The players had 05-06 Cup parades and parties for their day with the Cup all summer. We did 05-06 rings during preseason. We did 05-06 banners and the cup on opening night and a smaller version again for the 2nd home game. And along the way 06-07 got off to a tough start with a disjointed and injury-ridden preseason and a listless 0-3-1 start to the regular season. I hear that the 05-06 Stanley Cup is supposed to be at the state fair one day next week, but it should be safely out of town when the Canes return from their current road trip now with at least 1 win.

FINALLY, this team is past the championship festivities and has an 06-07 win under its belt. It can FINALLY focus on the very basics of trying to get 2 points on every game night.

First, let me say that 1 win does not dig you out of a slump. The Canes really need to follow it up with a couple good games and at least a couple points in the next few games. But I think they took a big step tonight.

Comments on the game:

1) Defensive tone early. The Canes came out very close to the vest and played a very tight-checking game early. It did not look much like the aggressive, predatory, confident team of last season, but I think this is what was needed to get a frustrated and maybe even a little mentally fragile team settled into the game in the right way.

2) Back to basics/feet in the crease. Both of the Canes early goals by Craig Adams came from very simple, bluecollar hockey. Throw the puck at the net with traffic around the crease. I think it was the 2nd of the 2 goals where Adams was 2 steps from the crease on the left of Lehtonen and BrindAmour was in the same position on the other side. A bunch of other players clocked in for their regular shift in/around the crease tonight including overtime by Staal.

3) Not so much what but how. Staal was on the scoreboard with a goal and assist. While we obviously need scoring from Staal, I think the "how" he played was more telling tonight. On the breakaway goal, he officially ran out of gas at the blueline and logically should have got off some weak shot that Lehtonen easily turned aside. If you noticed Staal's shift was about a minute long and he actually had a decent scoring chance on a rush up the left side at the 30-second mark of the period before heading back to the defensive zone and then coming back again to score. Nothing like a quick bag skate right in the middle of the game before you score a goal. That was pure desire! And the gamewinner came when Staal hacked the puck wide of the goal and then busted his butt to get it himself to throw it back out front for Whitney. But even more telling was Staal getting dinged good near the crease on a Walker shot and showing up for the same bluecollar job at least 3 more times that I counted on the night. And Whitney was also noticeable for "how.". The gamewinner was obviously a big goal, but I think I think Ray set a new personal record for passes broken up on the backcheck in a Canes uniform. There was a clear effort to a man from the forwards to play a hard-working, backchecking defensive game.

4) 2 points. This will not go down as the Canes best win this season, but from Oct-early Mar, the simple goal in the NHL is the grind out as many points as possible. How well you play really matters very little until you start getting within a month of the playoffs. Lack of credit for quality of play is clearly demonstrated every spring by hot #7/#8 seeds regularly pulling upsets, and unbeatable Nov-Jan teams stalling out in Apr-May.

The bad:

1) I thought the defense looked very solid "once inside" the defensive zone checking bodies, winning battles, not giving up much easy. Gone was the abundance of space and loose coverage once the rush was stopped. Much of the credit goes to the forwards helping out as noted above. I still think there were a lot of problems "sorting things out on the way in." Kovalchuk and Hossa make even good defenders look bad, so there is some alibi there, but I thought Commodore had a very rough night with 2 obstruction penalties and far too many plays where the view from behind #13 Atl going in alone also featured #22 Car behind him instead of next to him or in front of him. He also had a couple more turnovers including a bad one inside our own blueline early in the 2nd. Tanabe also had another tough time of it with an obstruction penalty and another hooking penalty not called. The best display of his vaunted skating ability was how he somehow managed to skate through the crease and around 2 Atl players on their first goal without making body contact with either. And if you watch the replays, this is 1 of 2 Atl goals where his speedy skates got an assist.

2) Despite 2 HUGE goals early and a decent night overall, Craig Adams had what could have been "the big oops turnover" tonight which was almost identical to Wed's turnover. The timing could not have been worse. Following Atl's 1st goal, Adams turned the puck over right inside the blueline for a gimme goal 3 seconds later to get Atl right back in the game. Oftentimes, 1 big mistake can kill you in an NHL game and that almost did.

3) The powerplay. It struggled again and looked mostly disjointed. If Whitney does not score his big goal late, and if the Canes lose in OT or a shootout, I think you look back and think of either the Adams turnover or the fact that the Canes could not muster just 1 powerplay goal fairly early to put the game almost out of reach. For as many powerplay experiments as we have seen, I am not sure why he would not put Whitney back up at the point. I understand that we really need a playmaker on the wall similar to Stillman's role last year, and I completely agree that Whitney's skillset is the closest to Stillman. But it just has not worked. Whitney was a huge contributor on the point last year and should at least bring some stability to offensive zone possession up there. For as many things are broken, maybe fixing even 1 will help get things moving in the right direction.

A few comments on Atl...Kovalchuk: In recent times, I cannot recall seeing a more dominating performance by a player who did not get on the scoresheet. I read an article this week with the "slump" word in it. If he were struggling to get chances with Savard's departure, I might be concerned. I saw none of that tonight. Hopefully he can get the 5-goal game that he is building up to out of his system before we see him in Raleigh the end of the month. Lehtonen: Not his best tonight obviously, but after a great start and a couple shutouts, he could have mailed in a 5-2 or 6-2 loss by midway through the 2nd period tonight. Credit to him for trying and almost fighting his way to a point or 2.

Quick note: Ladd left the game early with an official upper body injury. No word (that I know of) on exactly what is wrong and if/how long he will be out.

Go Canes! Let's get 2 more in Pit tomorrow!

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