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Carolina Hurricanes Blogger •
If you play Thursday's Carolina/Pittsburgh game for a friend who is new to hockey, they would probably be giving hockey a chance based on the great game full of exciting stuff. But if you played the same game for a long-time hockey fan who fell asleep in early October and just woke up, he/she would ask if the regular season started yet. The game was full of offense via the defensive breakdown, mistake or weak defensive coverage variety. The excitement was high, but the quality was low. As the game wore on and neither team really settled down much from the sloppy start, and as it progressed the game took on the feel of a shinny game where the first team to 7 won. Unfortunately for Canes fans, the Pens were the first to 7.
The path back into this series when the team returns home to Raleigh has a couple steps:
1) The team needs to get back to playing sound defensive hockey first and creating offense second. In game 1, the Canes were lured and tiptoed just a little bit in the wrong direction. In game 2, the Canes fully submersed themselves in the wide open, often sloppy variety of hockey that says first team to 5 wins. This is exactly the kind of hockey that the Pens used to bury Philadelphia who could never get into a physical, half of the ice at a time game and also the Capitals who stayed in such a series via #8 but were ultimately disadvantaged by defensemen without enough wheels and a rookie goalie who eventually caved to the assault.
2) Cam Ward needs to be better. Part of this is #1 above where his team needs to give him a better chance and get back to a game where goalies get something more than an all-star game defense. But part of it is that the team desperately needs Ward to step up and make some big saves even if they are difficult ones. He could not bail out the team with less than 10 seconds to go in the 2nd period and could not hold the fort in the 3rd period to give his team a chance.
3) The Canes best players need to be exactly that. In the playoffs, the team whose best players are better almost always wins. Through 2 games, it is clearly Malkin and Crosby over Staal plus whoever, and it clearly Fleury over Ward.
So down 2-0, is there anything to be positive about? Actually I think there is.
--I think it is important to remember that as frustrating as Thursday's mess might be, all Pittsburgh has done is what they were supposed to do - win at home. An NHL playoff series starts when someone wins on the road. The 0-2 hole does set up back-to-back must-wins at home, but that just makes for a more charged RBC Center. By my count the Canes are 4-0 in must-win playoff games this season (game 4 against NJ to avoid going back to NJ down 3-1; game 6 in NJ to avoid being done; game 7 in NJ; game 7 in Bos). This team have been its best when backed into a corner.
--If I could pick any goalie to have put in game 3 after games 1 and 2, it would be Cam Ward. Regular season, post season or whatever, Ward has always been his good following a loss and even better when things look darkest.
--This franchise has always been at its best in an "us against the world" situation. The 2002 team was supposed to bow out to the Devils in round 1. The 2006 team was picked somewhere between 28 and 30 by every expert to start the season. It is obviously not where they wanted to be, but just maybe the team played themselves into a situation with which they are comfortable. Might they lose this series? Certainly seems possible at this point. But is there any chance that the Carolina Hurricanes season will end because they quit early, because the experts again write them off or because the Pens took it to them for 2 games in Pittsburgh? Anyone who thinks so has missed the past month plus of Hurricanes hockey.
You have to give the Pens credit through 2 games. I think they got exactly the kind of hockey game they wanted and especially on Thursday used it to their advantage. As things got loose, Malkin and Crosby looked most comfortable and rose up in a big way. Malkin was easily the best player on the ice and after a quiet game 1. Crosby was also good. It is unfortunate that the Canes could not pressure Fleury more early in the 2nd period, but at the end of the day, you have to say that he was again better than Ward maybe via a playing more of these wild affairs thus far in the playoffs.
This is an aside on a night where looking on the bright side of things is tough for a Canes fan, but did anyone else get a kick out of Malkin's parents especially his dad? Their enjoyment and enthusiasm of watching their kid play to me looked like the sincere kind you see at a youth hockey game. And it is important to note that it started long before #71 was on his way to a hat trick. For everything I did not like on the ice on Thursday night in Pittsburgh, that was actually pretty cool.
Like I said above, NHL playoff series start when someone wins on the road. While the Pens have put the pressure on the Canes making for 2 must-win games in Raleigh, they have not done anything except hold their home ice advantage.
Go Canes!
The path back into this series when the team returns home to Raleigh has a couple steps:
1) The team needs to get back to playing sound defensive hockey first and creating offense second. In game 1, the Canes were lured and tiptoed just a little bit in the wrong direction. In game 2, the Canes fully submersed themselves in the wide open, often sloppy variety of hockey that says first team to 5 wins. This is exactly the kind of hockey that the Pens used to bury Philadelphia who could never get into a physical, half of the ice at a time game and also the Capitals who stayed in such a series via #8 but were ultimately disadvantaged by defensemen without enough wheels and a rookie goalie who eventually caved to the assault.
2) Cam Ward needs to be better. Part of this is #1 above where his team needs to give him a better chance and get back to a game where goalies get something more than an all-star game defense. But part of it is that the team desperately needs Ward to step up and make some big saves even if they are difficult ones. He could not bail out the team with less than 10 seconds to go in the 2nd period and could not hold the fort in the 3rd period to give his team a chance.
3) The Canes best players need to be exactly that. In the playoffs, the team whose best players are better almost always wins. Through 2 games, it is clearly Malkin and Crosby over Staal plus whoever, and it clearly Fleury over Ward.
So down 2-0, is there anything to be positive about? Actually I think there is.
--I think it is important to remember that as frustrating as Thursday's mess might be, all Pittsburgh has done is what they were supposed to do - win at home. An NHL playoff series starts when someone wins on the road. The 0-2 hole does set up back-to-back must-wins at home, but that just makes for a more charged RBC Center. By my count the Canes are 4-0 in must-win playoff games this season (game 4 against NJ to avoid going back to NJ down 3-1; game 6 in NJ to avoid being done; game 7 in NJ; game 7 in Bos). This team have been its best when backed into a corner.
--If I could pick any goalie to have put in game 3 after games 1 and 2, it would be Cam Ward. Regular season, post season or whatever, Ward has always been his good following a loss and even better when things look darkest.
--This franchise has always been at its best in an "us against the world" situation. The 2002 team was supposed to bow out to the Devils in round 1. The 2006 team was picked somewhere between 28 and 30 by every expert to start the season. It is obviously not where they wanted to be, but just maybe the team played themselves into a situation with which they are comfortable. Might they lose this series? Certainly seems possible at this point. But is there any chance that the Carolina Hurricanes season will end because they quit early, because the experts again write them off or because the Pens took it to them for 2 games in Pittsburgh? Anyone who thinks so has missed the past month plus of Hurricanes hockey.
You have to give the Pens credit through 2 games. I think they got exactly the kind of hockey game they wanted and especially on Thursday used it to their advantage. As things got loose, Malkin and Crosby looked most comfortable and rose up in a big way. Malkin was easily the best player on the ice and after a quiet game 1. Crosby was also good. It is unfortunate that the Canes could not pressure Fleury more early in the 2nd period, but at the end of the day, you have to say that he was again better than Ward maybe via a playing more of these wild affairs thus far in the playoffs.
This is an aside on a night where looking on the bright side of things is tough for a Canes fan, but did anyone else get a kick out of Malkin's parents especially his dad? Their enjoyment and enthusiasm of watching their kid play to me looked like the sincere kind you see at a youth hockey game. And it is important to note that it started long before #71 was on his way to a hat trick. For everything I did not like on the ice on Thursday night in Pittsburgh, that was actually pretty cool.
Like I said above, NHL playoff series start when someone wins on the road. While the Pens have put the pressure on the Canes making for 2 must-win games in Raleigh, they have not done anything except hold their home ice advantage.
Go Canes!
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