Times continue to be tough for the team and the part of the fan base that is so loyal as to stay on the ship even as it is sinking in a horrible way for the 2017-18 season.
There was brief reprieve with a road win on Sunday, but the past three trips to PNC Arena have been nothing short of brutal, and the team has now lost four straight and seven out of the last eight at home.
The scene has become such a train wreck that this point that sorting through individual details mostly seems to miss the point.
I am on record from one week ago after the abysmal loss to the Bruins as saying that the season was over and that the time was now to cut ties with Bill Peters with the aim of keeping the remainder of the season from sucking energy from the team going forward. I still think that is the best path forward, though the situation is complicated by the bigger picture.
Tom Dundon is in a really tough spot right now. It could not be more obvious that Peters has lost this team, but with no @NHLCanes GM & building rumblings/impression that Dundon is too hands on, firing Peters is another step in that direction.
— Canes and Coffee (@CanesandCoffee) March 21, 2018
As for the game on Tuesday, at a high level the game was a loosely played game by two non-playoff teams who largely showed why they were in the non-playoff part of the NHL standings. Break downs and loose plays at least offered sugary entertainment in the form of goal scoring if you were willing to sacrifice level of play and also did not cared which team was scoring most.
In bullet form, here are some observations:
Justin Faulk and Klas Dahlbeck
Klas Dahlbeck is not a top 4 defenseman. That likely is not a surprise. Justin Faulk also is not a top 4 defenseman right now probably by roughly the same margin. That is a problem. The duo was absolutely brutal in Tuesday’s loss. An early goal saw Dahlbeck/Faulk fail twice to clear the defensive zone, get caught on the ice tired and then get beaten. The Draisaitl goal highlighted the lack of mobility. A puck carrier carried the puck off the wall and across the top of the face-off circles unobstructed by Faulk. Faulk actually assisted on one goal on a tough break off an official’s skate. The carom was a bad break, but Faulk’s decision to backhand a puck softly across the front of the net was iffy at best, and then the goal happened when his man beat him to the front of the net for an easy tap in. The Auvitu goal off the rush started with a bad Justin Williams’ turnover and Williams then unable to catch the eventual goal scorer from behind, but the middle part of the play saw both Faulk and Dahlbeck just keep backing up such that Draisaitl had a ton of room to enter the offensive zone and then find a passing lane right through the middle of the ice. Faulk and Dahlbeck were both minus 4 on the night.
Scott Darling
If one was given an assignment to dream up the most bizarre version of horrible for Darling right now, I am not sure one could beat the reality. The team in front of Darling is absolutely horrible defensively on most nights right now which helps exactly none in terms of providing a somewhat predictable situation to try to build his game. But he just continues to offer an incredible volume of head scratchers as well. In the first period alone, Darling had a goal shot literally off his back and in, and he somehow kicked a puck that was underneath him into his own net. The second period featured two goals, one from a really tough angle, where Darling was off his angle. Put more simply, the team is not helping him at all, but to call Darling’s play anything other than poor right now, just is not accurate.
Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen
Amidst the smoldering flames, Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen mostly just continue to churn forward in a good way. Sebastian Aho used the space in front of him to skate into a pinpoint blast for a power play goal. In the second period, Aho made a nifty play to put the puck on Teravainen’s stick in close. Without much room, he quickly fired and scored. When the process of trying to figure out the roster for 2018-19 begins, the team at least has two-thirds of a top scoring line in place.
Valentin Zykov
He played a healthy 15:05 with 1:25 of power play ice time in his 2017-18 debut. He did not so much stand out in a noticeably positive way but at the same time did not stand out negatively either. On a night when there was a bunch of bad going around, I guess the ‘half full’ interpretation could be positive.
9!!! more games
While acknowledging that there are extenuating circumstances to the situation, I continue to think that what’s left is too long to just ride it out without making a strong statement that things are broken.
Next up is more home hockey (Oh joy!) on Thursday against the Arizona Coyotes.
Go Canes!
Missed the game, traveling to San Diego for work. I kept up with the score and I am not too sorry I missed it.
Curious if Sykov showed any sign of life, I won’t even bother to ask whether Darling was pulled, it is a moo point .. like a cow’s opinion, moo!
Have I mentioned lately how bad our play is in the defensive zone – clearing the puck?, picking up assignments?
What goal was it in the 2nd – an Oilers player steaming down his left side..Dahlbeck on Darling’s right moves to his left to clear an Oilers player from in front of the crease rather than standing his ground to the advancing Oiler..and then Williams, the forward who’s assignment is now that charging Oilers player, stops skating and glides – I am sure to enjoy that spectacle of an Oilers’ goal from a player untouched within the circle. It just gives you goosebumps doesn’t it?
That said, Darling should have picked up 4, maybe 5 of the pucks that kissed net.
The only joy comes from watching Aho and Turbo.
And Zykov followed his script – planted in front of the net on both PP and 5×5 and…where’s the puck, boys???
Major changes are needed!
Faulk may’ve had his worst game as a Hurricane last night. And this in a season that’s already seen him play unbelievably bad. And Darling… let’s just say that last night didn’t give anyone the faintest glimmer of hope that he can regain his form. And I’m really beginning to doubt he ever had any true, top-tier NHL goalie ‘form’ to begin with. This festering goalie problem has certainly risen to the top, of the now too many problems to count, that need to be dealt with in the off-season. And how that’s done… who knows? I can only see a buyout as the logical, but expensive solution, and then who can we pick up? It might make sense to bring Ned up from Charlotte for an audition game or two? Maybe we have some lightning in a bottle there. I kind of doubt it, but who knows? So let’s at least give him a look. But after last night, I think the most discouraging thing I’m seeing with this team (excluding maybe 4-5 players, at the most), is a complete lack of desire to compete, once they’re down. And this has been a building concern all season. And right now, it’s a disease that has completely taken over this team. And like a disease, there should’ve been steps taken to cure it long ago. Some sort of shake up should’ve occurred when this lack of compete issue began to creep in earlier in the season. Either players should’ve been benched, or sent down to Charlotte, or traded. Or, to go drastic, perhaps Peters should’ve been let go mid-season… but, that’s all dirty water under a collapsing bridge. And now we can only move on with hope, which as SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION taught us: “Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best thing.”
Welp. I’m in Turks and Caicos and I promised the wifey that I’d stay away from anything canes related for the week since all they do is piss me off and there’s no reason to do that on vacation week but. Here I am. I mean FFS. This is pathetic. Aho is gonna be SO gone in a couple years. He’s not even gonna re-sign as a RFA and we’re gonna have to trade him unless things DRASTICALLY change and we put some talent around him. But that’s Canes hockey. An Uber talented player slipped through the smart team’s cracks and fell into our lap. And we’re just chasing him away with every passing game.
This team was doomed last offseason when we didn’t land an offensive catalyst and veteran defenseman. The hopers and dreamers thought we were good enough, and the pessimists experience ended up proving again. The new goalie didn’t help matters either way.
The solution is more difficult than just bringing up guys from Charlotte. They ARE in a winning environment so there is zero sense in giving them an extended taste of the NHL with this current leadership and core. Bring some of them up next year and start fresh with a new offseason core in place.
I really don’t know what to say about Faulk’s play anymore. Even before this season, I had him as a #4 defensemen at best but somehow he’s managed to exceed my expectations and drop to a bottom pairing guy. It’s the kind of drop off in play that we often find out in the off season was a result of some type of injury that requires surgery. It sounds horrible, but I’m hoping there is a medical reason and it is not simply that he’s this fundamentally inept and his first couple of years were aberrations. Regarding Darling, I have to believe this is one of those seasons that everything that can go wrong did, including games like last night where your teamates do a wonderful job of putting pucks in your goal, and not so good in the opposition’s net. Although not a full time starter in Chicago, there was enough history to evaluate and determine he’s at worst, an adequate goalie with good upside potential. He just can’t be this bad unless he’s the Faulk of goalies and I’m not going to believe that at this time. I’m more disappointed in Lindholm, Skinner and Rask. Complete silence on and off the ice and their collective non-production screams for change.