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Canes Game #3: Fiery 3rd period salvages something

October 14, 2014, 11:49 PM ET [7 Comments]
Matt Karash
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
In what many were calling the McDavid bowl, it looked about like that through 2 periods. Despite 3 goals, neither team generated much offensively, and the game was full of mediocre hockey. When Buffalo scored early in the 3rd period, it looked like they would win going away, but the Canes finally pushed back led by an AHL uprising and pushed it to overtime before eventually falling in a long shootout.

Arguably, the biggest news coming out of this will be a report on Andrej Sekera who flew shoulder/arm first into the boards trying to get back on a 2-on-1 and left the ice favoring his arm. I guess the slight positive is that it did not look like a concussion at all because he did not seem to be out of it or woozy as is normally the case. My WAG is shoulder.

A few notes:

1) Zach Boychuk. He was far and away the best player on the ice in the 3rd period. During that span, he won a race to a puck on a LOST faceoff and quickly zipped the puck to the tape on Chris Terry's stick for the 1st goal and parked himself in front and showed nifty hands getting a centering pass quickly off his stick and up into the top of the net for the 2nd goal. Along the way, he also set up Terry for a good one-time chance from between the circles off the rush and fed Jay McClement for another point-blank chance.

2) Chris Terry. Though I am going with Boychuk, Terry is the other player you could make a case for in the 3rd period. The 2 together were dynamic for the entire period.

3) Alexander Semin. He had the puck on his stick between the circles in the offensive zone 4 times including the shootout and finished exactly none of them. Only the shootout non-goal even resulted in a shot on net. He also looked disinterested along the boards seemingly content to try to win pucks by his craftiness and not enough plain old elbow grease. In a game that featured a rebuilding roster of youngsters and a depleted Canes roster of forwards that has 4 could-be AHLers, you had to figure Semin to be clearly 1 of the best players on the ice tonight. He just wasn't and was nowhere close.

4) Tim Gleason. I am not sure his mobility will ever make it back to a top 4 capable level. He lost a couple races to pucks where he had the front track to start tonight. But nonetheless, I am impressed by his start to the season. He is playing physical and with a bit of a snarl and attitude which has to be his game and has value in a 3rd pairing role. I was very hard on him last year and very early on the 'trade him' boat, but I have to give him credit through 3 games.

5) Bill Peters. I am generally high on him, his detailed approach to things and his "earn your ice time" mantra, but shame on him Tuesday night for his inability to process obvious data in real time heading into overtime. Chris Terry and Zach Boychuk were far and away the 2 best players on the ice in the 3rd period netting 2 goals at 2 more grade A scoring chances in the 3rd period. They have a ton of familiarity with each other from years of service in the AHL. And they were both well-rested (Boychuk 9:25 TOI and Terry 12:05 TOI) going against a Sabres team that seemed to wear down in the 3rd period (1 SOG and a ton of defensive zone time) after playing yesterday. The 2 best forwards going saw exactly 0 shifts and 0 ice time in the overtime period. Many things are a judgment call, but that one is just too obvious to miss for me. And I think you could argue that it even goes against the "earn your ice time" mantra after watching Semin slog around for 3 periods and do nothing while these guys were flying.

New coach's coming into bad situations usually seem infallible on the way in just because they offer hope. Once you get to see some real games, a little of the gloss usually comes off. For me, this is one to monitor. Peters comes across as good with all of the pregame preparation where you have a day or sometimes a couple to analyze and think through things in detail. But does he have the uncanny ability to watch a game unfold and make adjustments to the initial plan based on data coming in real time? I will now be watching for that.

6) Disappointing overall. I was happy with the 3rd period comeback and getting a point is better than nothing, but if you want to use this game as a measuring stick it was not favorable. Buffalo was annihilated at home yesterday and outshot by 30ish shots and were playing the 2nd half of a back-to-back. And the Canes looked even or worse against them until the Sabres seemed to either try to sit on a lead or simply ran out of gas in the 3rd period. The Canes mustered very little offensively throughout.

7) Victor Rask. He just looks NHL ready in terms of taking in the game as it comes. He has been pretty solid in terms of decision-making and avoiding mistakes under pressure. To be a legitimate even 3rd line NHL center, you need to put up at least 40 points, so at some point he needs to score in addition to just not looking like he is in over his head. I think there is good reason for optimism that that part is coming next.

8) Jay McClement. Just like Alexander Semin, he found the puck on his stick between the circles in the offensive zone 4 times (1 was a shootout just like Semin) and failed to score. Whereas Semin just needs to be better, with McClement it is just a telltale sign of where the Canes are roster-wise right now. He just has the finishing ability of a 4th-liner just as he was signed to be.

9) Riley Nash. He was probably the Canes best player over the full 60 minutes. He ranked right up there with Gerbe in terms of flying around and using his speed to make a difference.

10) Too many bad hockey plays. The 1st goal against happened when Justin Faulk failed defenseman 101 on a 2-on-1 by not taking away the pass and then Ward missed on a poke check that more or less left an empty net to shoot into once he was down and out. The 2nd goal was just a horrible goal at a horrible time. Right after the Canes tied it at 1-1, he gets beat from nearly outside the far side of the faceoff circle to let the air out of the building and the team. The Canes also took 2 offensive zone penalties in the 1st period to finish out the period trying to hold the fort in their own end.

11) Nathan Gerbe. His consistency level is just incredible. If you put his mentality inside any number of bigger, more skilled players my goodness what you would have?

Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63

Go Canes!
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