Tonight, the Carolina Hurricanes (8-8-4) face-off at home against the Florida Panthers (11-9-1) at 6:00. Both teams come into the evening on their second game in consecutive days—the Canes suffered a gut-wrenching 2-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators (13-7-1) while Florida was able to pull-out a shootout win against the Columbus Blue Jackets (11-5-4). While a win tonight is “only two points,” the significance of those two points are huge as the Panthers are most likely one of the teams the Canes will battle against in an attempt to clench a wildcard playoff spot.
We are now 20 games into the season and at the “quarter mark,” the Canes are sitting five points out of the last wildcard position held by the New Jersey Devils (10-6-5) with a game in hand. The Panthers trail the Devils by two points but could potentially finish as one of the top three teams in the Atlantic. These two points for the Hurricanes are critical because the chance of them passing Washington, Pittsburgh or New York Rangers for one of the top three spots in the Metropolitan is rather unlikely, thus, for a potential playoff run they have to focus on one of the two wildcard positions.
When looking at the performance against the Senators yesterday, the Canes put forth another strong effort but came up short. Unfortunately, the story-line from the first 2-1 OT loss early in November was eerily similar to last night—the same duo of Senators who scored in the first match-up found the back of the net again as both Phaneuf and Turris tallied goals. Ironically, Turris burned Slavin again for the GWG on a play that saw him split the D and snipe Ward on a “short-breakaway.”
The point coverage continues to be an issue for the Canes, as they got caught in transition leaving Phaneuf unattended. It was somewhat similar in the sense of the Canes “losing a guy” and how he scored in the first game too. I imagine that the Canes success tonight depends on how well they contain and mitigate the threats Ekblad and Yandle at the point. I also see Jagr being a threat in front and on rebounds—at 6’3, 230 lbs. he is an absolute grinder down-low.
Other aspects of the game that were similar to their first match-up was the fact that the Canes had the same amount of shots on goal, as Anderson was phenomenal and turned aside 32 of 33 again. Coach Peters talked about the struggle of getting
traffic in front of goalies recently —I think last night was another example of this. Other statistics that were very similar in numbers were blocks, hits and face-off percentages were almost also identical too.
When looking at the Canes lone goal, one will note that it came off of the “gritty” type of play that the Canes need more of. Most impressive on the goal was the “hockey IQ” that Aho showed as he recognized the situation, fired a shot low and far-side and then was rewarded as the puck deflected in off the Senators D-man who was busy fighting off a streaking Jordan Staal looking for a rebound opportunity.
It is likely the Canes are going to be facing James Reimer tonight, as Luongo played last night. If that is the case, getting traffic and finding those “gritty” goals becomes even more relevant as Reimer has struggled to find a rhythm in his back-up capacity, posting a 3.05 G.A.A. with an .897 save percentage. Reimer’s last performance was his best of the season on November 20th against the Rangers, as he stopped 33 of 35 in a 3-2 OT win. The last time the Canes saw Reimer, he was with the Maple Leafs and had 40 saves in an OT loss.
Looking at goaltending, last night Cam Ward played another very strong game. He made some very strong saves again in the first period. In 11 starts in November, posting a 1.62 G.A.A. and .941 save percentage.
I imagine that Michael Leighton will get his first start for the Canes this season—he has posted terrific numbers for Charlotte in the AHL with a 1.66 G.A.A. and a .937 save percentage in ten appearances. He has only played in
3 NHL games since the 2010-11 season I imagine he will get another start relatively soon again, as the schedule continues to have a lot of travel and short rest between games—the Canes will probably decide on if they will attempt to acquire a better back-up in the near future.
The Panthers suffered a recent loss on the D side, as Petrovic broke his ankle last week. They also are missing Huberdeau offensively as he tore his Achilles early in October. I imagine the more noticeable loss will be Petrovic, as the Panthers have had time to adjust to playing without Huberdeau. Hopefully Coach Peters can get a favorable match-up against the third D pairing.
The Canes need to get their PP going tonight and the Panthers PK is 19th in the league killing 82% of PP chances. Petrovic going down definitely hurts their PK too. The Canes hopefully can do a better job of creating scoring opportunities in an effort to draw more penalties—they only had one last night against the Senators.
The Panthers most impressive and surprising player this season is Jonathan Marchessault—he leads the Panthers in total points (16) and goals (9) through 21 games. In 45 games last season, he tallied 18 points (7G, 11A), so the Panthers must be pleased with their off-season acquisition and his significant increase in production. He is a “Jeff Skinner” like talent, as he only comes in at 5’9 but is elusive and dangerous. I would keep an eye on him for sure.
Canes Expected Lines:
Skinner—Staal—Aho
Teravainen—Rask—Lindholm
McGinn—Ryan—Stempniak
Nordstrom—McClement—Stalberg
Hainsey—Faulk
Slavin—Pesce
Hanifin—Tennyson
Leighton (Not Confirmed)
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Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
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