First, let's not lose sight of the big picture. November has been a phenomenal month so far for the Canes, and Thursday's loss which is the 1st in regulation does not change that.
But in writing a recap specifically for the game Thursday, it obviously wasn't great. In no way does Thursday's rank among the worst from the western road trip, but the team did get what they deserved in the loss.
At a very basic level, I think the game came down to Winnipeg just being better at winning confrontations. Both teams were pretty good defensively, and there just was not much to be had in terms of pretty tic-tac-toe scoring plays. It was a game of winning pucks on the boards, grinding through a clogged up center ice and fighting for space in places where goals happen. The Canes lost those battles on all fronts. Defensively Winnipeg played mistake-free hockey and did a good job clogging up any easy puck movement through the neutral zone. Offensively, they created and won more than their fair share of battles. They cycled the puck well. They forechecked and made it hard for the Canes to get moving forward and stood up at both the center line and the blue line all night forcing the Canes to chuck the puck deep and engage in battles that they mostly lost. And most significantly, they consistently sent bodies to the front of the net. Both Winnipeg goals (not counting the empty-netter) came from traffic in front of the net. The Canes on the other hand seemed to just keep searching for the pretty play never to find it. The shots on goal ratio was about 60/40 in favor Winnipeg, but the shots on goal with traffic in front was more like 80/20 if not 90/10.
To win tonight, the Canes were going to need 1 of 3 things:
1) A couple fits of offensive brilliance in the middle of a game where there was not much of that. It didn't happen.
2) Cam Ward to completely steal a game. He played very well and did at least give his team a chance in the 3rd, but when Winnipeg beat him with a couple goals where he had about no chance, the result was in.
3) The Canes to sign up for a game not to their liking slugging it out in the trenches. Instead, the Canes offense was funneled to the outside all night to toss an occasional no-traffic shot at the net, and the Canes defense got cycled to death at times.
A few player notes:
1) Cam Ward. He was very good again, deserved a better fate and gave his team a chance to steal an undeserved point or 2 late.
2) Special teams. The Canes were +1 on special teams with Elias Lindholm's goal.
3) Gleason/Harrison. They struggled mightily at times and were picked on the most by Winnipeg's heavy forecheck. The 2nd goal came at the end of a sequence in which they had a couple chances to clear the puck and did not and then the Canes got caught running around a bit leading up to a shot with traffic and the deciding goal.
4) The big guns. Jeff Skinner had a decent game. He had some decent chances and found and took chances to get shots off in a pretty tight game for the Canes offense. So despite the fact that he did not score, I would rate his game/effort as slightly positive. Eric Staal and Alexander Semin not so much. Neither were difference-makers on a night when the Canes needed it.
The key is to avoid an extended slide and get to the next winning streak quickly. The positive scheduling-wise is that the Canes just worked through a pretty good chunk of games against teams who usually bring this style of game. The run includes LA, Clu X2, Cal and now Wpg which was an incredibly productive run aided a bit by LA and Clu struggling with injuries and quality of play. The downside is that the Canes get another dose of this on Saturday and against a Bruins team that is likely to be snarly after a few losses. On the back of a loss, Saturday is 1 of those tough challenges in which you hope the team rises to the challenge for a strong bounce back.
Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63
Go Canes!