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Carolina Hurricanes Blogger •
Everything good for the 2008-09 season for the Carolina Hurricanes started in my opinion in early March. Through the 1st 2/3 of the season, the Canes had stretches of good, stretches of bad and stretches of okay. Entering March the Canes were 1 of those teams that had accumulated enough points that they could play themselves into the playoffs but also few enough that they could easily have been facing a 3rd consecutive year of no playoffs. At that point in the season, the team seemed to lack an identity. There seemed to be no repeatable formula for how it won. The up-and-down Hurricanes would play a stretch where they won with great defense, then they would win a couple 5-4, then Ward would pick the team up for a couple games, then Staal, then there would be another losing streak put the team right back where it started. Had you asked me in early winter what kind of game the Canes needed to play to win, I would have said that I had no idea. The inconsistency and a lack of identity ultimately cost Coach Peter Laviolette his job. Upon taking over the team, Coach Paul Maurice's first focus was shoring up the defense. But would this just slow the offense on a team that seemed more built for offense than defense? Early results under Maurice were slightly better, but it was not clear that this team was doing more than walking on the fence toward either a low playoff seed and little hope of advancing or missing altogether again.
Then in March it all came together. The defensive adjustments paid dividends and suddenly Cam Ward was being given a fair chance to make a difference on a nightly basis. He rose up and did exactly that. Rutherford pulled a couple strings to add Jokinen and Cole to make the forward corps deeper and suddenly the team was getting scoring 3 lines deep. And reunited with Cole, Staal’s top scoring line went on a tear. Riding confidence and success, the Canes found an elusive high level of compete on a game-in, game-out basis. And down the stretch the Canes were the number 2 team in the East behind only the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Through 2 difficult rounds of NHL playoffs, the Canes did a pretty decent job of holding to this winning formula. Staal was the leader in scoring. Other players provided great scoring help. But most significantly, the team held to its formula of being generally sound defensively and giving Cam Ward a chance to make a difference in big games. And given the chance, Cam Ward again held up his end of the deal through 2 rounds of playoffs.
To gain entry into the Eastern Conference Finals series on Saturday, the Canes will need to return to where and how it started in March. The team desperately needs to get back to the basics of playing a sound game defensively, continuing to compete like mad (which has not at all been the problem in my opinion) and starting from the back end out playing better in their defensive zone to again give Ward a chance to make a difference.
When you say that a team is doing a horrible job with coverage in the defensive zone, there is a logical pecking order for the cause. Quite often the team is just not working hard enough. I do not think that is the case with the Canes. They are skating pretty well, generally making things happen offensively and playing physical enough. So next you figure that the team is playing poor defense positionally. That actually is not it either. I think it comes down to 2 things:
1) Awareness of what is going on around them. On most of the Pens close-range goals in game 2, the Canes had bodies in the general area of where they should have been, but repeatedly lacked the awareness and quickness to read what was going on and the danger around them. Malkin skated right past Whitney and Larose who were both at the front of the net (where they should have been) for his 1st goal. 2 other goals featured defensemen covering a guy coming around from behind the net but in both cases neither the defenseman on the puck or the high forward coming down managed to get into a passing lane.
It is not good enough to get to where you are supposed to be. The Canes must be better at reading the play once they get there.
2) Pressure on the puck especially when on Malkin or Crosby’s stick. Malkin, Crosby and the Pens in general are just too good with even a tiny amount of space and time. Seidenberg was positionally fine on the Malkin backhand goal. Kaberle sort of took away the side of the net on the cross-ice pass for the Crosby goal. Gleason was tailing Malkin on his late rebound goal but did nothing to tie up #71 while he whacked at the puck 3 times. Whitney and Larose both started from in front of Malkin before he banged in his rebound goal in the 1st period. The Canes must do a better job getting body contact, tying up sticks and taking away space especially when the puck is on Malkin or Crosby’s stick.
Decent position is not good enough against the Pens skill. The Canes must play bodies, tie up sticks, etc.
Only if the Canes can get away from the shinny hockey of games 1 and 2 and return to March defensively can they turn to Cam Ward to again be the difference and enter this series on Saturday.
The weather is supposed to be perfect and the parking lot opens for tailgating at 2:30 on Saturday. How great is it to get Memorial Day weekend hockey again?!?
Go Canes!
Then in March it all came together. The defensive adjustments paid dividends and suddenly Cam Ward was being given a fair chance to make a difference on a nightly basis. He rose up and did exactly that. Rutherford pulled a couple strings to add Jokinen and Cole to make the forward corps deeper and suddenly the team was getting scoring 3 lines deep. And reunited with Cole, Staal’s top scoring line went on a tear. Riding confidence and success, the Canes found an elusive high level of compete on a game-in, game-out basis. And down the stretch the Canes were the number 2 team in the East behind only the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Through 2 difficult rounds of NHL playoffs, the Canes did a pretty decent job of holding to this winning formula. Staal was the leader in scoring. Other players provided great scoring help. But most significantly, the team held to its formula of being generally sound defensively and giving Cam Ward a chance to make a difference in big games. And given the chance, Cam Ward again held up his end of the deal through 2 rounds of playoffs.
To gain entry into the Eastern Conference Finals series on Saturday, the Canes will need to return to where and how it started in March. The team desperately needs to get back to the basics of playing a sound game defensively, continuing to compete like mad (which has not at all been the problem in my opinion) and starting from the back end out playing better in their defensive zone to again give Ward a chance to make a difference.
When you say that a team is doing a horrible job with coverage in the defensive zone, there is a logical pecking order for the cause. Quite often the team is just not working hard enough. I do not think that is the case with the Canes. They are skating pretty well, generally making things happen offensively and playing physical enough. So next you figure that the team is playing poor defense positionally. That actually is not it either. I think it comes down to 2 things:
1) Awareness of what is going on around them. On most of the Pens close-range goals in game 2, the Canes had bodies in the general area of where they should have been, but repeatedly lacked the awareness and quickness to read what was going on and the danger around them. Malkin skated right past Whitney and Larose who were both at the front of the net (where they should have been) for his 1st goal. 2 other goals featured defensemen covering a guy coming around from behind the net but in both cases neither the defenseman on the puck or the high forward coming down managed to get into a passing lane.
It is not good enough to get to where you are supposed to be. The Canes must be better at reading the play once they get there.
2) Pressure on the puck especially when on Malkin or Crosby’s stick. Malkin, Crosby and the Pens in general are just too good with even a tiny amount of space and time. Seidenberg was positionally fine on the Malkin backhand goal. Kaberle sort of took away the side of the net on the cross-ice pass for the Crosby goal. Gleason was tailing Malkin on his late rebound goal but did nothing to tie up #71 while he whacked at the puck 3 times. Whitney and Larose both started from in front of Malkin before he banged in his rebound goal in the 1st period. The Canes must do a better job getting body contact, tying up sticks and taking away space especially when the puck is on Malkin or Crosby’s stick.
Decent position is not good enough against the Pens skill. The Canes must play bodies, tie up sticks, etc.
Only if the Canes can get away from the shinny hockey of games 1 and 2 and return to March defensively can they turn to Cam Ward to again be the difference and enter this series on Saturday.
The weather is supposed to be perfect and the parking lot opens for tailgating at 2:30 on Saturday. How great is it to get Memorial Day weekend hockey again?!?
Go Canes!
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