After an obviously slow start that saw some games that offered hope, Thursday's loss in Calgary was the bad of all of it and a complete collapse.

Jeff Skinner mustered a couple decent scoring chances (because that is what he does), but I honestly doubt that the Canes had more than 1 decent chance past that. The Canes mustered only 16 shots for an average of 5.3 per period. The allegedly good players were some combination of horrible or invisible again.

Maybe a healthy Eric Staal and a little more time with a new system will make things look brighter, but the system of moving the puck up the ice is actually my biggest concern. As I said on Twitter, I think the Canes have to lead the league in lowest ratio of actually playing a puck possession game compared to talking about playing one. Not sure if it is an adjustment phase we are going through or lack of personnel, but the Canes enter the offensive zone 2 or even better yet 3 wide less than any team I can remember including some dump and chase teams from years past. The most common thing when it works even a little is that the puck gets to 1 of the 2 forwards who are posted up not moving at the center line. But with 1 other forward across the ice and the 3rd still behind the play, there is absolutely nothing you can do with the puck from here except throw it into the offensive zone.

Shorter version, the Canes are struggling mightily to generate anything at all offensively 5v5 right now and even less off the rush. When you compound it with a bunch of defensive breakdowns, it is not going to end well.

A few small positives:

--Terry/McClement/Boychuk. When just about everything was blowing up defensively, Zach Boychuk and Chris Terry who have historically been offense-oriented AHLers who at times seemed in over their head defensively, were relatively unscathed. No. They did not have a great game either and were pretty quiet offensively, but the fact that bad days for them on horrible nights for the team still look breakevenish is positive commentary on their development into better 2-way players.

--Penalty kill. They were under attack a bit but survived without giving up a goal. There was a gaping hole left when Jordan Staal was felled by injury, but the group seems to be adjusting after a slow start. Brad Malone was especially good getting in shooting lanes and clearing a few pucks.

The negatives were many and big.
--Justin Faulk was just horrible.
--Jeff Skinner looks the same - great in the offensive zone, mostly just fishing for breakaways high in the defensive zone.
--Elias Lindholm continued his scoring slump but more significantly is starting to stray from playing sound hockey.
--Cam Ward is still pegged at about an .800 save percentage. You cannot hang this game on him with the defensive breakdowns, but you would also like something more than stopping just the easy stuff.
--Alexander Semin is still lost.
--Ability to move the puck cohesively up the ice and enter the offensive zone with more than a dump or 1v_ was non-existent.
--4 of the 5 goals came on bad defensive breakdowns.

I think this sets up an interesting test and measuring stick tomorrow. Whereas the 1st 5 games were more full of small positives, chances to win that got away and trying to adjust to playing minus their top 2 centers, Thursday was really the kind of game where the wheels just came off in an ugly way. So with a quick turnaround tomorrow, how does the team react and what can/does Peters get out of his team for a bounce back?

Good teams that need a win are happy to see Edmonton on the schedule (yes I realize they have won 2 straight and regardless are much better than the Canes right now), but the other side of the coin is that they have a ton of skill and fire power and are capable of running up a touchdown worth of goals against a team fighting confidence and struggling with attention to detail. That sounds about like the Canes right now.

If I were Peters, I would sit Justin Faulk. No way is he 1 of the Canes 6 best defensemen right now. Time for patience is past. It is time for Peters to back up his earned ice time motto. I would do the same with Alexander Semin except that the Canes do not have an extra healthy forward unless Gerbe or Dwyer suddenly becomes available.

I see 2 big story lines from the Canes side on Friday:
1) What does Peters do lineup, ice time, adjustment, firing up the team-wise?
2) How does the team react? Do we get anger and fire? Or doubt and whimpers?

Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63

Go Canes!

Join the Discussion: » 18 Comments » Post New Comment

» Maple Leafs and Hurricanes: Comparison in rebuilding strategies

» Snarly Hurricanes vs. Flyers match up set for Saturday

» Canes treading water - Will they eventually drown or swim?

» Solid first half of week tees 'make up' time at home for the weekend

» Hurricanes at Red Wings -- Canes look claw even for road trip