By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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A nice ovation for new Canes goaltender Manny Legace rang in the start of game one A.C. (after Cam). The Canes look to break their twelve-game losing streak tonight while missing three of their best players...against the fifth-seed in the Western Conference, the Los Angeles Kings. Good luck with that.
Eric Staal, Cam Ward and Joni Pitkanen are all out for various maladies, but the Canes do get Ray Whitney back tonight. On the other side, we'll get our first look at old friend Justin Williams, who returns for the only time to the RBC Center this season after being traded in a roundabout way for Erik Cole at the trade deadline last season. The Kings also feature former Canes draft pick Jack Johnson, traded for Tim Gleason in 2006, as well as the NHL's leading scorer in Anze Kopitar.
We're 60 minutes away from either seeing the streak snapped or seeing it hit a baker's dozen. Which will it be?
3:03 1st: The Kings, by all accounts, should have struck first. Legace had the puck stripped from him behind the net, and the Kings had a wide-open net to shoot at. Fortunately for the Canes, Peter Harrold's shot was deflected into the netting by a diving Andrew Alberts. Little too close for comfort, especially this early in the game.
3:31 1st: Kings lead 1-0; Smyth 9 (Brown, Kopitar) (pp) No sooner do the Kings manage to draw a power play than they convert on it. Matt Cullen was called for boarding, the Canes were forced to kill a penalty, and they do...for seven seconds. Anze Kopitar's point pass to Dustin Brown at the far post gives the Kings a 2-on-1 down low, and Ryan Smyth is standing at the opposite post to clean up the garbage as he does so well and pokes the puck into the open side to give the Kings the lead. Que sera, sera, eh, Caniacs?
7:20 1st: The home crowd is starting to notice that Legace isn't exactly Martin Brodeur in his puck-handling skills. Twice he's gotten caught behind the net and given the Kings an empty net, and while the Canes haven't gotten burned yet you have to think that the Kings will take advantage of Legace's puck-handling misadventures sooner or later.
11:20 1st: Ray Whitney had a great chance from the high shot but -- and stop me if this shocks you -- shot the puck high. It did, however, fool CanesVision, who had an itchy trigger finger and put the "GOAL!!" animation up on the scoreboard for a couple of seconds.
11:42 1st: Kings get a 5-on-3 for 1:50 after consecutive penalties to Bryan Rodney (tripping) and Joe Corvo (delay of game). Just waiting for the inevitable now.
13:45 1st: The inevitable never came, miraculously. That might be the first true break the Canes have gotten all season. Stephane Yelle and Aaron Ward were both stung by shots on the power play, leaving them limping around while down two men, but the Kings never got a good shot off until late in the power play. Yeoman's work by the Canes' killer, and the ovation that followed the end of the power play was as loud as it's been in this building in a long time.
End 1st: Late in the period, the Canes had a couple of sterling chances but couldn't convert. Shots in the first period were 13-2 Kings, but the Canes had nearly four times as many miss the net as they had hit the target. Here we go again?
2:01 2nd: Kings lead 2-0; Stoll 5 (Jones, Simmonds) It's a good night to be a former member of the Edmonton Oilers. Both Kings goals have come from players who were on the team that lost to Carolina in the 2006 Stanley Cup final. Jarret Stoll is the latest to victimize the Canes, scoring on a lucky redirection of a Randy Jones shot from the near point. Stoll got behind Aaron Ward and tipped the puck home past Legace to put the Canes in a familiar position -- trailing by two goals.
6:20 2nd: The boobirds are out on the Canes' first power play of the night. The Canes haven't looked great, granted, but it's probably a bit early for the Bronx cheers.
7:30 2nd: Yelle may not return to the game after suffering a lower body injury on the first-period 5-on-3. Stop me if you've heard this before.
9:40 2nd: A good shift for the Canes, their first one in a while, leads to no shots as the Canes are content to pass the puck all day. The most maddening thing about the Canes in this streak is their refusal to shoot the puck and see what happens. They'll get off the slide by pouncing on rebounds, but you won't get rebounds of shots you don't take.
14:17 2nd: The Canes got some good chances off a solid penalty kill, and Chad LaRose was in the middle of a scrum at the end of a play. At least the Canes aren't just folding over and playing dead...they're ticked off and they're letting the Kings know about it.
15:25 2nd: Canes pull to 2-1; Ruutu 3 (Brind'Amour, Samsonov) Maybe the obituaries were premature. Tuomo Ruutu has pulled the Canes to within one in finishing off a great 3-on-2 with Rod Brind'Amour and Sergei Samsonov. It didn't look like a high-percentage shot, as it came from well outside on the near side, but you don't score if you don't shoot and Ruutu's shot somehow fooled Kings goalie Erik Ersberg.
16:45 2nd: The Canes nearly had a second in under two minutes, but Tom Kostopoulos' centering pass to an unchecked Brandon Sutter in the crease was just barely sent wide by Sutter. The Canes are really playing with some fire in the belly all of a sudden, and the fans are responding in kind.
End 2nd: The game's getting a little chippy, and the teams exchanged hard body checks into the end boards in the last minute of the period. Shots in the period were 11-7 Canes, and they cut into the Kings' overall lead at 20-13.
2:17 3rd: Chad LaRose may not have a goal, but he's been a thorn in the Kings' side all night, and the visitors are really getting tired of his antics in front of Ersberg. He's avoided a goaltender interference penalty but he's been causing mayhem in front of the Kings' net the entire game, and while he's putting up with some serious abuse from Kings' defensemen he's giving his team an emotional boost by being willing to go into the dirty areas.
4:03 3rd: Canes tie the game! Ruutu 4 (Whitney, Alberts) No one on the team is hotter right now than Tuomo Ruutu, and it's obvious the Canes' winger missed Ray Whitney while he was injured. After going to the front of the net on an innocent-looking dump, Ruutu meandered into the near circle and Whitney found him with a perfect pass that Ruutu one-timed over Ersberg's glove to tie the game. It's the first time all year the Canes have recovered from a two-goal deficit to tie the game.
6:41 3rd: Kings retake the lead; Jones 1 (Williams, Frolov) (pp) Not sure what the Canes could do to stop that. Old friend Justin Williams was in the middle of a power-play setup at the bottom of the far circle, and Alexander Frolov's point pass went to Williams and then across the crease to Randy Jones, who netted his first of the season on an easy tap-in at the near post.
8:45 3rd: Kick save and a beauty for Ersberg on a shot from Tim Gleason at the point that he didn't see until the last instant. Par for the course so far this year for the Canes.
10:05 3rd: Kings lead 4-2; Simmonds 5 (Frolov, Handzus) Also par for the course? Giving up back-breaking goals. Wayne Simmonds was the latest beneficiary, scoring on a centering pass from Alexander Frolov out of the far corner. Legace has been hung out to dry tonight, with his teammates offering no support in front of their net.
13:31 3rd: Scott Walker goes down in the far corner with an injury after an innocent-looking check from Jarret Stoll. He skated off under his own power, but it looks like he injured his shoulder. Maybe a rotator cuff? At this point, does it matter?
End 3rd: Not sure what else can be said by now. The Canes looked defeated after the power-play goal to Jones, and indeed they were, as the losing streak now hits 13 and they still haven't tasted victory in over a month. Shots in the 3rd were 11-9 Kings, who led overall 31-22.
Postgame: Tuomo Ruutu summed it up well in the locker room: Enough is enough. The Canes are still careening through rock bottom, now without a point in seven straight and having lost their last thirteen games. At 2-12-3 and with three of their top players out, it's a fair question to ask precisely when the Canes will ever get around to winning a game again. Their next chance is Friday night against the Islanders, a team the Canes lost to in a shootout a month ago. Something has to happen, though, because the Canes look as lifeless as they did to start the year when they dropped their first two games by a combined score of 9-2.
By the way, the Columbus Blue Jackets -- remember, the team that scored three times in five minutes Saturday? -- lost 9-1 to Detroit tonight. More salt in the wound, I guess.
Click for locker room audio from Tuomo Ruutu, Tim Gleason and Manny Legace. Paul Maurice's press conference is attached.
Back at it Friday against the Islanders. Join us then.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
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