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Carolina Hurricanes Blogger •
Easy wins in the NHL are a rarity, but every once in awhile you get 1 of those nights if you do the work early and capitalize.
Before the game I noted 4 things I was looking for tonight:
1) Continued jump and fight. Tuesday's win against Tampa was a sloppy one in terms of quality, but it did have the fight and jump and level of compete needed to win in the NHL. The Canes did go a bit into cruise control in the middle of Friday's win, but they did have the jump and fight when the game was still being decided.
2) Crisper passing. Tuesday's win against Tampa was a big step forward in terms of effort, but it was a sloppy and sluggish game where you feel good about the effort and results, but you know you need to get better in terms of hockey quality. Though it is still a work in progress, Friday's win against the Panthers was a step forward in terms of hockey crispness. The finishing was very good and the puck movement was better. Call it a step forward.
3) Staal. See below.
4) 2 points in the standings. The schedule presented a winnable game on home ice. You have to capitalize on these chances, and the Canes did.
A few player notes:
--Evidence of maturation. A few years back when Eric Staal burst onto the scene, he was a young dynamic scorer. But his game was pretty shallow. He scored. That is what he did. And when he did not score, he still competed, but there was not that much more he had to offer as a 19-20 year old.
Fastforward to Friday night. He was solid and sound sorting things out defensively in the middle of the defensive zone all night. And he was taking defensive zone draws on the penalty kill. For the Canes to be great this year, Eric Staal will need to score a bunch, and I think he will. But games like tonight show how far Staal has come as a player.
--Quietly impressive. Cam Ward really had a great game that maybe got lost a bit in the lack of tension and need for great saves. The stretch of hockey he played in the last 7-8 minutes of the 2nd period was arguably the best stretch of hockey for him this season, and he has been pretty darn good so far this season. The flying pad save was highlight reel quality, and he followed that up with a couple others.
--4th line move? Nahhhh...The Kostopoulos goal was a beauty, and 1 that showed his tool bag is a bit bigger than what you usually get out of a gritty 4th-liner. First, he picked McCabe clean. But then with the puck on his forehand and McCabe on his backhand side the play was headed for harmless. McCabe takes away the backhand side and Vokoun plays the percentages taking away the forehand shot and McCabe's mistake gets washed away. But Kostopoulos quickly goes from forehand to backhand and quickly gets a shot off before McCabe can get over. In the process, he crosses up Vokoun a bit, gets a rebound and calmly bangs it in. Pretty nice skills for a guy who gets paid more for grit.
--No less than 6 players scored their 1st goal of the season - BrindAmour, Harrison, Whitney, Cullen, Kostopoulos, Ruutu.
This is also a great game heading into a back-to-back. The big lead early enabled Coach Maurice to spread minutes late in the game. I think the Boston game was doomed from the start due to effort and intensity levels, but the fact that the Canes played key guys a bunch of minutes the night before against a skating Flyers team might have also played a role. The Canes should be in about as good of physical shape as you can hope for playing a back-to-back 2nd half on the road tomorrow night in Tampa.
2 more points to be had in Tampa tomorrow.
Go Canes!
Before the game I noted 4 things I was looking for tonight:
1) Continued jump and fight. Tuesday's win against Tampa was a sloppy one in terms of quality, but it did have the fight and jump and level of compete needed to win in the NHL. The Canes did go a bit into cruise control in the middle of Friday's win, but they did have the jump and fight when the game was still being decided.
2) Crisper passing. Tuesday's win against Tampa was a big step forward in terms of effort, but it was a sloppy and sluggish game where you feel good about the effort and results, but you know you need to get better in terms of hockey quality. Though it is still a work in progress, Friday's win against the Panthers was a step forward in terms of hockey crispness. The finishing was very good and the puck movement was better. Call it a step forward.
3) Staal. See below.
4) 2 points in the standings. The schedule presented a winnable game on home ice. You have to capitalize on these chances, and the Canes did.
A few player notes:
--Evidence of maturation. A few years back when Eric Staal burst onto the scene, he was a young dynamic scorer. But his game was pretty shallow. He scored. That is what he did. And when he did not score, he still competed, but there was not that much more he had to offer as a 19-20 year old.
Fastforward to Friday night. He was solid and sound sorting things out defensively in the middle of the defensive zone all night. And he was taking defensive zone draws on the penalty kill. For the Canes to be great this year, Eric Staal will need to score a bunch, and I think he will. But games like tonight show how far Staal has come as a player.
--Quietly impressive. Cam Ward really had a great game that maybe got lost a bit in the lack of tension and need for great saves. The stretch of hockey he played in the last 7-8 minutes of the 2nd period was arguably the best stretch of hockey for him this season, and he has been pretty darn good so far this season. The flying pad save was highlight reel quality, and he followed that up with a couple others.
--4th line move? Nahhhh...The Kostopoulos goal was a beauty, and 1 that showed his tool bag is a bit bigger than what you usually get out of a gritty 4th-liner. First, he picked McCabe clean. But then with the puck on his forehand and McCabe on his backhand side the play was headed for harmless. McCabe takes away the backhand side and Vokoun plays the percentages taking away the forehand shot and McCabe's mistake gets washed away. But Kostopoulos quickly goes from forehand to backhand and quickly gets a shot off before McCabe can get over. In the process, he crosses up Vokoun a bit, gets a rebound and calmly bangs it in. Pretty nice skills for a guy who gets paid more for grit.
--No less than 6 players scored their 1st goal of the season - BrindAmour, Harrison, Whitney, Cullen, Kostopoulos, Ruutu.
This is also a great game heading into a back-to-back. The big lead early enabled Coach Maurice to spread minutes late in the game. I think the Boston game was doomed from the start due to effort and intensity levels, but the fact that the Canes played key guys a bunch of minutes the night before against a skating Flyers team might have also played a role. The Canes should be in about as good of physical shape as you can hope for playing a back-to-back 2nd half on the road tomorrow night in Tampa.
2 more points to be had in Tampa tomorrow.
Go Canes!
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