Thanks to everyone for the company, conversation, camaraderie on Twitter during the game, and thanks for putting up with my late-night yammering.
The Canes entered Tuesday’s game in Edmonton with a great opportunity to get back to even on the road trip with a win against the #28 team in the NHL. By the end of the 1st period, the Carolina Hurricanes had played a period bad enough to end its night against most teams. But via a combination of a Christmas Miracle burst of offensive help by Westgarth, another road shorthanded goal and a willing opponent, the Canes somehow managed to steal a point in the standings.
And with Rangers and Devils losses on Tuesday night that point is good enough to (again temporarily) push the Canes to #3 in the Metro Division which is of course a playoff spot.
A few comments:
--Brett Bellemore. My in-game Twitter yammering included a comment about how he looked pretty good when he played and even better when he did not meaning that having him out of the lineup makes me appreciate how good he is when he is in. Murphy continued to struggle in the #4 spot next to Hainsey. Hainsey has looked out of sorts at times, and I think it is because he is just not sure what exactly to expect from Murphy versus the less-skilled but very textbook Bellemore. And then when you move Murphy, any of the combination of defensemen left for the 3rd pairing tends to have trouble moving the puck out of their own end.
--Kevin Westgarth. He had easily his best game of the season. When Muller made the odd move to push him up to the 2nd line next to JStaal, he responded. He very clearly had orders to win pucks when possible and otherwise to go straight to the front of the net which he did consistently. He created the chaos that made an opening for the JStaal goal and was in the vicinity of the goalie 2 other times when the puck showed up. After 60 minutes of no traffic in front of the net against Vancouver and a weak start to Tuesday’s game in total, you can bet that Muller was sending a message to some of the more skilled players on the roster, and you can also bet that a few players will get another dose of this message when they do video work.
--Big players making big plays. Credit goes to the entire team for not quitting when it mostly lost a game in the 1st period, and even bigger credit goes to the Canes top players making individual plays to climb back into it. JStaal scored the key 2nd period goal to get close enough to have a chance. EStaal made no mistake on a shorthanded breakaway. And Jeff Skinner fired an improbable laser to tie it.
--Cam Ward. He did make some saves in the 2nd half of the game and made a couple key saves on the 5-minute penalty kill midway through the 3rd period, but overall he is still fighting it. Make no mistake that the defense in front of him in the 1st period was horrible, but he gave up a bad goal that went through him and generally had no answer when the Canes needed him to hold the fort. I am not sure if he could have gotten back across on the OT game-winner, but it was not a bang-bang play so maybe he could have. It also featured an ‘oops’ not normal for Ward’s usually sound play. In playing the shot on the 1 side, he went outside the net (and past where he needed to cover obviously) versus getting a skate to the post and getting square. When a goalie does this, he has farther to get back, but more significantly he loses the ability to push off the post which is how to move back quickly the other way. Instead, Ward had to dive back backwards. The hope is that ice time is all that is needed for him to eventually find his form.
--Jeff Skinner. Is he not the hockey dictionary picture for "dangerous from anywhere on the ice?"
--Tuomo Ruutu. Good for him getting score sheet credit for his scoring play Tuesday night.
--Ron Hainsey had an uncharacteristically rough night. I actually feel bad for even mentioning it because he gets so little press for just being consistent and sound mostly without flare night in and night out. Per my comments above, I think he is struggling to mesh his straightforward/textbook type of game with Murphy’s sometimes more Pitkanenish style. For whatever limitations Bellemore might have, he very much plays a simple, textbook kind of game and is also pretty sound at supporting his partner when without the puck to provide a passing lane across if needed.
--Questionable officiating. I generally steer clear of blaming the refs, but the Canes comeback had to run through a late-game gauntlet of questionable calls. Eric Staal was clearly impeded on the way to a puck (and a breakaway) on the penalty kill with a ref right there who let it go. Jeff Skinner clearly took a high stick late in the 3rd period without a call. Riley Nash picked up a boarding call on an Oilers’ player who looked to be turning which looked more like a 2-minute minor than the 5 minutes that were awarded. That is a big 7 minute swing on power play time in the 3rd period which could have made a difference. (Note: I did not mention the Faulk boarding call in the 3rd period that could also be considered controversial because while the Oiler did again turn into it a bit, I am okay with the call since Faulk did hit numbers.)
But details aside, the Canes somehow managed to pick up a point in the standings when it looked impossible after 20-25 minutes of hockey, and in so doing the team did the positive version of treading water. In the process the Canes pushed ahead of the Rangers and got 1 game closer to finishing a stretch of 6 of 7 on the road. And that is more positive than negative.
Next the Canes get a day off, a practice (since they are not doing game-day skates these days) and possibly some reinforcements (Bowman likely to return; Semin who knows) before continuing the road trip in Calgary on Thursday.
Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63
Go Canes! Matt on Google+