Notes and Quotes: Avalanche 2, Hurricanes 1 (OT)

From the Coach

Bill Peters:

[Regarding the poor record off the bye week] What everybody said was going to happen, happened.

The effort was there, but the execution was lacking. You really had to work hard to overcome the lack of execution.

We’ll take the point. Not many nights you can play like that and get a point.

What are you going to change, right? Eventually those guys who aren’t getting it done or aren’t generating as much as they should need to step up too. That would be the best solution to the problem we have with the lack of offense.

It was rough. Lots of pucks at the feet, lots of turnovers.

Comping out of four days off, this is what it looks like. It isn’t a surprise to anyone. It’s 3-9-2 around the league. We didn’t skate, we didn’t move the puck, we didn’t execute, guys were falling, slipping and sliding. There was no timing.

From the Room

Jordan Staal:

It wasn’t our best first period. I thought we did a better job as the game continued, creating and playing the way we wanted to play. The puck was bouncing a little bit, and we could have buried a few of our chances.

There’s definitely some bouncing pucks and some plays we’d like back, some mistakes we made. It was a back and forth game. Ward's played game. He made some big saves to keep us in it.

I think it’s a little difficult to get the passing and the flow of the game to be the way you want it when you’re off for that long. I didn’t think we did a terrible job, but we didn’t look like ourselves.

Jeff Skinner:

I think we need to tighten up. We need to tighten up defensively, get a little bit tighter through the neutral zone. That will allow us to move a little smoother and get some offensive zone time.

We’re definitely going to need the power play [against Toronto] but it’s something we’re going to keep working at. Obviously for the last little while it’s been struggling. We’ll find ways to keep working at it.

Game Notes

• The Canes’ loss to the Avalanche was their first on home ice since 2008. They had been 6-0 at PNC Arena until Friday.
• Skinner’s first period goal gets him to 19, giving him a two-goal lead on Sebastian Aho for the team lead. He’s also within seven of Erik Cole for fourth all-time on the Canes’ goals list since the move, with 161 in his seven seasons.
• Calvin Pickard hasn’t lost in regulation to the Hurricanes in his career. He’s 2-0-1 with a goals-against average of 1.04 and a .967 save percentage in three career games.
• The Canes’ penalty kill fell to second over the bye week, but their 3-for-3 performance tonight bumped them up to 86.4%, tops by a tenth of a point over the idle Bruins.
• The Canes will practice tomorrow at Raleigh Center Ice before Sunday’s matchup with the Maple Leafs.

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