In the first game after the three-day Christmas break, the Hurricanes again failed to launch offensively. The team mostly failed to generate enough grade A chances, and the power play continued its recent struggles. But Petr Mrazek had a strong game and gave the Hurricanes a chance until the very end. He was a perfect 16 for 16 in the first period and was beaten only twice on the night.
The Capitals broke through with two second period goals. The first occurred on a combination of errors at the end of a long shift. Janne Kuokkanen tried to make a soft pass in his own end. The pass handcuffed Calvin de Haan who probably tried to hard to stick-handle instead of just whacking the puck to the corner, so the Canes could recover and defend 5-on-5. Instead, the Caps took the puck and finished quickly. The Capitals struck again on the power play when Jaccob Slavin lost track of T.J. Oshie who scored on a nifty tip.
Along the way, the Hurricanes did virtually nothing on power plays that could have evened things up a bit. But thanks to Petr Mrazek’s solid effort, the team entered the third period still in the game. When Sebastian Aho finished on a rebound on a Micheal Ferland breakaway, the team suddenly had life. The team pushed from there and mustered a bunch of offensive zone time. The best chances came when Andrei Svechnikov had the puck on his stick twice in the crease on the power play but failed to finish. That would be the Hurricanes best chance to pull even, and the Caps would ice the game with an empty-netter.
Player and other notes
1) Petr Mrazek
He deserved much better. As detailed above, he was outstanding and picked up another undeserved loss.
2) Micheal Ferland
He was unable to finish on either attempt, but he had probably his most noticeable game since his injury setback awhile back. Twice he received the puck outside the blue line with a small gap and was able to power ahead for a breakaway chance. The second attempt did result in Aho’s follow up goal. Hopefully, this game is a sign of things to come and a return to being a regular going concern offensively.
3) Andrei Svechnikov
Svechnikov had a growing pains night. He picked up an early penalty and then another for playing the puck before exiting the box to put his team short-handed for four minutes. He had issues sorting out who/what to cover off the rush multiple times in the middle of the game. And he failed to finish on two point blank chances with overtime on his stick late in the game.
4) Sinking
With the loss the Hurricanes fell to a low point (tied with two other times) at a game below .500 and also fell to seven points (adjusted for games played) out of the final Eastern Conference playoff spot.
Next up for the Hurricanes is a 1pm matinee on Saturday on the road against the New Jersey Devils.
Go Canes!
We’re headed down that same old country road, to the place we belong, which is not in the playoffs.
I am beginning to wish the Canes don’t get power plays, they seem to zap what little life there is out of the team.
The problem is simple, the players are not putting in a full effort, full 60 minutes, unlike the opponents.
There are more issues, systems, finishing ability etc. but the fundamental problem is that the Canes are a step slow and they often look unmotivated.
Dare I suggest that is on the coaching staff? Why can’t they get the players ready to play?
I am getting worried about Svech. He’s making more whoopsies and is beginning to kind of lose his way amidst growing pains and frustration. I hope he can pull back and sort his issues out. He’s got a lot of potential if he does not follow Lindholm down the path of too much pressure/needs change of scenery to find his game.
Great goalkeeping, but the Canes have this downright uncanny knack of fixing one thing while simultaneously breaking another. The offense was nowhere to be found.
We’re not even halfway through the season but the playoffs are slipping away in a hurry. It’s not only the number of points but the number of teams in front of you. With these teams playing each other, often in 3 point games, it takes nothing short of a straight up run of wins to claw back into contension, and I’ll eat all my hats, without mustard, if this roster goes on a run of more than 4 Ws in the next month.
Sadly the Checkers experiment is not working in this game, but not much else is working either.
This is a loss I wouldn’t have minded – there was a lot of good in there – except for all those really bad losses we have had. File it into the “another disappointing game” folder.
Meanwhile there is gossipy word out on social media (not fan blogs) that contract negotiations between the Canes and Ferland are “not going very well” – apparently far enough apart to allow speculation that Ferland will be traded at the deadline.
Sometimes you have to spend money to make money, or to have success. What about that is so alien to the current management?
PK was not the richest or most generous of owners, but he did chip in when the team desperately needed something. When TD took over majority share we all thought that here was a new guy with a lot of money willing to step in and do what it takes, including spending some of his cash reserves, to get this team back in the playoff picture.
What we’ve seen since TD took over is a serious clamp down and pinching, including the de facto firing of Chuck K. It was that, more than anything else, that started losing the team for me.
We see no contracts for Aho, TT, and now we hear rumors that Ferland is having contract issues and may be traded. Sure Cliff Pu and the like are cheap but they won’t get this team anywhere.
Ferland is not necessarily the answer, but he has played better than most of the rest of them and certainly scored more goals.
If you end up not renewing contracts with Ferland and Hamilton, and if Fox does not resign, the Canes gave away two of their most promising players, Hannifin and Lindholm, for nothing (yes, they were a bit past promising and into frustratingly not getting their stuff together, but they have demonstrated since being traded that Calgary made the right call on them; Lindholm in particular).
If you are going to spend as little as possible, you will never make the playoffs, I mean never.
And if the owner is not invested in the team, how can he expect the players and the fans to be, especially given the fact that this team has not made the playoffs in a decade?
What is with you guys? We beat Boston 5-3. No small accomplishment. We came back from being down 2-0.
I say, “Great!” You say, “Yeah, but…”
We played a good game against one of the best teams in the league. We lost 2-1 plus an empty netter. Wilson was beating the tar out of Fishy and Turbo all night long. We played Ovi to being almost a nonfactor. Mrazek stood on his head to keep us in the game. Ferland hit everything in red all night.
We played a good game and lost.
I say, “Good try, guys!”
You say, “Rumors of Ferland being traded. If Hamilton is traded and Fox doesn’t sign…Management sucks! We’ll never make the playoffs.”
We ought to weaponize you guys. We wouldn’t have to defeat our enemies. Just expose them to you, and they would get so depressed they would kill themselves. Wow!
Lighten up, you guys.
Consider the possibility that the future is a friendly place.
pwrflss, why are you so concerned and critical of what others opinions and ideas are? Why not tell us all what your thoughts and ideas are about the Canes needs, performance, expectations, etc.? As far as I am concerned, I think it’s time for us Canes fans to be getting somewhat critical of the management and performance of this team. What I see is a team getting better at a slower pace than the other teams in the league are improving. For every Aho we come up with (finally) virtually all the other teams in the league have come up with more Aho look-a-likes. Some are doing it with our help (Skinner, Lindholm, etc.) That’s not going to get it! Buffalo, Vancouver, etc. are examples of teams who as of just last season were
TO CONTINUE…were also rans and are have improved their teams more than the Canes in one year than the Canes have done in ten.
My comment was not that the canes will never make playoffs (though they have not in a decade) but that if we trade two of our top 5 draft picks to a team for two players, neither of which is resigned, and a prospect that decided not to sign with the team, that the management bodged the situation badly, like they bodged other deals.
TD’s job is to make the team better, to upgrade at every position, he said so himself in one of the interviews last spring. He has absolutely failed at doing that so far.
He’s a rookie owner, rookies make mistakes, if he is analyzing his decisions and figuring out what worked and what didn’t, that’s a good sign and I sure hope to see evidence of that.
But we already have two fewer top 5 picks to rebuild the team with.
Good games and promising things are good in and of themselves, but after a decade of losing I am just not satisfied with that, The canes have suffered the longest playoff drought in the NHL and all the signs indicate that this season is no different.
WE’re all entitled to our opinions. I’m glad some folks can still enjoy this. All the power to them.
And yes, hopefully the future is a place where we can all get together, have beers or other beverage of choice and head on over to the first playoff game in Raleigh in over a decade. That is the place we all want to go.
breezy…well stated writeup on all points. Can’t wait to see everyone at the playoffs.