Per my blog earlier today, I called this the "fence" week. The Canes have played their way back to the very edge of the playoff chase with a hot streak and fairly favorable schedule. But this past weekend despite getting a win and an OTL, the momentum was clearly slowly. So are the Canes the bad October team that just found a brief hot streak that was inevitable over the course of a long 82-game season? Or are they a team that started slow but are better than they showed in October?

One game is a small sample size and in no way conclusive, but Monday was a strong vote in favor of the November run being for real. It was easily the best win of the year facing a Flames team that is playing well, has had the Canes number recently and whose style of play has been a struggle for the Canes.

In the middle of a fun and successful game, 3 things stood out as most important:

1) After 2 lesser games this past weekend, Monday was a solid and complete effort. The Canes were not great in the 1st and got outplayed (but only by a modest margin), but they played a simple straightforward game moving the puck and mostly staying out of trouble. They were stymied a bit offensively just like the miserable loss in Calgary in October, but they did not give up much either giving up only a power play goal. From there, the Canes were the better team by a significant margin.

2) Cam Ward. He was better than Hiller who struggled getting touched only for 1 point blank goal where he had no chance.

3) Buy in. After a horrible 1st period for Semin and a quiet 1 for Skinner, the duo playing with unlikely scoring line center Jay McClement, they tore it up to the tune of 3 drawn penalties, 2 goals (Gleason's was on their shift) and 2 posts in only 2 periods. As good as the Canes have been so far in November, there is still another gear to be reached if these 2 players can both fit into the system and find their offense at the same time. Both parts are still a work in process, but the 2nd half of Monday's game was encouraging.

A few other quick notes:

1) Gerbe/Nash/Lindholm. It would be a good debate whether Skinner/McClement/Semin were able to pass them for the best line in less than 2 periods together. Regardless, despite not scoring Gebe/Nash/Lindholm were absolutely phenomenal. All 3 are skating and moving their feet and winning pucks all over the ice.

2) Huge depth scoring contributions. Zach Boychuk joined his former AHL buddies Rask and Terry in scoring a huge 1st goal in a game in which the Canes earned points in the standings. At the point where he scored things were not going that well. And what an individual effort. He bulled his way through Wideman 1-on-1 and earned enough space to fire a perfectly placed shot high and into the net.

3) Skinnem. Per my comments above, once paired with Jay McClement, they went off.

4) Eric Staal. I actually like where he seems to be right now. He has not found any kind of torrid scoring pace yet, but he just looks comfortable. Gone so far are the frustration penalties from 2013-14, of the 3 offensive leaders he seems to have most quickly figured out how to both fit into Peters' master plan and play his own game. His points are coming.

5) Justin Faulk. Someone make sure he gets a full supply of Halloween candy. Only Cam Ward rivals him for biggest turnaround just by flipping the calendar, and now he is scoring in bunches too. It was also nice to see his ice time down a bit in a game in which the Canes stretched out the lead.

6) Jay McClement. He was good in the faceoff circle and defensively early and then looked fine as a scoring line center between Skinner and Semin when they surged in the 2nd half of the game.

The Canes now have 11 points in 10 days in November and have moved within 3 points of a playoff spot. Who even are these guys? In any case, it's incredibly fun being a Canes fan all of a sudden.

Next up is another home game against Winnipeg who like Calgary is playing very good hockey right now.

Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63 #ForgetOctober

Go Canes!

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