The Carolina Hurricanes received 2 points Thursday night. That combined with the fact that pretty much the entire Metro Division (except Pens who Canes will not catch anyway) lost is all that really matters.
And thank goodness for that. Wednesday's win would earn very little in the way of style points and was mostly devoid of things you would like to keep for the next game. The team rode 3 great individual plays for goals (Skinner, Semin's 1st, Sekera) and a stick-to-it attitude to a win. Along the way, the Canes were far too loose defensively, unable to mount any kind of sustained pressure, unable to capitalize on a key 4-minute power play in the 3rd period and guilty of a couple momentum-draining penalties after a goal to knot the game at 2. It took great individual offensive plays 3 times in which a Canes player turned a pretty harmless situation into a goal. First, Skinner was forced wide off the rush but did what Skinner does, twisting, turning and contorting to get off what for anyone else is a low-percentage shot that turned into a goal. Then in a delayed penalty situation, Alexander Semin skated past, around and through the entire Sabres defense before firing a laser for another "1 man's skill and effort" goal. Finally, Andrej Sekera scored when he just kept moving across the blue line until he found a shooting lane and a screen and with a little help from Riley Nash completed the trifecta of individual scoring plays. Only the 2nd Semin goal in which Tlusty worked real hard to force the puck deep and keep the Sabres defender from getting control of it which enabled EStaal to quickly win a battle and feed Semin for the goal featured any kind of cohesive hockey goal by a unit.
But again, in the 2nd half of a back-to-back this time of year, it is about getting points or not getting points, and the Canes won the full 2.
A few notes:
--Tlusty/EStaal/Semin. Led by Alexander Semin (but definitely with help on the 2nd goal) who has now scored 6 goals in the past 4 games, the big line continued to lead offensively.
--Jeff Skinner. I continue to think that his line mates are mostly irrelevant in terms of his scoring. 80% of his goals this season have been as simple as using his ability to surprise goalies with some combination of quickness of release, speed of shot or just plain bizarreness sometimes of his shots. There really is no need to playmaking per se, he simply needs the opportunity to play in the offensive zone and occasionally find the puck on his stick with just a little bit of room.
--Jay Harrison. After a run of solid hockey, he had a real rough night. He coughed the puck up for a breakaway on Buffalo's 1st goal and then seemed to stop playing when he thought Khudobin would cover the puck for the 2nd Buffalo goal. Komisarek will get the same minuses, but I thought he continued to just generally play quiet in his 3rd pairing role which is what you mostly want out of that slot. With the volume of hockey, it will be interesting to see if Muller taps Bellemore and/or Murphy for Saturday's game. Personally, I would consider challenging Bellemore, putting him back in the 2nd pair next to Hainsey and going with Liles/Komisarek for the 3rd pairing.
--Anton Khudobin. He has returned to Earth a bit in the past 2 games. Wednesday was kind of a mixed bag. He made a number of real good saves and battled to stay in the game when his team was not very good at times. But then he also gave up a couple goals that were stoppable and also seemed to have a chance to cover the 2nd 1 before it got past him. The hope is that "good enough to win" continues and that he is saving a couple lights out games for when the Canes need them.
--Good for Andrej! I could not be happier for Andrej Sekera notching 1 goal and 2 assists in his return to Buffalo.
So be happy about finding a way to win the 2nd half of a back-to-back when things did not come easy. Throw away the blue print that has very little to try to reuse. And try to try to recharge quickly for the next game just 36 hours away.
Ottawa has not been quite as busy as the Canes, but the Sens also played tonight and Tuesday before that, so it is more a matter of which team can find it Saturday that who has a big advantage.
Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63
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