|
Canes Game #26: Vs. Senators --- A tale of 2 forechecks |
|
|
|
|
|
One of the hallmarks of the Carolina Hurricanes is their aggressive and fast forecheck which creates havoc, keeps the puck 150 feet away from any harm, and creates scoring chances via pressure-induced mistakes. Tonight the Canes tasted their own medicine again and again. The simplest breakdown of the game would be to say that Ottawa's forecheck eliminated any and all flow for the Canes up the ice for more or less the entire 60 minutes. While Ottawa's success forechecking meant they did not have to regularly move the puck the length of the ice, they definitely won the puck movement part of the battle as well.
The Canes 30 shots on goal seemed misleading, as the volume that were real chances to pot a puck in a net seemed small. You could record 3-4 minutes of Ottawa hemming in Carolina in the first period and watch it over and over again to mostly get the feel for the game. Grahame kept the team in the game in a 1st period that they clearly lost, and the Canes did muster one big gasp about midway through the 2nd period when they carried the play for 4-5 minutes, had a very good powerplay set, but did not light up the scoreboard. But then things reverted back to more of the same trouble moving the puck up the ice and the hockey gods got it about right at a 4-1 loss.
A few notes:
1) Actually not that many of the big oopses, just countless small ones. To me this game was a little different than many other losses that were characterized by the blatant/ugly/horrible variety of mistakes that lead directly to goals against. The Canes mostly avoided the horrible variety of turnover (except Grahame's that led directly to the Senators powerplay goal) or defensive zone breakdown, but they regularly had to move the puck to open ice and nowhere in particular only to see it coming back at them. I don't know if I feel better or worse that we avoided batches of big oopses only to still lose badly. You tell me.
2) Our 5 against your 5. Like a couple other recent losses, the Canes were beaten pretty handily 5-on-5 tonight. This game and the Rangers loss last week were both games where you talk about avoiding the opponent's powerplay, do so successfully, but still get whooped at even strength.
3) Walker. He was one of few bright spots and maybe the only guy who seemed to be flying around the ice consistently tonight. He did not manage a goal but did draw 2 penalties and more significantly was one of the few to get out of neutral.
4) Grahame. In the end, he had to steal a full 60 minutes of hockey to win a game tonight which is just asking too much most times. Grahame had a phenomenal 1st period. After the 1st, you had to hope that he held the fort long enough for Coach Laviolette to smack a few guys around between periods to get them ready to win a 2-period game. But it was not to be tonight. Grahame might want the 2nd goal that beat him from a ways out back and obviously the turnover goal late, but he was asked to make a ton of quality saves and mostly did.
It will be interesting to see if tonight's loss prompts a little line shuffling. Coach Laviolette generally has no qualms about tinkering a bit when things are not going well but has ridden the same basic lines for awhile now (and to decent success in November). But the Canes have now lost 3 of 4 and seen a few things slow a bit. Whitney-BrindAmour-Cole has finally cooled down after a solid November. Williams is probably overdue to get back to his natural right side. It might be time to rebalance things a bit heading into a busy road schedule in December. The next big logical exit for the current combinations is Stillman's return, but that is still a few weeks off.
Time to aggressively seize a couple games at home and salvage a decent week to close out November.
Go Canes!
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»