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Canes preseason game #1: Thoughts and notes

September 22, 2014, 12:06 AM ET [14 Comments]
Matt Karash
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
For those who spent Sunday watching football or enjoying nice weather, I guess the starting point is that the Canes lost 4-3 to Columbus to open the preseason. The Canes scored 1st but were down 2-1 pretty shortly after than and chasing it on the scoreboard for the rest of the afternoon. The Canes actually got the better of the play for much of the game but were outplayed in net and had a couple of breakdowns that led very quickly/directly to grade A scoring chances that the Jackets buried.

You can find the team's recap HERE and also navigate to the full set of stats from there.

Here are my notes and observations:

--Malone/McClement/Dwyer. I think Canes fans are going to grow to like this 4th line. Malone and McClement are the kind of guys that are hard to play against.

--Skinner/Nash/Lindholm. It is too bad that the Canes are not 1-2 players deeper at forward such that you could leave this group together as a 3rd line. I guess it could still happen, but it seems like it is going to leave 1 of the 1st 2 lines short on the top-end talent it needs. Jeff Skinner in particular had a very good game. He had a stretch in the 2nd period where he was the best player on the ice each and every time he was out there. And Lindholm on the wall feeding pucks to Skinner floating around between the circles was great on the power play.

--The power play in general was very good. They netted 2 goals, but bigger for me was more basic - get the puck in the zone, keep it in the zone and get enough movement to create some openings to shoot. The main group leaning heavy on the roster players was good (mostly Skinner, Lindholm, Nash with most often Murphy and Sekera), but the kid group that was mostly DiGiuseppe, Tolchinsky and Terry was equally impressive netting a goal in the process on a pretty cross-ice pass from Tolchinsky right in Terry's wheelhouse for a nice goal.

--Player not currently on the radar who took the greatest step forward. I think you could make a case for Chris Terry who had a good game offensively, but I would give the nod to DiGiuseppe. He has the mind of a good playmaker with the ability to see plays a step or 2 early and also knowing how to create passing and shooting lanes with movement. He was also incredibly good at winning contested pucks on the boards on his side during the power play. He actually did not register a point but had a very good game offensively. It will be tough to find room for him at the NHL level to start the season, but he did all he could to try to climb into the mix today.

--Haydn Fleury. He had his share of ups and downs in his 1st NHL game. He was victimized on the 1st Columbus goal. At the end of a power play and a long shift, Ryan Murphy carried the puck deep. When the Canes forwards failed to cover the point and the puck went the other way, Fleury was looking at a 2-on-1. He misread it thinking that Murphy who had nothing left for legs at the end of the shift would get back. When Fleury played it like a 2-on-2 shifting right toward the puck carrier and Murphy did not make it back into the play, it turned into a 1-on-none and a goal against very quickly.

--Cam Ward. 3 goals in 14 shots just is not good. He did get put in a bad situation a couple times, but to be an NHL goalie you cannot just stop the easy ones and you certainly need to do better than 11 for 14.

--Harrison/Liles. That duo struggled in terms of any kind of cohesion moving the puck. Liles receiving passes from Harrison seemed to be the biggest problem. I am not sure if this was just rust, lack of familiarity or what, but it is something to note since this is a possibility for the 3rd pairing.

--Andrej Sekera. He looked pretty sound and solid despite the early juncture of preparation for opening night.

--Ryan Murphy offered a mixed bag. I liked his play early not trying to do too much, but he had a couple rough stretches later including 1 when he lost a puck trying to get it out of his own end (not a horrible play since he had little for options) but then compounded it by flipping a puck out from behind the net into a dangerous area. I guess the simple way to put it would be that he looked like a talented young player who still had some work to do tightening things up which is not a bad place for him to be right now.

Next up is a road tilt in Buffalo that should see most of group B take the ice.

Who else skipped football and the nice weather to take in the 1st chance for 2014-15 hockey? What is your assessment of the 1st preseason game?

Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63

Go Canes!
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