The Carolina Hurricanes have not been firing on all cylinders of late, but if you just looked at the results, you would never know it. The Canes played a pretty solid game against Toronto early last week picking up a 4-1 win. Even in that game, they leaned on a stellar outing by Cam Ward to make the score look more lopsided than the results. That was followed by an up and down game against Ottawa that again looked to Ward to claim points that maybe weren't deserved. And the effort in Philadelphia was again up and down, but a late goal was enough to salvage overtime and the important consolation OTL point.

Especially during a shortened season and always on the road, you GLADLY take points over performance. Motto is the same tonight in Long Island - JUST GET POINTS IN THE STANDINGS.

Tonight is game 5 of 6 straight on the road and will mark night 10 in a row in hotels if my math is right.

But the points are there to be had.

On the positive:
--They see Rick DiPietro making only his 2nd start.
--The offense-leaning Isles could offer up a race to 5 goals which fits the Canes makeup these days.
--Cam Ward seems to be rounding into form hopefully giving the Canes an edge in net.

On the (potential negative):
--The Isles are a good offensive hockey team with some skill and young legs. If you play shoddy defense (which Canes have done some this year), they are more than capable of running up an easy 5-2 win.
--They skate incredibly hard. Their last loss was very misleading. Only a miraculous effort by Ryan Miller overshadowed what was a dominant effort by the Isles that mustered 40+ shots to less than 20 by the Sabres. If the Canes look like they are just ready to be home and don't show up effort-wise (like they have also done too many 1st periods this year), this could look very much like the shooting galleries of the Toronto and Ottawa games except against a team with more offensive fire power and snipers who make it harder to escape on good goaltending alone.

Finally, the ball really is on the tee tonight. This game is HUGE. If the Canes win they pull off a trifecta: 1) 1st place in the SE division leapfrogging Tampa; 2) A great road trip (even if they lose in NJ they would be 3-2-1); 3) Relief of pressure heading into a tough assignment in NJ playing back-to-back and 3rd in 4 nights against a top team in the East so far.

Canes need to find the jump and go get a point or 2 tonight!

For a quick heads up when I post a Canes blog follow me on Twitter at CarolinaMatt63.

Go Canes!

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