In the next day or so, I will write a blog with some broader thoughts about the makeup of the team so far. For this blog, I will just put out some quick thoughts on the Canes 2-1 win over Philadelphia Sunday evening in Raleigh.
Per my game preview, I thought this game was very important to put a few stakes in the ground early:
1) Metro Division (alleged) middle team Philadelphia came in hurting and got no relief leaving 0-3. That trend of preying on the often temporarily weak and showing an aggressive killer instinct is an important trademark of good teams. They just overwhelm weaker teams. I would not go so far as to say that the Canes completely overwhelmed the Flyers, but they got the results they needed.
2) Cap on the weekend. Also per my preview, I think 2 points on Sunday makes the 1 point on Friday okay. Sure you always want to get 2 when winning late, but Sunday's win makes it incredibly easy for this team to maybe learn a little and look forward not backward.
Out of all of the details in the win, 2 things stuck out to me as maybe most significant in terms of building in the direction that Muller is trying to take this team.
--First, Muller rewarded effort and performance with ice time. He quickly gained enough confidence in the 4th line to make them a regular part of the line rotation and did not be overly careful trying to cherry pick matchups such that they sat for 8-10 minutes at a time looking for an opening. The most telling point in this played out after the 4th line was victimized for the Flyers' lone goal. Sutter lost a faceoff pretty cleanly and then Bowman took a bad angle creating a straight path to the net. After a very good first period, they seemed to undo all of it in 1 bad shift. But rather than a knee jerk reaction to shorten the bench, Muller came right back to them pretty much on schedule for their next shift. And they played well the rest of the night.
--The redo on the frantic finish. When Philadelphia managed to get set up in the offensive zone with about 1:10 left and an extra attacker onboard, the situation was exactly that of Friday night's disappointment. And it did turn into a shooting gallery briefly. It was about at the point where someone needed to make an individual play and win a battle for a puck or the team was going to get more and more tired and more and more running around at random. Sure enough, Riley Nash stepped quickly into a loose puck, won it quickly and moved it off the wall to a Canes stick. Jeff Skinner clearly looking wobbly-legged after a long shift trying frantically to get the puck found enough to somehow get going north-south to carry the puck out of the zone. A dump in from center and fresh bodies on the ice was all you needed. But Skinner managed to get the puck deep in the Flyer zone and then park himself on top of it while 3 Flyers hacked away trying to free it. I think that is the perfect example of Muller's being difficult to play against within the context of your own game. Best bet is that neither Nash nor Skinner will log a fight anytime this season. But at the point where they were dead tired and their bodies had to be saying no, they did whatever it took to make an individual play and turn 2-1 late into a win on Sunday after watching it slip away only 2 days earlier.
A few random players notes:
--Claude Giroux. When does he get his name etched on the Selke Trophy? He made at least 4 plays where he read the situation 2 steps before it happened and put himself right in the way of a Grade A scoring opportunity. If Jordan Staal continues on the path that he is on through 2 games, it is not impossible that Canes fans watched 2 Selke finalists.
--Skinner/Nash/Dvorak. This was the best line on the ice tonight by a wide margin. They only notched 3 scoring points between them which is decent, but they were even better than that. Maybe someone can talk Corey at Shutdown Line into digging up some stats on offensive zone possession time or similar. The group had multiple shifts where it got control of the puck in the offensive zone and played out nearly an entire 40-50 second shift playing offense. I had Dvorak in my prediction for opening night lineup simply because I thought Muller would choose safety and possible PK help over scoring upside for 1 of the last roster spots. 2 goals in 2 games is a surprise to everyone, but was has impressed me even more is how incredibly Patrick Dwyer-like he is in terms of just reading plays correctly defensively and doing important little things like providing safety valves for defensemen under duress. I would be curious to go back and count how many times he was the "second stick" for a defenseman without any room to skate and potentially in a bad situation.
--Jordan Staal. It is only 2 games but 3A and 3B is working perfectly. Jordan Staal has exactly 0 scoring points so far this season. But he and his line have been incredible doing their job and are a key reason that the team has 3 points out of 4 to start the season. Not counting the power play goal his line scored and also the Detroit's 6v5 goal to tie the game late, his line played to a 0-0 tie in regulation against Detroit's stars which was good enough for 1 point. Only 16 more seconds of breakeven separated him from a non-asterisked 0-0 tie on Friday and a win. He played a non-asterisked 0-0 tie on Sunday against the loaded Philadelphia forward lines which was good enough for 2 points. At this pace, Jordan Staal is going to be way overpaid for the lack of offense he provides and the Canes will be playoff-bound because of it. Gerbe also had another solid game hounding the puck incessantly and being rewarded with a couple decent scoring chances in the process. And Dwyer just consistently sorts things out which is the stability and predictability that JStaal needs to excel at his strength.
--Ryan Murphy. Through 2 games, I think his play has been almost completely backward from what most expected. He has been pretty decent defensively. Muller has been a bit careful with matchups, but it is not like he has had to completely hide him. The power play is still a work in progress. He had 1 turnover that would have been a breakaway had the puck not deflected all the way to Khudobin and a couple more iffy plays along the blue line and he seems to miss too many passes by enough that it causes the recipient to adjust. Even his assist looked to be a strange missed pass too far in front of Harrison except that there was no Flyer in range such that Harrison was able to step into a shot after the puck came off the boards. So things on that: 1) If I could pick, I would gladly have it this way. If Murphy was getting eaten alive defensively, the Canes would have to make the tough choice between reducing his ice time even more and using him as a #7 some nights or sending him to Charlotte; 2) Part of this might be a function of getting comfortable and the unit itself. I continue to think the best option to quarterback the thing is to give in and move the best playmaker (Semin) up top in which case Murphy has a little less pressure on him and becomes the primary point shot which also suits his abilities.
Shorter version, as someone on record as thinking that Murphy was still a couple years away from being NHL ready, I have been impressed with Murphy through 2 games.
--Anton Khudobin. The Canes did not ask him to steal a game or be stand on his head spectacular. But when you only score 2, your goalie better be good and error free. He was. Good for Muller getting him into the act early, so he does not get stale after a very good preseason. Canes play back-to-back next Thu and Fri, so I think there is a good chance we see him again soon.
--Brett Sutter. The near perfect 4th-line effort on Sunday did get tattered a bit by the goal they allowed in the 2nd period, but there was still much more to like than dislike from that line. It did not look overmatched or in over its head despite taking some shifts against higher lines. This becomes even more important on the road where the opposing coach has greater ability to dictate matchups and cherry pick an occasional mismatch. Sutter specifically did his part on the penalty kill which was perfect and drew a penalty to shorten 1 Flyer power play. 2 games is a small sample size but he is gradually playing his way into a more permanent role in Raleigh.
--The big line. The scoring will come. They were not horrible Sunday, but where they are slotted it is hard to label any night where they do not score as great. Per my rambling in my previews last week, the sounder defense gives the Canes at least the chance to collect points when things do not click on all cylinders offensively. Last season, even when the team was winning, I think the only path to a win versus a decent offense like the Flyers was the 5-3 route.
--Ron Hainsey. He had a quietly solid game. 1 if not 2 of his 3 blocked shots were the kind that had a very good chance to end up in the back of the net had he not gotten a piece.
So the Canes enter the first full week of regular season action exactly where they want to be. If the first 2 games were a test, then the next 2 games are the advanced level of that test. The Canes see 2 pretty good hockey teams in Pittsburgh (even with a couple players hurt) and Washington and more significantly in terms of measuring exactly where this team is defensively they see 3 Hart Trophy types in Crosby, Malkin and Ovechkin on the road where the opposing coach is going to be able to work some shifts for these elite players against players other than who Muller might choose. It is a challenge to playing defense as a system and as a 5-man unit versus matchups.
There is a lot to like as a Canes fan after 2 games. What did I miss from the first 2?
Finally with some real hockey to pull from, I have a few things that I hope to write up over the next few days in between more game-specific stuff.
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