Hurricanes Fall to Devils, 4-1
by Bob Wage on Apr 16, 2009 1:35 AM EDT
in Hurricanes Game Related
13 comments
It seemed like one team showed up for an NHL playoff game, and another team did not. The Carolina Hurricanes were out-worked, out-shot, out-chanced, out-hustled, and out-muscled by the New Jersey Devils in the opening game of their best of seven series at the Rock on Wednesday night as they lost by a score of 4-1.
The good news for the Canes is that it only counts as one loss. The bad news is, they have a lot of work to do before Friday night. There were few moral victories to draw from after game one.
The Devils jumped out to a 1-0 lead late in the opening period when Cam Ward skated out of the crease to play a puck. He sent it along the boards, only to have it taken by Mike Mottau. The Jersey defenseman, who has only scored one goal all season, skated away from the boards and sent a shot toward the net that found it's way past the netminder, who had made several fine saves up to that point.
The Devils controlled play throughout most of the period, helped along by two Hurricane penalties.
The second stanza was even worse for the visitors. Not even a minute into the period, Zach Parise out-worked Eric Staal for the puck to the left of Ward and beat the goalie to the far post. Patrik Elias would then score the third goal of the game at about the 11 minute mark and the Devils were really having their way with the Canes at this point.
In the third period, the Hurricanes finally started to spend some time in the Jersey zone, but they still could only muster 6 shots on goal. During a flurry in front of Marty Brodeur about midway through the period, Ray Whitney slipped a shot past him off of a rebound to put the Canes on the board. The good feeling quickly dissipated though as Jamie Langenbrunner scored for the Devils just 29 seconds later, to close out the scoring.
Game Notes:
The Canes were out-shot in each and every period. (15-7, 15-6, 9-6, total 39-19)
At one point the Devils had 18 scoring chances compared to 4 for the Hurricanes.
The setback makes it three losses in a row for the team, going back to the regular season.
Apparently, the Canes never got the memo informing them that Martin Brodeur was one of the better puckhandling goalies on the planet. They repeatedly attempted the "dump and chase" to no avail. While on the powerplay early in the third period, they tried to dump the puck three times in a row, and each time Brodeur skated behind the net, stopped the puck, and shoveled it off to a defenseman who then easily cleared the zone. If the Canes want to move on in this series, (or make it competitive), they will have to come up with another strategy.
The Hurricanes never registered an official shot on goal during their two powerplay attempts.
Carolina is going to have to come up with more emotion and snark in their game. Compared to the other playoff games on Wednesday night, it looked like a very "gentlemanly" contest at the Rock.
Chad LaRose and Ray Whitney led the team with four shots on goal each.
Dennis Seidenberg led the squad with four hits.
Matt Cullen looked no worse for wear considering it was his first game back after his injury and was moved up to the second line again. He was credited with the second assist on Whitney's goal.
While the game was disappointing for fans who had looked forward to exciting playoff hockey all week, momentum can change very quickly in a playoff series. Carolina lost the opening series game one in 2006 by a score of 6-1 at home against Montreal. They lost game two as well, and had to come from behind in game three before fortune finally started to shine their way. The Canes can certainly play better than they did last night and they will need to bring their "A game" sooner rather than later to turn around this series.
_____
John at In Lou We Trust mentions that this is the best the Devils had played in a month. Can they keep it up?
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Well that really....sucked!
You are right, out-worked, out-shot, out -hustled, let’s hope they can turn it around! I am keeping the faith! :)
decisions
You know I kept thinking yesterday do I watch all of Playoff Game #1 or LOST new episode.
By the time 9 pm came around, it was time to watch LOST.
The canes did not look good at all.
I expected jitters out of Gleason, Ruutu, Babchuk … the guys without any postseason experience. But what we saw was jitters out of just about everyone. I expected Cole to be a demon, and he was quiet. Staal was outworked several times. The Brind’Amour line (outside of a couple decent moments from Samsonov) was ineffective. Really, Whitney and Cullen were the only two standouts out front. On D, I thought the Pitkanen-Babchuk pairing looked scared out there. Not a good sign. Gleason-Corvo were pedestrian, while Wallin-Seidenberg played maybe a shade better than the others.
If the start of Game 2 is anything like Game 1, I think Patrick Eaves may deserve more ice time, b/c it seemed like he brought the best intensity out there. Conboy was a non-factor (less jam than he brought most regular season games), and Jokinen was just average.
As for Ward, not his fault. He kept them in it early with some great stops, but it was one of those nights where he never really had a chance. The Parise goal was a bit soft, but otherwise he was decent — not spectacular.
Things need to change in Game 2.
CanesCountry.com: An Eye On Carolina Hockey
Could be over quick
This will end in 4 if we dont come with more intensity. The Staal line was almost none existent. The only time that that line stuck out to me was on the second goal when Staal fell to the ice and laid on his stomach while Parise went in and took a 5 foot wrist shot.
I think you might see Conboy out of the line up as well on Friday. As much as I love having the guy on bench, we all know it is for one reason and that is to be the enforcer. If he isnt going to see more than 4 minutes(im not sure what the real number was) and when he is out there he isnt going to throw down then get someone out there that can at least have a chance to score. I look for Bayda to be reinserted into the lineup Friday night.
Over all I think things need to and will change for game 2. We had 4 or 5 guys who were playing last night who had never played in the playoffs. Its a new thing to them and it cant be treated with the same intensity as the regular season.
Oh, also doesn’t help when you take a bench minor less than 40 seconds in .. that’s on the coaching staff.
CanesCountry.com: An Eye On Carolina Hockey
In a post game interview last night, Gleason said that it was his fault. I don’t know the details why though. Nice of him to step up and accept the blame.
GM of CanesCountry.com
I actually saw that. He’s a stand-up guy, for sure.
CanesCountry.com: An Eye On Carolina Hockey
by Cory Lavalette on Apr 16, 2009 10:30 AM EDT up reply actions
*after I blamed the coaches, that is
CanesCountry.com: An Eye On Carolina Hockey
by Cory Lavalette on Apr 16, 2009 10:30 AM EDT up reply actions
Our team has got to move their feet if they want to win…. it’s that simple…. if they keep their legs and keep their feet moving they are the best team in the chase…. if not then they will be going home very quickly….
3 bad games in a row… I hope they got that out of their system…..
by Mateos_Canes_Lamp on Apr 16, 2009 9:12 AM EDT reply actions
on the other hand.
this sets us up to see what our guys are capable of,
because if you dont come out jumpin and giving it everything after that loss,
then you dont have a team.
not to say its a “must win”
but we should get as better look at the possible intensity level of this team.
expescially if they play bayda
While not a “must win” it’s a “better win”. We owned these asshats all year, now when it counts, they are sodomizing us. If Cory was even close in his assessment, this was a dropped game from top to bottom (I missed it, but, Cory is echoing what I am hearing all over). It hopefully just a hairball that needed to get puked up and they will get back to hockey. Lost the last two in the reg. season, one was to these nj boys. So they are 2 up, when it comes to confidene. I wish we would of drew the craps, I like the way we stack up against them. These guys are serious and have a few lines. I think Friday will be a litmus test. If they come out flat and suck again, it’s over in 4, maybe 5 if they get pissed. But it will be short and merciless if we don’t show up and make a go of it. That will be a real let down.
A
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