IMPORTANT: Saturday’s game is an odd 1pm start. If you have plans for Saturday afternoon, do not forget to set your DVR, so you have Canes viewing at the waiting when you get to your TV at the end of the day.
Coming off a big 3-2 overtime win in Boston on Thursday and riding a 4-game points streak, the Canes finish the week with what the odds makers would say is a winnable game in Buffalo on Saturday afternoon. But the Hurricanes need to look no farther than their disappointing loss in Toronto only 2 weeks ago that started a 3-game skid that nearly ended the 2015-16 season.
The Sabres are near the bottom of the NHL – 26th out of 30 to be precise, but the team has some good young players including Jack Eichel who are capable on the right night. The key is for the Canes to show up with the confidence that they will win but also with the hunger that recognizes that in the NHL this only happens if you earn it.
With that here are my keys to the game:
1) An attack mentality, a stronger start and hunger throughout
The Canes have started both of the past 2 games with sub-par first periods and survived only by some combination of better second halves and some opportunistic scoring. The last thing that the Canes want to do is spot the low-scoring Sabres a goal or 2 early such that they can settle into the game and play with a lead. The ideal script for this game is the road win in Winnipeg a few weeks back that saw the Canes pounce early and jump out to a lead.
2) The big line
Jordan Staal’s game is trending up over the past few games, but his line just has not been as dominant on both sides of the puck since Andrej Nestrasil was lost to injury and Elias Lindholm was inserted into that slot. The torch has recently been passed to the Skinner/Rask/Di Giuseppe line. This is not to say that Jordan Staal and his line is not playing well or that there is a problem. This is a normal situation over the course of a long NHL season and deep teams are often successful because they have the depth to have different lines carry the load at different times and compensate for injuries. That is what is happening with the Canes right now. The line of Skinner/Rask/Di Giuseppe has been the Canes best line for a few games now and is playing phenomenal hockey forechecking aggressively and buzzing around the offensive zone creating scoring chances. The Canes offense runs through that line right now, so here is hoping that it can continue its scoring ways in another big game.
3) Continued strong play from the depth forwards
With the departure of Eric Staal and Kris Versteeg via trade and Andrej Nestrasil’s loss to injury, the Canes basically lost half of their top 6 forwards and did not add anyone via trade to fill the gap. Instead, some combination of fourth-liners, previous healthy scratches and AHL call ups are manning not 1 but 2 lines in the Canes current forward ranks. Peters has generally been given pretty healthy helpings of ice time to the group, and thus far they have responded. Riley Nash has quietly been providing secondary scoring for awhile with 3 goals and 6 assists in the past 16 games. Chris Terry made a nice play to assist on Nathan Gerbe’s goal Thursday and was also the screen on the buzzer-beating game-tying goal by Jeff Skinner on Tuesday. Gerbe has the goal mentioned above. And most significantly, the bottom half of the forward ranks that might seem to be overslotted on paper has generally held their own during the recent points streak.
4) Ryan Murphy
This 1 is a bit of an aside, but I continue to watch Ryan Murphy along with all of the other players who are more or less trying out for the 2016-17 roster before Francis has a chance to shop the open market this summer and possibly fill slots from outside the current roster. Jordan/Murphy have settled in nicely and have been better than expected defensively. The duo is prone to getting hemmed in their own end at times, but they have largely avoided breakdowns, coverage mistakes and bad turnovers, and Murphy has chipped in some help offensively with a couple assists on Tuesday. If you do the math right now, the Canes have 6 defensemen under contract for the 2016-17 season, all of whom are unlikely to lose their slots. The remaining stretch of hockey is important for Murphy to position himself such that he projects to be part of the depth going forward. I would not say that he has been lights out, but since being recalled, his audition has been positive.
The puck drops at about 1pm on Fox Sports with John, Tripp and Michelle.
Go Canes!
