By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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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...
Pregame: The RBC Center turns ten years old tomorrow, and before the opening faceoff the CanesVision folks showed a retrospective of the different events that have taken place in the ten years since the arena's opening, including interviews with Jim Rutherford, Peter Karmanos, Paul Maurice and others. I would imagine they'll post the video online, and when they do it's worth a look. Amazing that this building has been around for as long as it has, yet it's still the newest building in the Southeast Division.
1:50 1st: Chad LaRose is one of the guys the Canes need to wake up, and he very nearly did off a bad turnover on the near side. Ray Whitney forced a turnover and centered to LaRose in the low slot, but Blues goalie Chris Mason got over fast enough to make the save, then the rebound got caught in LaRose's skates at the far edge of the crease.
2:35 1st: If you had Tim Conboy in the pool for who would fight first tonight...you lose. Brad Winchester and Jay Harrison got into a spirited bout off a faceoff in the Blues' zone, and the result was one of the more entertaining fights of the season so far. Score it to Harrison on points courtesy of some home cookin'.
5:00 1st: Kind of a weird night for the ice so far. The puck is bouncing all over the place and it's resulted in some awkward bounces for both teams. Says here the team that wins will score a dirty goal or two.
6:02 1st: However, if you had Tim Conboy in the pool for who would fight second, you are the lucky winner of...something. (Think something was said to the team before the game about sending a message?) Conboy went at it with the Blues' Cam Janssen, and you can score this one to Janssen. Conboy didn't land more than a couple of swings.
7:32 1st: Blues lead 1-0; Perron 2 (Berglund, Crombeen) And there's one of those dirty goals. Aaron Ward was forced off the puck by Patrik Berglund, who put a shallow-angle shot on Cam Ward that had little to no chance of making it into the net. However, the play had the desired effect, as David Perron was in front of the net to clean up and shovel the puck into the net before Ward could react. It's the Blues' first lead against the Hurricanes in nearly two years. (A 1-0 shutout in St. Louis in January of 2008, if you're scoring at home.)
11:30 1st: A pair of good offensive shifts for the Canes results in nothing on the scoreboard, but at least they have life for the first time since the opening minutes. Granted, it would be nice to actually put goals on the board, but at this point in the Canes' slump just about anything that doesn't result in a goal for the opposition is something that can be built on.
13:49 1st: The Canes look good on their first power play of the night. Great puck movement, no turnovers and some high-percentage shots that the Blues' defensemen are getting in the way of. Late in the power play, Eric Staal broke his stick while taking a shot from the point, but he was able to go to the bench and get a new one without the play leaving the St. Louis zone.
16:08 1st: Blues lead 3-0; Stastny 1 (unassisted) 15:52, then McClement 3 (unassisted) 16:08 At this point, I'd be shocked if Michael Leighton didn't come out to start the second period. Cam Ward is being left out to dry, and the Canes are running around with no inkling of defensive-zone coverage. Yet again, two goals in less than a minute, and both of them were completely avoidable if the Canes' defense, y'know, did what they're paid to do.
19:07 1st: Canes cut lead to 3-1; Corvo 2 (Wallin, Staal) (pp) Hopefully it isn't too little too late, but the Canes have life on a late goal. Chris Mason should have stopped Joe Corvo's point shot, given that there wasn't much traffic in front of the net, but at this point the Canes will gladly take it.
End 1st: Not exactly a banner period for the home team, the power-play marker notwithstanding. Still expect to see Leighton in net to start the second period, and the disgust from the paying customers was evident as there was some muttering as the Canes left the ice. Shots in the first period were 14-11 Canes, but the ice certainly seemed more tilted toward the Blues for long stretches.
Begin 2nd: I would be wrong. Ward is in net. Shows why I'm a lightly-regarded reporter and Paul Maurice gets paid thousands of dollars to coach a hockey team.
2:00 2nd: Courtesy of some yeoman's work by the Canes' PR staff, we now know that tonight marks the fifth time this year that the Canes have given up two goals in less than a minute. You read that right...five times in eleven games. That's a pitiful stat, and does as much as anything to explain their current predicament.
3:35 2nd: Of course, all the hand-wringing over the Canes' defensive play might not matter if the Blues continue their parade to the penalty box. Eric Staal misfired on a cross-ice pass right in his wheelhouse, nearly giving the Canes their second power-play goal of the night.
7:51 2nd: Just as St. Louis finished their first power play of the night, Andrew Alberts blocked a slap pass off his ankle. The Canes managed to get a whistle soon afterwards, and Andrews was in obvious pain as he went to the bench, though he didn't go back to the locker room.
8:50 2nd: The reconstituted Cullen-Brind'Amour combination continues to pay dividends. Cullen somehow snuck a pass through two Blues defenders and gave Brind'Amour a one-on-one down low that Mason had to be quick to stop.
9:42 2nd: Blues lead 4-1; McDonald 4 (Tkachuk, Polak) Odd-man rushes don't get much better than that. Keith Tkachuk skated the puck in the zone on right wing, saucered a pass over Aaron Ward who went down to block it, and Andy McDonald did the rest, crossing in front of Cam Ward to draw him down and backhand the puck into the open cage to restore the three-goal lead.
14:30 2nd: The Canes just had their chance at a really dirty goal. There were players from both sides strewn all over the ice in front of Mason, but through all that humanity no one could get a shot through on the Blues' goaltender; the one that did make it through was a Sergei Samsonov shot that went wide to the near side. Looking more and more like it will be one of those nights.
16:35 2nd: Cullen to Brind'Amour on a 2-on-1 in front of the net...and the puck goes behind Brind'Amour. 'Nuff said.
18:30 2nd: The boobirds are out in force on this power play, despite going 1-for-4 so far tonight. The fans are not happy, and really, given the results of the last six games can you blame them?
19:50 2nd: Andy McDonald just had a chance for his second of the game on a breakaway from the blue line in, but the puck rolled off his stick just before he fired on Ward.
End 2nd: Ward looks exhausted. No two ways about it, and while we've been worried about his lack of rest coming back to bite him late in the season it almost looks like it might be happening sooner rather than later. The Blues have mustered just 14 shots overall, but Ward's let four of them into the net, which won't win you many games. Shots in the second were 5-3 Blues, and it was about as boring as that shot total lets on.
1:40 3rd: The Canes so far look like nothing has changed. Still getting a little offensive pressure at a time, but they're not coming close to capitalizing. It has to be mighty frustrating for Paul Maurice, and one ownders if we won't see more wholesale changes before the Canes visit Philadelphia on Saturday.
4:00 3rd: Pitkanen walks right down Main Street in the low slot, with no one touching him...and fires the puck wide of Mason. At this point, who's surprised? I'm not.
4:59 3rd: Another this-is-your-life moment: Jokinen carries the puck into the zone, and Samsonov steps offside for reasons known only to him.
8:12 3rd: Canes back to within 2 at 4-2; Walker 2 (unassisted) (pp) The one bright spot for the Canes tonight has been their power play, which is now 2-for-5 on the night thanks to Scott Walker's one-man show late in the man advantage. Walker stole the puck at the bottom of the near circle and put a shot on Mason which was stopped, but the rebound bounced into the air and Walker batted it into the net while keeping his stick below the crossbar to cut into the Blues lead for the second time.
9:32 3rd: And it was almost back to a three-goal game if not for some mighty fine luck for Ward, who lost the puck to David Perron behind the Canes' net and had to scramble back to the front. Perron had a sure goal roll off his stick and Ward sprawled to cover before it went into the net, keeping the Blues from taking their third three-goal lead of the night.
15:40 3rd: Mason has sure done his job tonight. The Canes nearly scored again with the extra skater, and they're up to 33 shots with two goals to show for it. The puck movement on the power play has been really, really impressive tonight.
17:40 3rd: Sutter with a glorious chance to pull to within one as he was unchecked in the low slot, but he fired high. Ho hum.
End 3rd: Perron netted his second of the night into the vacated net to finish the Canes off, making it a 5-2 final. Shots in the third were 17-4 Canes, who outshot the Blues 36-18 in the game and 22-7 over the final two periods, but that isn't indicative of how the game went.
Postgame: The coaching staff's opinion on the matter at hand was summed up when Paul Maurice was asked if he considered pulling Ward after the Blues went up 3-0: "I thought they all deserved to be out there." Well then. Stuff like that doesn't exactly give you a ton of confidence, does it? At this point, doesn't it seem a foregone conclusion that the Canes' current seven-game losing streak will hit nine after weekend tilts with Philadelphia and San Jose? The bloodbath might just have begun, crazy as that sounds.
Maurice's press conference is attached. There's no locker-room audio from tonight courtesy of some ill-timed technical difficulties (read: your intrepid reporter didn't have any extra batteries).
Sunday afternoon will provide the Canes a chance to celebrate, at least for a little while, as the organization honors Ray Whitney for 1,000 games played in the NHL before the Canes face San Jose. We'll be back then, and hope you will too.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
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