Unlike what followed later, the first period was a fairly normal period. The Hurricanes maybe had a slight advantage at even strength, but more significant was the volume of penalties with the Hurricanes taking three and the Stars two. In killing off two and a half penalties and collecting a power play goal by Sebastian Aho, the Hurricanes emerged with a 1-0 lead. James Reimer seemed to be struggling a bit to track the puck again early, but a post and a couple near misses kept the puck out his net.
I was harsh but undeniably accurate when only 12 minutes into a horrendous second period, I declared on Twitter:
Wow. @Canes have already managed a disaster of a 2nd period in only 12 minutes of play. Covering eyes for remaining 8 minutes.
Very rarely is "hot mess" an apt technical description for hockey play, but here we have it.
— Canes and Coffee (@CanesandCoffee) February 12, 2021
That was not hyperbole. It was that bad. The Hurricanes got a bit sloppy with puck management which repeatedly led to duress in transition and compounded it by defending poorly. The vast majority of the team was complicit in the debacle, but maybe most noticeable were the reunited pairing of Dougie Hamilton and Jaccob Slavin. Hamilton registered a breakaway behind him for a goal, a bad pinch at the blue line and a couple bouts of poor defensive coverage. After seeming to rebound, Slavin just looked off again too in terms of his usual stalwart defensive play. In total, the second period included three goals against, a disallowed goal, a post and a couple other near misses against in addition to . The Hurricanes could easily have given up five or six in a single period with most of those before being 12 minutes in.
But right now, the Hurricanes are a team that seem capable of outrunning any number of plays defensively. When Brock McGinn scored on a rebound late in the second period, the Hurricanes headed to the locker room tied at 3-3 as if the utter disaster had never happened.
And sure enough the Hurricanes followed it up early in the third period when a pretty Dougie Hamilton hit Nino Niederreiter just over the boards at the offensive blue line for a breakaway. Niederreiter got goalie Anton Khudobin to bite one way and neatly finshed into the other half of the net that was wide open. The rest of the game was not a defensive masterpiece, but the Hurricanes did at least eliminate the egregious errors that permeated the entire second period. That plus a few good saves from James Reimer was enough to pull out a 4-3 win on a night where they maybe did not deserve it.
Player and other notes
1a) More of the same offensively — Depth scoring
One of my watch points was the continued surge in depth scoring with the new line combinations. In a statement that none of that seems to matter right now. Brock McGinn ran his goal-scoring streak to four games with his fifth of the season, and Nino Niederreiter scored his sixth of the season. Those totals represent massive 37 and 44-goal paces.
1b) More of the same — Jordan Staal surging
During the wild second period, Jordan Staal collected another goal and an assist. The assist was another of the pretty variety that has become a nearly every game event lately when he fed a pretty backhand pass to Sebastian Aho for a power play goal. He was on the receiving end of an equally pretty Andrei Svechnikov backhand pass and goal. After sinking to 27 points in 68 games in 2019-20, he now has 11 points in only 9 games played in 2020-21.
With the long-rumored Arturs Irbe goalie curse lifted a couple years back, the Canes have mostly been conspiracy theory free in recent years until now. On Twitter I said:
Sure I sloughed it off as funny when I first heard it, but what of these rumors that Jordan Staal cut a deal with the devil a la Robert Johnson/Crossroads while on the COVID list? #LetsGoCanes
— Canes and Coffee (@CanesandCoffee) February 12, 2021
2) Penalty problems
As has been a regular problem lately, the Hurricanes shot themselves in the foot a bit with bad penalties. They took at least three in the offensive zone and compounded one of them by taking a too many men on the ice penalty to make for an extended 3-on-5 penalty kill. The Hurricanes mostly survived it allowing only one power play against and scoring one to offset it. But taking and surviving unnecessary penalties is not a well to go back to too many times.
3) Fighting through it
I thought James Reimer was fighting the puck a bit early in the game. He seems to be continuing to have trouble tracking the puck regularly going down early as if he is guessing. Dallas clanged the cross bar on what I think was their first shot. That play was maybe the most blatant example of him guessing as the player was shooting and going down early on a shot from a ways out that was aiming high. The tally against him was three goals against, two posts and a disallowed goal which is not a clean sheet by any stretch of the imagination. But in a results business, Reimer collected another win, did seem to settle down a bit as the game wore on and posted a zero goals against in the third period to close out a win. Trajectory will be determined by what happens next, but with the win this has the potential to be something to build on.
4) A step backward
After being separated and both taking a small step forward, the reunited Slavin and Hamilton struggled on Thursday night. They were right in the middle of too many of the messes especially in the second period.
5) The ability to outrun errors
After seemingly having a tiny margin for error and losing even games where they deserved better for most of a decade, the Canes newfound ability to just outscore their errors on lesser nights is a ton of fun.
What is this Canes world where bad games just mean scoring even more to win? Sure the team needs to be better, but in an odd way in some ways this is a sign that they are better.
Next up is a rematch in Dallas on Saturday night.
Go Canes!
To get wins and points with so many errors and penalties is amazing to me. Certain players are carrying the team (I’ve never seen Staal look so good for an extended stretch) and I agree that this is a sign they are a better team. If and when the struggling players round into mid-season form then this team is truly formidable, assuming we get adequate goal-tending.
Some random comments and compliments:
1. Mike Maniscalco is doing a good job IMO. To fill Forslunds’ shoes is no easy task. Also, the Shane Willis commentary is excellent.
2. The Reimer-Darling deal really changed the trajectory of this team. Since November 16, 2019 James Reimer is 18-3-2. Not typically highlight reel stuff, just mostly calm and solid play from this veteran. The large majority of his play has been road games. What a slick trade by GM Waddell.
3. Of course the Rask-Niederreiter deal was also a game-changer. Since the trade Nino has scored 31 goals with 35 assists. Rask has scored 10 goals with 9 assists.
4. I wonder if Buffalo wishes they had selected Svechnikov instead of Dahlin. Dahlin has been pretty good but through 2+ seasons he only has 6 even strength goals and about half his assists have come on the power play.
While I will admit that last night was probably Maniscalco’s best game, I would not say he is doing a good job. He regularly calls the wrong names of Hurricane players, much less the opponent. Last night he called Dallas Chicago at one point. Huh? By all accounts Maniscalco is a great guy, but he has been thrown into the deep end with a job he is not ready for.
I feel bad for Dahlin. Frankly, I feel bad for all of Buffalo’s D. They get very little support from the forwards and then the fans all blame them. Waste of a talent.
I agree the Slavin-Hamilton pairing hasn’t been great, but I think 95% of that has been the Hamilton part. He was dreadful last night until some redemption with the pass to Niederriter. Slavin is still crazy good. A couple plays he made last night very few other NHL players can make. At one point Slavin got on the wrong side of the net in his own zone against the boards. He was able to poke out the puck, spin around the guy, take the puck and off the Canes went. Crazy. When he went down to block a shot on the kill and still had the presence to see what the shooter was doing and got his stick on the pass? Wow. Most guys are turning away and closing their eyes waiting to get drilled. We are used to close to perfection from Slavin, I suppose. He hasn’t been perfect, but he is still the Canes best D and it isn’t close.
Staal, Niederriter, and McGinn are on fire. All full of confidence and making plays they haven’t made in the past. It’s great to see. Gives the Canes some time to get guys like Teravainen and Hamilton going. Glad to see Aho score a goal. He played pretty well last night, IMO. (relatively I guess)
Slavin has not been as good as Pesce this season. In 18-19 Pesce was a significantly better LD than Slavin. Sure some of that is Hamilton, but some is that Slavin makes plays that look good while Pesce makes plays in tight spaces that simply stall the opponents’ momentum.
By the way, if you are looking for a play that few others make, on one of the penalty kills Pesce broke up a pass and the puck popped up, then Pesce bounced the puck on his stick at least twice before making a full clear of the zone. “Crazy.”
I will respectfully disagree on all points.
Just about every professional hockey player has the hand eye to bounce a puck on his stick. Unless, of course, you are just mocking me, and in that case you can insert the expletive of your choice.
First, I could not have been more wrong preseason about Nino. He is playing out of nibd right now. He has the “it” factor going and has to be thinking anything he shoots is going in. And very active in front of the crease.
I was also very skeptical (and incorrectly so) about Trocheck (who said today he is finally healthy) and Skjei (who is proving to be solid) and who didn’t dread the return of Gardiner (his play up to season was why TOR didn’t resign him, and now we are seeing why he was considered so good in the beginning). I think all 3 have the confidence they lacked – make that 4 with Nino.
And what more can be said about Staal – RBA post-game said he frequently wondered over the years why Staal wasn’t 2-3 points per game in some games. He is a lot looser – much more comfortable on the ice and as the captain. His passing has been stellar.
All in all, we don’t need no Turbo! LOL!
Hey, we get to argue about which of our two young reasonably priced defenseman has more wicked skill. 4 or 5 years ago I´d never thought we´d have that luxury.
Fortuantely I don´t care which is the better superstar player, fact is they both play for our team!
And how about that trade? RDZ back to Ott for journeyman Galchunuk and ex lightning big boy.
I think it’s primarily meant to open some cap space. The Canes can buy out at least one of the contracts and bury the other in the minors if they so choose.
Galchunuk was a top 3 pick once upon a time, but he has under-performed with so many teams by now that I’ve lost count.
Maybe another grit forward is good, but Sedrik just doesn’t score goals.
Again, I wish RDZ all the best, he was trying but somehow didn’t find his match in Carolina, outside of a few games.
The trade is “meh”, no win or lose, more curious if this is part 1 of a series of trades.
I think it’s a good trade. Pauquette is a more appropriate 4th liner than Dzingel. Can play center and add grit. Let’s Martinook play wing.
Not sure we’ll see much of Galchenyuk unless someone gets injured. 6 teams in four years is a bad look.