Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Game 11: Blues 5, Hurricanes 2

By Brian LeBlanc
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Home cooking returns tonight for the Hurricanes, and not a minute too soon.  While they were in relatively good shape heading into the two week long State Fair roadtrip, the wheels fell off on the road, as the Canes stumbled to an 0-2-2 mark that leaves them scrambling for answers.  Since last we saw the Canes, Stephane Yelle has cleared waivers (and remains with the team), Brandon Sutter has been called up to center the third line and hasn't looked at all out of place, Tuomo Ruutu found himself suspended after a check to the back of Colorado's Darcy Tucker, Rod Brind'Amour is on the wing and Tim Gleason is in the press box with an upper body injury.

Needless to say, the questions keep piling up, and the Canes have yet to find the answers.

The St. Louis Blues come to town tonight in much the same predicament.  After sweeping the Red Wings in Stockholm to start the season, the Blues have cooled down significantly, and now they're forced to contend with first-line winger T.J. Oshie on the shelf after an appendectomy last weekend.  Last year, the Blues dropped both games to the Hurricanes, only scoring one goal in the process; that goal scorer, David Backes, has but one goal so far this season.

Both teams need to spark their offenses in a significant way, which probably portends a 7-6 shootout tonight.  We'll see how it unfolds...

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Is it panic button time yet?

By Brian LeBlanc
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Two points in the last four games.  Consecutive losses to teams who were winless at home (Devils) or winless overall (Islanders).  A complete inability to generate offensive pressure for more than a few minutes at any given time.  Passes to no one being thrown all over the ice.

What in the name of Marek Malik is going on here?

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Game 6: Penguins 3, Hurricanes 2 (SO)

By Brian LeBlanc
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The schedule says this is just another game, number 81 out of 1,230 on the NHL docket to be played before the end of the season in early April.

The players say this is just another game, that every game has two points on the line and that they need to do whatever they can to get those two points no matter the opponent.

So is this just another game?  Don't think so.

The Pittsburgh Penguins come to town for the first time this year, and it's our first look at the team since they blew the doors off the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference final last year, outscoring the Canes 20-9 en route to a four-game sweep of the Canes and an eventual Stanley Cup.  It was a humbling series for the Canes, who were gassed after winning two thrilling seven-game series in the first two rounds and didn't put up much of a fight for the Penguins in the third.

Tonight will be our first look at a rebuilt Penguins blue line.  Their top shutdown pair from last year, Rob Scuderi (LA) and Hal Gill (Montreal), have moved onto greener pastures, and the replacements (Alex Goligoski, Mark Eaton, Jay McKee) don't exactly inspire a ton of confidence.  That said, the Canes still have to contend with a couple of guys named Crosby and Malkin, who simply ate Carolina's defense alive in last year's playoffs and who have led the Penguins to a 5-1 record so far this season.

These games never fail to entertain, and by the end of the night we should have a good idea of just how well the Canes stack up against the NHL's elite.

By the way, for the sake of argument later: Taylor is in the building tonight.  Last year when he was here, the Canes went something like 1-43984.  Here's hoping the Canes can, um, improve on that record tonight.  (And if they don't, you know who to blame.)

Here we go...

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

PK or PP: what's the real issue on special teams?

By Brian LeBlanc
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Much has been made over the Canes' sudden infatuation with the penalty box that has led them to the top of the NHL penalty-minutes per game chart, with an average of 24.4 PIMs per game.  But the more pressing issue for the team heading into tomorrow's showdown with Pittsburgh isn't penalty killing, where after a dismal early start the Canes have killed 18 of 20 penalties in the last three games.

Rather, it's the power play, where the Canes find themselves 26th in the NHL in power-play conversion percentage, at 12.9% through five games (4-for-31).  The most disconcerting part, though, is that the Canes are tied for the league lead with the Flyers and Rangers with 31 power-play opportunities, and of the four teams below the Canes on the power play all but one (Florida with 21 opportunities) have had the extra skater fewer than 20 times.

What's going wrong here?

Friday, October 9, 2009

Game 4: Canes 7, Panthers 2

By Brian LeBlanc
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The Canes continue the home cookin' before the State Fair road trip, welcoming the world-traveling Florida Panthers to the RBC Center tonight.  The Panthers return to the States after splitting a pair with the Chicago Blackhawks in Helsinki last weekend, so the Canes will hope to capitalize on what could be some tired Panthers legs, especially in the early going.

Paul Maurice's pronouncements to the contrary, Joni Pitkanen's knee is not fine, and he will miss his second game of the season tonight.  Jay Harrison will be back in the Canes' lineup in Pitkanen's place, paired with Andrew Alberts on the third pairing.  For the Panthers, there are no significant injuries, but there's still a big hole in their lineup, with Jay Bouwmeester gone to Calgary as a free agent.  Tonight will be our first look at the new-look Panthers, and it's still an open question what kind of team they will be without their #1 defenseman from last year; they obviously have some skill in splitting a pair with a Western Conference power, but the Canes will need to take advantage of the ridiculous amounts of mileage the Panthers have racked up lately to put two more points in the can against another division opponent.

It's Hockey Fights Cancer night at the RBC, meaning (among other things) some really stylish pink ties behind the bench and Julie Walker, wife of Scott and cervical cancer survivor, sounding the siren tonight.  It's always nice to see the NHL do this every year.  (Incidentally, the Canes are wearing their black third jerseys for the first time this year as well.)

And away we go...

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Game 3: Canes 2, Lightning 1 (SO)

By Brian LeBlanc
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It would be easy to say that this is a must-win for the Hurricanes.  After all, the last thing they want is to start the season 0-3; just ask the Tennessee Titans.  Fortunately for them, the Hurricanes don't play in the NFL, and there are still 80 games to get the ship pointed in the right direction.

That's not to make light of this game.  It's not a must win, but it's a should win, because not only do the Canes need to get off the slide, they need to start putting points on the board against division rivals.  The Tampa Bay Lightning come to town hungry for their first win of the season as well, so it's not like the Canes will be able to take a night off and get two points.

Erik Cole is out, as you know, with a broken bone in his leg, so the Samsonov-Staal-Ruutu line that played together most of last season is back together tonight. We'll see what that portends as the night goes on, as the Canes will need to generate some almost-instant offense to get the monkey off their back early.

Here we go...

Friday, October 2, 2009

Game 1: Flyers 2, Canes 0

By Brian LeBlanc
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And here we are again.  It's like we never left...

OK, not quite, but it's great to be back in our old stomping ground above section 323.  Opening Night always is tough to call, especially when the team's first game is at home, since the team can sometimes come out too amped up and find themselves trailing before they realize that the puck has dropped.  It's still one of the best days on the calendar, and it's always an exciting night to cover.

That said, let's get moving.  The Philadelphia Flyers are tonight's guest, one of the few teams given legitimate Stanley Cup hopes before the season starts.  Even though they bowed out in the first round of last year's playoffs, the Flyers did plenty in the offseason to give themselves a better than fighting chance this year, adding Chris Pronger to bolster their blue line while bringing back 46-goal scorer Jeff Carter to lead the offensive attack.  Needless to say, the Flyers won't be anyone's idea of an off night.

The Canes, though, will look to get in the head of Ray Emery, who returns to man the Flyers' net after a season's sojourn in Russia.  They made fewer changes than just about any other Eastern Conference contender, and after a season of tinkering around the edges it's time to see what GM Jim Rutherford has wrought.

And here we go...

Thursday, October 1, 2009

2009-10 Season Preview: The Western Conference and Playoff Predictions

By Brian LeBlanc
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OK, time to finish up the previews.  Again, these are in order of their projected finish.  Once you get through the predictions, you get the added bonus of my shot-in-the-dark Stanley Cup playoff predictions.

Here we go...

2009-10 Season Preview: The Eastern Conference

By Brian LeBlanc
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It's high comedy every April to look back at the previous October and see what kinds of stupid projections hack writers such as yours truly spew.  Yet every October, like the swallows to San Juan Capistrano, we throw these projections up on various websites and open ourselves to ridicule and second-guessing.  Clearly, we are nothing more than minor masochists.  (Either that, or we need something to fill space.  I'm going with the former.)

And with that, let's get going!  Teams are in order of their projected finish in each conference.  (Note:  I planned on doing both conferences tonight, then realized that I didn't want to stay up until 3 in the morning.  The Western Conference is forthcoming tomorrow.)