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Carolina Hurricanes Blogger •
For 1 glorious period, the Canes we have been waiting to see for weeks showed up and kicked butt. Via some horrible hockey voodoo curse, the team somehow emerged from this 1 great period locked in a 0-0 tie. And then the Hurricanes of October 2009 took over.
1st period: It was easily 1 of the 4-5 best periods of hockey that the Canes have played this season. I cannot remember watching a goalie survive 21 shots in a period and declare that he was not good. Vokoun left 7-8 juicy rebounds laying in front of him, had a couple more trickle through him and miss the net and benefitted from a post. The Canes flew around, drew penalties, erred on the side of shooting the puck and did about everything right except score leaving with a 21-4 shot advantage.
2nd period: Enter the October Canes. The team took a bunch of the "let me use my stick or hands instead of skating" variety of penalty, spent much of the period in the box, lost any momentum from the 1st period and probably burned through the legs/energy that they needed for the 3rd period.
3rd period: We got another painful version of the other team just being a bunch faster and energetic to the puck. Even when the Canes did get the puck in the offensive zone it was always with a defender or 2 between them and the net leaving them to toss pucks to corners, pass to other players unable to shoot or eventually watch the puck go the other way.
I say it again: The team needs to get faster. Many of the other problems like defensive zone turnovers, inability to generate offense, etc. are simply byproducts of being outskated on a nightly basis.
As far as positives, let me try:
1) Sergei Samsonov. In the 1st period alone, he had a post another mid-air deflection on net and a couple great set up passes in addition to carrying the puck around the offensive zone for long stretches and keeping things simpler and shooting when the opportunity presented itself.
Get him with someone who can finish right now. Whitney? Sutter? He is making scoring chances right now.
2) Ray Whitney early. He seemed to get lost in the game as it wore on, but he had some very good shifts in the 1st period.
3) Brandon Sutter. He played well in limited ice time and with checking-line type linemates. Get him more minutes with skilled players. It can't hurt. And get him some more young legs to skate with. Look at teams like Colorado and LA. The NHL is being ruled by speed at this young juncture of the season even if it means less experience. The Canes lack that right now.
4) There are stretches. The team did find the gear they need for 20 minutes. I would also argue that they played pretty well for most of the game (minus troubles in net) against Philadelphia on Saturday. They need to keep pushing to find 60 minutes of it.
It's about speed and skating I tell ya'. How much more until the team takes a shot and gets a few more sets of young legs in the lineup? It can't hurt at his point.
Go Canes!
1st period: It was easily 1 of the 4-5 best periods of hockey that the Canes have played this season. I cannot remember watching a goalie survive 21 shots in a period and declare that he was not good. Vokoun left 7-8 juicy rebounds laying in front of him, had a couple more trickle through him and miss the net and benefitted from a post. The Canes flew around, drew penalties, erred on the side of shooting the puck and did about everything right except score leaving with a 21-4 shot advantage.
2nd period: Enter the October Canes. The team took a bunch of the "let me use my stick or hands instead of skating" variety of penalty, spent much of the period in the box, lost any momentum from the 1st period and probably burned through the legs/energy that they needed for the 3rd period.
3rd period: We got another painful version of the other team just being a bunch faster and energetic to the puck. Even when the Canes did get the puck in the offensive zone it was always with a defender or 2 between them and the net leaving them to toss pucks to corners, pass to other players unable to shoot or eventually watch the puck go the other way.
I say it again: The team needs to get faster. Many of the other problems like defensive zone turnovers, inability to generate offense, etc. are simply byproducts of being outskated on a nightly basis.
As far as positives, let me try:
1) Sergei Samsonov. In the 1st period alone, he had a post another mid-air deflection on net and a couple great set up passes in addition to carrying the puck around the offensive zone for long stretches and keeping things simpler and shooting when the opportunity presented itself.
Get him with someone who can finish right now. Whitney? Sutter? He is making scoring chances right now.
2) Ray Whitney early. He seemed to get lost in the game as it wore on, but he had some very good shifts in the 1st period.
3) Brandon Sutter. He played well in limited ice time and with checking-line type linemates. Get him more minutes with skilled players. It can't hurt. And get him some more young legs to skate with. Look at teams like Colorado and LA. The NHL is being ruled by speed at this young juncture of the season even if it means less experience. The Canes lack that right now.
4) There are stretches. The team did find the gear they need for 20 minutes. I would also argue that they played pretty well for most of the game (minus troubles in net) against Philadelphia on Saturday. They need to keep pushing to find 60 minutes of it.
It's about speed and skating I tell ya'. How much more until the team takes a shot and gets a few more sets of young legs in the lineup? It can't hurt at his point.
Go Canes!
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