With the light cross-conference schedule previously (only played away every other year for awhile), Edmonton is not a common stop on the Canes schedule. Cam Ward who won a Conn Smythe traveling back-and-forth from Edmonton in the summer of 2006 gets a rare Edmonton start. Hopefully it brings back memories and the top-end confidence and mojo that he had at that time.
The short version of it is in the intro below, but if you want to read my full blog on Monday’s late night loss in Vancouver, you can find it HERE.
The Carolina Hurricanes started the 4-game western road trip with a loss in Vancouver on Monday. Per my game recap, while disappointing, the loss was not horrible. The Canes never really got anything going offensively partly due to a mistake-free buttoned-down game played by the Canucks. Special teams seemed to thwart any momentum the Canes tried to build. Backup goalie Eddie Lack was good. And a decent 3rd period surge just failed to net the goal that the Canes needed to tie the game and get to overtime.
The loss increases the importance of Tuesday night’s game in Edmonton. A win puts the road trip back on track at 1-1, while a loss opens another losing streak even if it is a small 1 at 2 games. With the Canes back in the mix for #3 in the Metro, a win would also keep the team right in the thick of it as 4-5 teams run in a pack jockeying for position.
With the parity in the NHL, nothing is ever a sure thing in the NHL, but this game is a winnable 1. Consider that Edmonton : --Ranks last in the Western Conference and tied for 27th overall in the NHL. --Is 4-9-1 at home. --Ranks 29th in the NHL in goals against per game.
In recent games, the Oilers have been Jekyl & Hyde with a 1-1-1 record in the current home stand that has seen an impressive 8-2 win over Colorado but also a 6-2 loss to Phoenix (with a 2-1 OTL to Calgary as the 3rd game).
At least on paper, this game should offer much more offensively than the Rangers…errr…I mean Canucks loss on Monday night. Edmonton has good young scoring talent upfront, but its weakness has been its blue line, team defense and goaltending. If the Canes skate, move the puck and pressure, there should be more offense available.
Keys to the game:
1) Cam Ward rebound. Justin Peters had a strong rebound game Monday night to right his ship despite not being rewarded with a win. Cam Ward is similarly coming off a shaky outing that netted a win versus San Jose when the Canes offense surged. Edmonton is not the offensively meek version of a weak team – far from it. The Oilers bring plenty of offensive fire power to challenge Ward. Per my comments at the start, here is hoping that he can pull some nostalgic mojo from the road site of his greatest accomplishment as an NHL goalie and ride it to a win and even better a return to form going forward.
2) Back on track offensively. I found it incredibly hard to write some of my usual player comments after Monday’s loss to Vancouver especially for the forwards. It is not so much that any of them were horrible, but almost across the board, they were incredibly quiet. Try to think of 2 or even 1 great plays that Jordan Staal made? How about Lindholm? Skinner? Eric Staal? That entire group plus more has been very assertive and good offensively of late. I am inclined to credit Monday’s quiet game to Vancouver executing incredibly well on a buttoned-down, sitting back defensively a bit approach and attention to detail in doing it.
If the Canes can get back to its strong offensive push 12 players deep at forward, there should be more scoring opportunities on Tuesday and hopefully a path to 3-4 goals and enough to earn a win.
3) Improved bottom half of the defense. Amidst an otherwise decent effort for a loss, individually a few Canes defensemen had rough nights on Monday. Ryan Murphy was exposed multiple times trying to step up from a sheltered 3rd pairing role to play with Ron Hainsey in the 2nd pairing. He was beaten 1-on-1 multiple times and just generally looked, well, like a rookie in his own end. Tim Gleason had 1 real bad shift in which he nearly lost the puck in front of his own net and then proceeded to take a slashing penalty a few seconds later. In general, the Harrison/Gleason pairing struggled at times. Brett Bellemore does not look spectacular when he is in the lineup, but his value/level of play and importance in slotting the defense stands out like a sore thumb whenever he is not in the lineup. Vancouver is obviously not short on high-end offensive talent, but they played more opportunistic than aggressive on Monday which made for sporadic pushes more so than constant pressure. Edmonton’s young guns could make for a good challenge Tuesday night for a group that had some issues Monday night.
What I will be watching early:
--It will be interesting to see if Muller goes with the same pairings or shuffles the bottom 2 pairings a bit.
--Can the Canes find jump out of the gate. This game should by function of the opponent have a bit more pace to it. Will the Canes see round 2 of trying to make the time zone adjustment with a back-to-back layered on top to make things worse? Or will they find their west coast legs and also benefit from a less suffocating defense and look more like the team from last week?
--Ward's rebound control and how well he reacts to the puck early. The combination of these things are nearly a perfect telltale sign for where he is in terms of confidence/comfort.
With last week’s 3-game winning streak, the Canes made up some ground in the Metro Division climbing temporarily into the #2 spot in the division. Cutting any kind of losing streak short is the key to staying closer to the top of the Metro fray versus the more recent game of falling down a ways and then needing to win just to catch up and then repeating it.
It is Canes and coffee again tonight with a 9:30pm week night start on Fox Sports Carolinas. Get your PJs and whatever volume of caffeine it takes for another midnightish week night bed time! Hopefully I did not annoy too many people with my in-game Twitter yammering last night. With the 9:30 start, I will be watching live and probably online again tonight, so there is your warning to hide from it or at least temporarily unfollow me if you do not want me in it from 9:30-12 tonight.
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