Holiday travel and family holiday stuff kept me from posting a game preview Monday and also from watching the game and writing about it. From everything I have read, I understand that I should count this as 1 of my presents. I am officially back on the Canes horse which is staring at another challenging game with an entry point that seems to offer doubt than hope.
After the disappointing loss in which the Canes had a win in hand and gave it away late on Monday night versus Columbus, the Canes get another home holiday game on Friday. The game brings an above average amount of drama even in the midst of what has been a rollercoaster ride.
--After salvaging a decent 1-1-2 week out west on the heels of a lights out 3-0 week, the Canes seem to be on the verge of a 2nd consecutive negative week. Last week say the Canes go 0-1-1 with a light schedule. With an 0-1 start to this week, a loss Friday makes it a negative week regardless of what happens in Sunday’s game in Toronto.
--The opponent is the Metro-leading Pens. This makes for a tough opponent and also a league-leading volume of visiting team jerseys and fans at PNC Arena to rub salt in wounds and grate on nerves if things do not go well.
--The game will also be the 5th try to win a “holiday home game” after 4 unsuccessful attempts thus far. The Canes lost to New Jersey and Vancouver over Thanksgiving weekend and to Columbus this week. Still on the schedule to try to make things right for PNC regulars is the Pittsburgh game on Friday and Montreal on New Year’s Eve.
--The margin is small enough that nothing has really changed that much, but the Canes suddenly find themselves in 7th place in the Metro Division after an 0-2-1 stretch since returning home from the West Coast.
It is against that backdrop that the Canes face a tough opponent. The Pens come into the game with a disappointing holiday week outing to their own credit losing to Ottawa 5-0 on Monday night, but the Pens had cruised to 7 straight wins prior to that. Somehow the Pens did the 2nd half of that literally without an NHL blue line missing all 4 of their top 4 defensemen and have also been playing without Malkin. But that Crosby guy is pretty good, and good teams tend to just find a way to win.
From the Canes side, this is a bounce back game. With a 3-2 lead late on Monday, the Canes appeared to be on their way to a feel-good home win. Then with a couple big miscues in a short period of time, the team managed to snatch a loss from the jaws of victory and send the home crowd home in a mood bad enough to kick Santa in the shins.
Key to the game:
1) Turn Monday into determination not doubt. If the Canes come out still dazed a bit from Monday’s 3rd period debacle and trying to get their feet under them, even the undermanned version of the Pens could smell blood, pounce early and ride it to a win. If instead, the Canes come out with a bit of fire in their belly, hopefully it gets them into the game even.
2) Attack offensively. Ottawa scored 5 on the Pens’ patchwork defense. If the Canes can put forward an effort like last Friday’s against Washington, there is no reason why they cannot do the same.
3) Stay out of the box. Despite being down some key players any power play that starts with Crosby and has decent finishers (i.e. Kunitz and Neal) is dangerous. The Pens are near the top of the NHL in both penalty kill and power play. The Canes have hit a stretch of taking a handful too many of lazy penalties of late. If they do this Friday night, it will likely cost a few goals and also likely a hockey game.
It will also be interesting to see what Muller does in net. After an absolutely stellar outing in Saturday's OTL in Tampa, Justin Peters was more human not being able to muster a key save when the Canes needed it late on Monday. Of late, he has been the team's best goalie, but Monday's loss might have cracked the door open for Ward again.
This kind of game in which the Canes need a win to get the ship back on course seems to come around about every couple weeks, so I guess we were due for it. The opponent and the team’s lack of success in these feel-good holiday week games just amps up the pressure. Here is hoping that the Canes can right the ship and move its way back toward the middle of the Metro Division standings. I noted a couple weeks that I would be surprised if we did not see a Canes trade within a couple weeks before the roster freeze. We did not. With the roster freeze lifting another loss or 2 could certainly shift Jim Rutherford's trade dial closer to "urgent".
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