The best goalie in the world, to hear TSN talk.

Wow, what a garbage game.

I’m not going to bother with +/- stuff because pretty much everyone sucked. If you’re really curious, scoring was 0-0 through two periods with both teams playing like hot garbage, Prust cracked it open in the third, and Ward & the Canes’ “defense” let in two more softies. That was the game. Being a Hurricanes fan, I’ve watched a lot of mediocre hockey in the name of loving a team, but this ranks among some of the worst of it, because neither team was playing well. Montreal got the better of the Canes, sure, but don’t let that score fool you; bragging about beating the Hurricanes tonight is like bragging about killing your first zombie via shooting 4’1″ 91-year-old Granny in the forehead. Not impressive.

The Canes will pull it together once one of their three top dudes comes back from being injured (that’s Skinner, Gleason, and Pitkanen, for those of you playing along at home). Or maybe they won’t! But either way, this is the Canes’ first pointless game in over two weeks, so I’m going to be done crying about it pretty quickly.

That’ll do, Old Shoe. That’ll do.

The Hurricanes had a good night. Count me surprised, considering both Gleason and Pitkanen were out, rendering the Hurricanes’ d-corps as laughable as most people say they are even on a good night.

Mind you, it helps that the Leafs had about as much life for over 2/3 of the game as the stew meat I ate tonight. But still.

+ The first period still, I think, counted as a shaky start – but not nearly as bad as it could’ve been. After the Leafs’ initial flurry, they were more or less silenced for the entire game. And that flurry itself was not as one-sided as previous games this season have been.

+ Joe Corvo was solid, even good. I still say he’s not that good at his position, generally, but he’s apparently getting extra coaching and it shows.

- This is a gripe that, depending on whether or not Skinner’s actually fine, may or may not be major, but: Skinner needs to quit playing like he’s invincible. He’s a solid guy, very good at hockey, and good at falling without injuring himself. But if he keeps getting in board battles with his head down, he’s going to be spending more time injured than healthy. He’s improved his game a lot from its kicking-while-lying-down low of last year, but there’s still room for him to work on it.

+ Jussi Jokinen making it work on the powerplay was really nice to see.

+ The Hurricanes had strong zone entry tonight. Part of that, again, was Toronto playing like 3-day-old cold Italian beef. But not all of it.

+ Dan Ellis continues to be a good choice for backup, for now. I haven’t forgotten that Philly game, but he stopped 20 of 21 shots tonight, and stayed calm and strong when it counted. (Also, his attempt at an empty-netter was pretty great.)

+ Semin wasn’t as noticeable as he’s been some games, but he continues to put offensive pressure on the other team and open up time and space for his linemates. This is exceptional because he’s playing with Eric Staal, who is himself a notable playmaker.

+ Eric Staal, Jordan Staal, and Jeff Skinner all had points. That’s good news. The better news is that E. Staal and Skinner got them (well, one of Skinner’s two) assisting Corvo and Jokinen. Secondary scoring kicking in where it counts is really important and really, really nice to see.

I’M DONE. What a good game that was. Now the Canes just need to hold onto that momentum until Monday.

Back in the saddle.

- Lazy penalties. I’ve given up on hoping Eric Staal doesn’t take a dumb penalty, but seriously, the Canes need to either become angelic or get a better PK.

+ Having said that, the PK was slightly better than last night.

+ How about that Jiri Tlusty?

- Pitkanen being injured is not good news. Hopefully the Canes can plug the holes.

- The Devils shook the Canes but good in the third period. Them holding on an winning was looking iffy for awhile there.

+ The Devils, though, gave the Canes more than one nod for being a forchecking team. That’s what Muller wants to see, so that’s very good news.

+ How about that Staal point streak?

Overall, a strong performance for the second half of a back-to-back. And now I am collapsing in bed.

This guy netted his 200th goal in a great game.

Lord knows I love seeing the Canes hop to the top of the Southeast (admittedly narrowly), but they did it in a fashion Muller specifically said they’d try to avoid – namely, the Islanders opened up the game and made it high-scoring in spite of the Canes’ best efforts.

Still, a regulation win is nothing to sneeze at, and 2 points is 2 points. Onward:

- The PK was dismal. Dismal. The Canes need to fix that mess and fix it quick, because allowing chances galore and not managing to curtail Islander shooting lanes was painful to watch.

+ Semin had a great game, along with the entire top line – which had 3 goals among them. Not at all shabby.

+ Skinner seems determined to drive play. This is not a new thing; he was last year, too. This year, though, he appears to have some discipline to match, along with more experience. It’s downright great to watch him develop.

- McBain remains serviceable, with glimpses of excellence, like his shot that Wallace tipped in. But in between those flashes are long, long stretches of him chasing the puck and looking insecure in his position. That needs to improve.

+ Many times tonight, I thought, “Thank God for Jordan Staal”. He’s so good at opening up play and he’s so defensively responsible, something the Canes desperately need.

- The Canes in general did a very poor job at slowing down the Islanders’ momentum. Fine, the refs called a lot of penalties; but the PK wasn’t the only time during which the Canes pretty much completely failed to control play. They had their moments, but in between those moments were long stretches where I wondered why they were playing with their heads jammed up…other orifices.

- Honestly, Cam Ward could’ve been better. He was due for some regression, but still.

Overall, this was a solid effort. The Canes play the Devils tomorrow, which means they’ll need as much rest as possible and to get some jump in their step. They have the chance, being on top of the Southeast, to widen that berth and try to stay in playoff contention. Hopefully they’ll manage to grab another two points tomorrow.

Call it a comeback. Hopefully.

Quick rundown, as it’s late:

- Carolina’s play was just awful for significant portions of this game. How much of that is actual motivation problems and how much of it is Ottawa being a good team? Who knows. But the Canes need to possess the puck more against teams like Ottawa, who stifle zone entry and are aggressive in their own end.

+ Semin had a great night, with a goal and several chances.

+ LaRose was overdue. Good to see him get one.

+ Ward appears to have found his groove. Important, since the Canes depend on them more than they don’t – and tonight he bailed out the team.

- McBain’s influence on the game was negligible, but a few times he made some downright awful choices, giving the puck away in the defensive zone.

+ It’s good to see Harrison active as he was in OT.

+ Special teams were very good indeed.

Overall, this was a decent effort by the Canes. Nothing flashy, and some mistakes – but they came from behind to win, and that’s something that a good hockey team is going to have to do occasionally. I’m definitely not displeased.

Call it a comeback. Hopefully.

God, does that feel good to type.

The obvious story here is Cam Ward. He had (ostensibly; shot-counting was a little wacky) 41 saves and kept Carolina only one goal down after a nightmarish first period for a team desperate to get it back after an awful game against Philadelphia on Saturday.

For the last two periods, I was left sitting and thinking about how hard it is to understand why this version of the Canes can play so badly. Passes were crisp to the point of making the Leafs look silly – Justin Faulk’s massive 5-on-3 goal is proof enough of that. Everyone who was supposed to had good looks, and both Staals scored while Skinner got 3 assists. Defense was competent, and pretty excellent on the PK. And, most importantly, Ward stood tall in net, making the kind of saves the Hurricanes depend on him for.

Essentially, the Hurricanes need more of the last two periods. They need to be firing on all cylinders, all the time. When they’re not, it can be disastrous. Ward finding his groove will be the subject of tomorrow’s post, but for now, I will say he’s been obviously rusty and benching him in favor of Ellis seems to have done him some good. Semin could stand to perform a bit more, but he also had good looks and hit the post at least once. The Staals played a skilled, disciplined game.

And, perhaps most importantly, Muller galvanized the Canes after a decidedly awful first period, and they came out with momentum to burn in the second. If Ward hadn’t been on his game, then the Leafs could have easily been up by 3 by the end of the first. Bad periods happen; it’s a testament to how the Canes are developing as a team, and to Muller’s leadership of them, that they came out with so much force in the second. That kind of composure and will to win is what needs to stay.

(Yes, there was the no-goal call on Bozak. It looked like a kicking motion to me, but I’m not an official. Calls go your way one night and against you the next; it happens. That was a change in momentum for sure, but far from the only factor in the Canes’ victory.)

The Canes get a break tomorrow, and will be staying in Toronto to practice. Until then, Canes fans, rest on your laurels. Sure, it’s just one game, but the Canes are back at .500 and only the rankest of cynics wouldn’t feel good about that.

How ’bout it?

Dan Ellis shutout. Dan Ellis shutout. Dan Ellis…shutout.

Sorry, I wanted to get that out of my system.

Anyway. This game was anything but fun to watch in a lot of ways. The Senators are proving to be a frustrating team, and despite playing Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, they gave the Canes a run for their money. As for the Hurricanes themselves – well. Wellllll.

The powerplay is a Problem, with a capital P, that rhymes with T, that stands for Too Much Passing. Fancy plays ain’t count for nothing if you can’t back it up with finish, and right now, the Canes are not finishing nearly as much as they should be. The third line is solid, but they’re still developing chemistry, to put it mildly; Dwyer is a bright spot on an otherwise meh line.

But ah, E. Staal and Semin. They have great chemistry, which is something I worried about, considering both their tendencies to slash, hook, and otherwise sulk their way into the penalty box. They’re generating chances and even finishing on some, and that’s only a positive for the Hurricanes.

Similarly, the Skinner-J. Staal-Dalpe line is a big plus. Dalpe occasionally plays recklessly, but he’s willing to work the boards, and J. Staal is great at gaining possession, in addition to playing the kind of defensive game Skinner and Dalpe are still working on (or perhaps not, in Skinner’s case). Skinner had a great chance that nearly went in, and while eventually people are going to stop him from roofing the puck so much, if he keeps it up with that shot now, he’s got a good chance of continuing what he’s started in the season thus far.

Also, the penalty kill. Tracy and Forslund mentioned Muller and Maclean had been working on the PK this week, and it really showed. Ottawa is aggressive, especially with Karlsson at the point, but the Canes’ PK stayed perfect and – more importantly, in a lot of ways – limited Ottawa’s scoring chances. The less said about the McBain high stick and the Bowman boarding calls the better; those guys are young and prone to mistakes, and referees are calling things more stringently than they were at the end of last season. That kind of thing will, hopefully, get sorted out. Having said that, McBain did not have his best game, and was bailed out by Pitkanen more than once. Much though I love Joni Pitkanen, McBain needs to be able to hold his own.

All in all, this game wasn’t great – but it’s two points, so at the end of the night, I’m happy. The Canes play Philadelphia tomorrow, which will be a great test of just how well they manage to keep their legs under them. Until then, I and my beer will celebrate the win.

Wah, it’s so hard to not be able to play as dirty as I want.

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

So, let’s just get it out of the way: there were glimmers of good in this game, namely in the Hurricanes pushing back in the second period. Things weren’t as bad as they could’ve been. But at the end of the day, “not as bad as they could’ve been” isn’t good enough. The Canes are now 2-3-0 and are handing over embarrassing losses with regularity that’s reminiscent of last year – when, on paper, they were a much worse team.

Eric Staal continues to have problems with self-discipline. Could the Canes have tied up the game with a minute and change on the clock, after having no scoring chances the entire third period? Well, probably not. But taking a crap penalty due to frustration certainly didn’t help matters, and pretty much put the nail in the coffin for the Hurricanes. It’s a common problem of E. Staal’s, and it’s completely unacceptable. The Hurricanes need to be a team with composure, and that starts with the captain.

Speaking of composure and lack thereof, Skinner continues to be an embarrassingly dirty player for no real reason. He’s 20 years old and it makes sense that he’d be a bit hot-headed, but hot-headedness is not an excuse for making dangerous plays and doing idiotic things like getting into it with Patrice Bergeron. He needs to grow the hell up before his dirty play starts translating to suspensions the Hurricanes can’t afford. He’s already been rebuked by Muller once this year, and we’re five games into the season. That’s a problem.

Can we just accept that Joe Corvo can’t play hockey well enough to be on an NHL team? He’s awful. Flat out.

The Hurricanes’ first period problems were largely puck possession issues. They weren’t winning board battles or faceoffs, and that translated to spending a ton of time in their own zone and having awful zone entry issues, over and over again. Part of that is just that the Bruins are a really good team that’s hard to beat, but that doesn’t excuse being beaten to the puck, repeatedly. The Canes had time to rest; they need to outwork opponents. That’s one thing about the team that’s more or less always been the case, and it’s disappointing to see such a skilled roster fall down on the basics of playing against a high-energy, strong team.

On top of that, the third period killed any hope I had of the Canes winning the game – even before the Bruins got the lead again. Zone entry was a mess, and again, the Canes were being beaten to pucks. They were scrambling in their own end. The offense might as well have been ghosts, and defense looked exhausted. That’s partially due to Faulk being out, and thus guys like Pitkanen playing more minutes; it’s also partially due to Joe Corvo barely seeing ice time in the third. Doesn’t matter. Players need to pick up the slack for each other, and the Hurricanes were playing like they didn’t even care if they managed to even the score.

It’s still too early to panic, but it’s not too early to be annoyed. The Hurricanes need to play smarter and harder. Skinner needs to pull his head out of his…other regions. And Eric Staal needs to be a leader all the time, not just when he’s in a good mood.

Faulk is out today, so the defense issue isn’t going to improve immediately. The Canes don’t play again until Friday. One can hope that in that time, they will have found their will to win and retrieved it from whatever dusty corner in the PNC Arena it’s been stashed in to molder away.

Dan Ellis…solutions?

My sinus infection is bearing down on me with frightening velocity, so I will be brief.

+ Ridiculous though it feels to say this, Dan Ellis kept the Canes in this game. That’s not to say the Hurricanes’ defense wasn’t solid, because it was; but there were several points, especially in the late second, during which Dan Ellis was pretty much the only thing standing between Buffalo and a comfortable win.

- Justin Faulk is out with an upper body injury. Totally unrelated to Steve Ott’s elbow to the head, I’m sure. Speaking of…

+ Sure, he got the instigator, but Gleason standing up for Faulk was absolutely necessary. It’s just a handy bonus that he beat the everloving snot out of Ott.

+ Pitkanen had hefty ice time numbers and the play to back it up.

+ How about Eric Staal? Ringing one off the post is rough luck, but he got an assist on the Harrison goal and rightly so.

+ McBain was noticeable in a good way. Excellent puck movement, quick thinking in both ends.

- Canes lost the plot more than once. Passes weren’t connecting, they were scrambling to get the puck out of the crease, etc. See above re: Ellis keeping them in it. It’s nice when a goalie does that, but it can’t be necessary the way it was tonight.

- Two of the three penalties called on Jordan Staal were pretty soft. That doesn’t make them acceptable. He needs to play a cleaner game than he did this time.

+ Jeff Skinner, while he took kind of a dumb penalty, worked ridiculously hard and didn’t lose it at Kaleta. Also, he finished off the night with ridiculously hard work to get the empty netter. That kind of will to win is good to see.

+ Semin’s goal was a beauty and almost made me forget about that stupid no-look pass earlier on in the game. But that kind of sneaky shot is what the Hurricanes were looking for upon signing him, so it’s good to see it.

Overall, a solid effort. Not as mind-bogglingly great as yesterday, and I would like to see Jordan Staal actually net a goal. But the Canes pulled out two back-to-back wins and are now at .500 on the year, and seeing them maintain composure when down by a goal was on its own worth the price of admission.

Back in the saddle.

Wow. Lots to cover with this game.

I’ll start by being a bit smug: Joni Pitkanen had a hell of a game for someone everyone was writing off as a loss. People seemed to quickly forget that in addition to not playing half a season along with everyone else, Pitkanen also missed most of the season last year due to injury. That’s a lot of rust to shake off, but it’s no reason to assume he’d never be decent again – and when he’s healthy, make no mistake, he’s decent to quite good. His & Sanguinetti’s stumbling out of the gate makes sense, considering Sanguinetti’s newness to the NHL and Pitkanen’s own issues; but that pass from Pitkanen to Eric Staal for the Hurricanes’s fifth goal was excellent. In the first period, he got his stick on a would-be shot on a Ward rebound, saving a goal. Overall, he read plays excellently and was in the right place at the right time. If he stays this solid, the Canes’ d-corps could look a lot better than they have these past few games.

It feels somewhat disingenuous to praise Ward for his performance, when by Ward’s own overall standards it really wasn’t anything to write home about. But Ward, almost more than any other veteran Hurricanes player, has really had trouble finding his footing, and he made several critical saves at moments when the Hurricanes needed him to. Even his brief impersonation of a wide-open gate in the second, when the Sabres hung two on him in less than two minutes, was followed up by a solid rest of the period – during which he bailed his defensemen out several times, and kept the Hurricanes in it when the Sabres were making a home in their end. Same goes for the first chunk of the third period, when the Canes were out-shot and out-chanced.

Much has been made of Eric Staal being kind of a head case, by myself and by pretty much everyone else who covered him last year. It was acknowledged by the Canes themselves that the first half of the year was a real issue for him, and that he stumbled in no small part due to the sheer mental pressure of being Carolina’s only forward with any real, consistent star power. Now? Well, the hat trick really says it all. The pressure’s off, with Skinner, J. Staal, and Semin all providing (in theory, and tonight in practice) support for the Captain. Catching the long pass and going five-hole on Enroth was inspired; his finish on the Pitkanen pass was admirable. The ENG capped the whole thing off nicely. Even his very typical cross-checking penalty can’t get me that fussed tonight.

Speaking of the supporting talent, Jordan Staal had a beast of a game. Two assists, plus his work on the PK making it incredibly obvious why he was so valuable as a two-way forward with the Penguins. If he keeps playing like that, he’ll be every bit as essential to the lineup as his older brother, and rightly so.

Skinner’s response to Muller has made his game the tightest I’ve seen it since his rookie year. He’s been disciplined, he’s been to-the-point in attempts to capitalize on his scoring chances.

In general, the Skinnner – J. Staal – Dalpe line was impressive tonight. Dalpe, along with Bowman, both had good looks – and Dalpe’s been putting himself in the paint and doing the hard work to open up scoring chances for his linemates. That’s exactly what he ought to be doing.

Other players of note:

• Faulk, whose decision not to pass gave the Canes their first comfortable lead
• Semin, who didn’t tally but has been working so hard I wouldn’t laugh if you called him gritty, and who absolutely will see his hard work pay off if he keeps it up
• Jiri Tlusty, who slotted in easily with E. Staal and Semin
• Jussi Jokinen, whose defensive work is making an excellent case for him staying at the 3C position
• and finally, McBain. Solid defensive work, including saving a goal, means if he’s scratched in favor of Old Shoe Corvo I will funnel bourbon straight into my brain.

And a few other things:

• the penalty kill was nails. Composure, crisp passing – no panic to be seen
• while the Hurricanes did lose composure and scramble to keep Pominville and Vanek out of the net a few times, overall, they did a good job at rallying when Buffalo got some goals back and keeping their heads when Buffalo turned the pressure on. Even the ridiculous pace the Sabres had to start the third period didn’t end in Buffalo taking the lead. That’s a massive change on the dam-breaking nature of the first two Hurricanes games.

Overall, this was the kind of game that people were looking for when they said the Hurricanes would be a playoff team this year. Will they do it again tomorrow? Maybe. For all that the score ended up being 6-3, Buffalo was in it for the vast majority of the game; it was a tight, tight game during large parts of each period. The Hurricanes will have to keep a lid on Vanek and Pominville, and not let the Sabres’ scrappier players get in their heads. These teams don’t like each other, and Buffalo can be dangerous on the power play. But after tonight, I certainly have greater faith in the Canes’ ability to pull out another win.

AND I’M OUT. See y’all in the AM.