Canes Exit 2009 With a Whimper: Rangers 2, Hurricanes 1

Too bad they wore their black last night. Otherwise you could have used the same the photo as you used for the re-cap.

   The Hurricanes team effectiveness at the end of 2009 was almost identical to the Hurricanes team effectiveness we saw at the start of the season and but for some short breaks in faildom, have seen throughout this year.

   I saw highs, lows, and curiosities last night.
 
   Among the highs, I include the crowd. This team has let down its fans more often than Lucy has pulled the football away from Charlie Brown, more consistently than Swiss trains, as completely as the Detroit Lions. Despite the letdowns, the fans continue to come with enthusiasm and cheer on a team that has turned “just not good enough to win” into its season’s mantra.

   Last night it was a much larger crowd than I feared. The crowd was fired up and it is was a fun evening. Continuing with the highs, most of the players I include as the core team really wanted to win as usual. My test for wanting to win by forwards is did they crash the net, did the forecheck, did they take shots, did they get to the dangerous areas of the offensive zone, and did they come with speed through the neutral zone. Sutter, Ruutu, and Jokinen played quite well. I applaud Maurice/Francis/Rowe for putting that line together. Staal has his moments of intensity and although I’d much prefer him to have an Ovechkin-like hunger and aggressiveness, I think Staal is much more of a Semin-like player.

   Defensively, highs for me were Gleason, Pitkanen, Carson, and Alberts. I was very happy to see PItkanen taking shots and moving the puck. Gleason continues to be one of the team’s leaders. I have no problem with Alberts and Carson. They had some plays were they mishandled the puck, but all in all they brought a solid game.

   Lows for me were the usual suspects: (1) A.Ward — who is in a class by himself with ineffectiveness or untimely miscues; (2) Brind’Amour — who mercifully for all concerned played 4 minutes (and I can’t remember if he played at all in the third period); (3) Wallin — to a far, far lesser extent that A. Ward and Brind’Amour. Wallin was much more solid, but any defenseman who whiffs on a puck that is slowly moving toward his feet in front of the net makes we want to bench him. I would include the fourth line in the lows. I thought when the season began that Brind’Amour/Yelle/Walker on the fourth line would be one of the strongest fourth lines in the NHL. I consider them the 30th fourth line in the NHL. I can’t think of another team’s fourth line that I wouldn’t prefer.

   Curiosities in the game include the coaching substitutions. I wouldn’t have either Aaron Ward or Brind’Amour anywhere near a penalty kill or a power play. I obviously lack the detailed knowledge of hockey because I would rather randomly pick anybody else on the bench that put either Brind’Amour or A. Ward on a power play or penalty kill.

   I am also curious why the team as a whole lacks that special spark that makes a team skate downhill consistently. The coaches and players ought to pre-record their explanations for failure and simply play the mp3s rather than give live interviews: (1) we didn’t move our feet; (2) we didn’t shoot enough; (3) we didn’t go to the dirty areas of the ice; (4) we didn’t crash the net; (5) we didn’t get our forecheck going; (6) we let the opposing team put too much traffic in front of the net; (7) we didn’t get enough traffic in front of the net; (8) we let the other team control the pace of the game.

   Cam Ward is also curious to me. He had some highlight reel stops and realistically only the upper, upper tier of goalkeepers can keep their opponents to less than two goals a game. I do have to note the obvious and the painful, Leighton shot out the Rangers the night before. Unless one presumes Leighton has suddenly jumped into the upper tier of goalkeepers, it is a excruciating reminder of how far the Hurricanes have fallen this year that they lose to a team that was crushed by Michael Leighton and the Flyers.

   I put Whitney and Cullen into my curious category. Both played their usual solid game. They didn’t have any compelling mistakes that sets the tone for failure; but neither did they set examples for success. Both had one shot each. The Hurricanes offense depends on them to generate goals, and particularly goals off of rebounds. Samsonov also falls squarely within my curious category. He played about twelve minutes and did nothing incredibly wretched. He also seems miscast on the third line with Dwyer and Kostopoulos in that the third line is not generating much offense.

   Overall, the Hurricanes this year have mastered almost to the level of an art form playing just well enough to lose in a close game. The quest for the Stanley Cup ended some time ago for the Hurricanes. The quest for Taylor Hall was a much more realistic aspiration this season. Fortunately, the end of contracts for many players whose main contributions are dead weight will solve many of the issues.

  Given the team’s attitude and lack of ability to play to win, the only player I’d re-sign if it were me, would be Whitney. It isn’t that Cullen and Corvo lack talent, far from it, they are talented players. I would want to start fresh with the core team as leaders and would add players who had similar attitudes toward hockey. I’d want to add hungry, determined, physical players who would augment the many good things the core players bring to the team. I wouldn’t risk another year of mixed emotions on the ice. I’d want to see players with their hearts on their sleeve, giving all they had, and demanding that same commitment from all their teammates.

sadly and a yawn too…what AD discribed is pretty much what many of us canes fans who watched the game at home saw. yes the canes are sadly consistant..but for the wrong things…and there are still what 6 weeks before the olympic break ?

has TKO EVER won a fight?

 Nice photo Bob-gotta love A.Ward clutching and grabbing his way through games. Going out with a whimper seems about right. 18 SOG is just pathetic and probably just a symptom of the larger problem. I don’t think this was one of those games they didn’t try in most of them didn’t try in. They just weren’t very good.

The highlights were few and far between and most of them involved Cam keeping his team in the game although Mo’s quote about the ref making vacation plans was pretty funny. Maybe 2010 will be better!

Seems like I heard John Forslund say last night that Samsonov has been hurt and not practicing. Maybe this is why he wasn’t playing as well.

  I thought in watching Boychuk over the past four or five games that he had a sense he was going to be called up. He was flying around the ice and was using his speed and agility to make some hits on defense. I think he is going to surprise some folks as to his maturity once he gets called up.

  Tlusty, too, has a ton of skill and speed. He has to be aware that if he does well, he will have a spot next year in either the top six or top nine.

Could just sense this doomed effort, even though we were hanging in there. The shots on goal alone reflected the situation. Just too few on a goalie of the caliber of Lindqvist to expect any more than one or two goals at the most.

On the other hand, Cam gave his team a chance until the bitter end, withstanding so many shots on goal that finally giving up the second wasn’t too surprising, especially after the shot count went over 30 and only one was in the goal. Cleaning up refused Gaborik shots was pretty much the theme of both of the goals scored, which is a bit on the defense, and not on the goalie, anyway.

Closer game on the scoreboard than it felt from the stands. Another disappointing effort for the home team. Good crowd, that gave them more support than they probably deserved. But, that’s the way we are.

At least Sean Avery didn’t score on us, although he came close a time or two.

Just as I defended Brind’Amour ‘s minus a couple of games ago, just because he happened to be on the ice when an inadvertent even strength opponent’s goal was batted in by Alberts, I have to point a finger his way for last night’s game.

The double-minor high-sticking penalty that was assessed to Walker at 14:15 in the first, was actually Brind’Amour’s high stick, not Walker’s. Even when Tripp was showing the video review musing aloud that it might have been Brind’Amour and then weakly concluding that it was Walker, the two angles provided both clearly showed Brind’Amour’s stick reaching in from behind as being what caught the face. Walker’s stick was blocked by the opponent’s left forearm and never got above his waist.

So, when Brind’Amour also hooked less than two minutes later, the fatal 5-on-3 power play that led to the tieing goal was doubly on him, with no contributory negligence from Walker. Just putting the blame where it needs to be, and it’s not on Walker.

Also, just for the record, when the even strength game-winning goal was scored, Cam blocked the first bomb from Gaborik, but the rebound went long and was uncovered by any of our defensemen mostly because Aaron Ward was so intent on repeatedly pounding his man’s back with what easily could have been called cross-checks instead of “defensive nudges”, that he totally missed both shot and rebound until it was too late to do anything other than witness it. Could have used another block there, Aaron, even if you were the team-leader in that category for the game.