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Game #39: Too many mistakes / eerily reminiscent of 2012-13 collapse

December 30, 2013, 12:28 AM ET [5 Comments]
Matt Karash
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
With the loss in Toronto on Sunday night, the Carolina Hurricanes ran their losing streak over the end of year holidays to 5 straight (with 2 OTL points). Maybe of more concern, Sunday’s loss had too many of the markings of the 2012-13 collapse.

The game featured:
--A couple bad penalties.
--Weak goaltending including a soft goal actually shot from behind the end line and 2 from far out.
--A bunch of defensive lapses that led to immediate grade A scoring chances against.
--And just far too many bad hockey plays.

The ironic thing is that in terms of minutes played, the Canes actually played a solid game effort-wise and in terms of carrying the play. If you scored this game sort of like a boxing match and awarded a point to the winner for each minute of play, I think the game would have been scored something like 13-7, 15-5 and maybe 11-9 all in favor of the Canes. But the combination of Bernier making key saves while Ward was still trying to find his way, the Leafs being opportunistic offensively and just too many Canes mistakes ultimately spelled doom.

The run of holiday hockey will mercifully come to an end with the New Year’s Eve game at home against Montreal. Here is hoping that a new year will bring a new trend in the Canes 2013-14 rollercoaster ride because the most recent part of it surely has many Canes fans throwing up.

A few notes:

--Jeff Skinner. I think his stay on the top line might have ended tonight. During the 5-game losing streak he is a minus 11. When he is scoring, it seems to cover up everything else, but when the team is losing and the scoring slows, it seems to put a magnifying glass on the volume of little plays in the defensive zone where despite clear improvement this year, he just is not there yet. Tonight featured him tipping a Gleason clearing attempt to the middle of his defensive zone where a blast then beat Ward and also a chance to clear a puck that then also saw a blast beat Ward. The bigger one for me is how many times in the past few games, the opponents have had rushes against retreating defensemen with no back pressure help in sight.

When Skinner was leading a scoring 3rd-line earlier in the season, he was seeing more matchups against bottom half forwards. First, to give credit where it is due, he was playing pretty well defensively. But the other thing that comes with this role is that when you make a mistake the guy who ends up with a scoring chance is not a top 20 NHL scorer. When you are playing on a top line against other top players, when you make a mistake it tends to find the stick of someone who buries it.

--Cam Ward. He struggled again. With Bernier playing lights out, goaltending was arguably the biggest deciding factor of the game.

--A bad sign. The frustration/retaliation penalties by top players Semin and JStaal were disconcerting. Neither actually cost the Canes a goal, but I think they are telling about where the team is right now mentally/emotionally when desperately needing to claw its way back, a couple players instead took frustration penalties.

--Gerbe/JStaal/Semin. Other than the penalties noted above, I thought this line was again very good. They notched only 1 goal but continued to be dangerous offensively and hold their own defensively.
So where do we go from here? If I were Canes Coach Kirk Muller:

1) I would swap Bowman and Skinner. I think it makes the 1st line more well-rounded defensively and Bowman has been skating and playing well enough and with confidence that I think he just might be ready to contribute more offensively too. Pairing Skinner with Nash and Dwyer gives him 2 players that can skate with him off the rush and also help defensively. He can then get back to preying on lesser defenders, as he did well early in the season.

2) As soon as Khudobin looks ready, I would look to get him a start. Ward is still fighting it, and in the past couple starts Peters looked like he might be returning to Earth. With Charlotte tonight, Khudobin gave up 4 but also faced a ton of shots, so without seeing the game I cannot say how well he played. If anyone happened to see the Charlotte game, I would love a report.

3) I would be doing some individual/small group meetings to make sure the top players stay the course. As bad as the recent stretch has been, I do not think the team is that far off. With a little bit better goaltending/a few key saves, this recent skid could very well be another bout of treading water at .500. At the point where players start taking frustration penalties and start trying to do too much individually, there is a decent chance that the wheels come off.

It is of course only because the rest of the division is also a mess, but the Canes are still only 3 points out of a playoff spot. It is just a matter of somehow finding a stretch of 3 weeks of good hockey before sinking too far.

Next up is a final chance to gain a home holiday win after going 0-4-1 in the 1st 5 home games during the Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year’s Eve holidays. The team could use it. The season ticket holders and other committed fans could use it too.

Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63

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