G10: Canes Desperately Need a Road Win Against the Predators Tonight (Canes)

Canes

G10: Canes Desperately Need a Road Win Against the Predators Tonight

By Ben Case

Nov 5, 2016 • 11:22 am

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Match-up – Carolina Hurricanes (2-4-3 )@ Nashville Predators (3-5-2) Road/Home records – 1-3-3 -------------------- 2-1-0 TV – FSTN, FSCR Puck drop – 8:00 PM ET

Goals for/against per game: Nashville:- 2.60 (13th) and 3.10 (24th) Carolina: 2.78 (20th) and 3.56 (28th)

Power play/Penalty Kill: Nashville-30% (2nd) and 73.5% (28th) Carolina- 23.3% (8th) and 86.2% (7th)

Tonight, the Carolina Hurricanes (2-4-2) will be taking on the Nashville Predators at the Bridgestone Arena. Both teams have struggled to start off on the right foot; the last five games for both teams combine for a 2-5-3 record; Carolina is at 1-3-1 and Nashville is at 1-2-2. Also similarly, they have had long road trips and have not played well on the road which is partially to explain why both are so low in the standings. I expect that Nashville will come out with a lot of urgency as they are returning from a 5-game road trip and should be excited to be back on home ice. The Hurricanes will be wrapping up a two-game road trip before they return to the PNC Arena for six of their next seven games extending over two and a half weeks.

Tonight, we are getting to witness the “toilet bowl… as we see the two worst teams (based off of points and using wins as tie-breaker) in the NHL playing each other. Both teams will be looking for tonight’s game to help them hopefully change course from a poor start. While Carolina was not really expected to be much of a playoff contender this year, Nashville has a team that has consistently been a playoff contender in past years. Given this, many fans and experts have been surprised at Nashville starting this slow and believe that they are playing way below their potential. They are loaded with offensive and defensive talents and have an elite caliber goaltender.

The Hurricanes made some line changes in their most recent game against the Ottawa Senators on this past Tuesday and it appeared to pay off early. Throughout the first period, the Canes outshot Ottawa 16-5 and had good chemistry through the newly formed lines. Despite an early shot advantage, Ottawa was able to limp into the first intermission tied at 1-1. The Canes failed to convert on some prime chances and ultimately left the Senators in the game. While the Canes did gain a point in the overtime loss, the fact of the matter is that they left points on the board. Hopefully, the amount of time the Canes have had to practice will help the lines mesh a bit more tonight.

The good news about their performance against the Senators is that they did not make as many turnovers and positional errors that have cost them dearly in previous games. The bad news is that the Canes got another early lead that they failed to monetize and turn into a win—a problem that has been costing them tons of points early in the season. The Canes had no problem scoring most nights in their 6-game road trip, however, couldn’t win games because despite scoring they were letting in an astronomical amount of goals themselves. Now that the goaltending and D-zone coverage has become a bit more consistent, the offense has hit a bit of a cold-streak. Furthermore, the PP that started red hot has been stymied and has only converted twice in their last fourteen chances which hasn’t helped offensive production either.

The offensive struggle extend to any players not on the first line (Rask, Skinner and Stempniak) or who don’t have the last name Faulk or Hannifin. These five players are the only ones on the Canes roster who have six or more points through the first nine games. The offensive production for anyone on the 2nd, 3rd or 4th line has been so poor, that there are 16 guys on the team who have 3 or fewer points. This is why Coach Peters changed the lines for the game against the Senators and noted that they currently don’t have 18 guys who are making positive contributions every night.

Lindholm has been an absolute disaster this year failing to capitalize on great chances and consistently having dangerous turnovers. Despite getting nearly 2 shots a night, through the first 9 games, he only has 1 assist and is a minus 5. Aho sits in a very similar boat and has gotten some wide-open chances and failed to score too—he has 19 shots with no goals. He at least has 5 assists (3 PP), however, in his last 4 games has not registered a point and hasn’t contributed much of anything. He really struggles to create productivity if he isn’t on the PP and I have noticed that physical lines are able to easily separate him from the puck and completely make him a non-factor.

Two defensemen who have been playing well recently are Slavin and Pesce. Both have been blocking multiple shots a night and have 17 and 19 blocks respectively. They are the only two guys on the Canes roster who have 10 or more blocks, which suggests to me that the Canes are doing a poor job as a unit at preventing pucks from getting to the net at times. In fact, a lot of the goals that the Canes are surrendering recently are coming from the points—a direct result of poor shot blocking and coverage. The Canes will struggle tonight as the Predators boast a top PP unit, as well as big shot defenders like P.K. Subban. I imagine that the Predators will get at least one goal from a defensemen tonight.

I imagine that the Canes will attempt to control play the pace of play as much as possible tonight. Nashville has a lot of speed, plus some very offensively gifted players that can be lethal when caught in a North-South transition battle. The Canes have tried to slow play down and use their speed at opportunistic moments—this has resulted in them being top ten in shots against, however, they have produced one of the lower NHL averages for shots on net per game. Nashville, allows one of the highest amounts of shots per game, but is also much more offensively involved as they rank top ten in shots for per game. The Canes have got to find a way to get more traffic in front, as well as getting tougher on capitalizing on rebounds. When the puck isn’t finding the net and 3 out of 4 lines are literally doing nothing offensively each night, you have to go to the gritty areas and force the puck to go in.

It is anticipated that Rinne will start for the Predators, while Cam Ward will make his 5th straight start for the Canes. Ward has begun to find a rhythm and has shown to be a bit more consistent than in his first few starts. If the Canes are going to have any chance tonight, it will begin with what Cam Ward shows up. Nashville, despite struggling like Carolina, has actually gotten decent play out of Rinne who brings a .915 save percentage into tonight. When looking at Nashville’s team GAA, one would assume the goaltending has been the issue since they sit at 24th. However, Nashville’s inability to find their offensive stride yet and the high amount of shots against appears to be the bigger problem (average 32 shots against per game).

If the Canes can’t play disciplined, I envision the points will devastate the Canes PK and they might be in for a very long evening. From looking at the effectiveness of Nashville’s PP, I believe that the Canes will have to find ways to win the 5 v 5 match-ups. Since Nashville is struggling to find goals at 5 v 5 play, if the Canes can stay out of the box, can limit the amount of turnovers and slow Nashville’s breakout down, they should have a good shot at winning. Finally, given the struggles Nashville is having playing at 5 v 5, one of the lines that isn’t the first line has to be productive and find some magic.

Canes anticipated lines tonight:

Skinner- Rask -Stempniak Nordstrom- Staal -Nestrasil Teravainen- Lindholm -Aho Stalberg- McClement –Di Guiseppe

Hainsey – Faulk Slavin – Pesce Hanifin – Murphy

Ward

Canes Extra:

Interview post practice with Coach Peters:

Rask interview on the importance of next few games:

Slavin discussed the D and his role:

The Canes return home tomorrow against the NJD—the game is Hockey Fights Cancer Night:

Great to see the Canes in the local community, especially when it involves the kids!

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