By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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It's been a long road -- 15,000 miles, to be exact -- but tonight, the Carolina Hurricanes become the 30th team out of 30 in the NHL to host their home opener.
And as a thank you gift, the NHL politely scheduled the reigning Presidents' Trophy champion as the designated opposition. How kind.
Surprisingly, though, the Canes had the number of the Washington Capitals last season. The Canes earned points in five of six games against the Caps in 2009-10, and historically Cam Ward has been stellar against them, with a 13-5-3 record in his career against Washington.
Unsurprisingly, the lineup will remain the same tonight as it was in Saturday's win over Phoenix in overtime. Patrick O'Sullivan and newly-recalled Jiri Tlusty will serve as the healthy scratches. Zac Dalpe and Jeff Skinner will make their RBC Center debuts, and Jamie McBain will go through the motions of his first Canes home opener.
For the Caps, it's a significantly different team than the one that was upset by the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of last year's playoffs. Sure, Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin and the like are all back, but the goaltending duo consists of youngsters Semyon Varlamov and Michal Neuvirth, neither of whom has ever beaten the Canes (Varlamov 0-0-2, Neuvirth 0-1-0). It's a much younger team, similar to the Canes, but with the burden of high expectations; everyone right up to owner Ted Leonsis expects the Caps to make a deep playoff run, if not a run at the Cup itself.
We'll be here for all of it, as the Canes' thirteenth season in North Carolina and their eleventh in Raleigh kicks off tonight...
1:05 1st: The first good shot of the game comes off a faceoff to Cam Ward's left. A broken play resulted in the puck sitting in the circle on a platter for Mike Knuble, who let a shot go that Cam Ward never saw, even when it was past him. Fortunately for the Canes, the shot didn't beat the post, but it was way closer than anyone thought it would be.
4:55 1st: Jeff Skinner received one of the biggest cheers during the player introductions, and he nearly showed why. A bizarre faceoff to the right of Michal Neuvirth ended up hidden behind linesman Jonny Murray, and for about four seconds no one knew where the puck was. Finally, Tuomo Ruutu found it and fed Skinner at the front of the net. Skinner came within about an inch of a backhanded goal but Neuvirth made a great save to kick the puck out and deny Skinner his first point at the RBC.
10:47 1st: Caps lead 1-0; Hendricks 1 (Steckel, Erskine) Or, as Taylor Zarzour says, "Everyone is angry. I have no idea why but what the hell. WE GOT SCREWED!" Maybe not that easy to explain, but David Steckel did a number on Cam Ward, railroading him just outside the blue paint and causing him to be out of position on the rebound that Matt Hendricks deposited easily. Referee Francois St.-Laurent let the contact go because Ward was out of the crease, but that didn't satisfy Paul Maurice or the Canes' bench, who loudly demanded an explanation. Ward, for his part, didn't protest; it seemed like he knew he had made a mistake and didn't want to dwell on it.
16:05 1st: Lots of good chances from both the Staal-Jokinen-LaRose and the Ruutu-Kostopoulos-Samsonov combinations. Neither one has put a shot past Neuvirth, but they've accounted for most of the Canes' six shots so far.
End 1st: The Canes had plenty of chances to get on the board, including a flurry from a newly-formed Staal-Jokinen-Skinner line with ten seconds left, but they lost the puck and couldn't pot the rebound even though all three players were within five feet of the net. Shots in the first period were 8-7 Canes.
4:03 2nd: The Canes have been pressuring the Caps well early in the period, but still with nothing to show for it. Looks like the Staal-Jokinen-Skinner line was a matchup of convenience, as the Canes are back to their original lines. At the other end, Ward came up huge on what could have been a back-breaking tap-in by Mike Knuble.
7:46 2nd: After Eric Staal was sent to the penalty box for being held by Nicklas Backstrom (yeah, it was rather questionable), Ward robbed Alex Ovechkin from point-blank at the near side of the net. It's been that kind of night for Ward, who has been the best player on the ice for either team so far.
9:34 2nd: By any account, Jeff Skinner deserved a goal there. Michal Neuvirth denied it with an unbelievable save that was possibly a result of Skinner waiting a split second to fire. The play went to a lengthy review, which upheld the call on the ice. Definitely the right call, but a terrible break for the Canes.
10:44 2nd: As a power play expired, Neuvirth absolutely robbed Staal with a glove save on an open net. A fantastic pass from Sergei Samsonov at the top of the crease found Staal in perfect position for a one-timer at the bottom of the near circle, and the net was gaping wide but Neuvirth somehow got across and snared Staal's shot in spectacular fashion.
12:07 2nd: To no one's surprise given how this period has gone, Staal hits the post after a perfect pass from LaRose on a shorthanded 2-on-1 a few seconds into a Tuomo Ruutu hooking penalty. Five seconds later, LaRose goads Mike Green into an awful roughing penalty along the boards in the far corner of the Washington zone. Aside from not scoring, a pretty good sequence from the Canes' PKers.
19:25 2nd: Beautiful play by Joe Corvo to break up an Ovechkin rush one-on-one up the ice. Doesn't happen often that Corvo's noticed for his defense, but he deserves kudos for how he handled that sequence.
End 2nd: The Canes deserved at least one, but they're still down 1-0 after two. Shots in the period were 11-9 Canes, who took a 19-18 lead overall in what has become a goaltending duel tonight.
2:10 3rd: Jeff Skinner has been through a lot in his first three weeks in the NHL, but apparently the Caps felt the need to initiate him a bit more. No fewer than three separate players knocked Skinner down on his first shift of the period. To his credit, he bounced up from every one of them.
6:33 3rd: Staal has done everything you could possibly want from him tonight. His latest escapades involved pulling two Caps defenders into the slot and still managing to get a shot off that forced Neuvirth to make a quick save. Seconds later, LaRose whiffed on an open net. If it wasn't for bad luck...
9:55 3rd: Twice in two minutes Erik Cole has come to a dead stop at the blue line for some reason. The first time it happened, it put Jeff Skinner offside and negated a scoring chance. He just did it again and it didn't put Skinner offside, but it did ruin the play and the Caps cleared the zone without any trouble.
12:23 3rd: Caps lead 2-0; Backstrom 2 (Knuble, Ovechkin) Another bad break goes against the Canes. Cam Ward played a 2-on-2 perfectly with Mike Knuble firing a shot that Ward easily handled. But unfortunately for the Canes, the puck bounced square off the shaft of Ward's stick and right to Nicklas Backstrom, who had an easy one-timer from the far circle to put the Caps up by two.
17:17 3rd: Interesting strategy here: Mike Green goes to the box for tripping Staal, and the Canes call timeout to diagram a play with six attackers on the ice. Paul Maurice is going all-in here.
End 3rd: The gamble failed, as Backstrom hit the open net for his second of the night to salt it away. Neuvirth earned every bit of his first career shutout as the Canes fell in their home opener, the only Southeast Division team to do so this season.
Postgame: A clearly peeved Paul Maurice minced no words after the game in describing the first goal of the game: "[The referee] was absolutely wrong." The consensus was that the Canes played decently, but as you'd might expect after a ridiculous road trip the team didn't have their legs under them for the first part of the game and by the time they got in a groove Neuvirth was in his own and he stymied the Canes the rest of the way.
Click for audio from Eric Staal, Tuomo Ruutu and Brandon Sutter. Maurice's press conference is attached.
The Canes hit the road again (what else is new) when they head to New York to face the Rangers on Friday, and then they're back here Saturday to take on the Pittsburgh Penguins. No live blog for that one; my wife is running a marathon (!!) on Sunday morning and I'll be out of town serving as the cheering section. Back at it against the Islanders next Wednesday. Until then...
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
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