On Saturday, beautiful weather and a holiday weekend offered potentially the best opportunity for spring tailgating until the team tries again in 2018-19 for a return to the premium version that includes playoff hockey.
With both teams out of the playoff chase closing out March, the game had minimal significance in the standings which left fans looking for story lines. At PNC Arena there was a goalie match up between Henrik Lundqvist and Cam Ward to go with the continued tracking of the emerging Teravainen/Aho/Zykov line. And on television, the game was dubbed Sebastian Aho “showcase” night with features and interviews on the young star.
Perhaps inspired by the competition at the other end of the rink, the first period shaped up as goalie battle. The Hurricanes had some good chances early but were stoned by Lundqvist. Then Ward returned the favor later in the first period when the Rangers mounted some offense. The period finished in a scoreless tie with Ward and Lundqvist owning the day.
Early on the second period slogged along with sloppy and sluggish play without much worth noting. But along the way another round of the Hurricanes’ intermittent defensive break downs crept in and gave the Rangers chances and ultimately the lead. The first Rangers goal came when the Hurricanes managed to get four defenders to the same side of the ice without enough attention to detail marking opposing players and a fifth maybe too narrowly focused on his assignment who was not dangerous. More directly, Teuvo Teravainen lost track of Ryan Sproul who stepped uncontested into the slot and Sebastian Aho though not directly responsible for the goal scorer was maybe too narrowly focused on defending a player who was out of the play near the blue line with the ice behind him wide open. The Rangers struck again when Aho turned the puck over at the blue line on the power play leading immediately to a odd many rush against. When a deft saucer pass on a 2-on-1 eluded Faulk’s stick, Kevin Hayes finished into the back side of the net. The Hurricanes pushed a bit late but ultimately exited the period down 2-0.
With the game grinding away and the Hurricanes on the path to another game with a lead in shots on goal but a loss on the score board, the Hurricanes climbed back into the game midway through the third period when Derek Ryan found Jeff Skinner with a nifty centering pass. A good chance for Phil Di Giuseppe off the rush on another pass by Ryan was probably the Hurricanes best chance to draw even, but otherwise the Rangers did well congesting the neutral zone and setting up obstacles at the blue line through most of the third period. The Hurricanes did muster a furious flurry in the final minutes with the goalie pulled. The Hurricanes collected a bunch of face-off wins, a ton of offensive zone time, a penalty drawn and some near misses but were unable to crack Lundqvist to tie the game.
Notes from the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 loss to the New York Rangers
1) Blue line transition as a work in progress
On my list of things to write about in more detail is what I believe is a transition and relate growing pains for the Hurricanes young blue line. I have written multiple times about the difference between potential to be good and realizing it. The team is now a couple years deep into having a young blue line that projects to be a strength that drives wins but also one that has not arrived yet. As a group that skates well and possesses some puck skills, the potential for offense is there, but through about two-thirds of the season the Canes blue line had underperformed scoring-wise.
Nothing has been said about it directly, and I think the changes are more about mindset than system, but I think the Canes run of scoring woes in mid-February prompted Peters and the coaching staff to try to coax more offense from the defensemen. The result has been more offense and scoring which is a positive obviously. Slavin and Pesce both boosted their production the last third of the season. But I think the downside has been growing pains in terms of defensive zone coverage that finds the team trying to keep the offense but eliminate the accompanying defense and puck management lapses. Saturday featured another game of intermittent defensive break downs.
2) Derek Ryan
Playing for his next contract be it with the Hurricanes or with another team, Derek Ryan continued his run of offensive production down the stretch. First he fed Jeff Skinner for a point blank chance and goal, and then minutes later he threaded a puck to Phil Di Giuseppe for an unsuccessful grade A chance to tie the game. With the assist on Saturday, Ryan now has six points in his last four games.
3) Sebastian Aho
The offensive and playmaking part of Sebastian Aho’s game at the center position seemed ready to go out of the gate upon his transition back to his natural center position. Based on that and the team’s need for more playmaking out of the center position, I expect Aho to remain a center heading into the 2018-19 season. But his game without the puck is still a work in progress. Two areas jump out as showing room for improvement as he continues to adjust. First is learning to better take away options, angles and skating lanes in the neutral zone to keep opposing players from using the middle of the rink to pick up speed approaching the blue line. Second is that he has room to improve in terms of sorting out when the right play is to mark his assignment and when he needs to adjust to cover up break downs. Among Aho’s many strengths is his ability to adapt quickly, so he will do fine learning on the job while his natural offensive ability leads the way.
4) Season officially over
By my estimation, the capitulation point for playoff hopes for the 2017-18 season was the ugly loss to the Minnesota Wild on March 6. With a month to go, the team easily had a chance mathematically at that point, but after failing to get enough from the heavy home stretch in February and a some sputtering after it, I think that was more or less the end. But for those who hold on until the math officially makes it impossible, that officially happened on Saturday with the loss.
Next up for the Hurricanes is a road tilt against the Florida Panthers on Monday night.
Go Canes!
We got beat by Lundqvuist…and two defensive miscues. 1) Turbo missed his coverage responsibility. 2) Faulk forgot how to play a 2-on-1. He went for the player with the puck, the goalie’s responsibility and left the other guy in his own.
You don’t win a lot of games with one goal. But the King was a wall. We had a enough traffic in front of him in the first and then in the third.
The game was a real “groaner.” We played for 10 minutes at the opening and then just skated around for the rest of the time. 40 shots on Lundqvist but nothing of the difficult variety. This game was a real marker type game. The Rangers are a miserable lot yet they walked out of our arena with the win. There is no way to sugar coat it. We are virtually at the bottom of our conference as far as talent goes and/or we just don’t have the pride or work ethic that most of the other teams have. Notes on game in particular:
1. Skinner played his heart out as he does every night.
2. Williams looks like a player on his last legs. Can’t keep up speed wise and loses the puck when pressed. Looks like the game has passed him.
3. Aho tried very hard but tonight his line mates (Teravainen and Zykov)left their game in Washington. They stood around and watched him skate.
4. Slavin stopped skating entirely in the third period. It’s obvious the minutes have caught up to him.
5. DiGuiseppe was only other forward to play with some drive.
6. Ryan was used like he was the star player on our roster by Peters as he always is. He must be better than I think because he seemed like he was always on the ice.
7. Faulk apparently got as bored as me and the friends I attended the game with since he became inept in the third period following two periods of okay effort outside of the usual oops on their first goal.
8. Lindholm you would never have perceived he was in the game. Did nothing of note but as usual did that nothing well. New nickname is “Ghost.”
9. Ward played well behind an uninspired team.
10. Jordan Staal, who night in and night out plays consistently well just couldn’t seem to get things to click tonight.
I sat 5 rows behind glass at the shoot twice zone – it sounds like you and I saw very different games. As I stated before, I saw two inept defensive plays and a goalie who wasn’t letting in anything – even up close and there were more than a few of those. We went looking for rebounds – they weren’t there.
This certainly wasn’t the same team that played the night before in DC – and that team was not at the bottom of the conference in talent – but they weren’t as godawful as you seem to describe them.
Givens: 1. New York Rangers are not much of a team. 2. The Canes lost to them.
Question: Why did the Canes lose to them? Select your answer: !. The Canes didn’t play well enough to beat a team as lousy as the Rangers are. Was that because of a lack of talent or lack of effort. I say it was one of the two. You disagree and say it was because the other goalie was so good. I disagree, I don’t think we challenged the goalie with any high grade chances and that actually our goalie played a better game than theirs because of the number of high grade chances our goalie was forced to make (comparatively).
Who’s right? You or I. Who cares…our opinions are subjective. What is objective and factual is we lost another game. That I care about and I am sure you feel the same about that.
With that philosophy we should limit our remarks to: (a) “The team won”; or (b) “The team lost.” LOL!
Lundquist was on his game – number one star by a long shot but I’m appalled at the lack of passion in the Cane’s game at a time when they should be laying everything on the line for a win. I was at the game, and I don’t believe I saw one solid check all night. As I said before, other teams must love playing the Canes because they can run free all game and never have to pay a price. Pond hockey at the pro level. Too many of the same type of soft player. Some have more skill than others, but all share the same personality trait. Need to get some guys in here that bring different elements to the game. What a dead arena as well. It was like watching a high school hockey game with cheerleaders, a flag waving mascot and no people in the stands. Dreadful.
The Rangers own us because they neutralize our speed by stacking up at the blue line and neutral zone, forcing us to make difficult entries or chip and chase. Being a small team, our weakness seems to be winning board battles and losing too many one-on-ones when we dump the puck in. This type of game is “Exhibit A” on why we need to diversify our team by getting bigger and grittier for next season.
For this season, the Penguins and Canes have almost the same total goals against. But our average goals scored per game is 2.7 compared to their 3.3 per game. It seems too easy at times to harp on mediocre or poor goal-tending and defensive lapses, but at the end of the day we are simply offensively challenged. Of course the selection of our new GM, and how he meshes with TD and RF, will be critical in addressing our weaknesses this summer.
I’m looking forward to starting the discussion on how to best construct our roster for next year, and what our salary budget may be. I’m optimistic that with a few key moves that we can not only make the playoffs next year but become a legitimate Cup contender.
Good information and thoughts Blinkman. I go along with your conclusion regarding our lack of offense. One thing about the Pittsburgh defense stats as a comparison. If they weren’t so good on offense (Pittsburgh), then their defensive stats would really not stand them in good stead. In other words, they are only acceptable because with their offense they can afford to play shall we say a little loose on defense.
blinkman – this team isn’t designed to be a dump-and-chase team, and that is by intent. The system calls for moving the puck under control through the neutral zone. Whether that is successful or not is another question. But we are not supposed to be playing dump and chase – the bigger teams will always win the predominance of the puck battles that result.
We have had an issue all season with close-checking teams in the neutral zone. I remember the WPG game early in the season as the first shining example of that.
So the issue isn’t refitting the team to dump and chase unless that is the style we want to play. With players like Lindholm, Aho, Turbo, Ryan (who is doubtful for next year), Skinner it is being better getting through the neutral zone.
rtj – I realize we’re purposely not designed to be a dump-and-chase team but my point is we need to be versatile enough to play a more physical game when needed, or at least be able to put together one more physical line. I’m not advocating for totally refitting the team, but arguably the Staal-Williams-McGinn line was the most effective against the Rangers. We need to have some bigger/tougher players (preferably with speed) to be able to compete better against the style of play the Rangers bring – I think we lost all four games against them.
Name me “bigger, tougher players (preferably with speed)” who also have skill and – this is the most important part – are available. Say it with me, “are available”. This harkens back to the mythical “get a great 1C” – there are about 17 legitimate of those in a league of 31 teams and some teams (PIT) have multiples. This is fan angst without legitimate solution.
The game put me to sleep, literally. The Aho spotlight, while I get it, was poorly timed and probably just a way keep fans engaged as we approach the long offseason (the picture in picture was highly annoying). That aside, Canes played lethargic and the result was no shock. Our leadership is weak.
We need to bring in some quality pieces this offseason who have leadership/determination and grit. I would start by bringing in a 2C that is capable of playing 1C minutes (let him lead the way until Aho is ready). I would also bring in a top 4D and another goalie who is capable of being the #1 until Ned or other is capable. Time to change the dynamic…these types of losses should become unacceptable next year. Give the other goalie credit, sure, but that’s cliché speak for your own team not doing what it takes.
Thank goodness I had drink to hand during the game. The Aho showcase was embarrassing, he didn’t do anything to back it up on the ice.
Also, the Rangers had the diference maker guy, in this case it was their goalie and, to a lesser extent, the Norwegian midget (I remember watching the Norwegian team at the 2010 winter olympics and saying “jeez, why don’t the Canes go sign that guy, he’s incredible”).
But, again, the Canes do not show up with the difference maker guy, it’s mediocrity by committee.
All due respect to Cam Ward, but if we cannot get rid of DArling we need a stronger 1B goalie plan. Ward has logged a lot of miles, won us a cup, find him a coach position or something to keep him in the organization, but it’s time to get a shakeup in net.
Again, I don’t mind the result, though I would have preferred losing to the Caps and putting on a passionate game in fron of the fans, but I don’t like the lackluster mediocrity that this team has gotten accustomed to.
If Jooris gets sent to Charlotte, then traded for an AHLer and now finds himself centering PIT’s 4th line – is there information there on well he was not used by our current coach???