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Carolina Hurricanes Blogger •
FINALLY! Today we get another hockey game. The NHL’s scheduling is making this round feel the Superbowl where you get days and days of mostly nothing and media forced to stretch too far to find real material to fill up days and days.
I think most of the die-hard Canes fans especially local ones know about them, but I wanted to point out 2 great sources of Canes information this time of year for those who might be joining us after having their teams eliminated.
For staying up to date with the minute-by-minute, the local newspaper, The News & Observer does a great job. This time of year, the team gets 3 reporters for 3 stories a day covering game recaps, player stories, etc. My favorite part of their coverage is their ongoing blog that you can find at blogs.newsobserver.com/canes. The regular writers (Chip Alexander and Luke DeCock) travel with the team and provide regular updates on who missed practice, coach’s comments on injury status, line combinations in practice, etc. Right now, the hot button with Canes’ fans is the status of Ruutu and Cole for tonight’s game. I would expect their afternoon updates and 3pm live chat to have the latest on each following the morning skate. Everything is secret and cryptic this time of year, so there will be no definitive answer, but Luke and Chip will have the most complete set of clues available.
And if you are 1 of the growing number of Canes fans or new followers who cannot find enough Canes coverage this time of year, the most complete source of Canes information (except maybe the team’s own web page) is Canes Country at www.canescountry.com. I especially like their news stand which points you to Canes news all over the web. Bob (Bubba) has done a tremendous job building this from a small hobby a few years back to an extensive and credible NHL news source, and the addition of Cory Lavalette earlier this season has added some great writing and more feature type stories to go with the regular nuts and bolts. If this site is new to you, you can easily burn a few hours going through their archives and exploring the site, but I would like to point everyone to a recent article on Gleason and Corvo’s rise to become a good, underrated top-pairing defensive unit. You can find this article at http://www.canescountry.com/2009/5/20/881162/corvo-and-gleason-unlikely.
With that, I will add my usual 2 cents to the Canes coverage with my game 2 preview:
As noted previously, the Canes have a decent number of positives to build on coming out of game 1. By no means was it a great game for the Canes, but they did some important things well. At least for stretches (especially the 2nd period), the Canes were able to move the puck effectively which is key to getting the offense going. They were even or maybe even better on special teams. And at least at least for a few stretches they were able to pressure the Pens defensemen and create problems with their forecheck. But there is definitely room to be better in game 2.
Here are the keys to game 2:
1) Cam Ward. He was not horrible in game 1, but he was not great either and Fleury was clearly better especially early which got the Pens out to an early lead. Ward needs to make more big saves in game 2.
2) Better decision-making and covering at the point. By my estimation, about half of the Pens grade A scoring chances came via getting quickly past the Canes defensemen and flying up the ice mostly unhindered. The Satan goal was as much bad timing as anything, but more awareness might have had a defenseman cheating back. We also saw a Malkin breakaway and 2 other partial breakaways. All of these chances plus a few other good Pens rushes were directly or indirectly a result of Canes defensemen pinching in on offense and getting caught.
The flipside is that I thought the ability of the Canes to pinch, hold the puck in the zone and play offense with 5 instead of 3 was a key to some sustained Canes offense. So Coach Maurice must find a way to keep the good but somehow lessen the bad.
There seem to be a couple minor adjustments. First, I think the Canes defensemen do need to be just a little more conservative pinching in. The Pens proved much more capable of making the Canes pay dearly even for small mistakes much more so than the Devils or Bruins. Second, the 2nd defenseman must be quick to read and adjust when his partner pinches. When 1 guy moves forward, the 2nd defenseman needs to be leaning strong to defense-first to make sure that if things do blow up, we at least have 1 guy back. (There were 3-4 1-on-none breaks in game 1 and that is just too many.) Third, the forwards need to be faster backfilling on defense. The Canes learned in game 1 that if the forward filling back to help when the defense pinches is even just a little slow, he just becomes a guy chasing the puck up the ice (reference Samsonov being able to do little more than try to hook Malkin on the 1 breakaway).
If the Canes can stay aggressive pinching in, but work harder to reduce the possible bad effects when it does not work, the Pens get much less "free offense" and need to do much more work for their chances and Cam Ward sees many fewer chances where he is asked to rob someone.
3) Special teams. This was possibly the most impressive part of the Canes game 1. In only 2 chances, the Canes scored a big power play goal and looked very good only to get robbed twice by Fleury on the 2nd power play. And despite giving up a goal, the penalty kill looked very good. Power plays are about who has the 2-4 most skilled offensive players. I think the Pens have an advantage here. Even strength is about who is deeper through 9-10 forwards and 4-6 defensemen. I think the Canes are better here. I like the Canes chances in a game that is even on special teams and decided 5-on-5.
4) Moving the puck up the ice. Both teams looked good moving the puck at times and got hemmed in a bit at times in game 1. When either team finds a stretch of being able to skate freely with the puck on their sticks, they gain a huge advantage.
There are also a couple wild cards for game 2 that revolve around the questionable Ruutu and Cole hits and subsequent injuries and the ending to game 1.
--Lineup, line combinations and ice time. Yesterday I wrote a blog highlighting the lineup decisions that Coach Maurice might face if both Cole and Ruutu cannot go. You can find it inside the Canes stuff if you have not read it yet and care to. If both are unable to go, Maurice will be forced to put 2 new players in the lineup and also make some adjustments to who plays with whom.
--Channeled aggression. Regardless of if Cole and Ruutu play you can expect the Canes to come out with a bit of an angry edge. That can be a good thing. If it provides a physical edge (within the game) and provides some extra jump and boom on the forecheck it makes the Canes better. But it can also be a bad thing. If instead it has the Canes running around out of position trying to make a hit and taking extra penalties after the whistle, then it just feeds the monster that is the Pens’ power play.
Finally, were those cracks that I saw? Just maybe they were…I think Fleury was the best and most important player on the ice in game 1. He made a number of great saves early and was generally solid throughout the game. But the ending was bizarre.
He seemed to be more clinging to life rather than finishing strong. It might have been a little late because of a screen, but he did seem to react to and try to play the goal that made it 3-2 only to have it hit his glove and end up behind him. Then he looked like a deer in the headlights on the pass right across the front of his crease from Jokinen to Staal that would have tied it. They called it a save on Versus, but if you watch the play, he failed to be active with this stick which might have negated and then might even have been slow getting over. There was no great save. Staal mostly whiffed on it and managed to slide the puck under Fleury when he had half a net to shoot at. And then maybe still shell-shocked Fleury sat way too deep in net and managed to play a weird bouncing shot from center ice into an adventure instead of a puck that he calmly pushed to the corner. Was this just par for the course in a frenetic and desperate Canes push late in a playoff game? Or did we see signs of cracks in Fleury’s armor? Game 2 might tell us a lot.
More than anything, I would love to see the Canes play a simple game early and get shots on net when they can and send bodies there to screen, deflect and battle for rebounds. Maybe just maybe, the Canes can get in Fleury’s head early in game 2.
Go Canes!
I think most of the die-hard Canes fans especially local ones know about them, but I wanted to point out 2 great sources of Canes information this time of year for those who might be joining us after having their teams eliminated.
For staying up to date with the minute-by-minute, the local newspaper, The News & Observer does a great job. This time of year, the team gets 3 reporters for 3 stories a day covering game recaps, player stories, etc. My favorite part of their coverage is their ongoing blog that you can find at blogs.newsobserver.com/canes. The regular writers (Chip Alexander and Luke DeCock) travel with the team and provide regular updates on who missed practice, coach’s comments on injury status, line combinations in practice, etc. Right now, the hot button with Canes’ fans is the status of Ruutu and Cole for tonight’s game. I would expect their afternoon updates and 3pm live chat to have the latest on each following the morning skate. Everything is secret and cryptic this time of year, so there will be no definitive answer, but Luke and Chip will have the most complete set of clues available.
And if you are 1 of the growing number of Canes fans or new followers who cannot find enough Canes coverage this time of year, the most complete source of Canes information (except maybe the team’s own web page) is Canes Country at www.canescountry.com. I especially like their news stand which points you to Canes news all over the web. Bob (Bubba) has done a tremendous job building this from a small hobby a few years back to an extensive and credible NHL news source, and the addition of Cory Lavalette earlier this season has added some great writing and more feature type stories to go with the regular nuts and bolts. If this site is new to you, you can easily burn a few hours going through their archives and exploring the site, but I would like to point everyone to a recent article on Gleason and Corvo’s rise to become a good, underrated top-pairing defensive unit. You can find this article at http://www.canescountry.com/2009/5/20/881162/corvo-and-gleason-unlikely.
With that, I will add my usual 2 cents to the Canes coverage with my game 2 preview:
As noted previously, the Canes have a decent number of positives to build on coming out of game 1. By no means was it a great game for the Canes, but they did some important things well. At least for stretches (especially the 2nd period), the Canes were able to move the puck effectively which is key to getting the offense going. They were even or maybe even better on special teams. And at least at least for a few stretches they were able to pressure the Pens defensemen and create problems with their forecheck. But there is definitely room to be better in game 2.
Here are the keys to game 2:
1) Cam Ward. He was not horrible in game 1, but he was not great either and Fleury was clearly better especially early which got the Pens out to an early lead. Ward needs to make more big saves in game 2.
2) Better decision-making and covering at the point. By my estimation, about half of the Pens grade A scoring chances came via getting quickly past the Canes defensemen and flying up the ice mostly unhindered. The Satan goal was as much bad timing as anything, but more awareness might have had a defenseman cheating back. We also saw a Malkin breakaway and 2 other partial breakaways. All of these chances plus a few other good Pens rushes were directly or indirectly a result of Canes defensemen pinching in on offense and getting caught.
The flipside is that I thought the ability of the Canes to pinch, hold the puck in the zone and play offense with 5 instead of 3 was a key to some sustained Canes offense. So Coach Maurice must find a way to keep the good but somehow lessen the bad.
There seem to be a couple minor adjustments. First, I think the Canes defensemen do need to be just a little more conservative pinching in. The Pens proved much more capable of making the Canes pay dearly even for small mistakes much more so than the Devils or Bruins. Second, the 2nd defenseman must be quick to read and adjust when his partner pinches. When 1 guy moves forward, the 2nd defenseman needs to be leaning strong to defense-first to make sure that if things do blow up, we at least have 1 guy back. (There were 3-4 1-on-none breaks in game 1 and that is just too many.) Third, the forwards need to be faster backfilling on defense. The Canes learned in game 1 that if the forward filling back to help when the defense pinches is even just a little slow, he just becomes a guy chasing the puck up the ice (reference Samsonov being able to do little more than try to hook Malkin on the 1 breakaway).
If the Canes can stay aggressive pinching in, but work harder to reduce the possible bad effects when it does not work, the Pens get much less "free offense" and need to do much more work for their chances and Cam Ward sees many fewer chances where he is asked to rob someone.
3) Special teams. This was possibly the most impressive part of the Canes game 1. In only 2 chances, the Canes scored a big power play goal and looked very good only to get robbed twice by Fleury on the 2nd power play. And despite giving up a goal, the penalty kill looked very good. Power plays are about who has the 2-4 most skilled offensive players. I think the Pens have an advantage here. Even strength is about who is deeper through 9-10 forwards and 4-6 defensemen. I think the Canes are better here. I like the Canes chances in a game that is even on special teams and decided 5-on-5.
4) Moving the puck up the ice. Both teams looked good moving the puck at times and got hemmed in a bit at times in game 1. When either team finds a stretch of being able to skate freely with the puck on their sticks, they gain a huge advantage.
There are also a couple wild cards for game 2 that revolve around the questionable Ruutu and Cole hits and subsequent injuries and the ending to game 1.
--Lineup, line combinations and ice time. Yesterday I wrote a blog highlighting the lineup decisions that Coach Maurice might face if both Cole and Ruutu cannot go. You can find it inside the Canes stuff if you have not read it yet and care to. If both are unable to go, Maurice will be forced to put 2 new players in the lineup and also make some adjustments to who plays with whom.
--Channeled aggression. Regardless of if Cole and Ruutu play you can expect the Canes to come out with a bit of an angry edge. That can be a good thing. If it provides a physical edge (within the game) and provides some extra jump and boom on the forecheck it makes the Canes better. But it can also be a bad thing. If instead it has the Canes running around out of position trying to make a hit and taking extra penalties after the whistle, then it just feeds the monster that is the Pens’ power play.
Finally, were those cracks that I saw? Just maybe they were…I think Fleury was the best and most important player on the ice in game 1. He made a number of great saves early and was generally solid throughout the game. But the ending was bizarre.
He seemed to be more clinging to life rather than finishing strong. It might have been a little late because of a screen, but he did seem to react to and try to play the goal that made it 3-2 only to have it hit his glove and end up behind him. Then he looked like a deer in the headlights on the pass right across the front of his crease from Jokinen to Staal that would have tied it. They called it a save on Versus, but if you watch the play, he failed to be active with this stick which might have negated and then might even have been slow getting over. There was no great save. Staal mostly whiffed on it and managed to slide the puck under Fleury when he had half a net to shoot at. And then maybe still shell-shocked Fleury sat way too deep in net and managed to play a weird bouncing shot from center ice into an adventure instead of a puck that he calmly pushed to the corner. Was this just par for the course in a frenetic and desperate Canes push late in a playoff game? Or did we see signs of cracks in Fleury’s armor? Game 2 might tell us a lot.
More than anything, I would love to see the Canes play a simple game early and get shots on net when they can and send bodies there to screen, deflect and battle for rebounds. Maybe just maybe, the Canes can get in Fleury’s head early in game 2.
Go Canes!
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