|
Canes Looking to Cool Off the Kings after Blowing Late Lead Against Ducks |
|
|
|
|
|
The Canes broke out of their recent offensive woes last night against the Ducks—11 different players tallied a point. It was great to see them score more than three goals on the road for the first time since the season opening 6-game road trip. In the past 11 games prior to last night, they have only scored three goals in three games of those games. To say the least, the team has been going through a bit of an offensive drought until last night.
Unfortunately, the theme of losing leads and losing the third period continued last night—ultimately, the Canes blew multiple two-goal leads and lost 6(2) – 5(1) in a shootout to the Ducks. The Canes held a two-goal lead twice during the third period, however, in the final four minutes, the Ducks scored two goals to tie the game and take it to OT. Coming into last night, the Canes had been outscored 8-1 in the past seven games—last night they lost the third 3-2.
Beyond the obvious concern about playing with the lead and the third period was that three of the Ducks five goals came off of rushes into the offensive zone. The Canes were having a tough time back-checking and covering assignments which lead to some rebound goals off of the rush. At some times, the Canes simply just looked overwhelmed and over-matched physically.
This is something that the Canes have struggled with recently and wasn’t just an isolated case last night—Montreal, NYR and Ottawa all scored goals off of transitional plays and an offensive rush at that proved critical to the outcome. The Canes need to do a better job of gap control and not allowing teams to enter the zone with speed. This will be important against the Kings tonight, as they are a faster team than Anaheim.
While the outcome was more than disappointing last night, it was especially great to see Teravainen break out of his nine-game pointless streak—he registered two goals and was consistently finding offensive chances. He easily could've had a hat-trick with the amount of chances he had.
Aho also registered a goal—he only had one in his past 10 games. He showed off some nice hands on a nifty breakaway goal. It would be great if this can get them going on a streak—the Canes desperately need some players to step up.
The most surprising play of the evening was a nice play from Skinner setting up a McClement breakaway. He was able to pull off a nifty backhand, forehand move to notch his first goal of the season—in fact, with hands/moves like that you’d think he would have already gotten a goal this year.
Another aspect that was positive was they finally scored a goal from the point because of traffic in front. Pesce was able to take advantage of a screen and ripped one past Gibson for his first of the year. The Canes players have been standing to the side of the goalie, as opposed to taking his eyes away. This has been especially true since losing Staal—so it was nice to see them starting to want to create some traffic.
Faulk had tons of looks, however, many didn’t have any traffic—if they can get a man in front for him, I think they’ll get rewarded soon. This is especially true for the PP last night as he had tons of prime chances.
Tonight, I imagine that the Canes will start Leighton. In all three of the previous back-to-backs, Coach Peters has rotated his goalies. However, as the points become more important and the wildcard gap increases, he may want to roll with Ward.
The keys for tonight stay the same against the Kings:
• Start and finish periods strong
• Win the third
• Traffic in front
The one thing that I will add to the list is that the Canes need to play with desperation. I don't mean crazy and out of position, but that they are skating, finishing every check, and creating pressure offensively and defensively. Last night, you could tell that the intensity level changed based on the scoreboard-that simply can't happen. It needs to be 100% the entirety of the game.
They are at the point in their season and far enough down the standings now, that a few more loses will all but seal them as a non-playoff team. They need to find a 2-3 week hot streak and the points on the road are huge. The difference between non-playoff and playoff teams tend to be how they preform on the road.
The Canes will be tested tonight again against a strong Kings team—they are 6-2-2 in their last 10 and have been playing much better as of late. The Kings are still without Quick, however, they have been playing much better around Zatkoff/Budaj—it appears as it Zatkoff is going to get the start tonight. Hopefully, the Canes can create traffic and find some dirty goals tonight.
Puck drop is at 10:30 and is on FSS. Go Canes!
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»