Just a quick heads up…Canes and Coffee will down sometime Thursday afternoon possibly for short enough that hardly anyone notices but potentially for a bit longer.
Heading into action on February 15 (so exactly two weeks ago), the Carolina Hurricanes and the Philadelphia Flyers were both in the pack of teams competing for the final two wild card slots in the Eastern Conference. The Flyers were up only three points on the Hurricanes who were in the thick of things. The importance of big streaks in either direction could not be more clearly illustrated by what has happened in the 14 days since. The Flyers who have won six straight are now up a whopping 13 points on the Hurricanes and are not so much concerned with the playoff cut line as the playoff seedings and possibly the Metropolitan Division crown. Meanwhile, the Hurricanes have lost six straight (0-4-2), are currently four points out of the final playoff spot and find their 2017-18 playoff hopes hanging by a thread.
Tuesday’s match up in Philadelphia pits these two hockey trains going in opposite directions against each other. The Flyers are in one of those grooves right now where everything just seems to be working regardless of obstacles. A couple potential injury setbacks just resulted in the next man up getting it done. The team is playing without Wayne Simmonds right now but seems unaffected. The Flyers also lost both goalies to injury, so they just won twice with an AHLer in net and then hit the trade market to add another next man up in Petr Mrazek who is 3-0 with a .947 save percentage since parachuting into the fray.
The Hurricanes on the other hand have hit a stretch where they just seem to find a way to lose. The team has had a couple abysmal outings that very clearly deserved a loss, but it has also had its share of games that could have been wins. If the Canes are to break the playoff drought, they must quickly find a way to push over the hump and into the win column. One positive is that Jordan Staal is traveling with the team and expected to play on Thursday after a few days off mourning the loss of he and his wife Heather’s infant daughter.
‘What I’m watching’ for the Carolina Hurricanes versus the Philadelphia Flyers
1) A much cleaner game
While the compete and effort level were generally there against the Boston Bruins in Tuesday’s overtime loss, the Hurricanes were again sloppy at times in terms of handling the puck and defending in their own zone. A significant portion of the Bruins offensive attack came directly from Hurricanes’ miscues. The team needs to be better in this regard if it is to rebound past an occasional win here or there, so this is something that I will be watching on Thursday night in Philadelphia.
2) Goaltending
I have not seen word of who will start in net on Thursday. Scott Darling was not phenomenal on Tuesday night, but he was not as bad as four goals against might suggest either with the team in front of him offering intermittent break away or all alone in front of the net type challenges throughout the game. My bias right now is to ride Darling a bit further as long as he is trending in the right direction, but who knows what Peters plans for Thursday. Regardless, goaltending maintains its regular spot on my watch list.
3) The power switch for the broader offense
The Hurricanes scored three on Tuesday which is not horrible, but again the sources were limited to the handful of standbys including the power play and a couple of the players who have been producing. To find any kind of run, the Hurricanes will need to get a couple lines clicking such that they can find a rhythm and have the ability to sustain pressure at points in a game. On Thursday, I will be watching closely for signs of life offensively.
4) The solace of ice cream
Thursday will mark game #2 of my committed run through a Caniac Ice Cream Challenge.
The puck drops at 7pm on Fox Sports Southeast (not more common Carolinas version) with John, Tripp and Mike.
Go Canes!
You mention getting “a couple of lines clicking such that they can find a rhythm.” Four seasons of Peters and we are still looking for a couple of lines to get going. We have got one established line. The constant mixing up of different line combinations by BP shows on the ice. No one knows where anyone is going to be, errant passes are the norm, no one as a role other than they must not make a defensive mistake because that will be the reason we lose the game. The only players “thriving” under the current coach are Aho,a brash young player who relies on his innate skill and requires little coaching, and McGinn whose playing style just makes him standout from all the passivity otherwise on the ice. Who else is playing well, has improved or developed their game, or even HAS a role that they could reasonably fill on any consistent basis. Jordan Staal does. His role is to do everything and carry the team on his back.
I just hope the team responds to Jordan Staal’s presence on the ice and plays a free wheeling all-out attack game with the defense involved in the attack as a starting point for rebuilding some confidence. The goalie, no matter who it is, will just have to be as good as their pay grade (better than average). Cam and Darling can and have risen to the occasion in the past. Let’s not analyze every goal they give up. Rask, Price, Lundqvist, Holtby, Bobrovsky, Dubnyk, you name one, they all give up the same type goals. The puck either gets through the five hole, up in the top corner, just over the blocker, off a player, etc. on all of them. The big difference is how many times are they called upon to make the “big” save versus our goalies. Look at Price, Holtby, and Lundquist’s results this year when they have played on teams with starving offenses and porous defenses like the Canes. Why Holtby’s goals per game this season is over 3. Let’s give our two goalies a little slack. Given development of a better than lousy offense and better than a glaring mistake prone defense maybe we have a couple of very good goalies and we might find out that goaltending is not our REAL problem.
Matt, do me a favor. Go back through everything I have written in the past chastising Cam Ward’s performance and excise it from the record please.
Absolutely agree regarding the Cane’s goalies and expectations. Yes, both goalies have given up soft goals but as you pointed out, virtually all goalies struggle at various points both within a game and over the course of a long season. Give up a bad rebound, good defensive players clear the puck. Mishandle a puck and give it to an opposing player, your defensemen needs to react correctly so you can see the ice and prepare for the next play. If you don’t have that type of play, a la the Canes this season, you’re in trouble no matter if you have a Vezina caliber player between the pipes.
For much of the first part of the season I wrote off PHI. Book before the season was they were going young – which they were – and would struggle – which they did, but only for the first half of the season. A group of good young players found a way to gel and become a good team, and it shows.
A number of us here hoped for a “Young #Redvolution” with players coming up from Charlotte right from the beginning. That collided with Peters’ desire to have players “who can play” in the NHL rather than players “who might be able to play” in the NHL. And that gave us Jooris, Kruger, and PDG rather than Wallmark, Zykov (and possibly Saarela and Foegele). Having been to Charlotte for 4 games this season I am not sure that players like Kuokk, Roy (and possibly Saarel and Foegele) would have been NHL ready at the start of the season.
That said, PHI did what a number of us wanted (hoped?) the Canes would do (but didn’t) and have been successful – all this without a true 1C or going into the season (Couturie is having a career year and hasn’t come close to this type of performance previously) or stellar goaltending through it, the two elements that people have been clamoring for (even here).
There is information in that if we choose to listen.
Hopefully next year we run with (some of) the youth.
Finally PHI has shown what a team can do with a sustained winning streak. We have not had one this season, but it is not too late for one to begin and given the Metro- and Eastern-weighted schedule going forward a winning streak now would be significant. There is a reason they play all 82 games.
The comparison with Philly is an apt one. As you pointed out, not many folks thought Philly would be in the playoffs because everyone thought they were going to be too young and inexperienced this season, it was all about drafting well and developing players to be successful next season and beyond. It’s hard to argue that just looking at the draft, Philly did a better job identifying and drafting talented players who were more NHL ready than those selected by the Canes, which allowed them to speed up the process. They also got lucky with the #2 pick last year to get Patrick who will be a #1 or at least a 1a center for a long time. But aside from the draft, you need to balance youth with experience and the Flyers have done a much better job with pairing young, talented players with more experienced, veteran leadership than has been provided by the Canes. Veteran players balance out the exuberance and mistake prone young players and can provide the stability that is required when, for example, you lose ten games in a row but are able to rebound, learn from the setbacks and grow and develop as
a cohesive squad with a real shot at doing damage in the playoffs. The Canes have had limited veteran leadership over the last five seasons and they don’t have nearly enough now. They don’t react well to adversity not just from game to game, but from period to period. The Canes are now paying the price of not icing a more balanced team over the last 4-5 seasons when these young guys were getting started, and before they became knocked down by the constant losing and development of bad habits. Justin Faulk to me is the poster boy for this. He was exponentially better playing with more veteran players. Now, on an island, the pressure is on him and he’s not adapted well. It helps when the veterans are good players like Giroux, Voracek, Simmons, etc. but the Flyers also have guys like McDonald and Gudas on defense, that are maybe average (many fans say less than average but that’s arguable) players but are respected for their leadership and help with the development of the younger players they play alongside of. Many of us who post in here have pointed out this lack of veterans before, it’s not a new point. I just think it is becoming clear that when looking at how the team will be constructed from this season on, beware of always looking for young, cheap talent at the expense of other experienced players who bring other intangibles – hopefully in addition to skills – to the table.
Point well taken on the presence of multiple veteran players. Hainsey was worth well more than his numbers in the last several years.
Two really good comments made here… and I agree with both. An NHL goaltender’s job is to stop all the shots he should, and then make maybe 1-3 really athletic saves on the grade A shots. Then, of course, are the unstoppable shots, that the goalie has no chance to save – maybe 1 or 2 of those per game, if not more. Now… to our season so far – it feels like both Cam and Darling have made their share of the grade A shot saves, but there’s just been a LOT more of those grade A type chances against them, due to glaring defensive breakdowns. And because of that, the law of averages has caught up to them. But in Darling’s case, I’ll be the first to admit, he’s also made his own glaring mistakes (go back to the infamous Toronto game), which has really hurt the team. But I still think there’s a pretty good argument to be made, that he’s bore the brunt of the majority of our defensive breakdowns this season, for whatever mysterious reason (think of a good starting pitcher who never seems to have any run support). So moving forward, I’d give Darling the majority of the starts, almost as tryout, to pin down what we really have in him. And, hopefully, they’ll be the more ‘normal’ type games that most top NHL goalies experience – one’s where the defense actually does their job.
In regards to the not bringing in some of the young talent from Charlotte – I think that’s been one of the most infuriating and confusing issues this season, caused by either BP or RF (or both?). The player I’ve been wanting to see is Zykov. Keep in mind he was drafted in 2013! So it’s not like he’s still a green rookie. He’s paid his dues in the AHL and his stats prove that he’s ready to take the next step up. And why this organization hasn’t given him that chance just boggles my mind, especially when you factor in our lack of net front presence, and lack of scoring (which go hand in hand). This is Zykov’s specialty… especially on the power play. Let’s just hope he’ll get a chance in these last slew of games… but I’m sure we all realize by now, it will be too little too late.
Another really good point made about the lack of veteran leadership on our team (the commenters are on fire today!). What immediately came to my mind, was to relate this to the business world. How many successful companies have a majority of really young employees? Not many. Most companies usually have a good mix of young and old, with the experienced older employees mentoring and training the younger employees. It’s not really too different in professional sports, if you think about it. Every successful team needs a balance of young and old. If it gets out of whack in one direction or the other (with us, we are way too young), the team will suffer. This is an issue that will need to be addressed in the off season (among many).
One word in response to “How many successful companies have a majority of really young employees?”. Google. One of the best And not the only one in that sphere. You have to rethink this logic.
teniniinmee, raleightj, and goaliedad IMO have made really good points in their discussions. All of their comments are worth noting and are presented in a constructive manner.
Philly and Canes cannot be compared they are a way better team.
Philly has a +14 gf/ga Canes are -26
Top six point guys on philly = 325 pts Canes 240 thats 85 more pts
Philly has 5 guys with 50 or more pts we have none
we dont have high end talent like
Claude Giroux
Jakub Voracek
Philly has played 4 or 5 goalies this year and still are winning.
We stuggle to score goals and have no goaltending.
We desperately need a 1c and 1w to compete night in an night out with teams like philly.
Then Staal Lindy and McGinn will really shine. everyone slots better.
Need big FA move this summer.
All true points golden – no question Philly has more talent. But when you say Philly is the better team and point out the statistics you did, the question is why are they the better team? Prior to the season the expectations by most “experts” were that the Canes were more talented and finally going to make the leap to a playoff team while the Flyers were predicted to be one of the bottom dwellers, spending a season developing their talented, but young players. What happened? Is some of it coaching? Giroux was moved from center where he played for nine years to the wing and responded with a career year. Courturier, a defensive centermen like J. Staal, was moved up to the first line and piled up goals and points while remaining defensively responsible. Young players like Travis Konecny and to a lesser extent Jordan Weil blossoming after shown some tough love by their coach over the previous season and a half. Why are most of the Canes players stagnating? I’m hard pressed to find a single player who I can say definitively is playing better this season than last season. Aho and this may come as a shock, Cam Ward are the only players I can firmly say have improved their game. Teravainen maybe barely but he, like most of his teamates, have made gains in some areas of their game but slid in others. I’m much better at asking the questions than providing substantive answers. But the question of why Philly is this much of a better team than the Canes given the pre-season prognostications, is a question that needs to be answered.
I worry about us making another Darling move this offseason. Golden24 expresses what many of us have thought–“we desperately need a 1c and 1w . . .”
The original post mentions a pack of teams that were bunched together in mid-February. Well we know the Canes have not lived up to our hopes. A post earlier this week identified several players who have limited appearances on the score sheet.
There is another team that has not made up ground and one of their players has had a poor February. Any guesses? JT has 4 goals and 7 points in 12 February games–and if you are thinking that isn’t too bad, remember one of those was not really a goal but a penalty in the Carolina game with an empty net. So realistically 3 goals and 6 points in 12 games and zero points in the last four losses.
My point is not that Tavares is bad, but that many Caniacs are adamant that $85-90M will make everything better this offseason. Well, it wouldn’t have this February. And the fact is, I don’t think any of us know why the team that shut out Pittsburgh in January and started February 4-2-1 suddenly struggled.
As tj said, there are still games to be played. A streak might have started in Boston. I am not going to predict. Because I would have never predicted before the season that Vegas would compete for the President’s trophy nor would I have predicted in mid-February that the Islanders and JT would go 2-5-1 because they struggled to score. I honestly don’t know–and that may be a good thing.