By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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Two teams with vastly different trajectories meet at the RBC Center tonight. The New Jersey Devils, to no one's surprise, have already locked up a playoff spot and are battling with the Pittsburgh Penguins for a division title. The Carolina Hurricanes are on life support, but their push for a playoff spot has been extended well beyond anyone would have ever thought a few months ago. Thanks to a ridiculous number of teams (Bruins, Thrashers, Flyers, etc.) who can't get out of their own way, the Canes enter the final week of the season still technically alive for a playoff spot.
Of course, the key word there is "technically". Thanks to the Canes' last-second overtime loss to Ottawa on Thursday, their tragic number is down to three, and depending on how the nights events shake out the Canes could be eliminated as early as tonight. If the Canes earn two points tonight, they will remain alive. If they don't, then they're at the mercy of the Boston Bruins, who would eliminate the Canes with a win over Toronto. Needless to say, there will be a bit of scoreboard watching tonight.
The lineup remains the same for the Canes tonight as it was on Thursday night in Ottawa, with the exception of the goaltender, as Cam Ward will man the crease for the Canes tonight. On the other side, unsurprisingly, will be Martin Brodeur, who needs no introduction.
We'll know in just under three hours if the Canes still have postseason life...
1:00 1st: The Canes have gotten away with a couple of bad miscues early. First Cam Ward bobbled the puck behind his own net and nearly handed the Devils an open-net chance, then an inability to cover the puck gave the Devils about three good scoring chances from just outside the crease. The Canes have been loose defensively so far and, unsurprisingly, haven't done much of anything in the offensive zone either.
6:05 1st: A few seconds after Colin White nearly scores into his own net, Marty Brodeur reminds everyone in the building why he's the winningest goaltender of all time with a ridiculous windmill kick save on Brett Carson, who had what looked to be an open net before Brodeur wheeled his legs around and kicked the puck out. Carson still has no idea how that didn't go in, and I don't think anyone else does either.
13:13 1st: Devils lead 1-0; Zubrus 9 (Parise, Greene) (pp) Not really a surprise that it came to this, seeing as how the Canes have looked inept at both ends of the ice so far. With Chad LaRose in the box for interference, Zach Parise made a great play to keep the puck in the zone, then shoveled a pass through a couple pairs of legs to Dainius Zubrus, who has always burned the Canes dating to his days in Washington and did so again tonight, snapping a shot through Ward's five-hole just before he closed it up to put the Devils on the board first.
18:18 1st: Devils lead 2-0; Elias 16 (Kovalchuk, Clarkson) The Canes look like they'd rather be watching basketball right now, as they're allowing the Devils to skate circles around them to this point. Ilya Kovalchuk set up Patrik Elias at the top of the near circle, and Elias skated around through the high slot and to the other circle where he ripped a shot past Ward high over the glove. It was such a quick shot that it looked like it may have hit the post, and David Clarkson cleaned up the garbage after the whistle, but either way it was a 2-0 lead for the visitors.
End 1st: Is it too early to say the Canes need to stop sleepwalking? They looked thoroughly uninterested for the entire period, save maybe the Carson chance early. Fortunately for them, the Bruins are losing to the Leafs, but that's about the only thing that's gone right so far. Shots in the period were 12-7 Devils, but it wasn't even that close.
6:30 2nd: We're a third of the way through the second period and there's been absolutely nothing worth writing about. The Canes killed off a Rod Brind'Amour holding penalty, but that's about it. Nothing's changed much from the first period. And so it goes...
9:25 2nd: The Devils have gone 2-for-2 on the penalty kill, and I have yet to figure out if it's because of inept play by the Canes or solid defense by the Devils. I think it's more of the former, but the Devils are somewhat coasting through things themselves, highlighted by a lazy two-on-one led by Dean McAmmond that could have been an easy goal but led to an easy kick save instead.
End 2nd: Yeah, there wasn't an entry for the last ten minutes of the period, although the Canes finally did get a good scoring chance with a few seconds left while the teams were at four-on-four. Shots in the period were 10-7 Devils, who led overall 22-14. Yawn.
At this point I headed upstairs to a broadcast booth to do color commentary with a friend of mine who's putting some demo tapes together. So no live blog from here till the end...
End 3rd: 4-0 is your final, as David Clarkson scored into the empty net after Paul Maurice pulled Cam Ward with three minutes to go. Zach Parise had the other Devils third-period goal, jamming a puck in at the near post at 7:34 to make it a three-goal lead.
Postgame: As you'd might expect, not much going on in the home locker room tonight. The Canes were well aware of their precarious position, and the Bruins' overtime win over the Leafs means that the Canes will not be in the playoffs. Still, full credit to a team who had no business being in the postseason conversation at Christmas yet still made enough noise to get some teams a bit nervous as late as the final week of the season.
Click for audio from Zach Boychuk and Drayson Bowman. Paul Maurice's press conference is attached.
The Canes head to Tampa Tuesday night, then we're back for the home finale Thursday night against Montreal, a 7:30 start thanks to Canadian television. Join us, won't you?
Saturday, April 3, 2010
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