Monday night versus the Blue Jackets, the Canes continued it January full of "it doesn't matter how, just find a way to win" victories and rode it to current positioning in the 3rd playoff Metro Division playoff spot. Except for the can-do/find-a-way mentality and the clutch play of key players when the team needed, this is another game where you throw away the process.

The game started very much like the ugly Tampa loss from Sunday. Sekera/Faulk had a rough 1st period mostly via about half of a game of uncharacteristically tentative play with the puck on his stick by Justin Faulk. The 1st goal was more a collection of small things but defensive zone coverage played a part. The 2nd goal which followed only seconds later was part of the same shift interrupted by the after goal faceoff and resulted directly from a bad Faulk turnover. He went on to have another turnover in the 1st period and another bad 1 early in the 2nd period. Especially early but really throughout, Columbus was much faster to loose pucks and much better at winning board battles. I would not so much blame the Canes compete level as the effort was there, but the Canes mostly lost battles below the faceoff circle in both zones, and when they did win battles they too often just flung the puck to center ice or handed it back over. Finally in cases in which the Canes did finally win the puck, as has been the case many times before against full rink/grinding/physical teams, the Canes were unable to get the puck up the ice with any numbers.

But remember my 2nd key to the game from my preview - "Best versus best." Just about when the game seemed lost, the Canes best players rose up. Eric Staal capitalized for a goal when Alexander Semin offered a creative setup where he cut to the middle taking a defenseman with him and spinning the other around before leaving the puck behind him for Staal to fire uncontested from close range past Bobrovsky. The 2nd play featured Jiri Tlusty quickly and decisively winning a rare board battle and finding Eric Staal camped in front of the net. Then to finish it off Jordan Staal scored off the rush on an individual effort slashing through 2 defenders and beating Bobrovsky while going down. In short burst of a few minutes, the Canes best players rose up and stole victory from the jaws of defeat in a game that they probably did not deserve it. In so doing, they paid back the Blue Jackets who did similar scoring 2 late goals versus the Canes on December 23 turning what looked like a Canes win into a disappointing loss.

A few notes:

--Anton Khudobin. I love the way he seems to have a knack for making big and emphatic saves late. The saves are obviously important, but I think his body language inspires confidence at times when the team needs it in-game and also carries forward.

--Eric Staal. When the team desperately needed a couple big goals, he answered. His line mates also deserve credit, as Tlusty and Semin made a pretty setup on a goal each.

--Jordan Staal. Ditto. He too had a huge goal, his largely being on a phenomenal effort.

--Justin Faulk. For the 2nd time in only 5 games, he had a rough night. He just looked tentative with the puck on his stick in his own end all night. Figuring out why is a bunch of speculation, but a common theme has been a lack of moving his feet. In the turnovers tonight, he seemed to have a bit of room to skate with the puck and instead coughed it up maybe trying to get rid of it before he had to. My hope is that he is not hitting a bit of a wall physically because he does not have a break coming at the end of next week like many players.

--Thank you Columbus. The Blue Jackets scored 2 early and used it dial things up for the rest of the 3rd period then they seemed to shut things down a bit seemingly looking to win 2-0. While the quality leaned more toward settling for shots from the perimeter, the Canes still got the better of the 2nd period. In the 1st half of the 3rd period, Columbus had a number of shifts in which the team was able to cycle the puck and control it in the offensive zone but seemed content to run clock for a shift and get fresh bodies on the ice. It was striking how much more offense, they were able to generate doing the same thing after they went down 3-2 on JStaal's goal. You have to wonder if they would have had more of a killer instinct if they would have just used their physical edge skating and winning pucks on the boards to a dominant 4-goal win. But instead, they buttoned things down a bit and left the door open for the Canes to steal a win with 1 big push, and push the Canes did.

--3rd place in the Metro! As we get deeper into the season, the results take on much more importance than the process. With Monday's win, the Canes climb over Columbus and into 3rd place in the Metro. Everything else is details.

Part of it is Columbus' style of play, but I think part of it is also that the Canes are a bit gassed right now. With a game in Montreal on Tuesday, the Canes need another "just find a way" kind of effort which fortunately seems to be exactly the team's model these days.

Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63

Go Canes!

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