The last time the Hurricanes recorded a disappointing home loss like Thursday’s was, it snowballed into a four-game losing streak. More than anything Saturday’s win immediately cut short a negative at a single game and put the Hurricanes back in the positive.
My schedule kept me away from the game. If I do write this one up, it will now have to be after the Detroit game. Fortunately, readers have already done an admirable job recapping the game in the comments.
Go Canes!
Matt, your “what I’m watching” column for this game was prescient. “Focus for 60 minutes” and “Best vs Best” was the key to this game.
One bad shift – that yielded two goals 18 seconds apart – was the only letdown. And the first goal was a pick / great play by Florida while the second was a quick turnover style whoopsie.
In my opinion, the canes best all around game this year. Our best were +3 (if memory serves).
On the whoopsie point, there was a bit of a blow-up a few weeks ago about the difference between “mistake elimination” vs “attention to detail” or hot reads for the full 60. In retrospect, I think the difference is that “mistake elimination” is an outcome while “attention to detail” is a system for accomplishing the outcome. A CEO might set the objective / outcome goal of mistake elimination while the COO establishes the system to produce the result. My preference for the systems description is probably a reflection of my role in organizations and personality type more than anything else. Both descriptions are completely valid.
That said, I appreciate your rephrasing in “what I’m watching”. It seems like a small thing but in the event anyone watches this stuff it helps put the focus on the solution and helps create the future we all want.
Jacob Slavin was the unsung hero in an excellent all around effort by the defense last night.
Looking forward to tonight’s game! #takewarning!
Two points that Forslund made last night on “Aftermath” – it was the Staal line on the Barkov line. And it was interesting that RBA turned the Staal line into a pure checking/possession with people reading (I think misreading) Dzingel being demoted to the 4th line. The Staal line was dominant in possession shift after shift pinning the Panthers to the d-zone. Staal himself was a one-man forechecking machine. And they almost picked up some opportunistic scoring along the way.
And when Barkov advanced the puck there was Slavin, like a glove on him – no time and space.
Necas’ goal came from his own “office” – he shot so many one-timers there in CLT last season.
I 100% agree about moving Dzingel to the 4th line was about putting the Canes three best defenders on the Barkov line. Dzingel didn’t help himself on that shift in the first period. Woof!
Slavin is one of the best individual defenders in the NHL. He isn’t as consistent as Pesce, but Pesce doesn’t have the physical abilities that Slavin has to shut down the most dynamic offensive forwards in the league. Few have the feet and the stick to hang with a player like Barkov other than Slavin. The Canes are fortunate to have the two of them.
lts. Agree with your points–except “Pesce doesn’t have the physical abilities that Slavin has to shut down the most dynamic offensive forwards in the league.”
Last season from Feb. 3-16 the Canes shut out Pittsburgh, NYR, and Dallas. Pesce/Faulk had 2/3 of the ice time against Crosby/Zibanejad/Seguin. In addition that pairing kept Gaudreau/Monahan/Lindholm (when they were scoring like crazy) off the scoresheet at even strength. For good measure the last game during that two weeks was against Edmonton. Pesce was on the ice for almost 80% of the time when McDavid/Draisaitl were skating. The only goal against was the result of an errant pass by Justin Williams that resulted in a 2-on-1 where Draisaitl scored. The final point is that in none of those games did the Canes ice Staal nor anything that could be called “a defensive/checking line.” Niederreiter/Aho/Williams took most of the minutes.
I fully understand the belief in Slavin’s physical tools—against the best players we have all seen imminent danger only to have 74 use amazing skating or stick-work to negate the threat. What isn’t nearly as obvious, but actually happens slightly more is that Pesce uses his skills—an uncanny ability to stop the puck at both blue lines, contact that disrupts attackers, and reading the play before danger occurs—to shut down the best of the best.
I am somewhat evangelical about Pesce’s ability because after two of the aforementioned games last February (Pittsburgh and Edmonton) several commenters at another site raved about how Slavin had been elite against Crosby and McDavid “the whole game.” In reality it was Pesce/Faulk who had shut those superstars down. The Canes have two amazing defenders stopping the league’s best in different ways.
If not the most underrated player in the NHL, Pesce is near the top. For all the scoring done on the backend, the defense would not collectively be what they are without him.
I think it was a smart move to construct a killer checking line, this is a great strategy against teams with a bonified #1 line (neutralize that line and then win the rest of the matchups).
I said earlier that I was curious how experiments like Tor’s would work out (investing heavily in star and scoring power and skipming elsewhere), so far the Leafs are struggling mightily so it sounds like this is not a good strategy, (maybe a coaching change will inject new energy but so far I think investing in D and the ability to roll more than 1 line is key to success).
The Aho line was buzzing big time yesterday, though they didn’t get rewarded for it.
Bob is a third period miracle goalie, maybe Florida should put him in net for third periods and let someone else handle the first two.
All in all, it was a fun game to watch, safe about 30 seconds after Florida’s second goal.
Tonight is a big test, a game that, on paper, the Canes should win easily (Detroit are struggling, it looks like their top scorer is out with injuries, they played last night and they did travel).
But the win easy games are the games that the Canes tend to struggle with the most, e.g. the New Jersey game earlier. Here’s to hoping they can avoid sitting back and relaxing.
In other good news, Ned earned his second shutout of the season yesterday. It looks like after a rough start the kid is back on track.