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Game #30: Will to win comes through against San Jose |
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The Carolina Hurricanes will wake up in 2nd place tomorrow. It likely will change before the team plays again on Monday, but who cares. Tomorrow we celebrate our 2nd place (playoff spot!) team with free queso at Moe's. I was a mere power play goal away from the "Canes brunch" where I run to Bojangles for a boberry biscuit late morning and pick up my queso on the way back home.
Some nights in the NHL, teams play a decent game, put forward a decent effort, but it just is not meant to be because the other team plays well, the other team's goalie is on fire or a break or 2 make the difference. I think this was supposed to be 1 of those games for the Canes. The Canes effort level was pretty good throughout but when they found themselves down 2-0 against a good Sharks team, it looked like 1 of those nights. Then when the team mustered a pretty good push to start the 2nd period only to see Stalock make some good saves to keep it 2-0, it even more looked like it just was not meant to be.
But riding a bit of confidence after 2 wins and maybe getting a small gift from the hockey gods when Harrison's shot found the net after going off the end boards, off Stalock and into the net, the Canes found a way.
The biggest story to me was the depth of the Canes offensive push. Though the line netted only an empty-net goal, Skinner/EStaal/Ruutu had a very respectable night following the huge offensive outburst in the week's 1st 2 games. With Elias Lindholm filling in for the injured Patrick Dwyer, Jordan Staal's line was incredibly strong all night on a night when they were asked to match up against some very good opposing offensive players. Only Gerbe did not score and he was robbed at least twice on real good scoring chances. Finally, for the 2nd consecutive night, Riley Nash provided a key goal in a secondary scoring role from the 3rd line.
A few other bulletted notes:
--Zach Boychuk. He actually picked up a real assist on the Harrison goal but his "Ruutu point" (Ruutu point-noun: When a player plays an integral part in a scoring play without touching the puck and therefore getting credit on the score sheet.) by crashing the net and creating the chaos that seemed to make Stalock lose track of the puck coming back at him off the boards.
--Tuomo Ruutu. Out of all of the things going right currently, I think his recent play is the thing most exciting to me. I am on record in some blog or comments as worrying (did not say I was all the way there yet) that he just was not going to regain enough mobility to get back to where he was. I am much less worried about that these days.
--Jordan and Eric Staal. Have we seen a stretch of hockey where both of them were skating this well at the same time? I don't think so.
--Riley Nash. He has scored huge goals in consecutive games right after my comments about needing more scoring from that role. I am glad to see that the players are reading my blogs and using it for inspiration. (lol)
--Cam Ward. His win Friday was similar to Peter's win on Thursday. He did not have a great night and seemed to be fighting the puck all night. But he held it together well enough to get a win when his team surged. Hopefully the ice time and the win will help him find the higher level of play right when the team needs it.
--Sekera/Faulk. They quietly had a good game.
--Elias Lindholm. He had a huge game obviously with a goal and 2 assists stepping up to the 2nd line opening created by Dwyer's injury. His best game as a Hurricane? I think so.
--Manny Malhotra. He quietly did what he does winning 10 of 13 draws.
--Tim Gleason. After another long layoff he managed to log 18 minutes and mostly stay out of trouble.
Next up is a quick burst of 4 road games in 6 days starting Monday after a weekend off and travel West.
Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63
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