Friday night the Canes took a step back trying to beat Columbus for the 2nd consecutive game but managed to scratch and claw their way to an overtime win and another 2 points in the standings. Especially when trying to make a big deficit from an 0-6-2 disaster in October, you need every point you can get. And sometimes results are more than style points.
The game was real sluggish out of the gate. The game was about 4 minutes in before either team registered a shot on goal and the shot volume only picked up when Columbus received a couple power play opportunities. In the Canes October/November reverse world that saw the Canes netminders letting in bad goals early to dig holes in games, Cam Ward was at his best in the 1st period. He was a perfect 11 for 11, mistake-free obviously and got the Canes out of a mostly lackluster 1st period breakeven. The Canes got on the board 1st in the 2nd period courtesy of Jeff Skinner's skills near the net but still managed to exit the period down 2-1. The Canes problem of defending when the opponent gets the puck behind the net and works out from there reared its ugly head again with both goals created when the Canes got bunched up real tight in front of their own net and then saw the puck end up quickly in front of them and then behind Cam Ward. But the finally in the 3rd period, the Canes seemed to find the higher gear that they had most of the game Tuesday in Columbus and poured on shot after shot until a Rask shot with a Gerbe screen netted the tying goal. And regular her of late Elias Lindholm scored on a power play on a 2-on-1 to keep the current winning streak alive.
A few player notes:
1) Cam Ward. He was good again in a way where it is starting to feel like the expected version of good. As noted above, he was especially good holding the fort in a lackluster 1st period and also stood tall late in regulation to push the game to overtime. He did not have a ton of stellar saves, but he seemed to see a high volume of weird deflections that can be tricky. The margin of error for soft goals Friday was exactly 0 goals. Ward was up to that task. Peters said after the game that Khudobin will get the start Saturday in Washington. This makes total sense since they passed up the opportunity to start him in last weekend's back-to-back making it time to keep him in the mix. But I would fully expect to see Ward back in net on Monday regardless of Saturday's outcome.
2) Nathan Gerbe. He just goes - every single night. He dove over the top of a Jackets player to catapult himself into the crease to put a puck in the net that was waived off in the 1st period. And he was the screen on the Rask goal on a night that saw the Canes get away from sending traffic to the net whenever possible. I would have been inclined to give him 1 of the 3 stars despite the fact that he did not play the biggest role in the scoring plays (though he did get a score sheet assist on the Rask goal in addition to being the screen).
3) Justin Faulk. He did not really do anything heroic, but he was a workhorse logging a hefty 27 minutes without being on the ice for a goal against and putting forward another round of his solid November hockey.
4) The Swedes. I guess they don't like playing together. :-) Since being put on different lines, both are surging offensively. Lindholm now has 6 points in 4 games and Rask 3 during the win streak.
5) The left out scorers. I think Skinner and Semin both took steps forward in their assimilation processes on Saturday. Skinner staked the Canes to a lead on a nice finish and after seeing the negative side of being used situationally with only 11ish minutes of ice time Tuesday, he saw the positive side of it with nearly 20 minutes on Friday. I think the biggest difference was the games. Friday was heavier on power play time and the Canes playing from behind. Skinner logged 7 minutes of power play time and also saw his ice time boosted in the 2nd half of the game leaning offense looking for a tying goal. I think Peters has it right. He earns more than his fair share of power play minutes because he is good at that. He also earns more than his fair share of even strength ice time when the Canes are behind and looking to lean a little bit higher risk/higher reward looking for scoring. And until he night in and night out rounds out his 2-way game and shows consistency in it, he gets less than his fair share of even strength ice time when the Canes are defending a lead. Ideally, he starts to win more "all situation" ice time, but even if he does not he can still contribute in a little bit narrower role. Semin was not spectacular, but he had a couple real good shifts late in the 2nd when the Canes were fighting it a bit, notched a point and played an okay game. The steps were not huge, but they were in the right direction.
6) John-Michael Liles. He was decent in his return to the lineup which is a decent starting point when you reinsert a defenseman into the lineup. Most significantly for me was how he made a couple nice stretch passes to spring forwards up the ice. During the rougher games, the Canes have had a tendency to get hemmed in their own end. When teams do that successfully, it generally works like a vice that the opponent just tightens and tightens and tightens suffocating the Canes ability to move the puck. Having the ability to look for a home run pass once in awhile with a reasonable probability of connecting on it can be an important tool for keeping opponents from pushing forward too aggressively with 5 players without any potential to pay for it.
7) A reset on the basics. While Friday was not horrible, it was not great either. The general compete level and avoidance of big breakdowns was mostly intact. The goaltending continued to be good. But a couple other things went astray:
--Going to the front of the net. Until late when Eric Staal spent time there on the 3rd period power plays and Nathan Gerbe went looking for pucks, the Canes did not put bodies to the front of the net. McElhinney had many a glove save on a decent shot, but with a clear sight line to the puck.
--Compete level on the power play. I would call the power play mixed, not really bad. The team did net the game-winner on the power play for a 1-0 goal advantage on special teams and also had the Gerbe goal waived off. But the team also had stretches where they did not seem desperate to keep or win possession of the puck on the power play.
Tomorrow night the Canes get another chance for points in an odd road back-to-back that actually sees them with a slight physical/travel advantage. The Canes played at 7pm and had a short flight that probably sees them in bed at the hotel by 1am. Washington must travel back from an 8:30pm start in Chicago. The Caps picked up a big win to break a losing streak, but I would still put them in the category of struggling a bit. Here is hoping that the Canes can find a little bit better hockey game on Saturday and capitalize on another matchup with decent timing.
Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63 #ForgetOctober
Go Canes!