By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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The second of three games in as many nights sees the Canes come back to Raleigh for one night only, between trips to Nashville yesterday and Atlanta tomorrow. After beating the Predators 3-1 at Bridgestone Arena last night, the Canes look for a sweep tonight against a slightly more-veteran Preds team than what the Canes saw last night.
Patrick O'Sullivan continued his great play, scoring the game-tying goal last night and looking like he has one of the open spots sewn up even this early in camp. At the other end, there's some separation occurring, and Zach Boychuk in particular needs to step up his play to have any chance of sticking with the Canes when they leave for Helsinki by way of St. Petersburg next Friday. Zac Dalpe and Patrick Dwyer have also impressed in limited showings, and with Jeff Skinner likely to at least begin the season on the Canes' roster the number of open spots is quickly dwindling.
Justin Pogge will get the start tonight and, according to Paul Maurice, will play the entire game. This is the last chance for fans to see the Canes in an evening tilt before returning from their lengthy road trip on October 27; there's one more game next Friday, but it's at 1:00 (and open to the public for free) to accommodate the team's departure for St. Petersburg later in the afternoon.
Here we go...
End 1st: Canes lead 1-0; O'Sullivan 2 (Babchuk, Skinner) (pp) Notice something missing? It was a late night at the office for yours truly, and we didn't make it to the rink until there were six minutes left in the first period (in other news, the first period flew by, with only a handful of whistles). Anyway, here's what you missed: a 5-on-3 goal that further cemented Patrick O'Sullivan's place on the roster in Helsinki, on a one-time shot from the right point off a slick pass from Anton Babchuk.
2:50 2nd: Not a great play by Bobby Sanguinetti. On a clear into the Hurricanes' zone, Sanguinetti fumbled the puck and nearly handed the Preds a 3-on-1 below the hash marks in the low slot. Pogge was sharp, and the Canes escaped trouble by scrambling back to cover, but that was a scoring chance that never should have happened.
7:45 2nd: Preds tie it at 1; Legwand 1 (unassisted) Kind of a bizarre play there. Pogge left the puck behind the net for Jay Harrison, who evidently never got the memo and didn't pick up the puck, so David Legwand picked it up uncontested. Instead of looking for an outlet pass, though, Legwand wrapped it around and surprised Pogge with a long slot to the far post that somehow beat Pogge even though he had most of the net covered. Not a red-letter moment for Harrison, who hasn't impressed anyone thus far in the preseason, but the goal was a weird shot that Pogge looked to have covered but didn't by a few inches.
12:06 2nd: Preds take a 2-1 lead; Tootoo 1 (Halischuk) This is why line changes are important, folks. The Canes got caught in a lazy line change and the Preds broke out on a 3-on-2 as a result. Matt Halischuk, acquired over the summer from New Jersey for Jason Arnott, started the rush and fed Jordan Tootoo at the top of the right circle for a one-timer that Tootoo perfectly placed over Pogge's glove for Nashville's first lead of the night.
14:54 2nd: Nice recovery by Pogge on a dangerous play from behind the net on the near side. The Preds are trying all sorts of stuff behind the net. I wouldn't think they've been watching film this early in the season, but it seems like every shift they have at least one play set up from behind the Carolina net.
17:10 2nd: Francis Bouillon politely introduces himself to Zach Boychuk at the red line. And by a polite introduction I mean "flattened him and stood over him admiring his handiwork". Brandon Sutter, of all people, jumped in to keep the peace.
End 2nd: The ice was tilted toward Pogge for most of the period. Shots were 11-6 Predators, who had held the Canes to just two shots for a long stretch of the period. Not really the best showing for the guys who have jobs on the line. Bobby Sanguinetti, Zach Boychuk and Jay Harrison, I'm looking at you.
1:02 3rd: Chad LaRose was wondering why he didn't draw a tripping penalty when he was wiped out by David Legwand and went careening into the net. Probably a good question.
1:13 3rd: Francis Bouillon is quickly becoming public enemy number one in the stands at the RBC. This time, a nasty knee-on-knee hit on the Canes' Jussi Jokinen drew the ire of the fans and players alike. Jokinen stayed on the bench, but Bouillon earned four minutes in penalties including offsetting roughing calls with the Canes' LaRose.
11:00 3rd: They haven't scored, but the combination of Jokinen, LaRose and Jeff Skinner has created a scoring chance every time they've gone down the ice in this period. Skinner in particular looks much better tonight than he did on Tuesday, and it's obvious that the whirlwind surrounding his contract signing Tuesday was a significant distraction. He and O'Sullivan are confirming their spots on the opening-night roster with every shift they take.
17:19 3rd: LaRose and Bouillon nearly go at it again after LaRose got up high on a Preds' defender behind the Nashville net. LaRose is lucky he didn't get sent off for elbowing, but he got a nasty facewash courtesy of Bouillon and David Legwand as a result.
End 3rd: Despite a power-play with ten seconds left that looked to generate some good offense, the Canes failed to put a second one in the net and they dropped their second consecutive home game to split the home-and-home with the Predators.
At this point it's obvious that even the players know who will be on the sides of the chopping block, perhaps as soon as after tomorrow's game in Atlanta. Patrick O'Sullivan and Jeff Skinner will make the team, barring injury, and it's highly likely Zach Boychuk will not. Patrick Dwyer will probably make the team as a depth forward, although he really isn't in competition (at least, from an offensive-production standpoint) with the likes of Skinner and Boychuk. Still up in the air are the statuses of Drayson Bowman and Zac Dalpe; it's likely Dalpe has the inside track since he's a natural center and the Canes need one more, but Paul Maurice singled out Bowman's defensive acumen tonight and there's a chance he could sneak on the team. Much more on this coming in a column early next week.
On defense, no one really stood out (or, in Maurice's words, maybe they did for the wrong reasons). Jay Harrison is nothing more than a depth defenseman, but Maurice singled him out for solid play. We all scratched our heads at that one. If he makes the team, it will likely be at the expense of Bobby Sanguinetti and Casey Borer, neither of whom have shown much either. The overriding concern is that no one on the defense, other than Tim Gleason and Joe Corvo, has done anything at all on the ice so far, so a trade to shore up the blue line is a realistic possibility before the Canes jet off to St. Petersburg next Friday.
Click for audio from Patrick O'Sullivan and Jeff Skinner. Maurice's press conference is attached.
Much more on the roster-spot battles coming up early next week. We'll be back in game action October 27 when the Canes welcome the Washington Capitals to town for the first regular-season game at the RBC after their nearly month-long road trip.
Friday, September 24, 2010
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