better team and a favorite against the Columbus Blue Jackets in the back-to-back that starts Friday in Raleigh and concludes Saturday in Columbus. But in the NHL, being the favorite means very little. It is about who shows up and plays the best hockey on that given night.
From the Hurricanes standpoint, the team is trying to rebound from a horrible game on Wednesday. For those who missed the after bedtime game in Vancouver, the headline and score did not look bad. The Canes only lost 3-2 on a late goal, and they actually collected more shots. But those basic stats hide what was arguably the team’s worst game of the season in terms of defensive breakdowns. The game featured a run of intermittent 1-on-none breakaways to the net, 2 poorly timed delay of game penalties and just generally uncharacteristically bad hockey. A stellar night by Eddie Lack and a couple timely goals made the result look much better than it should have been.
But even with the 1 bad outing the Canes are off to a ‘treading water’ type 0-1-2 start to 2016 following a very good December and are fighting desperately to play their way into the 2015-16 season. The next couple weeks leading up to the all-star break will likely decide the season:
Here is what I will be watching in Friday night’s game between the Hurricanes and Blue Jackets:
1) Energy level
I have already documented how rough of a week this is travel-wise. The Canes played at home last Saturday, flew out West on Sunday to play Monday and Wednesday before flying all the way back home on Thursday to play today and still has to finish with a flight and back-to-back in Columbus tomorrow. There is no easy way to tell for certain, but oftentimes lackluster skating games like Wednesday are a sign of physical fatigue. If that is the case, the Canes need to find a way to grind through it. The tough week is only half over and the team has 4 games again next week with more travel included. If they cannot find it physically or somehow compensate for it, the 2015-16 season could see its end with the busy stretch of hockey over the next 9 days that sees 6 more games with travel before each and every 1 of them.
2) A rebound defensively
After generally solid play of late, the Canes defense was a train wreck on Wednesday. The volume of uncontested breakaways was through the roof and the Canes had no answer for slowing the Canucks through the neutral zone. Only Eddie Lack’s heroics kept Wednesday from being a 7-2 loss. The team will need to get back to basics defensively if it is to get back on the winning track. On a related note, I will also be curious to see what Peters does with the defense pairings. On home ice where he can control the match ups, my hunch is that he will return to his base of Hainsey/Faulk, Liles/Pesce, Hanifin/Slavin possibly with Hainsey and Liles flip-flopping, but we will see at the morning skate.
3) Calling all scorers
Jordan Staal had a huge game in defeat on Wednesday. He was the Canes best skater and played a huge role in the limited offense setting up Liles’ shorthanded goal off the rush and scoring the other. The Canes need more from what should be scoring lines in Versteeg/EStaal/Lindholm and Skinner/Rask/____.
Are the Canes a going concern for 2015-16 or ultimately destined to join Columbus in the ‘not this year’ group? Friday and Saturday against Columbus will have a significant say in deciding that.
The puck drops at about 7:07pm at PNC Arena.
Go Canes!
