After mostly blogging about the Canes’ recent struggles, some potential issues with the lineup/personnel and the potential for trades that inevitably send someone’s favorite player elsewhere, I am very happy to focus on the basics of the Canes game in Boston Saturday afternoon. I was tied up all afternoon, so I hesitantly turned on the DVR late afternoon to see what I had missed. The game was nothing close to a work of art. It was basically the Detroit game with a couple key plays and a couple breaks built in. And I will of course ramble on below about some of the details of the game which on the whole were not favorable.
But here is the important part. The Canes played on the road against 1 of the best teams in the league. The entered the game on a down note with 3 straight losses. And they came out of Boston with a point in the standings. The bigger picture is more complicated, but within the narrow confines of “the results from Saturday’s game… that is very good, great even.
And I do not blame Canes fans if they want to read the next positive paragraph and then stop reading before the “But…… portion of this recap.
The OTL point puts the ball firmly on the tee to salvage respectable, treading water type of week with a win tomorrow on Jeff Skinner bobblehead night. While no opponent is easy in the NHL, the Senators are clearly a step down from the Bruins right now. The Sens have a Canes-ish 8-10-4 record and even have a 3-game losing string right now. And they are playing a 7pm Saturday start in Detroit which puts them at a travel/rest disadvantage to the Canes who should have made it home in time for a late Saturday dinner. With a win, a week that looked bleak would become a decent 1-2-1 week for the Canes.
At some point, I think the Canes will need to find a higher gear that does not require grinding out points or wins in games where they are clearly outplayed, but at least by treading water now they are at least positioned such that a great run of hockey for 3-4 weeks will matter.
My more detailed thoughts on Saturday’s game are not overly favorable. The Canes were outplayed. It took an incredible game by Ward, a somewhat fluky change up puzzling power play goal, a strange burst of 3rd period offense shorthanded and 2 posts when the Bruins were up 2-1 looking to put the game away for the Canes just to get to overtime, defy what was fair outcome-wise and claim a point. Most disconcerting to me was more of the same in terms of a playing directly into the hands of the Bruins. In the 1st period alone, I counted 10 failed attempts to get the puck up the ice JUST from the Bruins lock on the right side half wall forward. If you DVRed it and can stomach it, I jotted down the time remaining for the 1st period problems (19:40 Faulk, 19:22 Bellemore, 17:02 Faulk/Tlusty, 16:35 Bellemore/Dwyer, 11:40 Bellemore, 10:25 ??, 9:51 Murphy, 9:21 Murphy/Ruutu, 4:40 Gleason/Lindholm/Dvorak, 4:15 ??/Dvorak). My notes got hazier as the game went on and the 3rd period was much better when the Canes got the puck deep some and returned the favor hemming in some of Boston’s young defensemen, but my rough estimate is that the Canes had possession of the puck right side corner (defenseman spot) or right side half wall (forward usually right wing spot) and lost or gave up possession of the puck soon thereafter 25 times over the course of the full game. The NHL’s methodology for giveaways does not tell the story because the kind where you dump it to center, the kind that becomes an immediate puck battle, etc. are not deemed giveaways usually. If I can find a bit of time, I have ambitious plans to do something different and scribble out some Xs and Os in PowerPoint or something and post either on HB or maybe through Twitter. What was even more striking was how successful the Canes were advancing the puck in a hurry any time they could work up left side of the ice. There were 2 reasons for that. First, you could see where the Bruins forecheck intentionally funneled the puck to the right. Of the 2 pairings that make up 75% of the Canes defense ice time, Faulk (who is struggling advancing the puck right now) and Bellemore (just not his skill set) are on that side of the ice. So any time the Canes could move the puck quickly back to the left they suddenly had numbers and a bunch of room. Second, the Canes better puck movers on the 1st 2 pairs were playing that side, so even if the Bruins adjusted quickly, the Canes just had a better chance on that side. My biggest disappointment in Saturday’s game was that I could identify nothing in the way of adjustments by Muller and his coaching staff to alleviate the pressure. It looked more like a stubborn “this is how we play… approach instead of an attempt to adjust to what “the book… on the Canes that has seen a consistent run of copies during the past week and a half.
Slightly shorter version: The Canes inability to get the puck out of their own end and play much if any offense for very large stretches of the 1st 2 periods are what defined this game just like the Detroit game that preceded it. Through the 1st half of the game the Canes managed a total of 4 shots on goal at even strength (plus 2 more on power play) and were still in the game only because of a power play goal in the 1st period. Things did finally turn a bit in the 3rd period when the Canes were able to hem the Bruins in a bit, but on the whole the Canes did very close to nothing offensively in this game except for on special teams.
A few other player and random notes:
--Cam Ward. This was an incredibly encouraging game for him. After a long layoff, I was concerned that the Canes might have to endure another rust-induced dive to try to get him back into the mix. He was decent on Monday’s loss once he settled in after a period or so, and he was very very good in Saturday’s overtime loss. With as well as Peters has been playing too, Muller could go either way for Sunday’s game against Ottawa but as long as there are no physical issues/limits with Ward coming off the layoff and a (not officially confirmed I don’t think) muscle/groin type injury, I would be inclined to come right back to him on Sunday to see if he can get on a run.
--Andrej Sekera. He is the Canes best skater right now. The scoring helps make it more obvious, but he is also just playing real confident and assertive hockey with the puck on his stick and especially in terms of getting the puck to the other end of the rink is the catalyst for the Sekera/Faulk pairing right now with Faulk fighting it a bit in terms of handling the puck.
--Patrick Dwyer. Huge goal! It was good for stealing a point in the standings that was not coming any other way. I wish he was good for more than 7-8 goals per season especially stuck in a 2nd line slot right now, but a reasonably long and consistent history says he just is not. But making the 7-8 count helps. He had a couple of the Canes other very few chances too.
--Brett Bellemore. He continues to be sound without the puck defending in his own end. He also continues to prove mobile enough to handle opposing forwards coming at him with some speed. And he continues to make simple plays and at worst small mistakes handling the puck. The problem is that there is now plenty of video tape on him. Of the roughly 25 Canes turnovers in the right corner/right half wall area, he was a part of half or maybe even a bit more of them. He is too predictable with the puck and teams are preying on it to the tune of regular turnovers. His tendency is to play within his limitations and get rid of the puck quickly and to do it to a safe place which in the Canes system 4 out of 5 times is the wing coming back to the half wall. Teams get this and are eating it up. The tricky thing is for Bellemore to vary his game just a bit without opening things up too much, getting out of his comfort zone in risky areas and then making bigger mistakes/turnovers which are worse than now.
Shorter version: The defensive coverage part of his game continues to hold up. His lack of ability to advance the puck is becoming a liability as teams scout and understand his game.
--Tim Gleason. He had a very oddly mixed game. He was actually pretty good in terms of looking past the 1st layer of the forecheck and maybe a good number of very good passes to get the puck moving especially in the 2nd half of the game. But he was also in the photo for another goal against from right between the circles when he lost yet another foot race and ultimately fell down while Boston scored its 2nd goal from right between the circles. As much as the team and Muller (and me too actually) would like Gleason to be 1 of the 6 best defensemen, right now he just is not. In the name of trying to win the game at hand, I do not get the decision to sit Harrison who was listed as healthy today. In addition to Gleason having another fairly tough night, Murphy’s game seems to also be less playing with Gleason as compared to Harrison who just seem to fit together in that strange Gleason/Corvo kind of way from a few years back (when they were good).
--Gerbe/JStaal/Dwyer. By no means were they dynamic or was this 1 of their best games, but they were quietly competitive and breakeven-ish on a night when very few Canes skaters could say that. They did muster a few sporadic chances and seemed to help the defensemen get the puck out of their own end better than the other forward lines. And in a game where you are mostly getting outplayed by trying to hang around and steal a point late (which worked out obviously) their minor victory, or at least draw, was a quiet but important contribution. The Dwyer shorthanded goal was huge obviously. More subtle but also incredibly heady was the way JStaal sealed the defender behind him giving Dwyer time and room to cut across at the last minute to make an opening and shooting angle. If you are tinkering with the DVR tomorrow and did not notice it the 1st time, take a look at Jordan Staal on that goal. The more obvious play would have been to go hard to the net as a passing option in which case Dwyer would not have had much room to maneuver and very likely would have been left only with a much lower percentage shot coming straight at the goalie from the right side.
--The officiating. I mostly just walk past the occasional bad call or even a couple. There tends to be some in every game if you want to look hard enough. But Saturday was just horrible. How can you miss a slashing penalty on a breakaway when the player’s stick gets chopped in half right before he shoots? Really? Then maybe as a makeup call they completely let go blatant trips on the goalie Chad Johnson and also Lucic. Then Jordan Staal was tripped right before the game-winning goal. I guess the only positive is that there were so many missed calls in both directions that it seems impossible to even figure out if 1 team gained a bigger advantage than the other.
--Sneaky smart strategy. It obviously was not planned, but after the Canes got 3 real good, quick scoring chances (2 by EStaal, the other by Malhotra I think) on the 1st penalty kill in the 3rd period and then scored a goal on the next penalty kill, did anyone else chuckle in thinking that maybe Muller sent an extra player over the boards on purpose to get the too many men on the ice penalty to set up the tying goal.
Sunday is Jeff Skinner bobblehead night at PNC Arena. It also marks the beginning of a short stretch of schedule that sees the Canes play a couple teams in very similar spots in the Eastern Conference playoff standings. Here is hoping that the Canes can bring a little bit better game against a slightly lesser opponent and salvage a treading water in the standings type of week after a rough start.
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