Per my game preview, I went to tonight's Canes game looking forward to my Twisted Waffle treat and spending time with my son and having absolutely no idea what to expect in terms of the hockey layered on top of that and determined not to let it ruin a good night no matter what. But before 7pm even, it got way better. With enough time for quick dinner between picking my son up at a birthday party at 5:15 and puck drop a little after 7pm, we happened to stop at the Wendy's near the stadium. I have never been in there. It turns out that they have an incredible collection of Canes stuff all over the walls that is heavy on the 2002 and 2006 playoff runs. I got to tell my son the story (again, he has heard them before) of the wild ending to the 2001 playoff series against New Jersey, the special game 6 standing ovation to close out the game and how I thought it led into the 2002 series against them. Then I got to tell in pretty good detail the entire story of the 2002 New Jersey series including the Canes swagger and purpose in games 1 and 2 at home followed by a fast return to reality with 2 thumpings in New Jersey and the magical game 5 that to this day I think is the most important game in Carolina Hurricanes history (yes, over the Stanley Cup game 7 win). So with that trip down memory lane and Twisted Waffle in my future to ease whatever pain could come from 2 1/2 hours of hockey (and it was a lot Monday), I was already assured a good night.
Who knew that the on-ice hockey would actually turn out pretty well too.
After a taxing week following Monday's bad loss, more than anything the Canes needed a win of anything to put that behind them and move forward. And that is exactly what they got.
I am not sure this game was the ultimate test of the Canes ability to battle, grind and fight for wins. It was real loose defensively in the 1st period and never evolved into the trench warfare that Columbus and Calgary forced on the Canes. And Florida is built more for a skating and scoring kind of game more like the Canes. So the game fit the Canes comfort and skill set pretty well. But this said, there was evidence of a bit more fight in the game from the Canes. Jordan Staal noticeably looked for contact all night, and the team in general looked to hit and finish checks. Even when the Canes did not win loose pucks (and they did have trouble for stretches of the 3rd period getting out of their own end), they at least seemed to want them more. And the team skated well and made some plays.
A few notes:
--Alexander Semin. I posted and retweeted a link to a Jim Rutherford interview (you can find it my game preview blog if you have not seen it yet) from Friday by ABC-11's Mark Armstrong. Rutherford was fairly hard on Semin the interview.
There are a couple things on that: --Jim Rutherford is not a knee-jerk reaction, emotional kind of GM who says stuff off the cuff that he regrets. --He is very calm and calculated in most everything he does. --So to think that Rutherford slipped up or made a mistake is possible but very very unlikely. --Much more likely is that Rutherford chose this medium and this time and specifically his words and did what he did for a reason. --After about 1 full year around Alexander Semin, he probably knows him reasonably well. --So the most obvious guess would be that chucking him in front of the bus a bit could (not for sure but could) provide the spark to light a fire under Alexander Semin to help him reach the higher level that is possible for him. He waited 46 games into a slow-starting season, so I do not think you can accuse him of being rash or impatient.
And tonight Alexander Semin goes off for 2 goals and a maybe more significantly 12 shots in the next game. 1 games does not make a trend, but it at least offers hope that maybe it will work. And there is a debate about whether Rutherford's comments are fair or unfair, accurate or inaccurate and professional or something that should have been kept private. Right or wrong, I think Rutherford could mostly care less. I think all he cares about is doing whatever he can to help Semin play much closer to his ceiling which is real high. We will see if it helps or backfires over a longer period of time, but through 1 game at least, the results are positive.
But back to Friday night, the best thing about Semin's game was his willingness to shoot the puck. He had 12 shots and many on net. He had the 2 goals of course, but also 2 other pretty good shots that kicked out nice rebounds that could have turned into assists and also a decent shot for the hat trick in the 3rd period that Thomas gloved.
--The rest of the 1st line. Semin was the catalyst Friday night, but the Tlusty/EStaal/Semin line in general looked better. Per my game preview, this line finding a higher gear is a required ingredient for any kind of playoff push. There is no combination of other lines playing well, Muller tweaking lines, Rutherford doing deals or anything else that will be big enough if EStaal/Semin are not more regularly a couple of the best players in the game.
--Anton Khudobin. He was good again obviously. He had zero chance on the 2nd goal which was a close in deflection, was incredibly good with his rebound control and battling through traffic and just overall put forward another effort in which he deserved to win a hockey game. Tim Thomas patented scrambling, battling, doing whatever it takes brand of goaltending was also on full display especially in the 1st period when the Canes had 2 real good power plays and a number of chances but came up empty.
--Riley Nash. Good for him scoring a big goal by going hard to the net. Every time I get more forceful about finding his way out of the lineup via trade for a 3rd-line center, he responds by scoring. So with that I say that Muller really needs to get Bowman back in the lineup in his natural wing slot on Malhotra's line in place of Riley Nash. Hopefully that is good for another goal.
--The power play. The Canes had only 2 chances and failed to score, but the power play looked very sharp on both chances across both units. The 1st unit is very encouraging. The new set that runs the puck up and down the line from Liles at the point to Semin near the circle or on the half wall and Lindholm at the side of the net might just be a long-term keeper formula. All 3 of those players move the puck and look real comfortable in their slots. With EStaal floating around the middle or heading to the front of the net and Skinner on the opposite side for rebounds or 1-timers, penalty kill units are pretty much forced to play 2v3 on the left side of the ice with little ability to do much other than hold the box. And if Semin can find a stretch where he gets hot shooting-wise, it is going to be difficult for teams to keep him from getting that shot without opening all kinds of room on the other half of the ice. As teams get tape, it will be interesting to see if other teams start to aggressively counterattack shorthanded against this setup that has only 1 defenseman on the ice and really no clear point responsibilities from a specific forward in this umbrella type setup. But not getting too far into the future, I think Muller and company have something that could do real well in terms of scoring goals which is what you are trying to do on the power play.
--John-Michael Liles. He had a fairly quiet game in a good way. He was up at 20 minutes Friday and did so elevated to a 2nd pairing role. The Panthers do not have the offensive fire power of some other teams in the NHL, but it is still a step up to a bigger role in only his 7th game as a Hurricane, and the transition was pretty quiet and smooth. Muller did not so much seem to be trying to play forward lines and defense pairs in sets of 5 tonight, but I continue to think that if Liles can get comfortable and get into a slot/role where he can be on the ice more against other teams' best players that he could prove to be a catalyst for getting Tlusty/EStaal/Semin back to creating offense off the rush which was huge part of the 2012-13 success but has been real hard to find in 2013-14.
As happy as I am about the win, I continue to think that the real test is yet to come. I said recently that it is might not be so much how well the Canes play that determines the fate of this season but rather what they can accomplish in the games when they do not play well, things do not come easy, etc. Can this team grind out ugly wins on the night in which things do not work? Or is does the team go on a quest to find enough Toronto type games to make the playoffs? The latter is just not possible with the parity of the NHL. Saturday's game against Florida was not an easy cake walk like the recent Toronto win, but it definitely had more of the open ice, easy come/easy go neutral zone feel and less of the hand to hand combat feel of the Columbus and Calgary games.
Sunday could prove to be the 1st test of what happens when it is not easy. Tampa has gradually transformed itself from a team that used to rely heavily on skill (they still have some of that too) to a team that is much grittier than year's past. The 1st meeting this season all the way back on November 1 was a 3-0 home loss for the Canes that looked very much like the Columbus and Calgary losses. Tampa was tight in the neutral zone, got pucks deep and forced battles in the corners, won many of those and through winning physical battles tilted the ice heavily in their favor. The Canes did manage a point in the 2nd meeting on December 21 losing 3-2 in overtime, but that game was actually worse. Tampa outplayed the Canes by a wide margin and Justin Peters put forward the best game of his career and quite possibly the best by the Canes this season to steal a point that the team did not deserve.
I hate to move past the good of winning a pretty well played hockey game at home on a Saturday night, but with Metro foes playing better, it is going to take a string of wins not a 1 step forward 1 step back run to push for the playoffs. The chance to string something together comes quick with another home game Sunday against Tampa, and my bet is that the game will have a very different feel to it.
Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63
Go Canes!