The Canes need a win. PERIOD.

After a respectable 1-1-2 western road trip, the team has fallen flat in a mix of home and away games going 0-2-2 in the 4 games since. The way the Canes have given away possible points makes the results seem even worse than the meager 2 points in 4 games. With 3rd period leads in the 2 home games this week, the Canes mustered only a single OTL point against Pittsburgh. In the process, the Canes have fallen to 7th in the Metro Division and enter the game 3 points out of a playoff spot.

The Canes opponent, the Toronto Maple Leafs, is a regular in overtime play and the late decision on the 2nd point in the standings. The Leafs have won in regulation only once in their last 19 games, but have also picked up 5 wins in extra time and 4 OTL points. And the Leafs come into the game having played 4 consecutive shootouts registering 2 wins and 2 losses. Toronto's overall trend for December is somewhat similar to the Canes mostly treading water month with a 5-6-2 record.

Keys to the game from the Canes side:

1) The net. After a stretch of stellar play, Justin Peters has been much more human of late yielding 2 goals in the 3rd period of each of the last 2 games and points in the standings in the process. 3 of the 4 goals he allowed against the Pens went through him. On the other side of the ledger is Cam Ward who has yet to hit stride in 2013-14 and finds himself as the #2 goalie because of it. But because of Peters' recent struggles, Ward gets another chance today to reclaim his spot atop the Canes goalie heap ahead of upstart Justin Peters and Anton Khudobin who is rehabbing with Charlotte. Ward needs to put forward a decent effort for the Canes to win.

2) Despite struggles with score board results, the Canes have generally been getting decent play from its top forwards. The line of Gerbe/JStaal/Semin has been good if not great night in and night out of late. The Skinner/EStaal/Ruutu had a minus night against the Pens but has been putting up points. I think the pressure point could be Eric Staal's line. Can they get back to scoring? And can Jeff Skinner hold his own defensively probably seeing a decent helping of Phil Kessel flying at him? Whichever team's top players are better gets the edge.

3) Ability to finish. If the Canes do manage a lead, they need to find a way to close it out after a couple failures to do so.

The Canes need to get back on the right track before the gap between them and a playoff spot grows. Faceoff is a little bit after 7pm on Fox Sports Carolinas.

Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63

Go Canes!
Matt on Google+



2) Best against best.

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