Game Analysis: Hurricanes At Penguins

by Cory Lavalette on Jan 18, 2012 4:19 PM EST

The Carolina Hurricanes played another solid road game Tuesday, taking the Pittsburgh Penguins to overtime before losing in the shootout, 2-1. Jamie McBain scored for Carolina and Cam Ward matched a season high with 40 saves.

The Hurricanes are now 3-3-2 since the calendar flipped to 2012, but outside of a 5-2 loss to Nashville, Carolina's other losses — in regulation or overtime/shootout — were by just one goal. The Canes are in a three-way tie for last in the Eastern Conference with 40 points and have a 16-24-8 record.

Three Observations

1. You'd be hard-pressed to find two better fights than the tilts between Tim Gleason and Deryk Engelland, and Tim Brent and Joe Vitale. Both bouts were spirited and came about naturally, rather than being orchestrated, and showed why fighting is still relevant in the game.

2. The Canes defense continues to score, with McBain getting Carolina's lone goal on the night. The group now has 21 goals on the year. Eight of those have come from the combined efforts of the 23-year-old McBain and the even younger Justin Faulk, while Jay Harrison has seven at a bargain price. The offensive output — which is being accomplished even without the injured Joni Pitkanen — shows that Carolina's blueline scoring is in good hands, especially with even more talent on the horizon.

3. It's hard to point a direct finger, but the decision to allow Jeff Skinner to return to the game was a poor one. You can't blame Skinner because a player will almost always say he's OK. Coach Kirk Muller steered clear of pushing for Skinner's return when he was out, waiting for the doctors to tell him he was ready, so why should he handle this situation any differently? The doctors said he could go, so you send him over the boards. But anyone that saw Skinner's wobbly-legged attempt to get up knew that the hit was a good one. Even concussion experts aren't truly "experts" on brain injuries, but it was clear Skinner was rattled by the hit. Does that mean he suffered another concussion? No. But Hurricanes' first-round pick Ryan Murphy took a big hit this year, came back in that game, and was later diagnosed with a concussion that kept him out 10 contests. The Hurricanes, plain and simple, should have erred on the side of caution. They didn't, and that's wrong.

Number To Know

527 — Faceoff wins for Eric Staal this season, the third-most in the NHL. Staal has always resided among the league leaders in faceoffs taken, but this year he has a respectable 51.2 percent winning percentage that is good for 42nd in the league among players who regularly take faceoffs.

Plus

Bryan Allen — Allen was a key part in the Canes limiting the Penguins to just one goal. Allen had a game-high six blocks while logging 20:55 in ice time. Since rejoining Tim Gleason on defense, Allen has been playing more and doing it more effectively. Tack on him having words with Brooks Orpik after the big hit on Skinner, and it was as close to a perfect game as you'll find from No. 5.

Minus

Eric Staal — Staal played a complete game and had some excellent scoring opportunities (when he and Jiri Tlusty teamed up for successive behind-the-back passes that led to a Tuomo Ruutu scoring chance, it was perhaps the prettiest passing play of the year, even though it didn't lead to a goal), but his turnover led to Evgeni Malkin's goal, and he was stuffed late in the game by Marc-Andre Fleury and then failed to come through in the shootout. On the whole, an inspired performance that just didn't lead to results.

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Comments

The minus shouldn’t be on Staal at all. Cam on the other hand should’ve stopped the shot. Malkin tries that shot constantly, Cam should’ve known better. Maybe next time Cams’ Cobra will strike, oh yeah that would’ve stopped it. Just another great game that didn’t go our way. Still need a 10 game winning streak and running out of time.

I'm trying to be positive here, so if you're not go PUCK yourself.

by canescup on Jan 18, 2012 4:48 PM EST via mobile reply actions

I agree. I hate giving the minus to Ward because despite his mistakes, he saved a ton of goals and he is the backstop of the entire team, but it’s hard to avoid the fact that Cam cheated heavily on Malkin’s goal and it cost him. If this were an isolated example, maybe I would forgive him easily, but Malkin scores tons of goals in the exact same way almost every game we play, and Ward should know better than the cheat towards a player who is tied up by a defenseman when there is one of the best shooters in the league a few feet away from you.

He’s a great goaltender, but he still has a lot of learn. It’s hard to ask him to be perfect, but if he doesn’t cheat on the Malkin goal, the game ends 1-0. If he didn’t let the soft goal in against Washington, that game would have went to overtime (which would have been a loss, since he is also a terrible shootout goalie). He was waaaaaay out of position for Lucic’s 2nd goal in the Boston game, but fortunately we won that game.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not blaming Ward for anything at all. Our offense is still lacking goalscoring in many of these tight games and our defense has been the ones making Ward make all the saves. But he hasn’t been perfect himself either.

by hurricane9 on Jan 18, 2012 5:00 PM EST up reply actions

Your Assessment of Cam Ward

I have been of the same mind about Cam Ward. He is excellent; but he is still a wonderful work in progress. For me, I don’t see any contradiction in being glad Ward and Staal are Hurricanes while still seeing areas in which they, too, can improve.

by abramsdoug on Jan 18, 2012 6:47 PM EST up reply actions

Ward is doing what he usually does, which is rounding into terrific form mid-season. His stats since the coaching change are pretty damn good. He usually seems better at this time of year than in October and November. Unfortunately all 82 games are equally important.

by prplmnkydw on Jan 18, 2012 10:25 PM EST up reply actions

That’s exactly how a goalie should defend that situation — make the guy make a perfect shot. He didn’t cheat, he was taking away the entire short side plus the bottom three-quarters of the net. There’s no time to make a reaction save when a player is in that close uncontested. And finally, that chance never happens without the turnover.

Staal played a great game — really, the whole team did — but he made one big mistake, got stopped on a great save by MAF, and didn’t convert on the shoot out attempt.

CanesCountry.com: An Eye On Carolina Hockey

by Cory Lavalette on Jan 18, 2012 7:06 PM EST via iPhone app up reply actions

The man in front was tied up by Faulk. He cheated to Neal – he was clearly leaning over that way. This exposed the top half of the net. It was a perfect shot, but it wasn’t a difficult perfect shot, especially not for someone like Malkin.

The turnover is hard to blame on Staal. The puck was bouncing all over the place.

by hurricane9 on Jan 18, 2012 10:45 PM EST up reply actions

Ruutu

On 99.9 the Fan NOW!

by hellfish on Jan 18, 2012 7:02 PM EST reply actions

Good news, Bad news

I’m very impressed with how Muller has improved the play of the individuals on the team. I like the way he’s gotten them to put in a consistent effort, play as a team, and compete against with the rest of the NHL. I’m impressed with the offensive and defensive systems and the way the team has bought in and how we’ve improved our special team play.

So we’ve now mostly overcome the Mo issues, have a fun, exciting product on ice and a positive outlook. Unfortunately, we’re now into issues that aren’t easily fixed….

We’re still short talent. We have probably one of the better offensive back ends in the league—and that offensive firepower will only get better with Pitkanen. The problem is I don;t see the defense improving at all with Pitkanen….. Unless McBain sits and Spacek comes back in—then we’re probably a decent amount better on the back end.

But we’re still short those top six players. We had three on ice yesterday: Staal, still in a goal scoring slump, Ruutu playing on Par, and Skinner stil trying to regain his form—-so even with our three best forwars, only one is at 100%. Good news is our bottom six is pretty competitive against most NHL bottom six (without LaRose…) so depth scoring is helping, but we are truly missing top six production. We have no equivalent of Neil or Malkin on this team at the moment. Until that gap is closed, we’re going to see a lot more games and results like we have—we’ll have chances in games, and it will come down to whether our defense or bottom six contribute.

The outlook is positive as the coaching staff and players have shown. Staal and Skinner finding their scoring touch would sway our results to a better outcome, but the balls in JR and PK’s court to fix the flaws—to figure who in Charlotte wil be a part of the team next year. Who among the bottom six besides Sutter and Brent six should stay (Stewart, Nodl, LaRose, Dwyer, Tlusty, Bowman, Sutter42, are a few too many….. and their experiment should be over). And mostly who he can get who’s a proven top six plyer to add to the team (with at least average size or better).

I can see a good future next year, but I can also worry that JR wants too much for his assets like he did last year, and we lose Gleason or Allen and Ruutu and then need two top six forwards and a proven top 4 defender…

by Squeaky83 on Jan 18, 2012 7:43 PM EST reply actions

Larose would have to be considered a very solid bottom six player on any team in the league. Unfortunately he is used as a top six player here, which is the issue.

by prplmnkydw on Jan 18, 2012 10:27 PM EST up reply actions

Dadonov, Jenks

Well a trade ,but seems like a AHL swap

by hellfish on Jan 18, 2012 8:04 PM EST reply actions

Sooo, how do you guys like Joslin?

Big fan of his when he was with us, but i dont get to watch any Hurricanes games out here. He’s a good guy if you ever meet him in person. Just wondering how yall feel about him out there.

This is Team Teal. Sharks and Phins.
Cut me open and I bleed Teal...

Just a reminder, fans, comin’ up is our "Die-hard Night" here at the stadium. Free admission to anyone who was actually alive the last time the Dolphins won a Super Bowl. -Mosul_DolFan, Phinsider.com

Marc Emery ... the Big Bad Bogeyman ... who offered natural seeds that could potentially become a non-toxic, non-addictive, highly beneficial 12,000-year-old plant. Where are the victims? Where are the bodies? "Justice Minister" Rob Nicholson and his ilk should be the criminals imprisoned.

by Sharkz_N_Phinz on Jan 19, 2012 9:49 PM EST via Android app reply actions

We haven’t seen him very much so far this year. He showed a lot of promise after we acquired him last season, but caught mono during training camp which kept him out a while and gave rookie Justin Faulk his shot. Faulk has been outstanding. So right now Joslin is caught in a bit of a numbers game where he sat in the press box for [too long] before heading to Charlotte for a conditioning stint. Did great there in a couple of games and now back up with Spacek out for a few games (and in anticipation of some likely trades). So the last few games have really been his first real chance to show what he can do.

He does seem like a great guy. He’s on twitter, you should follow him! @Djos27

twitter @jbk_ltd

by Jamie Kellner on Jan 19, 2012 10:12 PM EST up reply actions

Haha. I refuse to twitter.

I just can’t do it. Thanks though. Lol. So mono eh? Isn’t that what used to be called the kissing disease? Lol. He was in our box a bit as well with some minor injuries.

This is Team Teal. Sharks and Phins.
Cut me open and I bleed Teal...

by Sharkz_N_Phinz on Jan 19, 2012 10:38 PM EST via Android app up reply actions