Die-hard Canes fans who suffered through some late night losses with little hope over the recent western road trip got a reward for their loyalty this week. First, the Canes played a solid game and broke into the win column with a 3-0 win against Arizona on Saturday. Then the Canes beat the defending champion LA Kings 3-2 on Sunday. The Canes are now 2-0 in November.
Sunday's win had many ingredients from the winning recipe from the night before. At a very basic level, the Canes just flat out competed well taking away time and space even when they got hemmed in a bit and also steering clear of the bad mistakes that cost them on the road trip. The Canes again scored first and again rode a strong outing by Cam Ward.
A few specific player notes:
1) Victor Rask. Good for him finally busting onto the score sheet with his 1st NHL goal.
2) Chris Terry. He was incredibly efficient and productive with his ice time playing the leading role in 2 of the Canes 3 goals. Making a difficult pass with seemingly not enough room to Rask on the rush left Rask with a 2-foot tap in into an empty net. He was my 1st star barely nudging out Cam Ward. Then his laser shot netted the team's 2nd. Zach Boychuk was a little quieter but also played well and was 1 of a few players who could have had a goal if not for Quick.
So with that, a key story line Sunday was the team's depth and its production. Jonathan Quick was good and stole a few goals along the way, but 2 of the 3 goals came from the 4th-liners.
3) Brett Bellemore. He had a hooking penalty which was not great obviously, but otherwise I really liked his game. In a game with pace, he was able to keep up and maintain tight enough gaps to step into some big hits when he had numbers/help behind him. He was slow out of the gate after missing time in training camp, but his game is starting to look more like the good brand of physical hockey he played in 2013-14.
4) Justin Faulk. He too has righted the ship after a real rough start and played much better in both weekend wins.
5) Cam Ward. He was solid again. Good call by Peters going against the book and coming back to him in a back-to-back. I had the same in blog last night.
6) Nathan Gerbe. He could have had 3-4 points getting robbed by Quick a couple times on fancy saves and also exhibiting some playmaking.
7) Elias Lindholm. After looking to be in a bit over his head last season, out of the gate for 2014-15, he has looked more comfortable with the lack of space and amount of contact at the NHL level. Now he is hanging out in scoring areas as much as possible and the points are coming to the tune of 3 goals in the Canes 2-game winning streak.
Thus far the Canes are the best team (probably tied by now after Sunday late games end) in the NHL with 4 points in November.
Nothing comes easy in the NHL and Columbus' Calgary-like lunch pail style of play has given the Canes fits recently, but the timing is actually as good as you could hope for catching Columbus twice this week. They are really banged up right now and a bit undermanned roster-wise.
Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63
Go Canes!