On Friday night in Columbus, the Hurricanes opened up a back-to-back set with a solid road win. As noted in the game preview, Columbus has been a tough match up for the Hurricanes of late. The Blue Jackets have generally been able to dictate style of play and make the game a battle for space and pucks that is not the strength of the Hurricanes who have generally fared better once they get their legs moving. Throw in an elite goalie who is best attacked with traffic and chaos that also has not been a strength of the Hurricanes, and the game looked like a tough challenge.
But despite the challenging match up and compounded by the fact that nothing really came easy, the Hurricanes prevailed to officially start a winning streak at two games.
The Hurricanes have had more impressive wins including on the road, but Friday’s win could arguably be the most significant. Being able to win at a reasonable clip when things do not click is critical to pushing above .500 which the Hurricanes did on Friday.
Notes from the Carolina Hurricanes 3-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets
1) Cam Ward
After what I thought was his first setback in his previous start, Cam Ward took his half of the back-to-back first looking to get back on the right track. He did exactly that. On yet another night with literally no margin for error for the goalie, Ward made no errors. On top of that, he had the answer on a few breakdowns in the second half of the game to hold the game at 1-1 long enough for the Hurricanes to break through first. In total, Ward now has four starts in a backup role and has been very good in three of the four. For a tough job that requires staying sharp despite limited work, that is a rate that the team will gladly accept over the course of the 2017-18 season.
2) Jordan Staal finishes in the clutch
I am on record as tagging Staal as an average at best player in terms of receive/finish skills. I am not changing my assessment based on one game, but I am giving credit where it is due. The first goal on the pretty Noah Hanifin feed looked simple enough because he did have open net to shoot at. But when one looks at the replay, the play was indeed a great opportunity but not without some complexity. Staal had to receive the puck facing one way and sort of one-time shovel another way before Bobrovsky could react. On top of that, the angle was such that there was not really that much of an opening to shoot at.
Then after Aho tried somewhat successfully to forge through the teeth of the defense, Staal again found the puck on his stick and made no mistake with the finish. For a team that is struggling to score right now, it was a clutch effort that played a huge role in claiming two points.
3) Justin Faulk
He continues to too often have coverage issues defensively. I wrote about this in more detail in a player-by-player look at the blue line on Thursday, but the story was much the same. First, he put himself in a bad place defensively. Second, he just lacks the hop and quickness to quickly recover such that his margin for error on being out of position is tiny right now. I think the second is what most significantly separates Faulk from Slavin and Pesce. Slavin and Pesce are not perfect either, but they seem to have so much more three-stride quickness such that small mistakes more often than not stay small or are even wiped away.
4) Teuvo Teravainen
He takes second billing to Staal, but he also factored in both scoring plays and not just from random luck. Here is hoping that next up for that line is getting Sebastian Aho off of zero, so he can exhale and loosen the grip on his stick.
5) Noah Hanifin
I have been chirping about Hanifin trending upward offensively. He did less galloping with the puck on his stick on Friday, but he still managed one huge play making a heady pass in which he stepped into the right hole at the right time, froze the goalie and in the process opened up the net as he passed it to Staal for the finish. Also worth noting was that the game was mostly uneventful for Hanifin defensively – in a good way.
Next up for the Carolina Hurricanes is a short flight and a quick turnaround for a home game against the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night.
Go Canes!
Caught some of the game last night and watched the condensed version. It looked like the team was playing a lot closer to their ceiling which is encouraging, especially when you consider they didn’t need Skinner to score.
I’m totally in love with Hanifin’s play lately, that shot fake was so good I was worried Staal wouldn’t be ready for the pass. The downside is that it looks like he’s on his way to earning a big contract. I’m kinda hoping this pressures RF to look to trade Faulk by the trade deadline as other teams can use the amount the team has invested in defense as leverage. I’m aware I’m probably being too hard on Faulk but I think the team needs to be proactive in maximizing the return on him before he either hurts his value through bad play or the team starts running into cap issues.
I also thought Fleury looked really good.
Also, did anyone else see Cam make those sweet high glove saves!? It’s like playing at the top of the crease lets him get at them before they go over his shoulder! Go goalie coach! Go Canes!
I also caught only a condensed version, but this looked and felt like a slight step up from the game against the Panthers, and it’s much more in line with how I think the team is built and needs to play to win this season.
To Matt’s point, I think Columbus represents significant matchup challenge for the Canes – they’re bigger, physical, and they have the ability to drive possession with those traits.
I was VERY happy to see the Canes play their game to a large extent. Granted, there’s plenty of room for improvement- I think having such a young team is a detriment in this sense, because they lack confidence in themselves and their own abilities. In other words, I’m not sure the guys know what they’re capable of.
Things could go either way and we’ll probably see a number of surges and steps backward over the course of the season; but last night suggests the Canes can find ways to use their skating talents (and in this respect I consider them top 5% of the league) to control game flow. When they do that, it may not be nonstop offense, but it wears the other team down and creates more opportunities.
I would like to think the Canes have another gear offensively. Not a huge step up, because they really do need another catalyst, but there’s room for Aho and Lindholm to make their mark.
TL;DR- the Canes are built to “win ugly” like this, and I’m glad to see them growing into the play style. Plus it was great to see Cam Ward have such a strong game.
Cam Ward had a great game; 3 more wins and he’ll be at 300 for his career. Fleury has been all and more than we hoped for so far. It’s good to see him use his size in front of our net. I agree that Hanifin keeps looking better and better. Some interesting team stats: we are by far the least penalized team in the league. To no one’s surprise we also are last in hits per game. We are in the top three in shots for/against (driving possession) but almost last in shot % (this low shot % is concerning because it indicates either a lack of skilled finishers and/or a lack of net-front presence). As has been mentioned by others before, I concur that we could benefit by having more balance between lightweight perimeter forwards vs. more physical forwards that a) don’t get knocked off the puck as often, b) win more board battles, and c) aren’t afraid to go to the net. BP has been preaching net-front presence for some time. We’ve seen the results the last two games. Stempniak will be a more physical player when he returns but who will be the odd man out?
When Stemp is back, I’d guess Nordstrom/Jooris split time as the #12 forward and McGinn goes back down to the fourth line as he has probably played his way into a full time roster spot.
From now on I’m sticking to what I know or have observed regarding the Canes as my prognostification, prediction and hockey management skills have been shown to be “somewhat deficient” shall we say. So what did I observe?
1. Cam Ward playing his heart out and looking like he is going to make a good partner with Darling. Great to see.
2. Jordan Staal carrying the team on his shoulders. IMO he IS the leader of this team.
3. Slavin being the best defenseman on the ice with his other defense teammates not being far behind.
4. Faulk just needs to get his intensity level up. Right now he is playing in a “lazy” manner kind of like a premadonna. When he has his intensity up he skates the puck up (no long passes up ice while standing still in the defensive zone), moves quicker, and strikes fear into opponents and goalies. He makes the opponents more concerned with stopping him giving them less time to attack him while he is on the ice.
5. The team as a whole played 60 minutes of high intensity hockey.
6. If mistakes were made by players the team’s intensity AND skill covered for the errors.
RedRyder, I don’t disagree with anything you said, but I’m really, really, really wishing that there was more concistancy (game-to-game) by this team!
If we see this repeated tonight…THEN, MAYBE THEY HAVE TURNED THE CORNER! Hope so!
I must agree with the criticism of Faulk, his game has been “NOT GOOD” most of the games…!