The story of the Canes win Tuesday in Columbus was Anton Khudobin. And it was not even his 46 save, 1st star performance. It was much more so the measure of his compete level.
Especially for those who have already moved on the NCAA basketball brackets, this game will be painted as a statement game or a sign of heart, character or whatever. But in actually watching the game, there really was not that much to like. The EStaal/JStaal/Semin line that took put 3 big guns together looking for leadership netted almost as much in offensive zone penalty minutes as it did shots and lackluster overall on the night. The defense did a decent job of coming back to the house to help clear any rebounds and eliminate easy chances, but they also got hemmed in their own end for stretches unable to do anything more than clear the puck often enough to get a line change. The Canes spent almost the entire last 3 minutes killing a 6-on-5 power play in their own end when Columbus pulled the goalie, and no one was able to win a puck and do much with it other than maybe clear the blue line to get a line change.
I know sometimes too much is made on-ice displays of emotion, but it can sometimes be the most honest measure of intensity and passion. And when my team's season is falling apart in March, the thing I want more than anything is the sense that it is not okay. Today's game came on the back of a very disappointing weekend and also a day after the team was called out by the coach in practice. The team in general showed up pretty ho-hum and again struggling to find the intensity and pressure to match a team that brings it intensity-wise. The result is a challenging game for the goalie. Anton Khudobin accepted the challenge and was by far and away the best player in the game. But what impressed me most was the last minute of the game. If you DVRed the game, go back and watch it again. Watch Khudobin's reaction after giving up the goal (after his team spent the last 3 minutes hemmed in its own end 6-on-5 with no one having enough to win a battle and go the other way with the puck). Khudobin was POed. You could tell. He angrily kicked the puck toward the boards. He showed his disgust again at the final buzzer. Instead of a calm release upon playing phenomenally and winning a hockey game, he finished by banging his stick on the cross bar. He actually seemed to start skating toward the bench/exit in disgust when his teammates caught up with him to congratulate him. He seemed to want no part of it. He wanted a zero, and he was POed when he did not get it because of a late goal.
Looking back over the past couple weeks that have seen some ups but also seen the season slip away, the greatest memory I have is his reaction after giving up the 3rd goal in the home loss to the Rangers on March 7. He was phenomenal in that game again in front of a lackluster team and seemed to be on his way to stealing a game that the Canes did not deserve when a combination of the hockey gods and a 3rd period collapse gave the Rangers the win they deserved. Upon giving up the 3rd goal Khudobin went down to his knees and buried his head in the ice in front of him. for an extended period of time. You could tell that he was absolutely hating things then. I appreciated that.
THAT is the who I want leading my hockey team!
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As for the rest of the game...
One of the causes of the Canes position trailing the pack in the playoff chase is the team's inability to beat teams it should beat. Ironically, the Canes were successful being exactly that team on Tuesday night in Columbus. The Blue Jackets entered the game in 3rd place in the Metro Division, playing pretty well and needing to take care of business at home against the lesser Carolina Hurricanes but were unable to do so.
The game was a strange one for the Canes. The team was outplayed by a significant margin in the 1st period but emerged with a 1-0 lead. And the Canes were outshot by a 19-0 margin in the 3rd period in holding on. It took a couple random 1-off scoring plays, a sub-par night from Sergei Bobrovsky and heroics by Anton Khudobin to make a game that felt like a 4-1 loss somehow become a 3-1 win.
The offensive positives were really just a handful of individual plays not so much the result of any kind of sustained offensive push. Gerbe beat Bobrovsky off the rush 2-on-1. Dwyer did the same for the 3rd goal. The middle goal by Loktionov was actually the most encouraging as it represented a rare ugly goal on the power play from winning a puck in/near the crease.
A few other quick notes:
--EStaal/JStaal/Semin. Lost in the win is the fact that Muller put the big 3 together, and they really did not do much to impress.
--Lokomotion. Good for Andrei Loktionov netting his 1st goal as a Cane and putting up a 2-point night. Even better good for someone netting an ugly goal by being around the crease when the puck showed up.
--Nathan Gerbe. You have to love his scorer's mentality. When he gets the puck on his stick with a chance to put it in the net, he makes things happen. He is very much Skinner-lite in the way he plays offense with the puck in his possession.
--Brett Bellemore. As much as anything, his consistency level continues to be impressive. He is just steady which is even more impressive when you consider how little NHL experience he had entering this season and the high slot he has taken on.
--Andrej Sekera. With Murphy lost early to injury, Sekera picked up much of the slack playing a whopping 27 minutes. Here is hoping that we do not hear the nasty 'C' word on Murphy tomorrow, but that seems like a decent guess.
--Chris Terry. He had his moments but did not really make a statement. At some point when you become a good AHL player who has not been able to stick at the NHL level, it takes a statement not a collection of decent play to break through the barrier. The good thing is that he is likely to get more games.
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