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Game #80: Unacceptable home finale

April 10, 2014, 11:33 PM ET [11 Comments]
Matt Karash
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Unacceptable.

If you did not read it earlier today, my game preview blog which you can find HERE is basically the introduction for this blog.

Playing their last home game of the season, the Canes mostly mailed it in attempting to quickly abandon a failed season but unfortunately doing the same to its core fan base in their last visit to PNC Arena in the process.

This loss sets up to be a solid 1st half of a 2-part series of what is wrong with the Canes right now:

1) In a game that could have mattered (for the "community" fan base) the Canes could not muster the effort level demanded. This happened multiple times this season when the Canes came out flat when they really needed a win. The top players just were not good enough. Muller went top heavy with a EStaal/JStaal/Semin $21M line. They were not horrible, but they were nothing close to being difference-makers either. And the game featured a couple more goals against early with Skinner playing offense in the defensive zone. On the 1st goal he glided back into the play only after the goal against after the scorer was able to make a double move almost as if it was a penalty shot attempt. The 2nd goal was more on Lindholm, but when things got cluttered in the corner, Skinner stayed high seemingly in hopes that a teammate would win the puck and spring him the other way. When the Caps came out with the puck, he was nowhere to be found when the Caps broke to the front of the net. When you net it out, the effort just was not there, and the team's best forwards just were not that great. That is the recipe for golf by mid-April for NHLers.

2) Then tomorrow the Canes play a Detroit Red Wings team that will be playing playoff hockey for the 23rd consecutive year. This is despite a seemingly insurmountable volume of injuries many to key players. But the Red Wings are somehow always deep and able to insert players from their AHL team with minimal drop off. The talent level is pretty good (i.e. Nyquist), but more significantly, the team in total plays solid system hockey to a man (no exemptions for offensive stars) and the kids from the AHL come ready to do the same. This game will highlight the inconsistency system/sound hockey-wise that hurts the Canes and also the inability to get enough help from the system when needed.

A few quick notes on the game:

1) Elias Lindholm. He very much had a learning game moving back to the center position. I hope Muller sticks with this for the last 2 games simply because I would love to get a read on if he seems to progress with more repetition in a position he has played minimally since preseason.

2) Jeff Skinner. He needs to be better defensively.

3) Hainsey/Faulk. I liked this duo. I also hope Muller sticks with this for the last 2 games minus Andrej Sekera. Determining if this pair is viable (and assuming Hainsey re-signs), it creates different possibilities for adding another defenseman (i.e. this could make more of a stay-home right D a workable option next to Sekera).

4) Anton Khudobin. Aside from the lack of effort noted above, the results (not as much the play) here are what disappointed me the most. He had a shot at leading qualifying NHL goalies in save percentage before being tagged for 5 on Thursday. In a post game interview, he made a good comment about playing for the logo.

5) Harrison/Komisarek. They are to D pairing what Tlusty/Lindholm/Skinner are to F lines. They struggled tonight. First, I think it is important to note the level of professionalism and class that Mike Komisarek has displayed this season. Never really breaking into the lineup and seeing a continuation of his healthy scratch time from Toronto, he has been a model citizen doing what he can when he gets in the lineup and not grumbling. He is a class act, but I just do not think he has the mobility required to be more than a deep depth player in the NHL at this stage of his career.

With that, the Canes 2013-14 season boards an airplane tonight never to return to PNC Arena.

What say you Canes fans? Am I too hard on the team for having trouble dialing it up in a game that really did not matter? Or did you too think that this the 1 game of the last 3 that 1 could rightfully expect the team to play with a playoff-like intensity out of respect for its fans?

Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63

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