By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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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...
2:15 1st: A terrible giveaway by Rod Brind'Amour behind the Canes' net gave the Lightning's James Wright a golden opportunity to put the visitors on the board first. Cam Ward stuck his leg out and made what turned out to be an easy kick save, but one shudders to think of what the outcould would have been if it was Vincent Lecavalier and not James Wright with that breakaway.
3:32 1st: Samsonov somehow found Staal unchecked at the front of the Lightning goal, and even though the puck was on his backhand Staal should have found a way to bury the shot. He knew it, too, shooting the puck out from behind the net to no one in particular in disgust.
5:30 1st: A tricky backhand shot from Lecavalier somehow made it through two Hurricanes and Ward, who was surprised by it, stuck his blocker out to deflect it down by nothing more than habit, smothering the puck with a Lightning player right in front of the net. The Canes have been involved in a few too many lazy plays early in this game...it looks eerily similar to the Flyers game so far.
7:10 1st: The Canes' best pressure has come on a shift from the combination of Jussi Jokinen, Rod Brind'Amour and Scott Walker, with over a minute of time in the Lightning zone and some grade-A scoring chances to go with it. The shift, even though it didn't produce a goal, earned a loud cheer from the home crowd, punctuated a few seconds later by a Niclas Wallin hipcheck along the far boards in front of the Lightning bench.
8:04 1st: Two home games, two fights. This time, to no one's surprise, it was Tim Conboy doing the honors, fighting Zenon Konopka to a draw (maybe a slight edge to Konopka) in front of the far boards in the Canes' zone. (Best part of the sequence: the scoreboard showing Conboy taking his jersey off in the press box, to loud and somewhat high-pitched cheers.)
9:25 1st: The officials let both teams get away with shenanigans in front of the Lightning net, but Joe Corvo did a bit too much with his stick in front of Cam Ward at the other end a few seconds later, earning a cross-checking penalty and giving the Lightning the first power play of the game.
11:35 1st: Just after the power play expired, Chad LaRose somehow missed out on his first of the year by a Vinny Lecavalier save. (No, that's not a misprint.) LaRose had all sorts of room in front of Lightning goalie Mike Smith, and he drew Smith down and fired high, but Lecavalier was in the right place to deflect the shot away. The Canes got their own power play out of the mayhem, though.
13:12 1st: Carolina leads 1-0; Jokinen 1 (Pitkanen, C. Ward) (pp) Thanks, NHL, for not allowing this game to be televised and denying us repeated replays of a disputed goal. (We press box types are so spoiled rotten.) Jussi Jokinen broke through a seam in the Lightning defense off an Eric Staal pass and skated in unmolested on Smith. Smith got a piece of the puck, but it dribbled through his pads and just barely over the goal line into the net. It was one of those plays that can't be reversed either way; if referee Paul Devorski had signaled no goal, the replay wouldn't have been able to determine conclusively that the puck went all the way over the line. As it stands, the Canes have their first lead of the season.
18:00 1st: The game has settled down considerably, with neither team getting good scoring chances and both sides having trouble setting up in the offensive zone. This is what the Canes wanted to see: an early goal, and a game that doesn't get out of hand before the first intermission.
End 1st: The Canes will begin the second period killing a penalty, as Eric Staal tripped Alex Tanguay just before the horn. Aside from that, though, the Canes have nothing to be ashamed of, outshooting the Lightning 14-11 in the first period and taking a lead into the locker room for the first time in the young season.
2:20 2nd: Just after the penalty expired, Staal found himself on the receiving end of a pass with no one between him and Smith. The shot was deflected high into the netting behind the Lightning goal, but after a power play where the Lightning generated next to nothing it was good to see the Canes come back with a great scoring chance almost immediately.
4:02 2nd: Evidently, Sergei Samsonov interfered with Alex Tanguay, giving the Lightning their third power play of the game. I say "evidently" because I didn't realize that losing an edge and falling into your own goal is now considered interference against the other team.
4:43 2nd: And now Matt Cullen is in the box, giving the Lightning a 5-on-3. Phenomenal.
5:36 2nd: If you wondered about the existence of the hockey gods, look no further than Ryan Malone whiffing on an open net with no defender anywhere around him.
6:00 2nd: Lightning tie game at 1; Malone 1 (Stamkos, St. Louis) (pp) With only two seconds left in the Samsonov penalty, Malone tapped home a rebound off the crossbar to tie the game and keep the Lightning on the power play. The play was reviewed to see if Malone's stick was above the crossbar, but it was just below and the goal stood.
7:01 2nd: Cullen nearly put the Canes up by one again, but his backhand shot on an open net with Smith out of position banged off the far post and the game remained tied by a couple of inches.
7:40 2nd: Staal really can't catch a break. A Lightning defender slashed his stick in half in front of the net on a Carolina power play, and neither official felt it necessary to make a call. (What was that about the hockey gods again?)
9:58 2nd: Mike Smith has a bit of a reputation as a hothead, and it cost his team a man on the ice. After Stephane Yelle ran into him behind the net, Smith put Yelle in a headlock and earned himself a penalty for a reason known only to him. That's the definition of a dumb penalty.
11:57 2nd: The season has seen its first "ref you suck" cheer. (The over probably wins that, though not by much.) Joni Pitkanen got two extra on top of an iffy interference penalty for mouthing off to referee Justin St. Pierre, and the Canes were without their best defenseman for four minutes...
14:45 2nd: ...and 3/4 of the way through, Eric Staal nearly put the Canes up by one with a shorthanded breakaway. His backhand shot went high to Smith's stick side, as if it was a surprise that he wouldn't score given his night so far.
End 2nd: Say this for the Canes, their penalty kill isn't the problem tonight. They've killed 6 of 7 Tampa Bay power plays, and number 7 (another penalty to Staal at the end of the period) was negated just before the horn by a hooking penalty to Victor Hedman. The teams will begin the second period at 4-on-4; shots in the second were 9-7 Tampa (that's nine shots despite six power plays in the period; another good indication of the Canes' quality kill) and the Canes lead overall 21-20.
3:11 3rd: No penalty when Todd Fedoruk skates unmolested into Cam Ward after a whistle blew. I have officially given up all hope of figuring this game out.
4:10 3rd: Staal with his sixth or so near-miss of the night, this time missing on a tip redirection of a Tim Gleason shot that went right into Smith's pads. You just know he will be the happiest guy in the building if the red light finally goes on for him, given how this game has gone for him.
8:05 3rd: Steven Stamkos came dangerously close to giving the Lightning the lead, skating in unmolested and firing a high wrister from about five feet that Ward deflected over the net with his blocker.
9:30 3rd: Tim Conboy with his first significant ice since the first period, and he makes it count, earning a hefty cheer with a thundering check into the end boards behind Smith.
10:20 3rd: Joni Pitkanen will not return with a lower-body injury, it was just announced. Guess that knee wasn't quite up to snuff like he thought it was; one hopes that Maurice's decision to only play six defensemen doesn't come back to bite him late in the game.
13:48 3rd: Smith just flashed the leather to deny Tuomo Ruutu the go-ahead goal. Heck of a save for a guy who's only faced two shots to this point in the period.
14:39 3rd: LaRose gets pushed into Smith and gets whistled for goalie interference. I give up.
18:04 3rd: The Canes kill the penalty -- they're now 7-for-8 on the kill tonight -- and Aaron Ward takes a sharp wrist shot off a great Matt Cullen behind-the-back pass. Doesn't go in, but them's the breaks. At least Smith had to work to make the save.
End 3rd: The home fans get bonus hockey tonight. It's a little hard to predict how this overtime will go, as this game has had all sorts of stops and starts, but the Canes had some good pressure late in the 3rd and if they can get a few more shots on Smith you have to think one of them will hit the back of the net. Shots in the third were 6-5 Lightning, and overall shots in regulation were tied at 26.
1:30 OT: So far, the Canes have been keeping play in the Lightning end for the majority of overtime. Staal (who else) had a great chance to feed Samsonov on the doorstep, but as you might expect the puck got caught in Samsonov's skates.
3:47 OT: Samsonov with a reception of a great lead pass to give him a breakaway from the blue line in but he was a stride offside. Again, if it wasn't for bad luck...
4:50 OT: Canes get a ten-second power play courtesy of a tripping penalty to David Hale. Better late than never, I guess.
End OT: And we're off to the shootout. Shots in OT were 4-2 Lightning, who led overall 30-28.
Canes shoot first...
Samsonov v. Smith - goal, drew Smith way out of the net and kept possession long enough to shovel it into the open net
St. Louis v. Ward - save, kicked out with the right pad
Jokinen v. Smith - save, kicked out with the right pad
Lecavalier v. Ward - save, off Ward's glove and off the left post
Ruutu v. Smith - goal, high to Smith's stick side, Canes win shootout 2-0 and the game 2-1.
Postgame: It was obvious, both in the locker room and in the coach's office, that winning this game was a big sigh of relief for the Canes. Paul Maurice was less than pleased with the officiating, but he toed the line in his press conference well and didn't say anything that will leave him any lighter in the wallet. Cam Ward, meanwhile, was a picture of relief, cracking jokes with the media and looking none the worse for wear despite earning his paycheck by stopping St. Louis and Lecavalier in the shootout. This was a big, big win for the Canes, and they need this momentum to carry forward to the rest of the week, where they face another back-to-back Friday and Saturday against Florida and in Tampa.
Additionally, Maurice said that Pitkanen's knee tightened up in the second period because he wasn't playing enough given all the penalties that the Canes were forced to kill, and he should be good to go on Friday with no ill effects. Maurice did say that Pitkanen wasn't injured any more than he was at the beginning of the game, so if a coach comes out and says that you can take it to the bank that he's telling the truth.
Click for audio from Matt Cullen and Cam Ward. Maurice's press conference is attached.
The Live Blog returns Friday as the Canes battle the Panthers at the RBC. We'll be back, and we hope you will too.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
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