Playing a Tampa Bay Lighting that won a hard-fought, marquee match up against the Capitals 5-4 in overtime yesterday the Carolina Hurricanes had the upper hand early against the Lightning. Tampa Bay had a few bursts of offensive zone puck possession but generated very little in terms of shots or scoring chances. The Hurricanes had a couple of the better chances early including a shot from Nino Niederreiter from point blank range but were unable to finish. But after being outplayed early, the Lightning scored first when Steven Stamkos had too much time and fired a laser into the corner of the net. After that, the Hurricanes resumed getting the better of play 5-on-5 and were eventually rewarded when Nino Niederreiter had his second grade A chance after a pass from Sebastian Aho. Niederreiter finished to tie the game. The Canes scored again when Dougie Hamilton finished a rebound on an Andrei Svechnikov rush to the net. Up 2-1, the Hurricanes had a golden opportunity to push ahead with a three-minute power play (five minutes less an offsetting two minutes) but were mostly disjointed with the man advantage and unable to convert. On cue, Tampa Bay struck back with less than a minute remaining in the period when Curtis McElhinney spit out a juicy rebound and then had the second chance find a hole through him. The Hurricanes exited the first period tied 2-2 but could have had better.
The second period saw the Lightning find a higher gear but also the Hurricanes do a decent job of trading punches and matching them. McElhinney seemed to settle down. The pace increased in both directions. And the teams took turns pushing into the offensive zone. The Hurricanes broke through when Teuvo Teravainen offered up his latest Ray Whitney impression springing Jordan Staal for a breakaway. Staal would make Domingue shift right and leave a huge opening for a goal to the left to put the Hurricanes up 3-2. The Hurricanes would carry the lead into the second intermission, but along the way Tampa Bay would find their skating legs and play their way into the game after a mostly sluggish first period.
The Hurricanes entered the third period with a 3-2 lead and a modest advantage in general through 40 minutes of play. But as good teams often do, Tampa Bay pushed late despite playing yesterday, played its best period of the game and found enough opportunistic scoring to overtake and defeat the Hurricanes. First, an individual effort from Steven Stamkos seemed to gradually suck in the entirety of the Canes defense before Stamkos somehow squeezed a pass through traffic to Cirelli for a crease front finish. Next Victor Hedman would send a well-timed pass to a crossing Ryan Callahan for a pretty tip goal. Brayden Point would later add the Lightning’s second power play market. And the Lightning would add an empty-netter for a 6-3 finale.
The Hurricanes were again in the neighborhood against the NHL’s best. A minus two goals on special teams will also be difficult to overcome, and the Lightning were just better in the third period.
But the Hurricanes are not trying to be better than the Lightning right now. The Hurricanes are trying to be better than at least one of the Islanders, Penguins, Blue Jackets and Canadiens. Though points would have been a nice bonus, the Hurricanes did not have to have this game. The key is to just get back to work with a weekend back-to-back with the second game against the Canadiens.
Player and other notes
1) Near misses on the injury front
If you missed the game and checked in afterward, the game was not newsworthy injury-wise except for the positive that Calvin de Haan returned to the lineup. But the path to get to ‘no news is good news’ was a treacherous one. First, Jordan Staal caught a shoulder to the chin from Yanne Gourd and headed straight to the locker room. Then in the second period, Sebastian Aho and Nino Niederreiter somehow hit each other knee to knee when a puck deflected up into the air and neither saw the other coming while they tried to track it. Aho went briefly to the locker room but returned to the game as did Niederreiter, so hopefully there are no serious after effects for any of the three tomorrow.
2) Jordan Staal with a skill boost
After his pretty spin-o-rama to net his 500th NHL point against Buffalo last weekend, Jordan Staal scored another pretty one on the break away courtesy of another heady Teuvo Teravainen pass. His move like he was going to the right at the last second sent Louis Domingue chasing a shot that never happened while Staal finished into the other side of the net. The sample size is tiny, but part of me wonders if perhaps the team scoring enough with him tucked neatly into a secondary role will lift some weight off his shoulders and boost his game long-term. What Teravainen has been doing lately helps a bunch too.
3) Curtis McElhinney
For his second consecutive start, McElhinney looked a bit shaky early. Part of the issue was likely the low volume of work, but he seemed to be just trying to fight a few shots off early. The Stamkos goal saw McElhinney challenge too aggressively. When Stamkos paused maneuvered and changed the angle, McElhinney was off his angle when the shot finally came. The late Tampa Bay goal saw him fail to control a rebound and then be bit slow to react with a shot leaking through him. In both games, he rebounded in the second period which is encouraging, but this is still something I am watching.
4) Special teams
As noted above, the Hurricanes were minus 2 on special teams. That area of the game was problematic in a couple ways. First, with a chance to run ahead early before the Lightning got going, the Hurricanes power play was mostly inept for three minutes in the first period. Tampa Bay also worked over the Canes penalty kill on two occasions, but more than anything I would put that in the category of the the Lightning just being incredibly good in that facet of the game. In the same vein, the penalties that the Canes took were too much the avoidable variety that unnecessarily make the game harder than it needs to be defending one of the league’s best power plays.
5) Teuvo Teravainen
He is really coming into his own as a playmaking wing from a Ray Whitney-like mold. He had an assist on Staal’s breakaway, set up another point blank scoring chance and did the best he could with a skate deflection chances from the top of the blue paint. He is consistently serving as an offensive catalyst for his line.
Next up for the Hurricanes is a set of home games on the weekend first with Minnesota on Saturday and then another huge four-point game against Montreal on Sunday.
Go Canes!
That was a fast-paced, fun game to watch, stylistically very different from the Pitt game. Playing them will help bring out the best in our guys, as long as the cheap shots are contained.
The canes played a style that will win most games, and that is all you can ask. It wasn’t our night for a win but the speed and skill was on display.
To beat this team you can’t let them get out of their own end. They are not elite at transitioning the puck, but once in the o zone they have no peer.
Glad Jordy appears to be ok.
Won’t win many playoff games playing the way they did in the third. A couple horrendous plays that stood out were Hamilton taking a fly-by on Stamkos, which led to the 4 on 4 goal, and Svechnikov cross-checking a guy in the face in front of the offensive net. Can’t win against good teams doing that crap.
40 good minutes against the top team in the league, too bad they couldn’t hold on. Tampa is an amazing team but the Canes could’ve done better in the third.
Hopefully they can find a way to at least get a point against the Wild, setting up a bit of a playoff deciding game against Montreal on Sunday, especially for them.
The Canes still need at least 4 (probably 5) Ws to make the playoffs.
The scoreboard was not particularly helpful either. Pit regained their 4-point lead (having played two more games) by beating Nsh and Canadiens moved within two points (having played one more game) by embarrassing the Islanders. The only help came from CBJ who lost to the Oilers and remain 2 points behind (also with one extra game played).
Games in hand only mean something if you can get points out of them, so the Wild game is pretty important before the all important Sunday match up. The canes must find a way to get at least 7/10 pts on this home stand (with 4 out of 6 already in the bank).
Hopefully the team will be back at full strength on Saturday and can avoid big slip ups.
Less than stable said that Svetch’s cross check to the face of an enemy defender while he was providing his team with a net front presence, was “crap” that will not win games for us against good teams. I hope I have accurately conveyed what she said. I wouldn’t want to be guilty of misrepresentation.
I must beg to differ, with all due respect. When a rookie comes into the league and plays aggressively, as Svetch is trying to do, the enemy will try to discourage him. This is true for any player who shows complete disrespect to the defense and the goalie by standing in front of the crease. It is especially true when it’s a rookie. The keeper and the d-man will verbally try to intimidate. They will physically try to intimidate. As is true in most sports, the ref rarely sees the initial foul. He always sees the retaliation.
All of this is just so much crap to the effete snobs who are in love with fancy stats, but not necessarily the game. But if you love the game, you know that it is not crap at all. It is an essential part of the game that I love.
Svetch is learning how to establish himself as the power forward he wants to be. Standing in front of the enemy net you are open to many painful fouls committed against you. Almost always, the guys committing the fouls know how to commit those fouls without being detected by the ref. Svetch is still learning how to use his talents to play in this league. Roddy loves him for what he is showing us; the willingness to endure a lot of pain for the team. I love him for that too.
But let’s talk about the real crap. The real crap is the foul committed against Jordan Staal. There is no possible legitimate purpose for what was done to Staal other than an attempt to take one of our best players out of the game. And, since it is well known that Jordan was out for a long time with a concussion, maybe it was hoped that he would be out again for a while (it is likely we will face the Bolts in the playoffs).
As I warned earlier in a post, this is the time of year that the refs swallow their whistles. This is where the better teams loose their dogs of war.
We saw that last night. We will see that soon against NJ, Washington, and Philadelphia.
We only have one dog of war. And it is at this time of year that Mr. Ferland will have the opportunity to show his true worth. He shows it all year, but it is at this time of year that his importance is obvious to even the blind among us. I guarantee that unless he is injured, he will prove to be worth his weight in gold.
If you think taking the bait and a penalty late in the close game is establishing yourself, with all due respect, you are wrong. That isn’t tough, it’s dumb. If other teams know Svechnikov will take the bait and retaliate they will do it over and over. It has nothing to do with stats, but real toughness. Real toughness is taking the punishment and not retaliating. Weak is retaliating and helping the other team win.
Yeah, the hit on Staal was bad. When you go for the blindside hit you are playing with fire. You may connect to the shoulder and make a big play, or you may get the head and a suspension. Gourde got the latter. I don’t think he was trying to hurt Staal. Gourde nor the Lightning have any history of being that kind of team. He made a bad decision to make a risky hit. Now he will pay the price.
With all due respect, we must agree to disagree. In a perfect world all hockey players would be robots. But, they are not. They are humans. Humans feel pain.
You obviously have never played on a team in a contact sport. Jeff Skinner was a player everyone knew had a bad temper and could be goaded into committing stupid penalties. Yet, I don’t remember ever hearing anyone doubt his courage or his toughness.
Svetch has not earned a rep for being goaded into stupid penalties. He is earning a rep for being willing to sacrifice his body for the team. That is rare and special.
Oh! And the Bolts have their share of goons on their squad. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be where they are.
Hi LessThanStable,
Glad to see your posts.
What I love the most about them is that you bring a perspective that is different from many of the others. You make me think. It is a tall task.
Powerless, I also enjoy your posts a great deal.
However there is no need to draw a contrast with LTS. The insights of your posts bring a unique perspective that also make me think, and stand on their own.
Matt does a great job of building a community of team supporters where our common objectives are the ties that bind.
Let’s put all of our backs together and face the vicious world as one team. We all love the canes and the game, although we look at it with different eyes, and think of it through the lens of different experiences.
That is what I love about Matt’s articles and the comments of all those who post. We are outside of the bubble, and can share our love of the game and our team through our different filters.
#takewarning