Since starting 0-3, the Canes have righted the ship and played decent hockey. Since that start, the team is a respectable 6-5. This is not a playoff pace obviously, but it is good enough to hang in with the hope of eventually finding a higher level of play and pushing forward. In the 2 most recent weeks the Canes were 3-1 and then 1-1. Now 3 games into a home-heavy November schedule with a 1-2 record, the chance is there to find a higher gear and play into the 2015-16 season and at least for now out of the draft lottery rankings conversation.
But is the team capable and on the path to doing this?
Recent results are mixed at best:
* The team has struggled to find any consistent offense or power play production which offers a tiny margin for error defensively and in goal. Trying to win 2-1 or claw to overtime at 2-2 to get points is a tough road in the NHL.
* The team has not really developed an identity or style of play that they are leaning on or even trying to lean on for a reproducible winning formula. Even success to date looks more like an ad hoc 'just find a way' approach to success which is hard to repeat or use to drive a run of wins.
* The team continues to have depth issues. The hopes of having young forwards rise up to provide depth or even top scoring has not panned out. Elias Lindholm who many would have even considered to be a core player has only 1 goal and 0 assists. And none of Chris Terry, Riley Nash, Brock McGinn, Joakim Nordstrom or Andrej Nestrasil has offered more than an occasional goal or scoring play. The only young source of offense who has joined the ranks of scorers thus far is Victor Rask which is not enough. On defense, Brett Pesce has been a godsend taking James Wisniewski's slot and looking pretty solid in the process, but the blue line is light on offense so far too and with 2 brand new defensemen (Pesce and Hanifin) and another young, relatively inexperienced player in Ryan Murphy, the volume of errors is high right now.
But there are positives and signs of hope:
* A couple of the big guns are going or starting to go. Eric Staal's scoring totals are not great on a team struggling to score, but he has been very good thus far. Jordan Staal started slow but has 5 points in his last 5 games and seems to be rounding into form. Justin Faulk has started the season well and is doing his share if not more offensively with 5 goals already to go with 3 assists. Jeff Skinner scored a huge goal with 3 seconds left to send Saturday's game to overtime where the Canes eventually won. Hopefully, this triggers his offense longer-term.
* Goaltending has been better. There have been a couple misses along the way, but overall the Canes have been better in net of late. I have said multiple times that good goaltending is a 'must have' ingredient if the Canes are to surprise people and be playing games that matter in March.
The Canes next play the Rangers on the road on Tuesday before playing 5 straight at home. If the Canes are going to push to break even and above, 1 of the good chances in the season is upon us. Here is hoping the Canes can get things clicking and push at least to break even in terms of wins and losses over the next 2 weeks.
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