Before I get to today's game preview, I wanted to touch on 2 other things:
First is Cam Ward's return. Cam Ward fared pretty well in 2 rehab outings with the Charlotte Checkers and is officially back in the Canes goalie mix. With a busy schedule and a number of back-to-backs down the stretch after the Olympic break, the Canes will definitely need 2 goalies, so this is good news. But Muller's comments yesterday that indicated he had not yet decided who would start Tuesday were like a brain teaser to me.
For me the situation is like this:
1) The Canes need to give themselves the best chance to collect points each and every night.
2) Fresh off winning player of the month or January and with 3 days rest heading into Tuesday (and 2 more afterward) Anton Khudobin is that guy.
3) There is a back-to-back this weekend that would be a logical time to use 2 goalies.
I get the need to get Ward back into the mix, but 2 things on that. First of all, any momentum gained this week will be incredibly short-lived. Everyone not in the Olympics takes 2 1/2 weeks off starting Sunday and will need to restart after the break. This also of course means that if Khudobin need a break physically a big one is already scheduled. I see the value of trying to get Ward a start sooner rather than later to get a good vibe going into the break, but I just do not see any reason why you would start him Tuesday. With the team winning, needing to keep winning and riding solid play by Khudobin, I do not see how you could logically do anything except play Khudobin Tuesday and then consider splitting the weekend back-to-back to get Ward in net.
Unless...In trying to solve the brain teaser, I come up with 4 reasons why this is up in the air:
1) It really isn't. It is likely that Muller's non-committal answer yesterday was just very simply he had not thought about it yet and did not want to get ahead of himself. I put it at 80% that we see Khudobin in net tonight, and any conspiracy theories just float away with it.
2) Khudobin has some kind of minor ailment and needs a day off. After Peter's rough last outing, it is possible that he has been playing through something that is not healing and that with another option in net, the team does not want to risk having Khudobin on the shelf long-term. While possible, this seems unlikely. He has looked good in net. The team has said nothing to this effect. And maybe most telling is that he has been taking most of his regular reps in practice even during the busy stretch of schedule. If he needed to rest a minor injury, I would have expected him to be less of a practice participant.
3) Cam Ward is being shopped and there is interest. It seems reasonable that any team considering a trade for Ward would want to see him play a game or 2 to make sure he was healthy before pulling the trigger. This seems unlikely, but who knows.
4) It is just a bad decision by Muller or I guess possibly Rutherford if he has interjected himself in the lineup decisions.
I think #1 is most likely in which case this quickly blows by after Khudobin is announced as the starter at/after the morning skate, but if Ward is in net tonight I cannot help but think that there is a reason bigger than "coach's decision" because it just seems like too crazy of a decision to go away from a well-rested current starter who is playing well and winning just to rush Ward back into the lineup when the schedule presents a more logical entry point only 3 days later.
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On Ek's rumors about Hainsey to Philadelphia:
It makes no sense in too many ways. The Canes are desperately trying to claw their way into the playoffs for the 1st time since 2009 and are more likely to be buyers than sellers at the trade deadline. And the Canes have very little in the way of options to backfill Hainsey's role for the entire season in the top 4. At a minimum the Canes would need to get a top 4 defenseman back or in a different trade at which point is it really worth upsetting the apple cart right now when the team is playing pretty well? But even bigger than the "does it make sense?", I would expect that there would be lineup clues if the Canes were considering moving Hainsey. Personally, I would like to see Liles/Bellemore paired together. Liles might be the purer version of a puck-moving helper for Bellemore's steady stay-home play whose exposed fatal flaw was trouble getting the puck up the ice against intense pressure deep in his zone. Or maybe we would see Liles/Harrison. Regardless of which combination might make the most sense, if the Canes were looking to move Hainsey, I would have expected the team to tinker a bit to figure out who else pairs with Liles possibly to be a 2nd pairing after the trade.
Shorter version: I do not see the Canes moving a dependable even if not flashy/spectacular top 4 without much ability to backfill this slot. If they were considering moving him, I think there would be a few lineup clues that have been completely absent.
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Back to the matter at hand - 2 points to be won tonight in Raleigh:
On Friday night, the Canes played what was (in my opinion) easily their best win during a solid 10-4 January and what would be a finalist for best games of the year. The level of competition was high in trendy Stanley Cup pick St. Louis. It was against a team that plays the rugged style that has been the Canes Achilles heel at times. The Canes mounted an incredibly consistent 60-minute effort that featured a sustained high level of compete and quality of play across the entire roster and were rewarded with a win for their efforts. The Carolina Hurricanes woke up in 3rd place and in a playoff spot on Saturday morning.
But times they are a changin'. The Metro Division that was the whooping boy for the rest of the NHL earlier in the season is climbing out of the mud and starting to run. In the 3 days since the Canes last played, the Rangers also won on Friday (idle since). The Flyers picked up 2 impressive road wins in LA and SJ. The Blue Jackets won twice. The struggling Capitals managed a win to go 1-0 while the Canes were resting. And even the Devils who were the bottom of the pack over the weekend managed to collect 2 points in OTLs. When you net it out, the Canes need to win tonight just to keep pace with the suddenly surging Metro Division pack.
The Canes timing for catching Winnipeg is horrible. This team was a train wreck only weeks ago. Since then, familiar face Paul Maurice has almost instantaneously righted the ship. The Jets are 8-2 since Maurice took over. The team is suddenly better defensively and is scoring enough to turn steady defensive play into wins obviously. The Jets are not as talented or deep nor as solid on the back end as St. Louis, but they can bring some big bodies with skill in players like Ladd, Kane, Jokinen, Wheeler, etc., so if the Canes see the Jets as a lesser opponent than St. Louis and dial down the intensity/compete level, they could very easily find themselves looking at a game like the rough ones versus Calgary, Columbus, etc.
With that, my keys to the game:
1) Bring it again. Finally with a couple days off before Friday's game, the Canes looked energized, fast and ready to do all of the hard work. Since then, the team has had 3 more days to heal any bumps and bruises and build up the energy reserve. The Canes need to forget who the opponent is and show up with the same "put it all on the ice for 60 minutes" mentality that it had Friday. Any signs that Friday's effort was a special order only for elite teams is a bad sign, as the Jets while not elite in the big picture of things are more than good enough to beat a lesser effort by the Canes.
2) Best against best. A couple of the Canes best players were the difference Friday night. After a quiet stretch, Jeff Skinner was dangerous all night and notched a goal in the process. Jordan Staal was a physical monster especially down the stretch in a "big boys game." And Andrej Sekera (still no idea how the media left him completely out of the 3 stars) was the best player on the ice in a game which featured some elite defensemen and fellow Olympians. The path to consistent winning must go through the team's best players. You can steal games/points here and there with secondary scoring, but to win consistently in the NHL a team's best players need to get it done. Players like EStaal, JStaal, Semin, Skinner, Sekera and Faulk need to win against Ladd, Kane, etc.
3) Goaltending especially early and 1st goal. Getting on the board 1st becomes even more important this time of year. It enables a team to play its game, opportunistically pick its spots and not have to chase the game.
With the rest of the division also heating up and a gauntlet of a schedule waiting on the other side of the Olympic break, the Canes need to capitalize on 3 home games heading into the break.
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