After an impressive 3-0 start last week to a stretch of 6 out of 7 on the road, the Canes head West this week for a sprint of 4 games real quick in 6 days. It starts in Vancouver Monday and is followed by Tuesday in Edmonton, Thursday in Calgary and Saturday in Phoenix. At the beginning of this stretch, I said that 8 points in 7 games would be acceptable. That would have kept the team at least treading water during a road stretch and at a minimum pushed the season closer to more favorable schedule in January. But after winning 3 straight to start the run, going 1-3 this week would be another down swing on the rollercoaster that gives back most of what was earned last week. At this point schedule-wise, something like 2-2 would be reasonable, but to make the playoffs the Canes at some point need to find a stretch in which things click and they reel off 3-4 weeks of great hockey to move up in the standings. In the NHL, I think sometimes too much focus is put on the outside circumstances (schedule/opponent(s), injuries, etc.) and not enough on just how good a team is playing. It is not at all uncommon to see teams tear through tough stretches of schedule when hot or just struggle to beat anyone even at home when things are not going well. With 3 wins and positive momentum, could the Canes be ready to go on a bit of a run ignoring the road-heavy schedule? Or is it safer to just hope for a decent week of treading water with a 2-2 mark on the road?
The opponent is a familiar one in that we just the Canucks at home only 9 days ago. The game was surprisingly chippy and physical for 2 opponents who do not see much of each other. It will be interesting to see if that carries over. That game saw the Canes (mostly Jordan Staal’s line) shut down the Sedin line but saw Ryan Kesler have a big game to lead Vancouver to a 3-2 win. It will be interesting to see how Tortorella tries to match things up at home. Vancouver comes in have won 3 more after the victory in Raleigh to run its current streak to 4 wins. The team played last night at home, which could give the Canes a physical advantage. It could also mean that the Canes again see backup Eddie Lack who beat them in Raleigh, but I have not hunted down confirmation of who will be in net for the Nucks on Monday night.
From the Canes side, they should get some reinforcements. After 1-game stint for Zach Boychuk (in which he notched an assist), he was returned to Charlotte. The expectation is that both Dwyer and Bowman will return to the lineup Monday which leaves only Semin still sidelined. He is practicing and traveling with the team, so a lineup return seems possible though not committed for sometime on this trip. On defense Komisarek is on IR. Bellemore is traveling with the team though seems unlikely to play Monday.
Keys to the game:
1) Best against best. In Raleigh with last change, Muller mostly used JStaal’s line to keep the Sedin line in check. That worked pretty well, but Ryan Kesler provided the scoring that Vancouver needed scoring both at even strength and on the power play. It will be interesting to see what Tortorella does matchup-wise at home. The Skinner/EStaal/Ruutu has been lights out scoring-wise, but could this line be vulnerable defensively against top-end scoring talent? My hunch is that Tortorella goes best against best which will see a boat load of NHL star power and offensive talent playing against each other when Skinner/EStaal/Ruutu line up against DSedin/HSedin/Hansen (or possibly Booth). If this matchup comes to fruition, the winner of it gets a head start to winning a hockey game tonight.
2) Goalie mojo. Both Justin Peters and Cam Ward are coming off wins in which they were shaky. I have not seen an announcement and with the Canes riding a winning streak in games not doing a morning skate, we might not know who the starter is until closer to game time. Regardless of who it is, trying to run a winning streak to 3 games in which the goalie has been ‘iffy’ could be asking the hockey gods for way too much leniency in terms of what it usually takes to win in the NHL. Hopefully whoever starts has a bit of a bounce back game.
3) Continued full roster surge. The formula for success in the past few games has been an across the board roster surge from about everyone except the goalies. The top players are playing well. Skinner/EStaal/Ruutu notched 5 goals (all from Skinner in 2 games prior to Friday (and EStaal scored an empty-netter in that 1). Jordan Staal and his line have been incredibly good. But more significantly, even with the top-tier scoring pulled into the top 2 lines, the bottom 2 lines and defenseman have been kicking in a ton of offense of late. Harrison, Sekera and Faulk have scored from the back end, and Tlusty playing on the 4th line and Nash (with 2 huge goals) have chipped in from the bottom half of the forwards. If the Canes can continue to get solid play and produce offense across all 4 lines, they will continue to be tough to beat.
As a night owl, I love this West swing that has fairly regularly fallen in December. I get 3 weekday Canes games that fall outside of the hustle and bustle of the day between work, more work at home sometimes, holiday stuff to do, etc.
--Tied with the Rangers with a game in hand, the Canes play to make a temporary claim to 3rd place outright in the Metro Division and the playoff spot that comes with it.
--The puck drops a little bit after 10pm tonight on Fox Sports Carolinas.
--Run and hide if you do not want in-game yammering from me on Twitter. I watch most TV Canes games on partial delay as I watch hockey and try to do my part with the “moving kids towards bed… chaos that happens in our house between about 7:45 and 9pm. With a 10pm start, I will be watching live tonight. My plan is to be a rare Twitter participant during the game, so if you do not care to hear me yammer from 10-12:30am tonight on Twitter feel free to unfollow and add me back later if you choose.
Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63
Go Canes! Matt on Google+