For any Canes fans that made the trip out to PNC Arena for tonights Canes game versus the Panthers, it was one of those feel-good wins. Jose Theodore hurt something early on a weird non-contact play, Clemmensen came in spitting out rebounds and trying to find his way into the game and the Canes mostly buried him and Panthers before he could.

I am all for a fun home win and any kind of two points in the standings, and would be thrilled with any variety of that, but tonight could prove more significant. The Canes best line when the game was still on the line was by far and away the Jokinen/Nash/Dwyer. This marks the first time this year where the Canes 3rd line has been anything close the best line and one of very few where it was even breakeven. Riley Nash was outstanding putting pucks in Jokinen's wheel house for his 2 goals in the 1st and then adding a goal and a post of his own early in the 2nd when the Canes were closing out the game early. One huge game is too early to declare victory, but Nash's play brings optimism. What makes me most feel that Riley Nash could become a longer term fixture in the Raleigh and not Charlotte is his calmness with the puck on his stick. He is getting more comfortable carrying it and buying himself time to do something productive with it rather than just try to get it somewhere out of harm's way. It is a stark contrast to Sanguinetti's start this year where best he could do was survive and try to avoid the big version of disaster. If Nash can continue to have patience and calm and move the puck in the middle of the ice, the 3rd line will begin to play more of their shifts in the offensive zone rather than trying to survive in their own end. The line does need to score some, but nothing even close to tonight. If this new group can just consistently move the puck, play more of their shifts in the offensive zone and kick in an occasional goal, it will be enough given the fire power on the top 2 lines. I am anxious to see if today's chemistry and cohesion carries forward.

A few other quick notes:

1) Great time to give Ward the night off. The early lead and lack of a need to do too much was perfectly timed for Ward. He is coming off a good outing Thursday. What better way to keep a streak alive and hopefully build rhythm and confidence than to sprinkle in an easy one. My guess is that Muller will come back to Ellis tomorrow. The Canes get a stretch of neatly spaced games about every other day following Sunday, so this would be a logical entry point to keep Ellis in the mix as he has earned it.

2) Alexander Semin continues to create offense. I can't wait to read an article one of these days talking about how Semin isn't scoring many goals and is mostly riding Staal's surge. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I am starting to see Semin as a chameleon. On lines with more of a playmaking center (some of it with Backstrom), Semin was very much a shooting/scoring-oriented forward. But then you pair him with Staal who has always leaned strongly toward scoring versus playmaking and Jiri Tlusty who is just incredibly heady at finding open ice in scoring spots and being ready to shoot and suddenly Semin has been an incredibly good playmaker. He is picking up very few of the "I just happened to touch the puck before someone made a great play" 2nd assists. Instead, he is creating scoring chances and goals with his playmaking. On all 3 goals for his line tonight, his pass was at least as good if not better than the finish.

3) Justin Faulk. He continues to show a level of maturity and development well past his age. Most importantly, he continues to be the most boring defenseman on the ice for most shifts. He just continually makes correct decisions, avoids bad turnovers, stays in position and gives up close to nothing mostly against the other team's better offensive players. His fight today was also well-timed. First, he hammers someone on the boards cleanly. Then someone returns the favor way after the puck is gone. He takes a number but doesn't overreact. So then when things get chippy and someone sticks and elbow in his earhole, he holds them accountable and wins the fight landing a couple pretty good blows to boot. It sends a good message to anyone who gets ideas that for guys who are not in the business of dropping the gloves, he might be one not to mess with for fear that you could end up in a fight you really didn't want.

4) Pitkanen? I have not had time to hunt down an explanation yet, but after having all of the regulars back on the blue line for about a period, Joni Pitkanen didn't play past either end of the 1st period or early in the 2nd. Hopefully it was just a minor setback on recovering from the previous injury.

5) MUST follow it up. Today's win is only a step forward if the Canes follow it up with a win in Florida tomorrow. A split of 2 games is treading water against a team in the bottom 3rd of the conference which is not good enough. With Winnipeg and Tampa both losing today and having tomorrow off, the Canes have a chance to stretch their division lead to 4 points and 6 points respectively in using up their game in hand tomorrow.

I will get around to posting my "half empty" blog in the next few days. No way was I going to put up anything negative after today's win. And the early signs of a Riley Nash emergence actually addresses 2 of my biggest concerns with the Canes right now.

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

Go Canes!

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