When you sort through all of the details of the Canes opening weekend, I think the most important thing is collecting 3 points out of 4 in the standings. Going into Friday, I felt like the lineup was being cobbled together on the fly due to injuries. It was not until 3-4 days before opening night that practice started to resemble the roster when key forwards Skinner, Semin and Lindholm resumed practicing after missing a week or more each and the last batch of preseason games that are usually used to trial run something close to a real lineup. And even then you had a bottom 6 that had never really played together and a power play unit whose preparation was mostly a couple days of practice. So if you told me Friday afternoon that I would wake up Monday with my hockey team having 3 points out of 4 over the weekend I would have been thrilled. I would have quickly noted that longer-term it was equally important to establish a style of play and identity that was capable of staying in games on a nightly basis, collecting points regularly and outplaying opponents on good nights. But I would have figured that this part would have to wait until the team got its feet underneath itself.
But in addition to priority 1 of “just get points without regard to how”, I think the team made strides in terms of establishing a path for the new season. During last season’s swoon, Muller kept harping on needing to stick to the system, work hard, etc. And the clear mantra from day 1 and throughout training camp was to dial up the intensity level and be a difficult team to play against. In training camp we saw a strange seesaw to and from higher intensity hockey. Anyone who attended the first couple practices could feel it. Muller was barking. The pace was quick. The team skated a ton. And there was a high volume of 1-on-1 battling type of drills. The very first practice finished with the an already tired team that had just finished an intense conditioning skate all around the center faceoff circle with 2 players at a time stepping in to battle each other for the puck. Things built on day 2 and led to a feisty day 3 scrimmage that saw 2 fights. The story of the front part of training camp leading into preseason games was the intensity level. But when the games started it seemed to get lost a bit amongst a massive audition of literally a dozen or so players competing for 5-6 open spots at forward. Neither of the 1st 2 preseason games was horrible, the Canes lost and well, they looked like preseason games mostly devoid of the intensity and fire that Muller wanted. The small fire seemed to rage out of control in preseason game 3 that saw the Canes lose 6-0 behind poor efforts pretty much across the board and significantly not just from players destined for the AHL or the 4th line. Game 4 seemed to be the turning point. Per my game recap that you can find
HERE if you did not check in during preseason, I think Matt Corrente played a key role lighting the wick for the 2013-14 season picking a fight early in the game, making enemies with enough of the Canadiens bench to dial up the physical play and intensity for everyone on the ice. The result was that the Canes seemed to turn the negativity into an angry snarl not a scared whimper and rode it to a clearly different level of effort. The result was the Canes first preseason win, a seemingly immediate change in mojo and the beginning of a 3-game winning streak to close out preseason. But with the team’s recent history of starting the season with a thud and the volume of things being sorted out kind of last minute because of injuries, I had an uneasy feeling coming into real games. While hoping for better I honestly would not have been surprised if we got another thud while the team tried to get its feet under it.
But we were pleasantly surprised. Sure losing in overtime after leading 2-0 entering the 3rd period was disappointing, but as I stated in my game preview blog for Sunday’s game, Sunday’s win and 3 points out of 4 would made that very easy to let go.
2 games is a very small sample size and NHL seasons invariably have highs like now and surely lows, but I think that Sunday could turn out to be an identity builder for the season and also evidence that Muller’s transformation of how the team plays and competes is finally starting to take. Amidst the feel-good stuff of winning at home after a perfect day for all-afternoon tailgating were a significant story lines:
1) Jumping on weak teams. This was 1 of those games where the Canes had a schedule advantage physically. Philadelphia had played the night before and traveled from Montreal which is 1 of the longer “staying on the east coast” flights especially when you add in clearing customs, and better yet the game was a 5pm start that cut the Flyers recovery time by a couple more hours. And you had the advantage of home ice. So many times in the past I show up for 1 of these games looking for the Canes to come out and look like the fresher team early, tilt the ice and take it to the other team in terms of skating and hitting. And so many times I have been disappointed. Not on Sunday. The Canes outskated Philadelphia mostly throughout. The good guys dominated the shot totals in the 1st period, and then when Philadelphia was looking to muster 1 tiny burst to steal a point in the standings late, the Canes gave them very little in terms of opportunities again just being faster to the puck. Today the Flyers fired Peter Laviolette and will try to start completely over for 2013-14. Here is wishing them a slow climb back sometime after the 2013-14 season.
2) The finish to that game was also incredibly telling and for me easily the best part of the win. With about 1:40 left in the game, rough math said that Muller needed 2 shifts. Logically one would figure that Muller could shorten the bench and get a shift each from Jordan Staal’s checking line and 1 for Eric Staal’s top line and use a timeout if needed to get legs refreshed if needed. One would figure that the Skinner/Nash/Dvorak line was done for the night unless the game found its way to overtime. But that was the Canes best line all night, and Muller went with them. With about 1:20 left the Flyers managed to gain entry to the offensive zone, get control of the puck and get a 6th attacker on. And it started very quickly to look like the chaotic shooting gallery that ended so badly on Friday night. And little by little the shift got longer and you could feel the Canes starting to run around in desperation a bit and the shift reaching the point where the skating legs are gone which makes it even tougher. Then the puck went to the corner not to a Flyers’ stick. Nash pounced, won a brief 1-on-1 battle, gained clean control of the puck and looked to move it quickly. He found a wobbly-legged Jeff Skinner also at the end of the same long shift. Skinner somehow managed to muster enough starting power to at least carry the puck outside the blue line and further to get the puck deep and get the Canes the last line change that the needed. But rather than unloading the puck and then huffing his way to the bench, Skinner managed to track the puck to the corner where he basically parked himself on top of it for what seemed like 20 seconds while the Flyers hacked away trying to free it. By the time this battle ended and the Flyers regrouped what could have been a full last shift of chaotic pressure was cut short and then ended without incident. The system stuff, playing well and everything else are important components to winning hockey games, but sometimes you just have to want it more than the other guys and go make an individual play or 2 when your team really needs it. Especially being thrust into the exact same situation that 2 days ago ended badly, the effort plays to close out a win by Riley Nash and Jeff Skinner who are not the stereotypical big, strong guys that win 1-on-1 puck battles was significant.
3) Earning ice time. Another clear story from the Sunday win was Muller rewarding strong play with more ice time. Jeff Skinner was 2nd only to Jordan Staal in forward ice time and his line earned more than the 14-15 minutes for a 3rd line. Maybe the most notable example was Nash’s line closing out the win, but it was not the only 1. The 4th-line played well and was rewarded with about 8 minutes of ice time, and Muller did not skip their turn in a couple instances where it came up with some of the top Flyers players taking the ice. He also provided a huge vote of confidence when he came right back to them after 1 bad shift lead to Philadelphia’s only goal early in the 2nd period after the line played a solid 1st period. This follows the general theme during training camp that saw Matt Corrente stick around longer than any player who did not ultimately make the team and also saw Brett Sutter earn a roster spot partly by paid dues in Charlotte but also a strong training camp. It also fits reasonably well with Lindholm starting on the 4th line in a limited role versus being handed 3rd line center over Riley Nash who earned that role in training camp.
It will be interesting to see how the season unfolds. 2 games is not enough to make season-long declarations, but I think some of the clues and undertones embedded the Carolina Hurricanes 2013-14 first weekend of hockey might just be the foundation and identity that Muller has made a point of emphasis this fall.
I have another blog that I half-wrote Sunday night when I had Canes hockey on the brain after the great weekend. I will probably finish that and post it tonight.
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