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The Need for a Complete 60 Minutes For The Canes

December 7, 2016, 2:47 PM ET [16 Comments]
Ben Case
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Tonight, the Canes head to The Pond to take on the Anaheim Ducks for the first game in a three-game California road-trip. Rest should not be an issue for the Canes tonight, as they previously played on Sunday in a tight 1-0 OT win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Ducks also haven't played since Sunday and previously saw the Calgary Flames in high-scoring affair resulting in an 8-4 loss.

The Canes have had a few injuries recently—so quick update on those. Elias Lindholm is traveling with the team, however, it is still uncertain if he is playing today. Staal and Lack remained behind, so it would appear that Staal will not be potentially ready until the Canes return home.




Also, ICYMI the Canes have called Ryan Murphy back up from his conditioning stint in the AHL—it will be interesting to see if he is in the line-up. There have been tons of rumors around him being traded, so if he does play, maybe the Canes are showcasing him to some western conference teams. Tennyson took the 6th off as a maintenance day, so maybe he will have a night off too.




There are a few main keys for the Canes tonight:

• Starting/Finishing periods
• Playing a complete game
• Traffic in front

The beginning and ending of periods has been an issue for the Canes recently. Previously, in two of their last seven games they allowed goals in the first minute—even worse, both goals were in the third period (NYR and Mon). They also have surrendered a decent amount of late goals in the third periods too. In fact, in three of the seven games they allowed a goal in the last four minutes or less. All of these goals have been costly to the outcome of the game too.

Looking at the goals, I see one relatively consistent theme—they all came off poor transitional play and defensive gap control. The only outlier was the Boston goal which Teravainen accidentally kicked into the net. In some of the plays, it looked like the defense was honestly mentally somewhere else. If the Canes intend to have a successful trip, they need everyone to be mentally engaged from puck drop to the final horn.

The beginning of periods will be a big stress tonight as the Ducks are returning to home ice after a three-game road trip. After their 8-4 slacking by Calgary, the Ducks veteran core will certainly have rallied the team and lit a fire. While they don’t blow you away with speed, they have some big bodies and very offensively gifted players.

Another issue this year for the Canes is finishing games and the third period. They have lost 4 games that they had a two or more goal lead in. In addition, they have allowed the GWG or GTG a whooping nine times in just 25 games. This shouldn’t come as a surprise though, as they are outscored 23-15 in the third—in fact, over the last seven games they have been outscored 8-1.

The most frustrating aspect in those seven games was the amount of winnable games that the Canes missed points on. In many of the games the Canes squandered, they had been the better (and sometimes even dominant) team on the ice through the first two periods. However, the third period saw an almost timid team come out that wasn’t playing to win, they were playing not to lose. Often times, this will eventually result in a mistake somewhere and the cost is a goal.

Teams that play the first two periods aggressively and then change mentality in the third struggle to finish close games—obviously, the incomplete games from the Canes are a testament to this. The Canes seem to be struggling finding an appropriate balance for playing aggressive with the lead while maintaining a discipline to not overly commit or take unnecessary risks that could prove costly.

While coaching can help with this, unfortunately, the best way to learn this balance is through experience. I am really not a fan of “participation trophies,” however, hopefully the young Canes learn from these situations and develop with their “Hockey IQ.” I think the win against Tampa was certainly positive given the struggles to find ways to win.

Finally, the absence of Staal has left the Canes with less of a physical presence—this has been readily apparent in front of the net. The Canes need to begin generating some traffic in front of the net—good things happen when there are bodies in front. In recent games, the scoring opportunities have certainly been there—however, the lack of net front presence has made it tough to beat the goaltender.

The big problem is that most of the Canes players aren’t “big” and also aren’t “gritty.” Most of them are smaller sized, speedy and skilled forwards that don’t appear to have much motivation to get their nose dirty. The one guy who appears to have risen to the call though is Victor Stalberg—at 6’4 and speedy too, he has found ways to create space, get open and also be a problem in front. He has four goals and an assist in his past five games.

It will be interesting to see which Canes team shows up tonight. If they can play a complete game, there’s no reason this won’t be a competitive and winnable games. Tonight’s battle kicks off at 10:30 and is on FSS.


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