G9:Canes Head to Ottawa (Flyers)

Flyers

G9:Canes Head to Ottawa

By Ben Case

Nov 1, 2016 • 3:44 pm

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Match-up – Carolina Hurricanes (2-4-2 )@ Ottawa Senators (5-3-0) Road/Home records – 1-3-2 -------------------- 3-1-0 TV – RDS2, FSCR Puck drop – 7:00 PM ET

Goals for/against per game: Ottawa:- 3.00(T-7th) and 3.13 (22nd) Carolina: 3.00 (T-7th) and 3.75 (27th)

Power play/Penalty Kill: Ottawa-14.3% (T-22nd) and 78.6% (20th) Carolina- 25.9% (5th) and 85.2% (10th)

First and Foremost—A huge shout-out to Craig Anderson after an amazing first game back after taking some personal time. He recently announced his wife, Nicholle, had been diagnosed with cancer and they are figuring out her treatment plan—I know my thoughts and prayers will be with their family for sure.

On that Note, the Canes “Hockey Fights Cancer… night is coming up this week on November 6th!

Recent Results and The Game Tonight: The Canes (2-4-2) desperately need a win tonight as they head to the Canadian Tire Centre to battle Ottawa (5-3)— puck drop is at 7:30 (EST). The next two road games are crucial for the Canes to win to ensure that they bring solid momentum back to Raleigh. After a rough 6-game road trip that saw them start 1-3-2, the Canes finally returned to the PNC arena for a 2-game home opening weekend. In the first game, the Canes played a solid 2-way game and rode an amazing performance by Jeff Skinner and Cam Ward to a 3-2 win. Following a day of rest, the Canes took on the Flyers in what was an offensive shootout that ultimately saw the Flyers win 4-3.

The difference in the team play between the Rangers and Flyers was relatively significant. The mental errors that had been so costly to this young team relatively disappeared against the Rangers—when there were breakdowns, the Canes benefited from Ward coming up with key saves. However, the Canes returned to form in a back and forth game with the Flyers that saw the third and fourth goal come off devastating turnovers. The goaltending also was concerning as Ward let in two point shot goals that appeared he played too deep on and miscalculated.

Tonight will be the first game back at home for the Senators after a 3-game road trip since the announcement regarding Nicholle. One of the main keys to tonight’s game for the Canes will be scoring early and hopefully stifling the Senators early momentum from what I expect to be a rowdy and packed house. If the Canes start slow, they may be in for a long and unforgiving evening as the goaltending has been inconsistent and occasionally very shaky.

Jeff Skinner (5g, 6A) has been on a tear since returning from his middle body injury and posted 3 goals and an assist in the pair of weekend games. He has really been looking like the scoring and speed threat that Carolina always knew he could be. He had some fantastic moves to create space and attack the net against the Flyers—they were lucky he didn’t have 1-2 more goals to be honest. He already has 11 points in his first 7 games and I believe that if he can stay healthy this year, him and Rask both will exceed 60 points easily.

Skinner hasn’t been carrying the load all by himself either, his entire first line has been lethal this year as Rask has 4 goals and 6 assists through 8 games. He has gotten a point in all 8 games this year and will be looking to extend his streak to 9 tonight. Off-season acquisition Lee Stempniak is also looking solid, as he rounds out the first line and has produced well early with 4 goals and 2 assists. This first line has been dynamite for the Canes, however, saw some time split up in the third period as Stalberg was moved up. Tonight, the Canes are keeping the first line together, however, the 2nd to 4th line are all getting shuffled tonight.

Building on how important the first line has been up to now brings to the forefront that the Canes are not getting the results from top to bottom. There are guys on the team who need to step up and as Coach Peters said, “make a positive impact.… While Aho has shown some excellent skills and started the year well with tallying some assists, he has been snake-bitten on getting his first NHL goal. He has had some excellent looks and either missed the net, shot it right at the goalie or whiffed completely. As a result, he has been moved off the second line and sent to the third. Prior to this move, the second line has played pretty well as a whole, however, all of their lack of finishing has definitely hurt their performances. Overall, the second and third line (regardless of who is on them) both need to start finding ways to produce points to help balance out the attack. Currently, there are too many guys who are hurting the Canes with inconsistent play, poor D coverage and turnovers galore.

Two other young Cane players who need to have solid games are Terravainen and Lindholm. Both are off to relatively slow starts on the third line together and hopefully will begin to see some production. Their former line-mate, Di Giuseppe, also has been a non-factor and has no points through 6 games. All three of them are -4 and have a combined 2 goals and 2 assists while playing together. Not surprisingly, Di Giuseppe is getting moved to the 4th line.

Coming into tonight, the Canes will be testing out some different looks on offensive lines as two guys return from injury. Ryan Murphy will be making his season debut after fully recovering from an injury he sustained in early October. Nestrasil is back in the line-up and will be playing in Aho’s spot on the second line. Bickell and Dahlbeck are getting scratched tonight.

Stalberg was an absolute nightmare for the Flyers throughout the second half of the game on Sunday. He was utilizing his speed, causing havoc in the neutral zone and bumping some bodies. If he can continue to bring that sense of urgency and intensity, he could be the sparkplug the team needs. He had a great goal against the Flyers using his speed and tenacity. If he looks anything like he did against the Flyers, I’d look for Coach Peters to throw him on the first or second line for a few “spot shifts.…

The three biggest factors tonight for the Canes are (beyond a solid goaltending performance) being able to get the crowd out of it early, a balanced offensive attack and the turnovers need to be minimized. However, things that should be kept in mind is that the Canes PP unit started the season redhot. They are taking on a subpar Senators PK—sometimes when emotions are high and the crowd is into it, you can get players to take stupid, early penalties. The PP unit didn’t look great against the Flyers and also only had 2 opportunities. The Canes will need to do a better job of getting the special teams involved tonight by forcing the Senators to take penalties. Another bright spot for the Canes have been the faceoffs. They are one of the top teams at winning faceoffs and Staal statistically is one of the best in the NHL this year so far. Only one team in the NHL is winning a higher percentage of their draws than the Canes. In the final 20 seconds against the Flyers, Staal won 2 important draws, however, the Canes failed to get an opportunity. Ottawa is one of the worst teams in the league in draws, so hopefully the Canes can use that advantage effectively in all 3 zones. Given the struggle covering point shots and the fact that the Senators have an excellent blueliner with Karlsson, being able to remove him from the equation in D-Zone draws could be huge.

Finally, I was surprised to see Ward get the nod tonight. My guess is that Coach Peters is hoping that he can get one of his goalies into a grove. It is very tough to get a rhythm when you are trading the crease back and forth. This will be Ward’s third straight start and he will be looking to improve his 3.64 GAA and .869 save percentage.

Here are the anticipated Canes lines tonight:

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

Hainsey – Faulk Slavin – Pesce Hanifin – Murphy

Ward (Confirmed)

Other Canes News:

• If you’re looking for a spot that has some Canes fans for the game—check out the Caroline Ale House in Cary:

• Martin Frk was claimed back by Detroit. The 22 day experiment saw him play under 8 minutes per game through 2 contests. He was a minus 3 and was a liability in his ability to compete in all 3 zones. I was hoping he would make it through waivers, but hey, he was free so I can’t complain about losing him.

• The Canes AHL affiliate Charlotte Checkers swept their weekend series over Grand Rapids. They are middle of the pack in their division and sit at 3-3 for the season so far. Michael Leighton added in a shutout too. If the goaltending continues to struggle for the Canes, I’d be fine giving Leighton a shot.

• The Canes marketing department was working hard last night for Halloween. They put out some things that fans may appreciate:

• Bickell appears to be quite the Pumpkin carver too:

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