Against a strong opponent and down late, the Carolina Hurricanes picked up an OTL point. This is obviously not the worst outcome and does move the team forward in in the standings if only a little bit. And it does make it possible with a win Sunday in Toronto to pull out another "treading water" week at 1-1-1. But after an 0-1-1 week last week and a disappointing loss on Monday that saw the Canes fall to 7th in the Metro Division, the hope was for more.
But when you net it out, the Canes are still very much in the thick of the Metro Division playoff chase still seeking a string of 3-4 great weeks of hockey to push them over the top. 7th place does not sound great, but it is misleading in that the team is only a single point behind a logjam of 4 teams tied for 3rd place.
As for the game itself, it had the feel of the Washington loss last Friday. In that game and this Friday against the Pens, the Canes were the better team logging more shots and scoring chances throughout. They had a good number of shots into/through traffic that easily could have netted another ugly goal or 2 to be the difference. And like last Friday, the Canes goaltending could have been better and been the difference. But the Pens hung around and then mustered a couple good plays that seemingly were going to leave the Canes with another disappointing defeat. Drayson Bowman scored a huge goal late to earn a 1st point and as has been the case all season the Canes were unable to get the 2nd point in overtime.
A few notes:
--Justin Peters. For the 2nd consecutive game, he could have been the difference but was not. He was not horrible, but he was the less tested goalie and except for the Crosby goal, the Pens tallies all found their way through holes that have been mostly non-existent this season.
--Drayson Bowman. That was a huge goal. He was strong with the puck on his stick all night and pretty good without it. He was on his way to a solid game playing on a 3rd line with Nash/Dwyer that was good too even before the big goal.
--Ryan Murphy. He had a real rough 2nd half of the game factoring into 3 goals against and very nearly a 4th. He let Chris Connor walk right inside him and straight to the other side post off the rush on the Pens 2nd goal. He gave up defensive position and let a Penguin player park right on top of Peters for Engelland's screened goal that trickled through Peters. Then on a 2-on-2 rush in overtime somehow let dangerous James Neal get behind him with the puck with the game-winner. He also coughed the puck up in his defensive zone shortly after the 1st Pens 3rd period goal. For a position that is defined more by how many bad plays you make rather than how many good ones, that is about 3 bad plays too many.
--Alexander Semin and the Gerbe/JStaal/Semin line. That line continues to play well. That line only allowed Crosby's line 1 goal and that was on a bad turnover by the defense in their own end that was not so much the fault of the JStaal line. They were also on the ice for 2 goals for. When you net it out, Alexander Semin had a great night playmaking, Jordan Staal was solid in the faceoff circle and defensively and Nathan Gerbe just continued doing what he does winning a battle in the crease to score a goal and competing hard all night.
--Andrej Sekera. He just continues to put out difference-making plays at both ends of the ice. He and Justin Faulk did pretty well helping the JStaal line contain Crosby and company, and his continued scoring surge is obviously appreciated too.
--Skinnner/EStaal/Ruutu. More offense from this line could have broken the stalemate. First, the minus 3/minus 2 that the group earned is a little bit misleading. More so than being horrible defensively, they happened to be on the ice for a few mishaps by the defensemen. But the minus is also partly because they were unable to score. With JStaal assigned the task of slowing Crosby's line and Malkin out of the lineup, the ball was on the tee for this group to lead the way offensively. They were not horrible but mustered only 4 shots and nothing on the scoreboard.
If you look at this result by itself, the 1-point result from this game is acceptable. The half-empty air around it comes from the context of it being 4th straight holiday hockey loss and the fact that at some point the Canes need to string together more that 2-4 game stretches of good hockey to push to the top of the Metro Division 3rd place fray.
Next up is a game in Toronto on Sunday. This sets up about like the Phoenix game a couple weeks back. With a win, the Canes salvage a "treading water" 1-1-1 week that does not move you forward but does not really move you back either. A loss makes for a 2nd consecutive losing week at 0-2-1.
Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63
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