By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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Jim Rutherford promised changes during the Canes' four-day down time, but the biggest change was one he had little to do with. Longtime Canes assistant coach Kevin McCarthy has left the organization to take a similar position with the Philadelphia Flyers, who hired former Carolina coach Peter Laviolette yesterday. McCarthy was the Canes' eye in the sky, with a tie-in to an earpiece Ron Francis wore on the bench, and now the Canes will have only goaltending coach Tom Barrasso in the press box. (We'll have a tribute to McCarthy later in the week here on PD.)
Today, the Canes welcome in the Vancouver Canucks, who have been slightly busier than the home team. Today is the Canucks' third game in four days, after wins over New Jersey and Philadelphia earlier this week. You probably know about the Canucks' pair of Swedish twins, Henrik and Daniel Sedin, and while Henrik leads the team in scoring his brother has been hampered by injuries and will play only his eleventh game of the season today. The Canucks are a scrappy, pesky bunch that try to wear teams out with skating and puck possession, and the Canes will have their hands full today trying to contain the Canucks' attack.
Today was originally targeted to be Cam Ward's return, but he will be out for a couple more days as he tries to return from the leg laceration he suffered about a month ago. Jussi Jokinen will not play for the Hurricanes today after suffering an undisclosed injury earlier in the week in practice, and Bryan Rodney returns to Raleigh (this time, he can probably get an apartment) to fill in for the injured Joe Corvo, whose own leg laceration will keep him out at least two months. The Canucks will play Andrew Raycroft in goal today after captain Roberto Luongo played the back-to-back games earlier this week.
We'll see if the Canes can snap their five-game losing streak today in the only game of the year against the Cancuks...
2:10 1st: The first good scoring chance of the day came from the Canes' fourth line, a spare-parts line of Walker-Brind'Amour-Yelle that almost connected on a Brind'Amour putback of a Raycroft rebound. Raycroft kicked his left leg out just in time to stop the shot, but as we saw against Jose Theodore on Monday, Raycroft's rebound control is an opportunity the Canes can exploit.
4:25 1st: After giving up a dangerous pass from Daniel to Henrik Sedin deep in the Canes' zone, Sergei Samsonov had an open net on a 3-on-2 but he couldn't corral a bouncing puck and never got a shot off on Raycroft.
7:11 1st: Manny Legace comes up with a spectacular save on a Canucks' power play. Daniel Sedin had the puck about five feet from the net with an open side to shoot at, but somehow Legace stretched his left leg over and kicked the puck out, freezing it a couple of seconds later after the Canes' defense collapsed in on him.
8:05 1st: A great cycling shift by Brind'Amour and Brandon Sutter deep in the Canucks' zone led to an open chance for Sutter, who didn't have an opposing player within ten feet of him in the high slot but shot the puck high over the Canucks' goal.
11:00 1st: Been a good period for the Canes on odd-man rushes, except for the whole "finishing the job by scoring" part. Matt Cullen used Samsonov as a decoy and fired on a clear-cut 2-on-1 that Raycroft had little trouble stopping.
12:02 1st: Canucks lead 1-0; Hansen 4 (H. Sedin) Legace will want that one back, for sure. An innocent shot from Jannik Hansen after Henrik Sedin stole the puck at center ice might have been slightly tipped by Niclas Wallin, but it's still no excuse for Legace to get most but not all of the shot. Even though he made 85% of the save, the puck trickled through his pads and into the net.
12:22 1st: Canes tie it at 1; Whitney 7 (Staal, Ward) And just like that, the Canes tie it up. Aaron Ward stole the puck at center ice and fed Staal at the blue line, and the Canucks' defense was asleep at the switch in allowing Ray Whitney to get behind them unchecked and aim a backhand high over Raycroft's left shoulder into the very top corner of the net.
14:50 1st: Big save by Legace stoning Mason Raymond on a juicy rebound...
15:10 1st: ...and seconds later, Eric Staal gets a breakaway from the blue line in but tries to get too fancy, and he loses the puck off his stick right in front of Raycroft with no one else in the neighborhood. Probably should be 2-2 now.
16:00 1st: Both teams are playing very carelessly with the puck today...there have been all sorts of interceptions and steals on both sides of the ice. Honestly, it's been pretty sloppy so far.
End 1st: Not much to speak of on a late Canucks power play, and hopefully the quality of play picks up in the second after the slop-fest that was the first period. Shots were 14-7 Canucks, a product of a 2-0 lead in power plays.
3:40 2nd: It's been a good start to the period for the Canes, who have played just about the entire period in the Canucks' zone...
3:55 2nd: Canes lead 2-1; Cole 4 (Whitney, Gleason) ...and it pays off on a beauty of a give-and-go between Erik Cole and Ray Whitney. Cole started it by dancing around a defender at the Canes' blue line, fed it to Whitney who returned it to Cole and set up a great shot from the top of the near circle that beat Raycroft high. You had to think that if the Canes didn't cash in on their early-period dominance that they'd regret it later, but it's good to see that they didn't.
6:06 2nd: Canes lead 3-1; Samsonov 4 (Ruutu, Cullen) Another turnover burned the Canucks again. The Canucks had a chance to clear the puck, but Willie Mitchell coughed up the puck with Ruutu right on him and Sergei Samsonov got it with no one anywhere nearby. Samsonov had all day to pick his corner on Raycroft, and he did, beating the goaltender high to the glove side to give his team a two-goal lead.
8:00 2nd: Ryan Kesler nearly got it back on his own partial breakaway, but he fired high over Legace in the same manner as Sutter's shorthanded chance in the first.
14:00 2nd: Another big save for Legace, dragging the left pad to stop a 2-on-1 attempt by Henrik Sedin then doing the same seconds later on Kyle Wellwood. With all the shots he's stopped today, it makes the one he let in even more indefensible, although these things tend to be forgiven when your team is up by two goals.
16:25 2nd: Matt Cullen just about willed a goal into the Vancouver net. Three Canes were within two feet of Raycroft and Cullen got two or three whacks at the puck without success after undressing a couple of Canucks defenders leading up to the scoring chance. Cullen's assist on the Samsonov goal gives him a five-game point streak, and he looks every bit the part of a guy playing with house money right now.
18:59 2nd: Canes lead 4-1; Cole 5 (Whitney, Staal) (pp) At first glance I had no idea who scored. That was one of the most bizarre goals you'll ever see. Raycroft thought he stopped the puck out of a scrum in front of the net but the puck actually sat on top of Mitchell's right leg and no one but the referee saw it. Mitchell kicked the puck into the net with his other leg without realizing the puck was on him, and in the process put his team down by 3.
End 2nd: The Canes came roaring to life in the 2nd, outshooting the Canucks 14-6 to take a 21-20 overall lead. They earned every bit of their three-goal lead, as they were skating circles around the visitors for most of the period.
1:55 3rd: The Canes' defensive play in front of Legace has been good to great all night, and they just bailed out Legace with a timely check of Ryan Kesler at the top of the crease just as Kesler was ready to pounce on a rebound.
3:30 3rd: Staal hits the post on a rebound chance at the bottom of the near circle. He had Raycroft beat but was a fraction of an inch off on his placement of the shot.
5:29 3rd: Another sweet chance for Ryan Kesler, who parked himself in the Canes' crease and nearly put a puck in if not for a diving Legace save. Aside from that gaffe in the first, Legace has been outstanding today.
7:00 3rd: Alex Burrows' chance to get robbed by Legace, another kick save on a shot from point-blank range.
8:49 3rd: Legace gets bowled over by Ryan Johnson in front of the net and Legace twists his knee in a way it probably shouldn't be twisted. Pete Friesen came off the bench to check out the goaltender, who stayed in the game but was in some obvious discomfort.
10:07 3rd: Canucks cut it to 4-2; Bernier 8 (Samuelsson, Wellwood) Eventually, you figured that the Canucks would capitalize on some of these crazy bounces that Legace had been stopping, and Steve Bernier was the beneficiary. A cross-crease pass from Mikael Samuelsson that went behind Legace wound up on Bernier's stick and he tapped the puck into the open side before Lgace could get over and make another miraculous save.
11:50 3rd: Should be 5-2 now if not for that pesky near-side post. Erik Cole beat Raycroft cleanly on a 2-on-1, but the puck clanged loudly off the post and gave the Canucks a heck of a break.
14:45 3rd: Canucks score again, down 4-3; Burrows 9 (D. Sedin, H. Sedin) Not what the Canes wanted to see, and Paul Maurice used his timeout after this goal to calm his team's nerves. A Daniel Sedin pass from behind the net was tipped into the air and baseball-batted into the goal by Alex Burrows, on a shot Legace had no chance to stop.
17:03 3rd: A questionable high-sticking call to Sergei Samsonov after Burrows skated into his stick and drew a high-sticking penalty. The fans weren't at all happy with the officials making that call.
19:46 3rd: Canes lead 5-3; Cole 6 (unassisted) The Canes killed off the Samsonov penalty and a few seconds later, Erik Cole completed the hat trick, his first since rejoining the Canes, with a nifty shot from the far circle that beat Raycroft cleanly and sent the home crowd to the parking lot happy for the first time in a while.
End 3rd: The Canucks dominated the period, outshooting the Canes 16-8 to claim a 36-28 overall advantage. Still, Legace stood tall when he needed to be, and the Canes hit the road by snapping their five-game losing streak.
Postgame: The Canes' locker room was quite jovial, as you'd probably expect. This was a huge win, no doubt about it, considering they face a tough road trip in the next week starting Monday in Pittsburgh. They won't be back at the RBC Center until December 16 when they face the Dallas Stars for the second time in less than a month.
Click for audio from Ray Whitney, Eric Staal and Erik Cole. Paul Maurice's press conference is attached.
We'll be here during the road trip to keep you occupied, so check back in and keep up with us on Twitter to find out what's going on. We'll see you back at the RBC a week from Wednesday.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
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