Yesterday was more of the same for a battered Canes team and fan base. The Canes took something like 80 shots but managed to give up 4-5 goals and only scored after the game was over. Maybe most disconcerting was the Bruins relative lack of nastiness. Once the Bruins jumped out to an early commanding lead, there almost seemed to be a "let's just wind clock, collect our points and show a little pity" tone to the rest of the game. That is how bad it has gotten.

Per my previous blog, I am most concerned with how the group holds together heading into next season. It is real hard to tell from the outside, but any superficial indications suggest that the team is still hanging together as a group and playing for Muller.

A couple quick observations:
--First, you have to give Tripp and John credit for doing the best they can with a currently crappy product. They work for the team and need to try to paint something positive. But I'm not sure I agree with their latest mantras. The general idea is to throw the backup goaltending under the bus (justifiably), anticipate Ward righting the ship and rave about the volume of shots on goal. The goaltending is very much a part of the problem. Let's leave that at that. But the defensive zone coverage is horrid right now, and I don't think you can pin it entirely on the blue line which makes it harder to fix. The Canes very regularly find themselves retreating to a smallish box in front of their net. This is not the worst thing but ideal is to have players on pucks to limit time and space which this team does about none of. And then it always ends up that the Canes have enough bodies sort of in the right areas but they still fail miserably at sorting out individual responsibilities. The result yesterday and a lot lately has been a huge number of goals scored where there are 3-4 Canes within a step of the goal scorer but none are doing anything in particular useful.

Shorter version: I am skeptical that Cam Ward or a couple better defenseman solves the defensive woes.

--I have also never been sold on shots on goal as a measure of offensive output. This team very much reminds me of a couple bad Canes teams from about 10 years ago. Shooting the puck is the easiest measure of attempted offense. And in many cases it also requires the least work. 2-on-2 a smallish Canes forward gets forced outside. The other forward sort of floats to a possible passing area but with decent defense that passing lane is taken away. The result is a non-threatening shot on goal. Give me a measurement of number of Canes within 5 feet of the crease at the point in time when someone manages to throw the puck in there. It is about non-existent as even big bodies like Jordan Staal are content to float out into the slot area looking for a pretty passing play. Pretty offense is very hard to come by against good hockey teams. Boston won yesterday by getting the puck behind the Canes net and then throwing it back out front with at least 2 bodies in/near the crease.

A couple positives:
--The team is hopefully developing depth. Sanguinetti and Bellemore continue to log a bunch of minutes. Nash has been joined by Dalpe amongst the newer forwards logging minutes. Hopefully the result is that they are comfortable in similar roles next fall when it matters again.
--It is real hard to read from the outside, but I don't get the sense that the players are quitting on each other or Muller, so there is hope that this makes the group stronger in the long run rather than ripping it apart.

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The Pens (like the Canes) are minus a few key players, but it little matters. They are playing with confidence and are a much-improved squad in terms of team defense. It is hard to see how tonight does anything but further improve the Canes draft position, but you never know. The Canes will win again this year (you heard it hear first), so I guess tonight is as good of a chance as any at this point.

Biggest thing for me is to look for the compete level especially from a struggling group playing the 2nd half of a back-to-back. Second is to look for more of a concerted effort to send bodies to the net. I count on Ruutu being near the crease regularly because that is generally what he does. Who else shows up? Shots only count if there is a Cane within a step of the crease, so random shots on goal from well out or a bad angle where you are just hoping for a goalie mistake count 0.

Hang in there Canes fans! Better days are ahead...

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Go Canes!

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