Is it panic button time yet?

By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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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?

First, it's important to note that while the kneejerk reaction to the Canes' offensive struggles is to call up the likes of Drayson Bowman or Zach Boychuk, that simply won't happen for a couple of reasons.  Foremost among them is the overall master plan for the Canes' prospect development; the intention is to keep Bowman, Boychuk and Brandon Sutter together in Albany for the entire season, barring a catastrophic injury. Inconvenient as it may be, Erik Cole's broken leg does not fall into that category, and especially not when considering that Albany's season has even fewer games under its belt than Carolina's.

The second reason speaks to the inflexibility of the line combinations that are already in place.  The biggest concern about the Canes thus far in the season is the failure to generate consistent scoring chances for more than a couple of shifts.  Again, Cole's injury plays a part in this, because all through training camp the lines were pretty much set and the lines had a chance to come together and gel a bit.  When Cole went down in the second game of the season, all that went out the window, and the Canes last night rolled out their third different set of combinations in the six games since Cole's injury.  Jumbling the lines that frequently, while it might get one line going, only leads to confusion and over-cautious play elsewhere, as we saw last night with the excessive over-passing and hesitance to shoot the puck.

To that end, the absences of Eric Staal, Jussi Jokinen, Matt Cullen, et al. from practices over the last week or so is complicating the problem.  Yes, they're playing, but when the lines are mixed up on a frequent basis it's hard to expect instant chemistry no matter where they go.  This is a correctable problem, but it requires effort to correct it, and with the exception of short bursts the effort just isn't there.

Of course, it should be noted that an anemic power play contributes to the lack of offense.  Good teams, while they might only score on the power play every five times or so, at least generate chances off the momentum they gain while up a man.  The Canes' power play has done nothing of the sort, despite 40 opportunities with the extra skater, tied for fifth in the league overall.  Of the teams in the top ten in power-play opportunities, no other team is anywhere near the Canes in power-play percentage; the Canes are at 12.5% and the next closest team is Tampa Bay, a full five percentage points higher.

The time for excuses is quickly passing.  Joni Pitkanen has averaged 29:30 of ice time in the two games since his return from injury, so the excuse that the Canes were missing their main offensive weapon from the blue line holds no water anymore.  Cole has been out for nearly three weeks now, which should be enough time for something to get going somewhere.  Instead, the offense on all four lines has been bumbling around like the Bad News Bears for four straight games, and they're making mistakes that you would expect during training camp.  Even given the short preseason schedule, we're eight games into the regular season.  Mistakes like the ones we've seen in the last few games simply can't happen on a professional hockey team.  The Canes, to this point, haven't gotten that memo.

The panic button probably shouldn't be pressed now.  But it's quickly approaching time where the Canes need to get up off the rug and play like the team they're capable of being.  If they don't, it won't take much for other teams to take advantage of the chaos and contribute their part to digging the Canes' hole that much deeper.