|
Game #75: Wild game ends in skills competition loss |
|
|
|
In terms of finding a formula for consistent winning hockey, Monday's game against Ottawa was a complete throwaway. The 1st period was as loose as most of the bad ones of late, and the game in general was played like well...it was between 2 teams playing out the string without playoff hopes in late March.
The game was what I would call a mixed bag of more good than bad.
--Cam Ward. He gave the team 65 minutes of hockey in which a 2nd Canes goal would have been enough for a win. In simple terms, that is a good outing. Even more impressive was his resilience in the 1st period that seemed like it could easily have gone the route of the Islanders games last Tuesday when he gave up a goal early and was sitting behind a Canes team that was loose and being outplayed. But his effort was much more survivalist and opportunistic than dominant. He had a post, a puck go through him but not in the net, Faulk shut down the right side of the net and a bit of flopping around on some plays. It was not the prettiest of efforts, but he grinded out a good result which is a positive.
--Jeff Skinner. He continues to be a phenomenal finisher netting his 30th goal, but just like the last game in which he scored and then gave 1 up, he was part of a goal against again. He lost the puck battle in the offensive zone that helped spring Hemsky and then was nowhere to be found when a defenseman had all day to step into a blast from the point on his side of the ice.
--Elias Lindholm. I think he is benefitting from his increased role, ice time and run of consecutive games. Hopefully it sets him up to make a big jump in his 2nd year.
--With Ottawa minus a couple of their big guns at forward missing Ryan and Spezza, I would have hoped that the Canes top players would have risen up and seized control of the game. It is not that Eric Staal, Alexander Semin and Jordan Staal were horrible. They were not. But they were not noticeably better than the players they played against, and they did not score.
Next up is a quick turnaround in Pittsburgh Tuesday night.
Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63
Go Canes!
Matt on Google+