By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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The Olympics started last night, but don't tell the NHL that. They're still playing games through tomorrow, so the Canes' Olympians will have to wait to get to Vancouver.
Not that they're complaining. The Hurricanes are riding a season-high four game winning streak and look to build on it tonight as they welcome the New Jersey Devils to the RBC Center. The Devils made a splash a few weeks ago, acquiring Ilya Kovalchuk from the Atlanta Thrashers and making a statement that they expect to play deep in to the playoffs.
For the Canes, Justin Peters makes his second start, after opening his NHL career with a win on Long Island last Saturday night. Aside from the addition of Zach Boychuk, who was called up this morning after the Canes traded Matt Cullen to Ottawa on Friday, the Canes' lineup remains the same as it was in their Thursday win over Buffalo.
Can the Canes keep up their strong play of late? We're about to find out...
3:11 1st: Peters has had his hands full so far. The Devils have put three shots on him and they've had two great opportunities out of goal-mouth scrums to knock the puck in under Peters' pads to take the lead. As he's quickly finding out, there's a bit of a difference in offensive firepower when you cross the Hudson going west.
8:23 1st: The Canes have looked great killing a Joni Pitkanen interference penalty, and Peters has done what he's needed to do. As an aside, what does it say about the state of the Devils' defense that Kovalchuk is manning the left point?
9:10 1st: Jussi Jokinen looked to give the Canes a lead on a power play, but referee Stephane Auger ruled it no goal because Jokinen parked himself in the crease and prevented Brodeur from getting over to make the save. I know it won't pacify the folks in the stands who booed Auger mercilessly, but it was the right call; Brodeur has the right to make the save in the crease and if he isn't allowed to make the save the goal doesn't count.
16:47 1st: Canes take a 1-0 lead; Boychuk 1 (Sutter, Carson) We've been wondering when Zach Boychuk would finally break the ice and score his first NHL goal. Turns out the fifth recall of the season was the charm. Boychuk backhanded a puck into the crease, and it pinballed around a bit before being knocked in by the Devils' Anssi Salmela over Brodeur, who was face-down on the ice trying to stop the puck. I'm sure Boychuk won't complain too much, though.
End 1st: With a few seconds left, Boychuk nearly put a second goal on the board but his backhand went just a bit wide. The Devils didn't have a shot in the final 3:30 of the period, and only took one shot in the final twelve minutes. Shots in the period were 8-7 Devils, but that's quite deceiving; after the Canes killed off a Yelle hooking penalty at 10:24 they owned the rest of the period.
1:00 2nd (TZ): The Canes have 24 fewer points than the Devils, and they absolutely look like a better hockey team. There's one problem: the Canes started their season in 2010, the Devils started theirs in October of '09.
(BL: Yep...sounds about right. It's rare that I'm speechless, but this is one of those times. And yes, Taylor is in the building tonight, so you know what to do if the Canes blow the lead.)
4:06 2nd: And the Canes continue to own the Devils, outshooting them 3-1 early while earning a two man advantage...
4:34 2nd: Canes lead 2-0; Whitney 18 (Staal) (pp) TZ: Just don't get rid of him. Come on! Please don't take the Wizard.
5:34 2nd: Canes lead 3-0; Whitney 19 (Gleason, Jokinen) (pp) TZ: Don't take the damn Wizard! YOU CANNOT TRADE RAY WHITNEY!!!!
OK, so the president of the Ray Whitney fan club has had his say. I disagree, but that's an argument for another day. Either way, Whitney has given the Canes a 3-0 lead with a pair of power play goals. The first was created on a takeaway by Eric Staal in the neutral zone, who skated in and set up Whitney with a perfect one-timer in the far circle. They don't make 'em much better than that.
For the second, Tim Gleason's point shot bounced off the post to the right of Brodeur, and he was unable to cover it before Whitney marched into the crease and slammed it home from about a foot. Can't complain about that, and for the second straight night the Canes start the game 2-3 on the power play.
13:30 2nd: The Devils look like they're skating in circles, with the exception of a Zubrus chance that went wide just after a Carolina power play expired. The Devils have taken four straight penalties, are down 3-0 and look for all the world like a one-and-done team in the playoffs. It has to say something that they're 2-3 since they traded for Kovalchuk, doesn't it?
15:30 2nd: Staal with a breakaway that goes nowhere. We've seen this before, no? Amazing that a guy who's so talented is so lacking at one-on-one situations, but there's a reason he rarely sees the shootout before the 4th or 5th round, and that was it.
17:25 2nd: Kovalchuk has had two straight possessions where he had the puck roll off his stick in the midst of a perfect scoring chance. Peters has been good so far, but it's been the Devils' own offensive ineptitude that's kept them scoreless.
End 2nd: Don't let the 9-7 shot differential in favor of the Canes fool you. Like the first period, it's a wonder it wasn't more of a difference, as the Devils struggled to get even one good scoring chance. Peters has opened his NHL career with a .980 save percentage in his first five periods...can't ask for more than that.
TZ: Who's had the better career, Justin Peters or Marty Brodeur? (I vote for Peters, as long as the sample size is the last week or so.)
3:27 3rd: Canes lead 4-0; Jokinen 22 (Whitney, Staal) TZ: What a great pass by The Wizard. DO NOT TRADE THE WIZARD!!!
Don't worry, we'll have a debate about this up on PD sometime during the Olympic break. Anyway, Jussi Jokinen gives the Canes a four-goal lead thanks to a sweet pass from that Whitney guy everyone keeps talking about. The goal came a few seconds after Whitney himself nearly fired the puck in off a deflection in front of Brodeur.
3:35 3rd: And Brodeur's night is done. The incomparable Yann Danis is now in net for the Devils. What is it about the Canes that they're Brodeur's Kryptonite?
6:25 3rd (TZ): Tom Kostopoulos just had every piece of his manhood stolen. (BL: Yep. Matthew Corrente just destroyed him in a fight.)
7:00 3rd: Hey look, Staal misfired on a breakaway.
7:26 3rd: Devils on the board, down 4-1; Parise 28 (Kovalchuk) Probably too late, but see what happens when the immortal Yann Danis enters the game? Zach Parise collected his own rebound and scooped a shot over Peters at the near side of the net to end any hopes of Peters earning a shutout. Shame; he's certainly played well enough to earn one.
11:04 3rd: The Devils nearly cut it to 4-2, but Brian Rolston's attempt to redirect the puck into the net was kicked in, nullifying the goal and keeping the Canes up by three. I think the fans would have started rioting in the stands if the goal had been allowed to stand, because everyone in the building was incredulous when Auger signaled that it was a goal on the ice.
17:02 3rd: Devils cut it to 4-2; Rolston 17 (Zajac, Langenbrunner) (pp) Rolston did eventually get his goal, courtesy of a nice feed from Travis Zajac on a power play. Not much Peters could have done on that one; the pass was just outside his stick and was perfectly placed on Rolston's stick.
End 3rd: Jussi Jokinen (remember, the guy who wasn't good enough to be on the Finnish Olympic team? Yeah, him) scored an unassisted empty-netter at 18:31 to seal the game, and the Canes enter the Olympic break on a season-high five game winning streak after beating the Devils 5-2. Shots in the third were 14-10 Hurricanes, and the Canes outshot the Devils 31-25 overall.
Postgame: The most fun you can have in this business is when you cover a locker room the night a player scores his first career goal. Zach Boychuk was all smiles after the game, and you can tell just by the tone of his voice that he's not only thrilled to score his first, but to have it come against the winningest goaltender in NHL history makes it that much sweeter. If this was Ray Whitney's last home game with the Canes, and he was blunt in not wanting to talk about it after the game, he certainly gave Jim Rutherford a nice going-away present by raising his already high trade value even higher.
The trade deadline is March 3, the Wednesday after the Olympics end and a day after the Canes start their post-Olympic schedule in Toronto. The Canes' four Olympians are headed to Vancouver to start the hockey competition on Sunday, and the rest of the team gets a week and a half off before they return to the ice on February 24.
Click for audio from Boychuk, Whitney, Justin Peters and Jussi Jokinen. Paul Maurice's press conference is attached.
We're going to take a few days off here at PD, but we'll be back with a few features over the break. (You can expect that a do-you-or-don't-you trade Whitney debate will be on the docket.) Also, we're targeting the week of February 21 for another Canes Country Call-In, so stay tuned for further details on an exact date. We're back at the RBC Center when the Canes welcome Matt Cullen and the Ottawa Senators on Thursday, March 4, so join us then and enjoy your time off.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
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