A family tradition of attending the Apex Christmas parade (that seems to ALWAYS be on a Canes home game night) kept my family away from PNC Arena on Saturday night, but even the TV version was fun.
After yet another loss that was tough to swallow on Friday night against the Rangers and amidst a growing sense of urgency for the 2017-18 season as the rest of the Metropolitan Division gradually pulls away, the Hurricanes responded with a gritty win on Saturday night in Raleigh against the Florida Panthers.
The game seemed to be plucked right out of the early 1990s in terms of tension and tone. It was not full 1970s crazy in terms of volume of fights and general mayhem, but the game definitely took a different tone than a run of the mill 2017 game especially for a Hurricanes team that generally steers around the extracurricular rough stuff. There were enough actual fights and near fights to make the game feel like a 1992 second half of a back to back between two teams who were sputtering a bit and maybe feeling a bit salty because of it.
Coming out of the gate, the Hurricanes did absolutely everyone one could hope for except pile on goals. Cam Ward looked sharp controlling rebounds, looking sure-handed with his glove and just generally looking ready to go. The skaters in front of him were also good. The Hurricanes dictated play, tilted the ice and even piled up decent scoring chances. Even the power play looked solid. Despite not scoring on their first try with a man advantage, I counted five at least decent scoring chances. Finally on the third power play opportunity of the first period, the Hurricanes broke through when Sebastian Aho and Elias Lindholm worked a pretty give and go that ended with Lindholm squeaking the puck through a small hole in goalie James Reimer to finally be rewarded for what had been a dominant Hurricanes’ showing up until that point. Possibly stirred by a loss the night before, the Hurricanes’ intermittent net front presence was flipped back to ‘on.’ The team was engaged physically and even collected a fighting major along the way when Brock McGinn dropped the gloves with Jared McCann after a scuffle in front of the net. The period ended with the Hurricanes staked to a 1-0 lead but a bit of an ominous feeling entering the second period up only a single goal despite deserving much more.
Florida did push back in the second period and throughout the rest of the game, but Ward continued to play well, and the team in front of him avoided the burst of poor hockey that has reared its ugly head in many recent games. Even when Florida rose up, the Hurricanes were still a going concern in terms of desire, heart and intensity. Joakim Nordstrom absolutely leveled Vincent Trocheck along the boards which started one minor fracas. Jeff Skinner was in the middle of another one. And Noah Hanifin undertook his first NHL fight to boot.
Ward remained a calming influence even when Florida pushed back, and Jeff Skinner responded with a huge goal to pull back ahead when Florida tied the game early in the third period. But a second half surge by Florida’s top line netted two goals and pushed the game to the dreaded overtime where the Hurricanes were winless during the 2017-18 season.
As is often the case in overtime, the extra period was an adrenaline rush of absolute hockey fun. In a single shift early in overtime, the Hurricanes had good chances to win from Justin Faulk, Sebastian Aho and Victor Rask. After that the overtime featured runs of each team taking turns attacking. And just when the game seemed destined for a shootout, Elias Lindholm deftly spun to toward the middle of the ice with the puck and found Noah Hanifin who finished on his own rebound closing out the game with an exhilarating win.
Notes from the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 overtime win over the Florida Panthers
1) Solid night for veteran leadership
1a-Justin Williams
The biggest thing exiting the disappointing loss to the Rangers was Justin Williams’ post-game interview that saw him agitated and salty and with a “This is not good enough!” attitude.
I said in my game recap:
I think the Hurricanes need Williams’ dose and a few more of “This is just not good enough, and that isn’t okay” attitude. It’s not, “We just need to focus on the next game.” It’s not, “We didn’t catch any breaks” or “We faced a good goalie.” It’s just not good enough, and it’s just no acceptable.
Whereas I think the Hurricanes teams of recent years hit these rough patches and then quietly and slowly went about trying to right the ship perhaps without enough urgency or desperation. Saturday’s game looked like that of a desperate and angry team. Justin Williams made a point to go spend a bunch of time in front of the net early in the game. This is obviously just good practice in terms of trying to score goals, but I think more significantly it sent a message to a young team.
And on top of that, the team in general seemed to absorb some of Williams’ surly demeanor and displeasure from his interview less than 24 hours earlier. Brock McGinn and Noah Hanifin fought. Joakim Nordstrom delivered a huge hit and stirred the pot. Jeff Skinner got into a mini-scuffle that pulled in a few more players.
More generally, instead of quietly trying to sort things out during a down stretch, the team instead dialed up the level of adrenaline and intensity and scrapped and clawed for a better result. This was absolutely critical in winning the game, as despite the strong play early, the “win easily with a bunch of pretty scoring” formula that pops up occasionally was nowhere to be found on Saturday night.
No doubt Williams has made an impact prior in terms of raw scoring production and two-way play and leadership, but I think the 24-hour gap between Friday’s loss and Saturday’s win has the potential to change the mentality and approach in terms of the brand of hockey that the Hurricanes play.
1b-Cam Ward
Cam Ward was sound early despite limited work and despite allowing a goal that maybe he could have stopped, he gave the team the higher level of play in net that it needed. As significant as the total of the game was very simply the start. Coming after a run of games during which goaltending was not something to be trusted, Ward looked really share early suggesting that Saturday night would be different. And it was.
1c-Jeff Skinner scores a huge goal
Inability to hold a lead and close out the game kept Jeff Skinner’s pretty goal from being the game-winner, but it was a huge goal nonetheless. After a run of nine games without a goal, Skinner picked a good time reemerge on the score sheet.
2) Noah Hanifin
The offensive part of Noah Hanifin’s game continues its upward trajectory seemingly on a game by game basis. The overtime game-winner saw him step neatly into the right gap for Lindholm to fee and also great hands to deftly deposit his own rebound into the net while flying by.
Also, I would not be a fan of Noah Hanifin becoming too regular of a participant in fisticuffs, but as noted above, the team needed a spark and a way to jump start its game, and I do think that the physical play helped make sure everyone found the right intensity level.
3) Joakim Nordstrom
His hit on Trocheck was a big one and yet another individual contribution to finding a higher gear in terms of intensity and compete level playing in the second half of a back to back.
4) Elias Lindholm
He had a very productive game showing great hands finishing on a close range give and go to get the Hurricanes on the scoreboard first and then playing a big role in the game-winner spinning off the boards to create a passing lane to the middle and finding Hanifin for the game-winner.
5) Fleury/Faulk
I was (justifiably in my opinion) hard on Justin Faulk’s defensive play on Friday night, so being fair, it is important to give him credit for a better effort on Saturday. He was not perfect, but his game was more solid. In addition, he and his partner Haydn Fleury were #1 and #2 in terms of ice time and were not on the ice for a goal against.
Next up, the December road trip begins in earnest with a road game in Vancouver on Tuesday to kick things off.
Go Canes!
I loved the game.
We finally had the full benefit of Justin William’s veteran champion leadership. We didn’t win by”lucky bounces” or any other excuses for lack of effort, we won with effort.
It was a beautiful old time hockey game. It was not a bunch of millionaires skating around wondering about their investments, this game included athletes that cared about the outcome. If they will still sell me a ticket after the fact I will buy it.
The game may have included an apology by the referees union for the mistreatment last night.
At any rate, the effort looked like a team in the mix and I loved it.
To comment on recent “what I am watching” et al, Fleury seemed to be on the ice a lot. I haven’t looked at the metrics but he was stellar in this win.
If we could only score three after their goalie is pulled, we could fix some plus/minuses.
The top 4 D (Slavin, Pesce, Faulk, Fleury) were all on the ice about 21 minutes. He is solid – his first goal will be a cause for celebration.
It was fun, came with its share of cardiac arrest moments but was just a bloody good hockey game to watch.
It doesn’t change anything about my “state of the Canes” feelings (and occasional and justified ranting), but this is why we watch every game, because some of them are just pretty awesome, regardless of the big picture.
I wanted to see them come out with fire and passion, and they did. Lots of movement in front of the net – lots of grade A chances (but still not enough going in). It was chippy from the git-go and Ward said afterwards the Panthers were trying to start something. Great to see the Canes standing strong and standing up for themselves and each other. It was more than just old-time hockey. Is this the “change” the Canes need to turnaround the mediocre play. This is a gamechanger type of game – with players stepping up, from McGinn to Hanifin, Skinner and Faulk. I think my favorite nonscoring play had to be when Nordstrom got shoved down behind the net, immediately got up and levelled the Panther then with the puck knocking his helmet off. That started the kerfuffle that put Skinner and Faulk in the box. But the team having each other’s back in a very physical game -that can define the future. Looking forward to seeing if that proves to be the case. I will have a number of late nights the next 10 games.
What stood out for me was that all of the skilled players were playing with speed and tenacity. Aho was strong on the power plays and appeared to be the best player on the ice in OT. When he regained the puck with just over a minute remaining in OT, I actually thought I saw that the season might be reclaimed–not because he can do it alone, but because LIndholm, Skinner, Williams all displayed similar moments earlier. Rask was also battling. Even though they were technically outshot, the grade A chances were in Carolina’s favor because the grade A players focused. (Of course, Barkov did a fair job of displaying why he is one of the next top centers in the league.)
I would like to see Ward and Darling split the road games. Not sure if that will make a big difference, but Cam was strong last night.
If the Canes can find a way to go 3-1-2 out west, that would be really huge.
Since I write about the Hurricanes in a public forum, I try to avoid being too knee-jerk reaction in game recaps especially in the event that the results are disappointing. But as a fan of the team, the result does impact the lens through which anyone evaluates a game, especially right after it ends.
But in sleeping on the Hurricanes win last night, I really thing it was 2-3 levels higher than just getting a win.
The game was arguably the best of the season in terms of raw entertainment value with a bit of scoring, even more scoring chances, physical play and a couple fights and overtime drama.
And in terms of story line, I think winning a game like that where the team was not rewarded for a strong start but fought to get into the win column is more of what they need.
I think key is watching to see if this team can make that form of desperate and hungry part of there every-game formula of it is only something that they can drum up once every two weeks when things are truly desperate.
Matt. I agree that the game could be more than “just” a win. But I don’t think it was all desperation. While there was a lot of physical play–much of the fighting seemed to be initiated by Florida. The biggest hit by Nordstrom was basically him playing with his every game level of intensity–he was fighting for a puck and Trochek happened to arrive when both had some momentum. While I loved it as much as every Caniac, I really don’t think that was any different than Nordstrom has been playing.
What impressed me is that several players seemed to play at 100% of their talent on many shifts. Lindholm was noticeable (hope that it wasn’t just a birthday thing) for both his skating and his forechecking. As I mentioned above, Aho looked good all night; he looked elite in overtime. Skinner is getting greedy in a good way.
I also like that the D is becoming more balanced. I think over the next 57 games it will be an advantage to have all 6 fresh and contributing in the offensive end. While Hanifin has definitely reached another level, I think Fleury and TVR might make more frequent appearances on the score sheet.
Finally, the PK looked to be progressing toward last year’s form.
So while the hits and fights made the game more enjoyable. I think the skill and balance from last night’s game are the key to the Hurricanes’ winning formula.
CT, I am going to disagree with you a bit about the Nordstrom hit. First, I think he under-appreciated for all he does even if he is not a scorer. But moments before that big hit, Nordy had been shoved down hard behind the goal. He popped up immediately and that looked to me like more of a statement hit (which was a good thing to see and something I would expect from him).
I could not agree more ctcaniac. I commented yesterday that if your not offensively gifted you had better be out working the other teams. Till last night several players were not willing to do that,but that being said everyone bought in and gave 100% and they were rewarded for it. Now the question is whether this team can do this every night because that is what it is going to take for this team to get to where they want to be.
THIS is the team I want to see more of! The frustrating thing about the Canes is that they so rarely look like this.
I will accept that sometimes the other team is simply better than us. That’s going to happen. But what I can’t stand are the games we lose because we look like we’d rather do anything other than compete.
In this game, we fought, scratched, clawed, and were desperate and gritty. And we WON! I want to see this gritty team much, much, MUCH more often over the remainder of the season.
Well said. This level of compete, along with our skill, will win us quite a few games.
By far my favorite game of the season. By far.
Not to be a downer, but where was all this pizzazz prior? Seems to me a one-game level of desperation against a poor team stemming from Williams comments the prior game. Will be interested to see where this all leads against bigger competition…but last night is the recipe for is making the playoffs. I still think we need a trade or two to right this ship long term.
Adding, had we done what we did to Florida against NYR (twice) or TOR in the last week, then I’d be more thrilled. Rather we got smoked against those teams. So I don’t think we should get carried away with one win against a weaker opponent in FLA (whose only 3pts behind us).
Great statement game for sure, I won’t argue that. But let’s see this style of play consecutively over a week or two to make a streak of it before we claim playoff chatter. We’re still in a hole.
I hope we can find a good trade target for Faulk (top 6 forward), and make JW the captain of this team. I think his attitude is exactly what the team needs, and switching up the captaincy as the result of a trade is less likely to have lingering morale effect on the team (though I would say don’t the team should switch captains regardless, give the C to the guy who has proven that he knows how to play the game and will not accept subpar performances).
According to Hockeybuzz (which is about as reliable as the 30-day weather forecast for Minnesota in April), the Canes are interested in Tyson Berry from Col. I could see that being an attempt to backfill for a Faulk trade scenario.
I totally agree that one fun game, seeing the team we want to see, is not an excuse for the large number of games where we haven’t, nor does it tell us anything other than the team is capable of a lot more grit. We need to see a lot of games like this to be convinced that the team has truly rediscovered its “grits'” (I am a transplant and despite having lived here 10 years I still don’t like grits).