In case you missed it and care to catch up, yesterday I posted "11 quick hitters on the blue line" which included some quick thoughts on the Canes defense. You can find that
HERE.
The Carolina Hurricanes enter Thursday night’s game in Calgary in 3rd place (and a playoff spot) in the Metro Division through 32 games with no needed adjustments for games in hand. Nothing is decided obviously, but that is a good place to be.
One of best Canes Twitter sources (@jbk_ltd) who keeps up with all things Canes in terms of details better than I says that there is a scheduled skate today. I am not sure who will be taking part, but perhaps it will yield some afternoon lineup clues.
To be determined are:
--Goalie: Is it Ward getting more ice time to try to find his game or Peters coming off a pretty good start (only 1 goal against in a loss) in his Monday start.
--Drayson Bowman. He should be close. It would be good to get him back in the lineup to possibly reunite the best version of the 4th line in Bowman/Malhotra/Dvorak.
--Alexander Semin. The team has said nothing definitive, but we are at the point where he will appear in the lineup soon and it will not be a big surprise.
The opponent is another of the handful of struggling Western Conference teams. The Calgary Flames enter the game just a point above the Oilers for last place in the conference. The team is 5-7-3 at home but enters with a decent 3-2 mark in its last 5 games. Like the Oilers the Flames come in near the bottom of the NHL in goals allowed ranking 28th allowing 3.3 goals against per game. Put more directly – this is a winnable road game against a beatable opponent. But if the Canes had any notion that they could just show up and collect points against the lesser teams in the West, that should have been blown up in the 1st period in Edmonton just 2 days ago.
From the Canes side, I see a couple keys to the game:
1) Back to basics. The 1st period in Edmonton on Tuesday was arguably the Canes worst in terms of repeated failure to do the basics and take care of defensive assignments in its own end. With defensive breakdowns in bunches and porous goaltending, the 1st 20+ minutes of this game was a painful reminder of the collapse down the stretch in 2012-13. The game was still fairly loose (probably needed to be trying to make up a big deficit) in the 2nd half, but the team mostly cleaned up the bad breakdowns and got back to the better brand of 2013-14 hockey in stealing a point late. It is important that the Canes get back to the better defensive brand of hockey that has been the core of its 2013-14 success even in the face of minimal offense (until recently), injuries and a tough schedule.
2) Trying to push through it. I am curious to see what Muller does in net tonight. His general mode of operation has been to go with the best chance to win. If you match up Peters’ and Ward’s most recent starts that would clearly be Peters, so my wild guess is that he will get the start. If instead Muller goes back to Ward, I think is crucial that he get his feet under him early. An ideal start would include the Canes playing much better defensively in front of him early to help him get into the game in a better way and scoring 1st would not hurt either. If Peters goes, I think it is just a matter of picking up where he left off Monday and hopefully putting up the confidence-building 1st period that has been his norm during his run of strong play.
3) Keep riding the stars. With the exception of the shutout in Vancouver on Monday, the Canes top forwards have been playing well and getting on the score sheet regularly. Jeff Skinner comes in scorching hot with 6 goals and 2 assists in his last 5 games. Eric Staal has notched at least 1 point in 12 of 14 games. After an extended slow start, Tuomo Ruutu is back to playing his game. Jordan Staal is playing well in a 2-way role and chipping in offense. The Flames who are in a bit of rebuilding mode right now cannot match the Canes top-end talent. The key is for these players to bring the effort level and work ethic that enables their skill to be the difference.
Puck drops at a slightly earlier 9pm on Fox Sports Carolinas. With the post-children’s bed time, I expect to be watching live and probably yammering during the game on Twitter again. Hopefully we will get most of the same crowd we have had for Monday’s and Tuesday’s games which has made for a fun interactive viewing experience. It’s kind of like “Canes Cool Bars on the Web.” If you do not want me polluting your Twitter stream with Canes ramblings from 9-11:30ish tonight, feel free to unfollow me and (hopefully) add me back later.
Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63
Go Canes!
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