After last Thursday's loss the Washington I wrote:
I am not sure that Thursday is the model the Canes want to follow in this series. The game turned into a free-flowing affair with regular rushes in each direction. This is a game designed for snipers with young legs like Semin, Ovechkin and Backstrom to put up 3 points apiece. While Backstrom continued his slow start and Ovechkin and Semin broke through mostly late, this seems like a recipe for a string of 5-3 losses in this series.
I think that very well describes Wednesday's 5-1 loss to the Caps.
As lopsided as the scoreboard was, I actually did not think the Canes were outworked or outchanced that horribly.
The game came down to 3 things:
1) There were a good number of chances both ways through 2 periods before the Canes opened it up wildly trying to get back in it.
2) The Caps chances went overwhelmingly to the wrong set of guys.
3) They finished. We did not.
For the Caps 5 goals, each and every single 1 came with their top scoring line of Ovechkin/Backstrom/Semin on the ice and their top D pairing of Green/Schultz with a lone exception of Schultz not being out for the powerplay marker. I think this is the textbook example of where more of an "assignment" based approach to playing some teams could make a difference. With the Caps firepower on the ice, I think you need to take a different approach especially as well as Semin is going right now. First, you need to drill into guys to be aware when they are out there. Second, you want to manage matchups. Third, I think the goal when they are out there must be to make simple, safe plays, get the puck deep and play as much of the 40-50 seconds away from your net as possible. If you play a game where no one scores when Ovechkin/Backstrom/Semin is on the ice, you have a very winnable hockey game. Instead, the Canes were guilty of horribly loose play that hand fed the Caps top line scoring chances most times with a 4th assist due to a Canes player. The first goal came on a bad Gleason turnover across the blueline. Blinking light/drilled in at practice: "Top line on ice; make simple play; get puck deep along the boards behind Caps net - no risky passes." Another goal came on an Ovechkin steal mostly unpressured inside our blueline. Blinking light/drilled in a practice: "Top line on ice; make simple play: dump puck to center ice or other blueline to avoid instant rush." And so on...
My biggest concern about tonight's game is not so much the score or even the standings. I even thought the effort was decent, so that did not bother me either. My biggest concern is the lack of identity right now. The Canes have won a few shootouts this year, but those were mostly 1 - 1 1/2 period eruptions against lesser teams. You just will not collect enough of those over an 82-game season, and after the couple Caps games I am not sure the Canes have the raw firepower at the top of the lineup to win regularly via this route. The team also had a stretch on the road where they played stiflingly good defensive hockey but were maybe a little light on offense because of it. Except maybe the Ottawa win, that has been nowhere to be seen of late.
Half full would say that the team has been finding a way to win.
But half empty after 2 straight lopsided home losses to division foes would instead say that this team has found no reproducible way to win hockey games and instead is just trying to pull something out of a hat on a nightly basis.
A few notes:
1) Fairly competitive. For me, this was not a complete throwaway in terms of effort level, skating and ability to compete. Through 2 periods (the Canes opened things up wildly in desperation as the 3rd period wore on), the game was fairly even in terms off chances. We just could not finish a play, whereas the Caps must have been 4-5 in terms of turning grade A chances into goals.
2) Staal. His inability to finish some great Whitney were probably what stood in the way of this being a close hockey game. This said, I thought his effort level and energy were fine tonight. He just needs a goal or 2 to get the hands lighter on the stick before someone crashes on the ice on the trail of sawdust trailing behind him right now.
3) Samsonov. Awhile back, I predicted a Corvo surge following a game where he produced nothing on the score sheet but seemed to make a turn for the better in terms of assertiveness especially in shooting the puck. Though he has been quiet for a couple, he continues to shoot the puck and did break out. I am going to similarly call it for Samsonov tonight. This season, the Samsonov story has been dangle, dangle, dangle then find nothing specific to do and turn the puck over or just dump it to a corner. Tonight Samsonov seemed have much more success actually buying time and then doing something productive with it. He had a play where he carried the puck in from the side of the net, showed incredible patience holding the puck and almost beat Theodore. He had 2-3 other plays where his dangling with the puck resulted in a decent pass or shot. I say he breaks the goal drought this weekend and gets it going from there.
4) Leighton. Tonight was not his best. The defense gave too many quality chances to the wrong guys which helped none, so you cannot hang the 5 goals entirely on him. This said, tonight was not his best game. Most concerning to me was that this was the 1st we have seen of him playing the net 2 feet too big on each side. He did a little of this in his 1st start in Tampa, but this problem of overplaying the puck/net that plagued his limited time in 07-08 was otherwise absent this season. Here is hoping that it was a short relapse.
5) How crazy is it that Ovechkin is the 2nd most dangerous offensive talent on his team? I would put my money on #8 over the course of the full season, but right now Semin is just making it look too easy.
6) 1st time. Tonight marks the 1st time all season that the Canes have gone consecutive games without points. That is impressive. With a bunch of home games coming down the pipe, it is important to cut any bad streak short again on Friday and start collecting points again.
Go Canes!
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»