By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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For the Canes, tonight's first part of a home-and-home with the Atlanta Thrashers is a perfect opportunity to play spoiler. With next to no chance of making the postseason, the Canes are reduced to attempting to derail someone else's chances.
That opportunity couldn't come at a better time for the Canes, or at a worse time for Atlanta. Since trading away Ilya Kovalchuk in early February, the Thrashers have somehow remained in the playoff conversation in the Eastern Conference, but an ill-timed loss to the Boston Bruins on Thursday dealt a serious blow to those chances.
Now in need of some help to make the postseason, the next two games against the Hurricanes will go a long way to determine if the Thrashers surprise everyone and make the postseason in a year when they dealt away their franchise scorer.
The big news for the Canes came yesterday, when they returned Justin Peters to the Albany River Rats for their playoff run, indicating that Cam Ward is ready to return after nearly two months on the shelf with a wonky back. Ward will back up Manny Legace tonight, and he will earn a start of his own when the Canes head to Atlanta on Monday night.
Lots of storylines tonight as we get our first look at the Kovalchuk-less Thrashers, so here we go...
2:40 1st: It's been a fantastic second year for Thrashers defenseman Zach Bogosian, but he almost gifted the Canes the first goal of the game. I'm not sure what he was thinking, but I guess he was trying to set the table for Johan Hedberg to start a breakout at the side of the net. Yeah, it looked about as bad as I described it, and Ray Whitney came darned close to making the Thrashers pay.
8:07 1st: The first power play of the night, to the Canes courtesy of a rather dumb Ron Hainsey penalty, generated next to nothing, with the best chance coming late in the man advantage when Erik Cole fanned in the high slot on an open shot. Not really the way the Canes wanted to start, but at least they haven't sacrificed the first goal of the game.
12:06 1st: The Canes have been giving up way too many quality chances so far. In the span of about two minutes they allowed three separate odd-man breaks to develop, and they've been way too careless with the puck in the Thrashers' zone. It's a credit to Manny Legace that the game is still scoreless, because it could easily be a multiple-goal deficit despite a 2-0 power play advantage to the Canes thus far.
18:35 1st: Needless to say, the Canes' special teams have left some things to be desired so far. Two rotten power plays followed by a scary-bad penalty kill in which the Canes were caught with all four penalty killers strung out in a line through the slot in front of Legace. The Canes are very, very, very lucky that this game is still scoreless.
End 1st: The Canes will begin the second period on the power play after Brian Pothier took an uncalled dive to hand Clarke MacArthur a cross-checking penalty with seventeen seconds left in the period. Shots were 17-6 Thrashers, and they have to be all sorts of upset that they aren't leading this game. Certainly the Canes had no interest in leading, in one of the worst periods of hockey we've seen at least since the new year.
3:15 2nd: For all their trouble at creating anything resembling a coherent scoring attack, the Canes actually came close on a Zach Boychuk one-timer on their best shift of the game so far. It didn't result in a goal, though it did draw a Maxim Afinogenov hooking penalty to put the Canes on their fourth power play of the night.
7:46 2nd: Thrashers lead 1-0; Peverley 21 (Afinogenov) The only surprising thing about that goal is that it took so long. Rich Peverley was on the receiving end of a great centering pass from Afinogenov and had an easy tap-in from ten feet, right through Legace's legs to put the Thrashers on the board first.
8:43 2nd: Thrashers lead 2-0; Artyukhin 7 (Thorburn, Enstrom) Now the Thrashers are just making up for lost time by scoring twice in under a minute. Evgeni Artyukhin, a fourth-line grinder, undressed Patrick Dwyer who was attempting to play defense in the absence of a pinching defenseman, and that went about as well as can be expected. Artyukhin won't set the world on fire with his skill, but even he could make that puck go in, past Legace's stick and in off the near post to make it a two-goal lead.
14:30 2nd: Comment in the press box: "This game's like watching paint dry." Actually, I'd take home improvement over watching the likes of Evgeni Artyukhin, Marty Reasoner and Chris Thorburn control play. Inept doesn't start to describe it.
17:43 2nd: Thrashers lead 3-0; Bergfors 21 (Little, Kubina) Can't really fault Legace for any of the goals so far. They've been the result of some sorely lacking defensive work in front of him, the latest coming when Niclas Bergfors backed a defender up and danced around him in the low slot, surprising Legace with a high backhander to give the Thrashers a 3-0 lead.
End 2nd: Some scattered boos to escort the Canes off the ice, and the way they've played so far it's hard to say they haven't earned it. Shots in the period were 12-9 Thrashers, who got the results they probably should have gotten in the first, leading to a 29-15 (!) differential through two.
4:40 3rd: More of the same to start the third period. Outside of one good chance, the Canes have generated absolutely nothing, and Paul Maurice has juggled the lines as a result.
7:45 3rd: Great play by Johnny Oduya to break up what would have been a Staal breakaway from the blue line. Granted, it was Staal with the chance, who's anything but money on breakaways, but still a nice play to keep Hedberg's shutout bid intact.
14:34 3rd: Hedberg hasn't had to work hard tonight, but he's been big when the Thrashers needed him to be and he still has a shutout going, now heading towards 55 minutes into the game. The Canes' line shakeup looks to have sparked them a bit, but they haven't been able to get one past the Moose, who's being serenaded with "Mooooooose" cheers from a Thrashers contingent in section 114. Hedberg has something for the Canes; he's been great against them his whole career.
End 3rd: Hedberg now has two career shutouts after Jim Slater scored on a late power play to make it 4-0 Thrashers. Shots in the third were 19-14 Canes, but it didn't matter; the hole they dug in the first two periods was more than substantial enough to ensure the outcome even with Hedberg standing on his head in the third.
Postgame: The Canes knew they blew one tonight. They knew exactly what the Thrashers were going to do tonight, and when the game started they allowed the Thrashers to do precisely that. Not really a recipe for success there.
With Boston's win earlier today, the Canes' tragic number now stands at six, meaning there's a high likelihood that they'll be eliminated from the postseason by the time they return home next Saturday to face New Jersey and it could happen as soon as Tuesday; if the Canes lose in Atlanta Monday night and the Bruins sweep a Buffalo/New Jersey back to back Monday and Tuesday, the Canes are likely out (depending on results of other games, but it's highly likely). They won't be back at the RBC until next Saturday, as they head to Montreal and Ottawa after the game in Atlanta.
Click for audio from Eric Staal, Manny Legace and Brandon Sutter. Paul Maurice's press conference is attached.
We'll be back next Saturday when the Canes face the New Jersey Devils, and we'll see if there's still hope for the Canes in the race to the postseason. Until then, take it easy.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
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