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Game Analysis: Hurricanes Swedes Are Sweet In Shootout Win Over Avalanche

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The Carolina Hurricanes blew another two-goal lead, but this time they managed to get the win by topping Colorado in the shootout and earning their eighth and ninth point in the past six games.

The Carolina Hurricanes registered a season-high 46 shots on goal and, despite squadering a two-goal lead for the second straight game, earned two points Tuesday in a shootout victory over Colorado.

Three Observations

1. Going 4-2-1, which the Hurricanes have done with Jordan Staal in the lineup this year, doesn't knock anyone's socks off, but there's no denying that this is a different Carolina team with No. 11 in the lineup. More specifically, this is a different team with the Staal brothers riding shotgun to each other on the Canes’ top line. Since Jordan returned to the lineup Dec. 29, Eric Staal has scored six times in eight games (note: Jordan missed the Dec. 31 game at Pittsburgh, and Eric scored), and he had the game-winner in the shootout vs. Boston. Even when the Jiri Tlusty-Eric Staal-Alexander Semin line was at its best in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season, it didn't look as dominant as the Staals squared have of late. They are, simply put, an absolute burden for the opposition. The combination of size, reach and speed is tough to handle shift after shift, and you can see third-wheel Elias Lindholm growing more confident as their running mate.

2. Victor Rask and Lindholm each buried their shootout attempts, the first conversion for both in their brief NHL careers. It was an interesting move for coach Bill Peters, who has leaned on Eric Staal and Jeff Skinner of late (one assumes  Semin, who Peters said earlier in the season would be in his shootout trio every time, was set to be the anchor). Both Swedes showed off their slick hands, leaving Calvin Pickard flailing on the ice — and leaving Peters looking like a genius.

3. Anton Khudobin probably wants the John Mitchell game-tying goal back, but he still has plenty to be proud of. It took Khudobin until Dec. 23 to get his first win (he was 0-8-2 to start the year), but he has since run off three straight wins, all in the shootout. Khudobin has stopped 65 of 69 shots (.942 save percentage) in that stretch, plus all eight shootout attempts he's faced. He is now 3-1 in the shootout with just one goal allowed on 11 attempts (.909 save percentage, seventh in the NHL).

Number To Know

23 — Seconds of power play time the Hurricanes finished with in two games against the Avalanche this season. Carolina didn't get a power play opportunity Tuesday until the end of overtime, nearly winning before the shootout when a Justin Faulk shot beat Pickard and rang the post. That was more of a chance than they got Nov. 22 in Denver when referees Brad Watson and Gord Dwyer called no infractions on the Avs. The refs (Dan O’Halloran and Rob Martell) were different Tuesday in Raleigh, but the result was nearly the same. One would think Carolina (second-fewest penalties in the league at 7.7 per game) would be the ones with the special teams advantage over Colorado (21st, 10.5 minutes per game), but neither game went that way.

Plus

Ryan Murphy— Has Murphy finally turned the corner? Let's not go wild here, but the answer could be yes. Murphy  played arguably his best game of his NHL career Tuesday, the highlight being his perfect return pass to Jordan Staal on the first goal of the game. Murphy finished with seven shot attempts and three on goal (both highs among Canes defensemen) and now has points (four total) in a career-best three straight games.

Minus

Nathan Gerbe— It's hard to dislike the effort Gerbe brings to the rink every night, but there's no denying that the NHL’s smallest player is struggling. Despite assists in his previous two games, Gerbe is still mired in a 20-game goal drought, and the line with him, Rask and Jiri Tlusty is, while defensively responsible, not jelling. Perhaps the return of versatile Andrej Nestrasil will shake up the third line, but the question then becomes who sits out with the fourth line playing so well.


Storm Tracking: Storm Surge

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Just when you expect them to battle for the bottom, the Carolina Hurricanes open up some scoring and collect 5 of a possible 6 points. The team has only increased to 28th place, but 26th isn't too far out of reach and its time for teams at the bottom to start selling off their players. Will Carolina join in on the garage sell or do they do what they do best, stand pat?

It's a tough time for me to be a Hurricane fan.  I really do want to see the team do well, but I KNOW the best option for this organization's long-term health is for them to lose and lose a lot!  This week didn't help them get any closer to that long-term goal, but the offense broke out and the boys collect 2 wins and a loser point.  It is always nice beating Buffalo, but it is even better stomping on Slugs.  And that is what happened last Thursday in Raleigh as the Canes won 5-2.  They should have won their next game in St. Louis, but they couldn't hold on to 2 leads and lost in the shootout.  They again took an early lead at home against the Avs, only to see a 3rd period push send them to another shootout.  But the Canes Sweded Colorado in the shootout and got the victory.  Now the Canes face 3 Canadian teams before the All-Star break, will the streak continue?  Here are the stats for 1/7/15 through 1/13/15.

Canes Weekly Stats

Player

GP

TO/G

G

A

P

+/-

PIM

S

Hits

BkS

GvA

Tka

FO%

Ryan Murphy

3

18:53

0

4

4

2

2

3

1

1

3

1

Victor Rask

3

16:40

2

1

3

1

2

8

2

1

1

2

51.0

Jeff Skinner

3

15:24

2

1

3

2

0

8

2

0

4

4

33.3

Eric Staal

3

17:09

2

0

2

1

2

13

0

0

0

1

50.0

Nathan Gerbe

3

16:02

0

2

2

1

0

7

0

0

3

3

66.7

Jiri Tlusty

3

14:29

1

1

2

2

2

7

4

1

1

2

Riley Nash

3

16:44

2

0

2

3

0

10

6

4

1

6

40.5

Justin Faulk

3

24:15

0

2

2

2

2

5

5

1

0

3

Alexander Semin

3

16:43

0

2

2

2

0

2

0

2

1

6

Tim Gleason

3

17:22

0

1

1

-3

5

4

7

5

1

2

Jordan Staal

3

17:37

1

0

1

-1

0

7

5

0

3

4

53.3

Elias Lindholm

3

16:44

0

1

1

-1

0

9

0

1

3

0

50.0

Jay McClement

3

13:42

0

1

1

-2

0

6

1

1

0

1

50.0

Brad Malone

3

10:13

0

1

1

0

2

4

6

1

1

1

0

John-Michael Liles

2

16:56

0

1

1

-1

2

5

2

5

1

2

Patrick Dwyer

3

12:33

1

0

1

-1

0

6

3

3

1

0

Ron Hainsey

3

23:23

0

1

1

4

0

1

3

2

1

0

Andrej Sekera

3

23:00

0

0

0

-1

0

2

4

2

1

3

Brett Bellemore

1

19:28

0

0

0

E

0

0

2

0

1

0

Goalie

GP

GS

W

L

OTL

Shots

GA

Sv

Sv %

GAA

Ev Sv %

PP Sv %

Anton Khudobin

1

1

1

0

0

30

2

28

.933

1.85

.929

1.000

Cam Ward

2

2

1

0

1

55

6

49

.891

2.88

.880

1.000


Weekly Advanced Stats

The chart is arranged by the highest 5 on 5 Close Corsi For Percentage.

Here is a little key to some of my abbreviations. AS – All Situations, 5C – 5 on 5 Close, CF% - Corsi For Percentage, FF% - Fenwick For Percentage, SF% - Shots For Percentage, OZst% - Offensive Zone Start Percentage, NZst% - Neutral Zone Start Percentage and DZst% - Defensive Zone Start Percentage. If you would like more advanced statistics, this information was collected from www.war-on-ice.com.

Player

GP

ASCF%

ASFF%

5CCF%

5CFF%

OZst

DZst

Murphy

3

61.6

57.6

70.8

66.1

21

13

Lindholm

3

61.1

57.5

69.4

65.0

26

9

E. Staal

3

65.0

61.7

67.7

66.0

25

12

Faulk

3

66.0

62.6

67.7

63.5

28

23

Gerbe

3

65.3

63.2

67.2

65.3

15

19

Sekera

3

61.3

57.6

67.1

63.8

18

24

Hainsey

3

56.0

52.9

64.7

60.7

24

26

Dwyer

3

51.4

48.0

63.6

63.6

5

20

Tlusty

3

58.2

61.3

62.9

60.9

15

18

Rask

3

65.0

65.1

62.3

61.5

30

14

Nash

3

59.4

56.3

60.9

58.7

11

19

Malone

3

54.9

54.3

58.3

57.1

5

14

Skinner

3

60.0

59.4

58.1

55.6

26

14

McClement

3

50.6

49.2

57.7

56.1

7

25

Semin

3

59.2

57.9

55.7

53.3

22

15

J. Staal

3

59.4

55.1

55.6

61.4

23

9

Liles

2

53.8

51.9

54.5

55.6

18

16

Gleason

3

49.1

48.0

51.3

52.6

18

22

Bellemore

1

42.9

41.2

42.1

40.0

3

8


Weekly Studs

Ryan Murphy– I have been very critical of Murphy and his future here in Carolina.  Well this week, he deserves some praise, because he had his best 3-game offensive outbreak of his career.  He led the team with 4 points and 4 assists.  He also had a team high 70.8% Corsi and 66.1% Fenwick possession numbers at 5-on-5 Close.  Statistically Murphy had about as good a week as a young, offensive defenseman can have.  But another thing that really stood out to me was his own-ice confidence.  Many times this year, he’s look lost and scared.  This week, he was noticeably more confident and his play reflected that.  I still have my questions about his future here, but those questions might be answered if he can keep this play up.

Victor Rask– The rookie has been really impressive this season, playing in multiple situations and playing a complete game.  He did hit a wall in December, going 15 games without a point, but that streak was snapped last week with an assist in Nashville.  This week, all he did was score 2 goals, add an assist, score a shootout goal and was 51% in the dot.  All of his possession numbers were above 61% and for the year, he ranks in Carolina top 5 in most possession categories.  A lot is asked of the rookie and for the most part he has delivered.  There will be bumps along the road, but I’m really excited to see how this rookie continues to develop.  I guess that early season ranking in his draft year might not have been too far off?

Eric Staal–If you compare this week to Eric’s last week, it was probably a step backwards.  But he still tied for the team lead in goals with 2, led the team in shots with 13 and was in the top 4 in all possession categories, 65% or higher in 3 of them.  But the thing that stands out to me the most is his on-ice demeanor.  He seems rejuvenated, playing with more energy, skating much better, battling more and the biggest key, shooting the puck.  This seems more like the Eric Staal that was around the last time the Canes made the playoffs.  I don’t know if he just finally feels healthy, if it’s playing on a line with his brother or a combination of both.  But I like this Eric and hope to see more of it this season and next.

Weekly Duds

Andrej Sekera– The Canes usually don’t score much, but this week was an exception.  There were only 2 players that didn’t register a point and one of those was Sekera.  There were also only 2 players that registered less shots on goal than Sekera’s 2, the defensive pairing of Hainsey & Bellemore (Bellemore only played in 1 game).  While he still played his typical solid game, this is likely the Canes key trade chip and they need him to get them as much as possible in return.  This week doesn’t necessarily hurt his stock, but he could have done more to improve it.  It was also surprising to see Sekera as the #3 defenseman in time-on-ice this week, behind Faulk and Hainsey.

Alexander Semin– Maybe I’m being nitpicky since Alex did get 2 assists and end up with a +2 rating.  But it could be argued that Semin is the best shooter on this team and only registering 2 shots on goal in 3 games is unacceptable.  At $7 million, this team expects, no, let me say demands more from Semin.  He needs to be a threat almost every time he touches the ice and that isn’t happening.  He has improved, but we’re over halfway through the season and he has 1 goal and only 30 shots.  While Semin has missed a number of games, he still has 90 more minutes of ice time than Brad Malone and Malone has 32 shots on goal.  This is beyond frustration at this point, he needs to get his blanket-blank together or retire or do something.

Cam Ward– I’m sorry, but I’ve got to put Cam in this spot for this week.  Since November 1st, Cam has posted a 0.923 save percentage and 2.16 goals against average.  On many nights he has kept the game competitive almost single-handedly.  But this week, when the team finally decides to score and actually wins the possession game, he struggles.  A 2.88 goals against average isn’t horrible, but dropping to a 0.891 save percentage is significant.  It seems or at least has been rumored that Cam doesn’t want to waive his NTC and wants to stay in Raleigh.  If so, he needs to make sure this week is an aberration and get back to the way he played in November & December.

Weekly Team Stats

Goals Per Game

Goals Against Per Game

Ranking

Team

G/PG

Ranking

Team

GA/PG

1.

St. Louis

5.00

T1.

Nashville

1.33

2.

Winnipeg

4.25

T1.

NY Islanders

1.33

3.

Florida

3.75

3.

Boston

1.50

T4.

Carolina

3.67

4.

Washington

1.75

T4.

Nashville

3.67

T5.

Detroit

2.00

T4.

NY Islanders

3.67

T5.

Montreal

2.00

T4.

Ottawa

3.67

T5.

NY Rangers

2.00

T4.

Philadelphia

3.67

T5.

Pittsburgh

2.00

T4.

Pittsburgh

3.67

9.

Colorado

2.25

T10.

Chicago

3.33

T10.

Carolina

2.67

Shots Per Game

Shots Against Per Game

Ranking

Team

S/PG

Ranking

Team

SA/PG

1.

NY Islanders

38.3

1.

Toronto

22.0

2.

Pittsburgh

37.7

2.

NY Islanders

22.7

3.

Minnesota

37.5

T3.

Los Angeles

23.3

4.

Ottawa

37.3

T3.

Philadelphia

23.3

5.

Carolina

35.7

5.

St. Louis

23.7

6.

Anaheim

34.0

T6.

Boston

24.3

7.

Vancouver

33.3

T6.

Detroit

24.3

8.

Winnipeg

31.8

8.

Edmonton

25.7

9.

St. Louis

30.7

9.

Tampa Bay

26.7

10.

Arizona

30.3

13.

Carolina

28.3

PowerPlay Percentage

Penalty Kill Percentage

Ranking

Team

PP %

Ranking

Team

PK %

1.

Columbus

40.0

T1.

Anaheim

100

2.

Anaheim

37.5

T1.

Carolina

100

3.

Philadelphia

35.7

T1.

Edmonton

100

4.

Ottawa

33.3

T1.

Nashville

100

5.

Washington

30.0

T1.

Pittsburgh

100

T6.

Edmonton

28.6

6.

Boston

93.8

T6.

San Jose

28.6

7.

Colorado

92.9

T8.

Colorado

25.0

T8.

Detroit

87.5

T8.

Detroit

25.0

T8.

St. Louis

87.5

T20.

Carolina

14.3

10.

New Jersey

85.7

Hits

Blocked Shots

Ranking

Team

Hits

Ranking

Team

BkS

1.

Winnipeg

139

1.

Colorado

98

2.

Arizona

123

2.

Minnesota

95

3.

Boston

111

3.

Washington

71

T4.

Colorado

105

4.

NY Rangers

68

T4.

NY Rangers

105

5.

Florida

61

T4.

Philadelphia

105

6.

Buffalo

60

T7.

Los Angeles

102

T7.

Arizona

54

T7.

Washington

102

T7.

Chicago

54

9.

NY Islanders

93

9.

Calgary

51

24.

Carolina

53

T22.

Carolina

30

Giveaways

Takeaways

Ranking

Team

GvA

Ranking

Team

TkA

T1.

Columbus

12

1.

Carolina

41

T1.

Montreal

12

2.

Washington

34

3.

St. Louis

13

3.

Edmonton

33

4.

Arizona

14

4.

Florida

28

T5.

Minnesota

15

T5.

Colorado

26

T5.

NY Islanders

15

T5.

NY Rangers

26

T5.

Ottawa

15

7.

Vancouver

25

8.

New Jersey

17

8.

Calgary

24

T9.

Detroit

19

T9.

Boston

23

T16.

Carolina

27

T9.

Minnesota

23

Team Faceoff Percentage

Team Save Percentage

Ranking

Team

FO %

Ranking

Team

Sv %

1.

St. Louis

60.0

1.

Nashville

0.955

2.

Anaheim

58.0

2.

Montreal

0.946

3.

Toronto

55.9

T3.

Colorado

0.944

4.

Boston

55.4

T3.

Washington

0.944

5.

Chicago

55.2

5.

NY Islanders

0.941

6.

San Jose

55.0

6.

NY Rangers

0.939

7.

NY Islanders

54.7

7.

Boston

0.938

8.

Los Angeles

53.4

8.

Pittsburgh

0.929

T9.

Dallas

53.2

9.

Chicago

0.922

T19.

Carolina

48.1

10.

Carolina

0.906


Former Canes Weekly Stats

Player

Team

GP

TOI/G

G

A

P

+/-

PIM

S

Hits

BkS

GvA

Tka

ASCF%

Ladd

WPG

4

19:43

1

3

4

2

4

12

11

2

3

1

62.5

Jokinen

FLA

4

18:05

0

3

3

1

4

6

1

6

1

0

44.5

Williams

LAK

3

18:40

3

0

3

1

0

8

0

1

1

3

64.9

Cole

DAL

2

16:22

1

1

2

1

0

3

6

0

2

0

48.3

Seidenberg

BOS

4

23:17

0

1

1

6

0

6

8

5

2

0

43.2

Sutter

PIT

3

18:51

1

0

1

E

0

10

0

0

1

0

51.5

Adams

PIT

3

11:23

0

1

1

2

0

4

17

1

0

0

48.2

Harrison

WPG

4

15:35

1

0

1

-2

4

3

8

1

2

1

45.8

Dalpe

BUF

1

8:00

0

0

0

E

0

1

1

1

1

1

31.3

McBain

LAK

1

14:17

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

60.7

Carter

MIN

4

11:05

0

0

0

E

7

7

8

1

0

2

46.3

Ruutu

NJD

2

9:17

0

0

0

E

0

1

3

1

2

0

38.1

Cullen

NSH

2

12:07

0

0

0

1

0

3

0

0

0

0

47.5

Bodie

TOR

2

3:59

0

0

0

E

5

0

2

0

0

0

38.5

Vrbata

VAN

3

16:05

0

0

0

-1

0

7

1

1

2

0

58.9

Game Day Canes vs. Canucks

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The Canes are undefeated on home ice in 2015. Tonight they'll try to keep that streak alive against a team that has beaten them 10 of their last 13 tries.

Carolina Hurricanes vs. Vancouver Canucks
January 16, 2015 - 7:00 pm ET
PNC Arena - Raleigh, NC
TV - Fox Sports Carolinas
Radio - 99.9 FM The Fan
SB Nation Rival Blog - Nucks Misconduct

Fancy Stats


HurricanesCanucks
Record14-24-524-15-3
Points3351
Division Rank8th Metro3rd Pacific
Conference Rank15th EC7th WC
StreakWon 1Won 1



Power Play %17.7%20.5%
Penalty Kill %86.8%87.3%
Goals/Game2.052.76
Goals Against/Game2.562.57
Shots/Game29.729.9
Shots Against/Game27.829.0
ES Goals For %41.5%46.3%
ES Corsi For %51.6%49.7%
ES PDO96.998.6
PIM/Game7.710.5



GoaltenderWardMiller
Record11-16-321-9-1
ES Save Percentage.913.919
GAA2.402.40



Goaltender KhudobinLack
Record3-8-23-6-2
ES Save Percentage.907.912
GAA2.502.61

Stats via NHL.com and War on Ice


Game Notes

  • The Hurricanes are 4-1-1 and undefeated on home ice since the calendar turned to 2015. That's a respectable record for a team that is actually playing decent hockey of late. Goaltending has been very solid, they are defensively sound, and special teams are commendable (especially the penalty kill, now perfect for a franchise record 10 11 straight games). With a return to health, the forward ranks are balanced and have begun to drive offense. Their 18 goals in six January games matches the entire output in December's 14 games. All of this may very well come at the expense of a high pick in the draft, but there is certainly an optimism that the team is trending in the right direction, which should make for interesting decisions by the general manager heading into the second half of the season and the trade deadline.
  • Speaking of healthy forwards, another may be making his return to the line-up tonight. Andrej Nestrasil has missed 16 games after suffering an upper body injury in the December 8th game against the Devils. He was activated from injured reserve last week, and spent three games with the Charlotte Checkers on a conditioning stint. He returned to Canes practice yesterday and skated on the fourth line with Jay McClement and Patrick Dwyer, which is where he will likely start if he's in the line-up tonight. More from Nestrasil can be found in yesterday's Canes Rink Report.
  • Elias Lindholm played in his 100th NHL game on Saturday against St. Louis, and discussed his 100 (and one including the shootout win against the Avs Tuesday) games with Michael Smith on the Canes Tracking the Storm blog.
  • Ryan Murphy has points (4 assists) in three straight games.
  • For the second game in a row, the Canes are sitting at home and catching an opponent on the back end of back-to-back road games. The Canucks visited the City of Brotherly Love last night and came away victorious in a 4-0 shutout of the Flyers. All four goals (two on the power play) were scored in the first 22 minutes, and goaltender Ryan Miller returned from a two-game absence (flu) to save all 30 shots.
  • The Canucks are solidly entrenched in a playoff spot in the Western Conference, but they came into last night's game having lost their last three games, and the four goals scored were more than were scored in the three losses. The "leaders led" with the Sedin twins contributing two points each, and Kevin Bieksa making his physical presence known early as he traded punches with Wayne Simmonds. Ex-Cane Radim Vrbata was responsible for one of the power play goals. Although Miller faced 30 shots, his night was not overly taxing, and while head coach Willie Dejardins typically splits goaltending responsibilities in a back-to-back scenario, it is possible that the Canucks will go with Miller again tonight over backup Eddie Lack. Miller is 14-9-4 lifetime against the Canes with a 2.60 GAA, and Lack has two wins in as many games with one goal against and one shutout.
  • The Canucks should get another huge boost on defense tonight with the expected return of Dan Hamhuis, who has missed 21 games recovering from a groin tear.
  • Vancouver has won 10 of the last 13 meetings between the two teams, including a sweep of the Canes in home and away games last season.

Projected line-ups

Hurricanes (from Thursday's practice)

Eric Staal - Jordan Staal - Elias Lindholm
Andrej Nestrasil - Jay McClement - Patrick Dwyer

Injuries and Scratches: Chris Terry (healthy), Brad Malone (healthy), Brett Bellemore (healthy)

Canucks (from Thursday's game)

Daniel Sedin - Henrik Sedin - Radim Vrbata
Chris Higgins - Brad Richardson - Alexandre Burrows

Ryan Stanton - Kevin Bieksa

Ryan Miller
Eddie Lack

Injuries and Scratches: Dan Hamhuis (groin), Zack Kassian (healthy), Frank Corrado (healthy)

Catch the morning skate live on Storm Surge (streaming on Canes website) starting at 10:30 am. Tonight's game is the last home game for the Canes before the All-Star break. Good seats are still available.

GAME DAY: Canucks @ Carolina

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Everything is better! Well, probably not... but we did see a game that is much more of what we saw back in the first couple months of this season, as the Canucks dominated a pretty sad Philadelphia Flyers team. No chance to rest though, as they are in Carolina for the rubber match against the Canes.

TimeFriday 5:00 PM PST
TVSportsnet
Season Series1-0 Canucks
Last Meeting
4-1 Canucks Oct 28/14
The EnemyCanes CountryScoring LeadersD. Sedin: 9-29-38
E. Staal 13-13-26

Canucks
CATEGORY
Hurricanes
24-14-3SEASON RECORD14-24-5
51Points33
7thConference Position15th
Won 1
StreakWon 1
2.76 (14)
Goals For Per 60 (GF60)
2.05 (29)
2.57 (13)
Goals Against Per 60 (GA60)
2.56 (12)
20.5 (9)Power Play %17.7 (18)
87.3 (3)Penalty Kill %86.8 (4)
48.3 (22)Faceoff Win %51.5 (10)
10.5 (20)PIM / GP7.7 (2)
49.4 (21)Corsi For %51.9 (10)
100.4 (15)PDO97.7 (26)

You'd be foolish to think that last night's win against the Flyers mean that everything's gonna be okay, but the fact that a good number of the people identified in yesterday's preview stepped up with strong performances is definitely encouraging. From the Sedins getting the PP rolling, to Nick Bonino's highlight reel spin-o-rama, to Jannik Hansen forgetting that he can't score on breakaways, the Canucks turned in one of their strongest performances of the year, let alone best road games.

Ryan Miller was pretty damn good last night, so much so that we could see Miller go again tonight against the Canes, and with them not playing again til Monday in Florida, they just might keep him going so he stays fresh. More good news as Dan Hamhuis returns tonight, which should solidify the D even more, provided Hammer's shaken off the funk he was in before injuring his groin 22 games ago. One who will not be playing again tonight is Zack Kassian, who today we learned is officially on the trading block, as the Canucks look to either ditch an underachieving disappointment, or repeat history trading away a future potential Cam Neely/Todd Bertuzzi type player. Either way, we know the Canucks' fan base won't let us down, returning to their lament of trading away Superstar Cody Hodgson for Kassian, and bashing management for the return on a trade that's yet to happen. That's how we roll...

Difficult to say how this one will go tonight. The Canes are pretty much rock bottom when it comes to scoring, but good special teams and goaltending seem to have gotten them the handful of wins they do have. Either way, the Canucks should come out exactly as they did against Philly and take it to them to get some momentum before next week's Florida back to back.

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

*Tosses the title track from Cynic's 'Kindly Bent To Free Us' into the room and runs, leaving you to figure it out...

Impromptu Drinking Games Rules

- 1 Drink: Mention of Latvian legend Arturs Irbe

- 1 Drink: If John Garrett doesn't mention his Hartford Whalers days...

- 2 Drinks: If the PP keeps rolling

- 2 Drinks: If Kassian gets traded mid-game

- 3 Drinks: If someone on the panel accuses the Canucks of looking ahead to Florida

- 3 drinks: Higgins bumps the slump


A "Miller Time" Game Recap ( 3-0 W )

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A back to back against a team the Canucks "should" beat, like the Flyers the night before...

The Hurricanes have played better since they got both Staals playing together, but they are already out of the playoff race in the East.  Still, there is talent on this team, and they are not to be taken lightly.

The home team certainly got off to a good start in this one.  They had about five shots, including a Riley Nash chance all alone that Ryan Miller handled just fine, before the Canucks got their first shot, from Derek Dorsett.  They were the team carrying the play early, that is for sure.

The Canucks had a second "shutdown pair" available for this one, as Dan Hamhuis started his first game since his groin injury.  He was paired with Frank Corrado.

The teams both hit the post in the first half of the initial period, with Vrbata getting a great chance to open the scoring on a nice lone rush off of a defensive turnover at the blue line.  The Canucks were guilty of more of those kind of turnovers early

A lot of the Canes carrying the play was because they were winning tons of draws, having won 11 of 17 draws in the first fifteen minutes.  That, and a weakness for icing the puck are not a good combination.

The visitors did a good job of withstanding the early edge in play, and even another too many men call was not enough for the Canes to get the momentum back, as the third ranked penalty kill did it's job just fine.  That is another place where Hammer was missed, and with him playing with Bieksa on the kill, it, again, gave the Canucks two pairs the coach could count on.

Eric Staal got a decent chance at the buzzer, but the Canucks, after the initial surge by the home team, did a decent job of getting back on an even keel.

The second started in a similar fashion, but the breakouts for the Canucks were better.  As a result, the chances started to come.  First, a Matthias chance on a  loose puck that Ward covered.  They were better defensively too, as evidenced by a nice Edler play after Eric Staal got by him on a pinch, checking him on the backcheck, just as the two on one was developing.

How about that save by Ryan Miller on Nestrasil  on a two on one when they did get a chance ?  A two pad stack that looked like something I first saw when I was eight years old.  Amazing.  It was not quite Kirk MacLean in '94, but it was pretty damn timely.

The Canes had a two to one shots edge ( 14 - 7 ) when they had one of those plays that probably makes where they are in the standings a little ess surprising, for all that talent.  A turnover at the blue line ( it is the first goal in the highlights below )

...gave Derek Dorsett a clean chance and time to think about it.  He made no mistake, beating Cam Ward high glove for his first in thirteen games on a very good shot.  That settled the game down, and even Frankie Corrado taking a puck right in the mush ( he got a cut on his nose, went for repairs, and missed a couple shifts. ) could not quell the momentum, and after Liles took a penalty high sticking Hansen there was a chance to get the second one.  Instead, a power play that was barely dangerous for the first unit, and disastrous for the second unit ( sorry Dorsett, but that turnover wasn't good ).

\It ended with Riley Nash having an empty net, as Miller went for a nicely placed dump out that the second unit handled like a grenade, and did nothing but leave an empty net.

So, of course, the Puck Gods and their perverse sense of fun, and gave Justin Falk another chance to have a horrible night get worse with another turnover at the blue line.  Shawn Matthias said thank you and beat Ward with a deke to make it 2-0.  It should have been 1-1, but for Nash's miss.  Of you Puck Gods rapscallions and your idea of fun !

The aggressive nature of the Whiteboard Willie system paid more dividends late in the period, as Ryan Stanton had a great chance coming off the bench and joining the rush, before making an outstanding breakaway pass on the reset to Alexandre Burrows.

Everyone's favorite player ( I do not know this for a fact, but I sure do see a lot of kids wearing #14 around the town and the arena when I get down there.  The kids love him, anyway ! ) powdered the puck, and Liles did not help with the stick in there, getting a piece to make it a crappy night for the Caroline goaltender.  The Canucks actually led the shots in the second ( 9-8 ), and it was in that period where they put this one away.

The third period definitely had a chance for the home team to get back in it, as the Canucks gave the Canes two power plays in the first seven and a half minutes.  The penalty kill stayed perfect on the night, and after that, it was a matter of grinding the game into oblivion.  Ryan Miller had to work a bit,  ( the Canes had 3 shots and 2 misses on the first one, by far the best.  They only had one on the Vrbata tripping PK ), but the only shot from in close was from Tlusty.

They actually had a chance to make it 4-0 on a late power play, and the first unit looked very nice.  A Bieksa turnover did not help on the second unit time, but they also actually spent a modicum of time in the offensive zone.  Baby steps...

The Canucks deserved this win, even with the obvious shot disparity ( a 12-4 deficit in the first, and an 8-4 deficit in the third contributing to a 28-17 edge for the home team.  The shots were actually 56-30 on the night.  The Canes had a 14-11 edge in the missed shot tally ( Burrows and Daniel Sedin missed 3 each ) , and The Canucks led the blocks 14-12 ( Corrado, Hamhuis, Horvat and Tanev had 2 each ).

The Corsi stats are all right here for you ( thank you hockeystats.ca ) , and the the regular ones here.

But since we hit on the shots, misses, and blocks, I will leave it to you to see who was better than the other on the night, if you so desire.  This was a game that the team played four lines and ground the hell out of it at times, and handled their own end pretty decently when they had to.  It was a game they could have lost.

They did not because the 6 million dollar tender at one end was way way better than the 6 million plus guy at the other end.  This is a team game.  I always say that.  But even though one guy had a defense that screwed him, and the other had a defense that played very well, sometimes it is all about the guy between the pipes.

Because this one is all about the goaltender.  It is probably not a coincidence that Ryan Miller got a second straight shutout on the night Dan Hamhuis returned to the line up.  He had a great night for a first game coming off an injury.  In 19:48 TOI, he was a +1, with 2 shots, 2 blocks, and 2 hits.

Ryan Miller set a team record tonight.  The Canucks have never had back to back shutouts on the road.  Ever. ( not quite "ever". Not since Ken Lockett in 1975. glove tap to Nathaniel for the tweet below in the comments... ) Make no mistake, this was Ryan Miller's night.  Good to see him back and feeling better. ( a mini rant : Hey Doug MacLean.  Ragging on Miller for not playing when Lack got the start in a loss was idiotic and more than a bit mean.  Screw you. People get sick when everyone around them has the flu. Asshole. )

Next up is a couple days off, as the boys will get to spend two days in Florida, before meeting the Panthers.  You almost wish they were playing sooner.  A third game where they should have the points based on the record.  The Panthers are the stiffer test, as evidenced by their recent win on our ice.  Perhaps the Canucks can take this four line game that was too much for the two East bottom feeders and get some payback at the rink in Sunshine Florida.

Recap: Canucks 3, Hurricanes 0

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Ryan Miller shuts down Carolina and earns second straight shutout.

The Carolina Hurricanes came into this game riding a four game winning streak at home but ended up being blanked by a hot goalie and snake-bitten by mistakes as they lost, 3-0 to the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night at the PNC Arena.

Ryan Miller earned the shutout, his second on consecutive nights, as he skunked the Flyers, 4-0 in Philadelphia in his previous start.

Cam Ward started for Carolina and allowed three goals on  just 13 shots to take the loss.  He was replaced by Anton Khudobin, who has been red hot of late, to start the third period.

The Hurricanes started out well enough and out-skated the tired Vancouver team for much of the opening period.  But while they outshot the visitors, 12-4, they really did not create much traffic or have close opportunities to score.  Even with the help of a late period powerplay, the Canes did not seem to make Miller work hard in net.

The second period belonged to the Canucks as they started to gather steam and scored three straight goals while the home team lost their drive.

Kevin Bieksa started the play for the first score when he bounced a puck toward center ice.  Nick Bonino tipped it, Justin Faulk misplayed it, and Derek Dorsett beat Ward to make it 1-0.

The second goal was much like the first as the puck once again got past Faulk to an open Canuck, Shawn Matthias, who made no mistake.

Alex Burrows then made it 3-0 on a goal Ward would probably like to have back.

There is not much to report about the third period as the tired, but enthused Canucks were able to hold off the listless Carolina team, who might have been already looking forward to playing in Ottawa the next night.

Game Notes:

  • The Canes outshot the Canucks, 28-17 and were led by Ron Hainsey with six.
  • Jordan Staal did not get a shot on goal but did win 72% of his faceoffs.  Riley Nash won 73% as the Canes dominated the circle by winning 63% overall.
  • The team's penalty kill remains grade A as it now has 30 straight kills without allowing a goal, (12 games).  That is the second longest streak in the NHL this season.
  • John-Michael Liles led the team with 21:45 of ice time.
  • post game interviews

Beyond the bright lights: A look behind-the-scenes at Sportsnet's Canadiens broadcast

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Kelly Greig shines a light on the behind the scenes action of Canadiens broadcasts on Rogers Sportsnet, specifically the work of John Bartlett and Jason York.

As the horn to end the first period sounds a camera assistant flicks a switch and the 10'x10' studio at the Canadian Tire Centre floods with light. Ties are straightened, microphones adjusted and as the red light turns on so do Sportsnet's two hosts.

On-air John Bartlett and Jason York work seamlessly as the Montreal Canadiens play-by-play and colour announcers. While they are perfectly in sync on camera, just beyond the lights their styles couldn't be more different.

In Sportsnet's makeshift studio five people are nearly stepping on each other's toes- two hosts, a stats keeper, a cameraman and a camera assistant. Wires are coiled along every wall. The ledge that overlooks the ice in front of the pair is a mess of papers and empty coffee cups strewn about.

In front of York sits one legal sized page with both team's rosters in black, ages in green, numbers in red with any pertinent facts cramming in along the sides. Every player gets their own square - it looks more like a blueprint or a map of a battle plan rather than a memory aid. According to York the cheat sheet takes about 2 to 3 hours to make for every game and has nearly everything he needs to know on it.

Bartlett's station tells a different story. Pages are stacked over pages with tiny, near illegible writing scrawled up and down margins. A quick glance beside Lars Eller's name shows that he has four points in the past eight games and is tied for 2nd in the NHL in game-winning goals. The array of coloured papers include lineups, goal details, period-by-period stats and promotional scripts all scattered into what only a broadcaster with 20 years of experience would see as organized chaos.

Bartlett himself is the ultimate multitasker with the ability to call the game, speak to the producer of the show, answer texts and even schmooze with the boss all while keeping an eye on what's happening on the ice. While he seems like a human encyclopedia Bartlett says remembering the rosters and stats, "just comes with time and the territory. The more you see a team, like a divisional opponent, the more familiar you are. The prep is a mix of constant ongoing things like watching a lot of other games."

As the second period gets underway seeing the duo work is like a dance. As Milan Michalek streaks down the wing to set up Erik Karlsson, Bartlett keeps his pace in time with the play. He takes a breath to watch Karlsson snap the puck over Dustin Tokarski's shoulder before his goal call is nearly drowned out by the roar of the fans. As he quickly scribbles down the names of scorers York watches the tape back. While York is analyzing the Habs defensive breakdown Bartlett taps him on the shoulder to point out that Pacioretty is back on the bench after tending to an injury.

Maintaining energy throughout a three hour broadcast takes creativity and there is literal dancing involved. While waiting to come back on camera from a break John takes the time to show off his moves to the top 40 hits piped into the Canadian Tire Centre. "You know that video of Elaine dancing on Seinfeld?" York said, "this is worse."

It feels like the pair have been together for longer than they have been. Their first broadcast together was October 9th in Washington. Bartlett was signed on after three years as the voice of the Habs on TSN Radio. "The opportunity presented to me by Sportsnet to do the Habs on TV was one I simply couldn't refuse. To do Habs games to a national audience, along with the opportunity to be part of the iconic Hockey Night in Canada brand is something very special," he said. Bartlett will get the chance to realize his 20-year dream Saturday as the Senators face the Hurricanes when he calls his first national Hockey Night game.

York is now on the broadcaster's side of the microphone after 17 years in the league with five different teams. He started on on the sidelines but says he much prefers the job in the booth. "This is exactly what I wanted to do, I prefer it to interviewing players and being an analyst gets you into too much trouble," he joked referencing that he still knows many active players in the league.

As the game winds down to an unspectacular 4-1 win by the Senators Bartlett and York manage to keep the energy in the booth going. The two hold their smiles well after they throw the broadcast to a studio in Toronto because as long as the red light is on, so are they.

Game Day: Canes at Senators

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Not sure it was possible to high-tail it out of PNC Arena fast enough to leave behind the stench of an uninspiring performance against the Canucks last night. But that certainly seemed the intent of the Hurricanes as they head out to Canada's capital for what they hope to be redemption tonight against the Senators.

Carolina Hurricanes at Ottawa Senators
January 17, 2015 - 7:00 pm ET
Canadian Tire Centre - Ottawa, QC
TV - Fox Sports Carolinas
Radio - 99.9 FM The Fan
SB Nation Rival Blog - Silver Seven Sens

Fancy Stats


HurricanesSenators
Record14-25-518-17-8
Points3344
Division Rank8th Metro7th Atlantic
Conference Rank15th EC11th EC
StreakLost 1Won 1



Power Play %17.3%17.4%
Penalty Kill %87.1%82.9%
Goals/Game2.002.67
Goals Against/Game2.572.67
Shots/Game29.630.1
Shots Against/Game27.532.5
ES Goals For %41.5%47.7%
ES Corsi For %51.6%49.3%
ES PDO96.9100.3
PIM/Game7.712.0



GoaltenderWardAnderson
Record11-17-312-10-6
ES Save Percentage.910.935
GAA2.452.30



Goaltender KhudobinLehner
Record3-8-26-7-2
ES Save Percentage.908.912
GAA2.443.16

Stats via NHL.com and War on Ice


Game Notes

  • "I thought we just got in our own way." The head coach summed up last night's 3-0 shutout loss to the Vancouver Canucks quite succinctly.
  • The Hurricanes now jet to Canada for two road games before shutting it down for the All-Star break. They'll play the Senators tonight and the Maple Leafs in Toronto on Monday night.
  • Tonight's meeting between the Canes and Senators is the first of three for this season. The Canes posted a 2-0-1 record last season and have earned at least a point in 14 of the last 17 games played against the Sens.
  • The Senators come into tonight's game off a big 4-1 win at home against the Canadiens on Thursday night, Jean-Gabriel Pageau the star of that game with a goal and an assist. The Senators are 9-5-4 on home ice this season.
  • With the departure of noted Canes-killer Jason Spezza, only one player in tonight's matchup averages a point per game against the opponent and that's Alexander Semin with 28 points (13g, 15a) in 25 games.
  • Players to watch for the Senators tonight include Bobby Ryan, who leads the team in points (31) and has ten points (5g, 5a) in his last ten games, the always formidable Erik Karlsson, second on the team with 30 points, and Kyle Turris (28 points) who had a two-goal performance against the Canes last season.
  • Anton Khudobin, who relieved Cam Ward of his duties in net for the third period last night, will be tonight's starter and is a perfect 4-0-0 against the Senators with a 1.75 GAA.
  • Craig Anderson will be in net for the Senators tonight, playing in his 400th career NHL game. Anderson is 6-2-4 with a 2.36 GAA versus the Canes.
  • The Senators are going with Thursday's line-up tonight, as reported after this morning's skate. The Canes aren't holding a skate or media availability this morning, so any line-up changes will be forthcoming later today.  UPDATE 1:00 pm: Per CH.com, the three healthy scratches from last night's game (Chris Terry, Brad Malone, Brett Bellemore) will be back in the line-up, but the players who come out of the line-up won't be announced until game time. All 23 players will take warmups.

Projected line-ups

Hurricanes (from Friday's game)

Eric Staal - Jordan Staal - Elias Lindholm
Nathan Gerbe - Riley Nash - Jiri Tlusty
Jeff Skinner - Victor Rask - Alexander Semin
Andrej Nestrasil - Jay McClement - Patrick Dwyer

Andrej Sekera - Justin Faulk
Ron Hainsey - Ryan Murphy
Tim Gleason - John-Michael Liles

Anton Khudobin
Cam Ward

Injuries and Scratches: Brad Malone (healthy), Chris Terry (healthy), Brett Bellemore (healthy)

Senators (from Saturday's morning skate)

Milan Michalek - Jean-Gabriel Pageau - Mark Stone
Erik Condra - Davie Legwand - Curtis Lazar

Marc Méthot - Erik Karlsson

Craig Anderson

Injuries and Scratches: Mark Borowiecki (IR leg laceration), Chris Neil (IR knee), Chris Phillips (healthy), Colin Greening (healthy)


Senators Fail to Take Advantage of Hurricanes

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A recap of the January 17th game between the Senators and Hurricanes.

I don't know about you, but I have a very hard time getting worked up for a game against the Hurricanes. They're not good, they don't have much star power, they have no one I like to hate, and they have no playoff history with the Senators. The first period delivered on exactly what I was expecting: a yawn-inducing period featuring five shots for each team. It was a clear battle between some not very good teams.

To start the period, I thought Ottawa looked clearly like the better team, mostly because Carolina looked terrible. Unfortunately, Ottawa took the first two penalties of the period, but the Canes couldn't put much together. Erik Condra probably had the best scoring chance on those powerplays, when he tried to pick up a lobbed breakaway pass, but Andrej Sekera continued his audition for joining a better team with some solid defensive play. Condra was arguing for a penalty shot, but I don't know why, because we all know how a Condra penalty shot would end. Ottawa got a great chance when Jean-Gabriel Pageau threw the puck to an uncovered Erik Karlsson, who walked in but couldn't score. It did draw Carolina's first penalty of the game, but Ottawa's powerplay looked putrid. Carolina got as much offensive zone pressure, and with 20 seconds left, Mark Stone hit Tim Gleason in the throat with his stick. For some reason, David Legwand got assigned the penalty. After 4-on-4 ended, Curtis Lazar should've had his second of the year. On a shorthanded 2-on-1, Milan Michalek found him with a great pass. One deke put Lazar around Anton Khudobin, but then he missed the tap in.

Just when you thought the period would end without anything noticeable, Brad Malone (yeah, I've never heard of him either) scored after some lax defensive play allowed Carolina to maintain possession in the zone. Not only was the period boring as watching bitumen flow, but the Sens were carrying a deficit into the intermission.

The second period started out well again for the Sens. Bobby Ryan put a puck on net from a sharp angle. Mika Zibanejad picked up the rebound, skated through the crease, but did his best impression of first-period-Lazar by missing the tap-in. Ottawa got things knotted up when Cody Ceci blasted home a rebound off a Condra shot. Khudobin probably wishes the rebound hadn't been so juicy, but he also probably wishes there'd been some kind of defensive coverage on Ceci. Karlsson had an ever better chance to score just afterward when he received a great cross-ice feed, but Khudobin made a spectacular diving save off his wrist that sent the puck pretty much straight up.

Ottawa got a great chance to take the lead when Eric Staal decided it was worth batting the puck out of the air right in front of Jared Cowen's face. He missed, instead drawing blood in Cowen's mouth, sending Ottawa to a four-minute powerplay. It looked pretty similar to their first period powerplay, including the part of taking their own penalty late. David Legwand attempt to imitate Staal, but missed Gleason on the first swing. Not deterred, he swung again, this time connecting with the face and getting his own minor penalty. It effectively negated the last 2:22 of the Sens' powerplay. Ottawa had two great chances to score, first with Pageau and then with Legwand (out of the box) turning long passes into breakaways. Khudobin continued to find the answers to the Sens' questions. After two periods, the shot totals were much more respectable, being 20-19 in favour of the Hurricanes.

The third period started almost exactly how Ottawa wanted it to. Mark Stone took advantage of a sloppy zone exit by the Hurricanes, intercepting a pass and potting an unassisted goal from the slot. I hadn't been much of a fan of Stone's game so far, but that definitely redeemed him. Carolina answered right back with a really unfortunate goal for Craig Anderson. Justin Faulk took a hard shot from the point that deflected off Patrick Wiercioch in front. Anderson had played the shot aggressively and was high in his crease. The puck bounced on its side, and changed course to roll its way back into the net. If ever there was a goal that wasn't a goalie's fault, that was one. Ottawa would have the brunt of the chances for the rest of the game, but the only other goal went to Carolina. Nathan Gerbe took a shot from the point, that may or may not have hit Pageau's stick. Either way, it buried itself top-corner behind Anderson. Ottawa would pour on the pressure, even pulling Anderson for most of the last two minutes, but couldn't beat Khudobin. It was a game Ottawa should've won, both from on paper and based on their play, but it didn't matter. The biggest bright side is it means the team probably won't consider itself a buyer at the trade deadline with a few more results like this. Final score: Hurricanes 3, Senators 2.

Sens Hero: Erik Karlsson

Karlsson finished with six shots on goal, the majority of on-ice shot attempts, and was extremely unlucky to get no points. His speed was on display, he made several good moves to get around Canes' defenders, and was hard on the backcheck a bunch of the night too. The captain looked like the best Sens player tonight.

Honourable Mention: Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Milan Michalek, Erik Condra

These were the other guys I noticed tonight. Pageau was speedy, Michalek had his second good game in a row, and Condra was making lots happen despite his lacklustre linemates.

Honourable Mention: Breakout passes

The Sens looked better at moving the puck out of their own end than most games in recent memory. I feel like that had more to do with the Canes' lack of talent, but even still, that's a glimmer of promise from a very disappointing game.

Sens Zero: The Eric Gryba - Patrick Wiercioch pairing

Neither of these guys looked terrible tonight in general. Wiercioch was a great option alongside Karlsson for exiting the zone. Gryba was a fixture on a PK that killed everything tonight. Together though, they looked pretty lost. They were on the ice for all three Hurricanes goals. It looked like they brought out each others' weaknesses, and it allowed the Hurricanes to take advantage. They put up a 47.62% Corsi together, and were both better than this when separated.

Sens Killer: Anton Khudobin

Ottawa had many, many quality chances tonight, and Khudobin was just good enough to bail out his team on multiple occasions. Without him, Ottawa would've cruised to victory.

Highlights:

B_T Donut:

Game Flow:

Begrudging Benediction: If this team's gonna miss the playoffs anyway, why does it hurt so much to watch them lose?

Recap: Hurricanes 3, Senators 2

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Anton Khudobin wins his fourth straight start for Carolina

The Carolina Hurricanes were looking for redemption after a loss to Vancouver the previous night and came up with a better effort  as they defeated the Ottawa Senators, 3-2 on Saturday night at the Canadian Tire Centre.

Anton Khudobin earned his fourth win in his last four starts and made several key saves for the visitors.

Khudobin made 30 saves on 32 shots and now has made 99 saves on the last 105 shots he's faced in his win streak.

The Hurricanes are now 5-2-1 in the month of January.

It looked like it was going to be a scoreless first period as the Canes squandered three powerplay chances but the fourth line came through again.  Patrick Dwyer fed Brad Malone from behind the net and Malone made a pretty shot to beat Craig Anderson with just 32 seconds left in the period.

The Sens would come out with more intensity in the second and tied it up when Cody Ceci banged in a rebound.

The scored stayed tied until one minute into the third when Mark Stone intercepted a Chris Terry pass and beat Khudobin with a nifty shot to give the home team the lead.  But the Canes were not finished.

A minute and change later, Justin Faulk tied the game with a shot that was deflected past Anderson.  It was the all star defenseman's eighth of the season.

Later in the period, Nathan Gerbe would light the lamp on another shot that was deflected and fooled the Ottawa goaltender.  It was Gerbe's first goal in his last 23 games.

The Canes would stand tall the rest of the way to pick up the win.  Next up will be the Leafs in Toronto on Monday night.

Game Notes:

  • The Canes penalty kill remained perfect and now has 33 consecutive kills, a franchise record.
  • Faulk led the way with six shots on goal.  The Canes had 28 for the game.  The defenseman was +3 after going -3 the night before.
  • Tim Gleason was picked by his goalie to be player of the game.  He had three blocked shots and three hits.
  • post game audio and stats

Game Day Canes at Maple Leafs

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Wrapping up their last game before the All-Star break, the Hurricanes square off tonight against the Maple Leafs. Nearby Markham, Ontario native Jeff Skinner will play in his 300th career NHL game.

Carolina Hurricanes at Toronto Maple Leafs
January 19, 2015 - 7:30 pm ET
Air Canada Centre - Toronto, ON
TV - Fox Sports Carolinas
Radio - 99.9 FM The Fan
SB Nation Rival Blog - Pension Plan Puppets

Fancy Stats


HurricanesMaple Leafs
Record15-25-522-21-3
Points3547
Division Rank8th Metro6th Atlantic
Conference Rank15th EC10th EC
StreakWon 1Lost 4



Power Play %16.9%19.2%
Penalty Kill %87.4%82.6%
Goals/Game2.022.94
Goals Against/Game2.563.06
Shots/Game29.629.0
Shots Against/Game27.633.5
ES Goals For %41.3%47.5%
ES Corsi For %51.4%45.1%
ES PDO96.8100.6
PIM/Game7.58.7



GoaltenderWardBernier
Record11-17-316-13-3
ES Save Percentage.910.925
GAA2.452.70



Goaltender KhudobinReimer
Record4-8-26-8-0
ES Save Percentage.911.908
GAA2.413.41

Stats via NHL.com and War on Ice


Game Notes

  • On December 18th, the Canes and Maple Leafs met at PNC Arena for their first match-up of the season. At the time, the Canes were on a six-game losing streak during which they only mustered one goal per game against their opponents. The Leafs, on the other hand, had won 10 of their last 12 and were on a six-game winning streak. Both streaks were broken that night as the Canes found their scoring touch and emerged with the 4-1 win, setting off a bit of a reversal of fortune for both teams.
  • Since the win, the Canes have returned to a healthy roster and have gone 6-6-2 including a 5-2-1 record in January where they have outscored their opponents 21-14.
  • Meanwhile, since their loss the Leafs have gone 3-11-0, dropped four spots in the Eastern Conference standings, fired a head coach, and dealt with media accusations that their star player is 'uncoachable'. Since Peter Horachek took over as interim head coach after the firing of Randy Carlyle on January 6th, the Leafs have gone 1-5-0 and have been outscored 20-8. They are on a four-game losing streak and have scored one goal total in those four games, which is where we find ourselves heading into tonight's rematch at the center of the hockey universe.
  • The Canes split the weekend with a 3-0 loss to the Canucks at home Friday followed by a 3-2 win over the Senators in Ottawa on Saturday. Goaltender Anton Khudobin took first star honors in Saturday's win, his fourth consecutive win in net and first of the season that wasn't the outcome of a shootout. It will remain to be seen if head coach Bill Peters rides the hot hand and Dobby gets the start again tonight. The Canes didn't practice yesterday, so if there are any line-up changes from Saturday, they won't be forthcoming until later this morning.
  • Congratulations to Jeff Skinner, who at the tender age of 22 will play in his 300th career NHL game tonight. Skinner has two 30-goal seasons and 204 points on his NHL resume, and is one of six Hurricanes players who average over a point-per-game against the Maple Leafs.
  • The Canes continue to be killers short-handed, perfect now through 13 games and 33 penalty kills. On the flip side, the power play has gone cold, 0-for-10 in the past four games.
  • The Leafs recent four-game skid came during a road trip that took them through tough opponents in California and St. Louis, where they tallied their last loss, 3-0 to the Blues on Saturday night. They return to ACC with a respectable 15-9-0 home record this season. Phil Kessel, who will represent the Maple Leafs at the All-Star Game, leads the team with 43 points (19g, 24a), followed by James van Riemsdyk with 40 points (19g, 21a).
  • The Maple Leafs held team meetings yesterday but did not skate after their return from St. Louis, so any line-up changes will be reported after the morning skate.

Projected line-ups

Hurricanes (from Saturday's game)

Jeff Skinner - Victor Rask - Chris Terry

Anton Khudobin

Injuries and Scratches:, Alexander Semin (healthy), Andrej Nestrasil (healthy), John-Michael Liles (healthy)

Maple Leafs (from Saturday's game)

James van Riemsdyk - Tyler Bozak - Phil Kessel
Daniel Winnik - Nazem Kadri - Mike Santorelli
Richard Panik - Trevor Smith - David Clarkson
David Booth - Sam Carrick - Troy Bodie

Morgan Rielly - Roman Polak
Jake Gardiner - Korbinian Holzer

Jonathan Bernier

Injuries and Scratches: Peter Holland (IR upper body), Joffrey Lupul (IR lower body), Leo Komarov (shoulder), Stephane Robidas (healthy), Matt Frattin (healthy)

Hurricane Watch, A Week In Review: The Faulk In Our (all)Stars

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I am so sorry for the awful pun in the title. I really, truly am.

The Carolina Hurricanes took part in another dreaded back-to-back scenario on Friday and Saturday evenings. On Friday they welcomed the 25-15-3 Vancouver Canucks into PNC Arena. After an unsuccessful one year stint for John Tortorella in Vancouver in which the team suffered a rare postseason miss (they also had an identical record to the Hurricanes), the Canucks have seen a resurgence under rookie head coach Willie Desjardins. The 57 year old has his team in 3rd place of the tough Pacific Division, and solidly in a playoff spot. His team is back to being a positive possession team, with a respectable 50.6 even strength score-adjusted corsi share. On Friday however, they ran into a Carolina team who would produce drastically more shot attempts and scoring chances than they would manage. Here are a couple graphs to illustrate the advantages the Hurricanes held in these respects, courtesy of the fantastically helpful war-on-ice.com. I highly recommend this website for all of your hockey analytics needs.

As you can see, the Hurricanes held significant advantages in both shots attempted and in terms of converting those shot attempts into legitimate scoring chances. Why, then did the Hurricanes fail to score a single goal? And why did Vancouver waltz to a 3-0 victory? The answers to those questions are, unfortunately, rather simple. The Hurricanes were done in by uncharacteristic mistakes from their top players, as the usually fantastic Justin Faulk had one of his tougher games this season. His failure to play the puck in a couple situations led directly to high quality chances for Vancouver on which they were able to beat Cam Ward and convert upon. Ryan Miller also turned in a fantastic performance for the Canucks, as he made save after save to hold the Hurricanes scoreless.

Usually I use frame by frame breakdowns to illustrate what happened on various plays, but these are simple enough to see what went wrong for the all-star Justin Faulk in real time.

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Everybody has off game, even Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews, and Shea Weber. Faulk certainly had an off game against Vancouver, but those are to be expected sometimes. It's a part of the learning curve and the development process that is necessary to make it as an elite player in the National Hockey League, which is something that I firmly believe that Justin Faulk is well on his way to accomplishing.

Lurking around the corners of those aforementioned off games are plenty of opportunities ripe for players to redeem themselves. That is exactly what Justin Faulk did in Canada's capital city against the Senators on Saturday night. While the Hurricanes dominated Vancouver on Friday night but lost, the exact opposite was true in Ottawa on Saturday. The Senators manufactured an impressive 38 scoring chances, while the Hurricanes could only muster 16. In terms of shot attempts, the Senators held a 61-39 advantage at even strength. The Hurricanes had no business winning this game, but they managed to do so on the backs of two of their most important players on the roster. Anton Khudobin was absolutely spectacular. He stole the show on this night, and utilized this performance to leapfrog his counterpart Cam Ward in both save percentage and goals against average. Khudobin has had a number of solid outings this season, and this was certainly one of his best, in my opinion only being topped by his effort in Madison Square Garden in the third game of the season against the Rangers. Back to Saturday however, where only three Hurricanes were in the black in terms of on-ice shot attempts, and they were Justin Faulk, Eric Staal, and Jiri Tlusty. The team struggled mightily territorially, but these three were certainly bright spots in an otherwise rough night. Staal and Tlusty were +1 in this regard, but Faulk was even better +3.

Here are the charts for this one:

In addition to leading the team in shot differential, Faulk also scored a goal and had an assist on Nathan Gerbe's game winner. Producing two points and being the best possession player on the team is what you expect from your All Star defenseman. I fully expect to see more of what we saw against Ottawa than what we saw against Vancouver from Faulk down the road. And, as beat writer Chip Alexander so boldly proclaimed recently, the Carolina Hurricanes should probably not trade Justin Faulk. A sizzling hot take, to be sure, but probably one with which we could all agree.

GAME DAY: Canucks @ Luongo

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Alright. Let's try this again, shall we?

TimeMonday 4:30 PM PST
TVSportsnet
Season Series1-0 Luongos
Last Meeting
3-1 Luongos Jan 8/15
The EnemyLitter Box Cats (also, Luongos)Scoring LeadersD. Sedin: 9-29-38
N. Bjugstad 15-12-27

Canucks
CATEGORY
Luongos
25-15-3SEASON RECORD20-13-10
53Points50
7thConference Position9th
Won 2
StreakLost 3
2.77 (14)
Goals For Per 60 (GF60)
2.35 (25)
2.51 (12)
Goals Against Per 60 (GA60)
2.65 (18)
20.2 (10)Power Play %13.2 (29)
87.6 (3)Penalty Kill %81.1 (16)
48.1 (23)Faceoff Win %49.0 (18)
10.4 (20)PIM / GP9.2 (9)
49.2 (22)Corsi For %50.5 (16)
100.7 (12)PDO98.7 (25)

The last time the Canucks met the Florida Luongos back on the 8th of January. they came out flatter than flat. It was almost as disappointing as seeing empty seats in the rink that night, and kicked off a 3 game losing skid for the Canucks. Now they have a chance to right that wrong, and show the Luongos that it was just an off night for them.

The Canucks could be without Brad Richardson tonight, as he got banged up in that 3-0 shutout win over the Hurricanes on Friday night. If he's unable to go, Zack Kassian will draw back in, and all eyes will be on him to make some kind of impression against the Luongos other than "was he even playing tonight?"

Luongo.

Things You Need To Know Tonight:



GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

Swedish Progmetal gods OPETH are back, and still creating jaw-droppingly beautiful music. Here's 'Eternal Rains Will Come' from the album 'Pale Communion'

Impromptu Drinking Games Rules

drink

- 1 Drink: Did you know Luongo is on Twitter?

- 1 Drink: Murph gets his revenge on Juice...

- 2 Drinks: We see Ryan Miller's Grandmother...

- 2 Drinks: If Kassian gets traded mid-game

- 3 Drinks: If someone on the panel proclaims Florida and their double-digit Bettman points 'a playoff team'

- 3 drinks: A classic Luongo goal off the knob...


[Game Preview] Leafs vs. Canes

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Time for the Peter Horachek era to get turned around.

Nobody expected miracles from Peter Horachek when he took over the Leafs' head coaching job. All we ever wanted was for this mediocre squad to look less terrible. Mostly, Horachek has delivered, but naturally, he won't quiet many of his louder critics (the ones with microphones) until his team starts posting wins. Enter: The Carolina Hurricanes.

The last meeting between these two teams ended in a 4-1 Carolina win, and while the Canes are a low-scoring team (2nd last in the league, only to Buffalo) they have a great penalty kill which sits at 4th in league and decent goaltending. Jordan Staal is back from injury and certainly makes the Hurricanes a better team down the middle. Former Leaf Jay McClement will also be in the lineup, so the pessimist in all of us can expect a good game from him. Finally, this is a Tuesday night game against a what-used-to-be Southeast Division team, so our superstitious sides are probably anxious about the Leafs' odds tonight as well.

On the other hand, a good game from Jonathan Bernier and a couple bounces puts the Leafs in a great position to grab two points from a team in their own conference. The Canes' power play currently sits at 22nd in the league, and their poor team scoring will mean that they'll be hard-pressed to mount a comeback. The team sits at 13th in 5v5 Corsi close and tied, and 12th in plain 5v5 CF%, and so won't go down easily, but I'll be surprised if the Leafs can't find the back of the net a couple times this evening. Heck, the Canes only have 35 points as I write this, and sit squarely at the bottom of their division, just a couple of wins ahead of Buffalo.

GO LEAFS GO

Projected lines via NHL.com:

HURRICANES

Eric Staal– Jordan Staal– Jiri Tlusty

Jeff Skinner– Riley Nash– Elias Lindholm

Nathan Gerbe– Victor Rask– Chris Terry

Brad Malone– Jay McClement– Patrick Dwyer

Andrej Sekera– Justin Faulk

Tim Gleason– Ryan Murphy

Ron Hainsey– Brett Bellemore

Anton Khudobin

Cam Ward

Scratched: Alexander SeminAndrej NestrasilJohn-Michael Liles

Injured: None

MAPLE LEAFS

James van Riemsdyk– Tyler Bozak– Phil Kessel

Daniel Winnik– Nazem Kadri– Mike Santorelli

Richard Panik– Trevor Smith– David Clarkson

Matt Frattin– Sam Carrick– David Booth

Dion Phaneuf– Cody Franson

Morgan Rielly– Roman Polak

Jake Gardiner– Korbinian Holzer

Jonathan Bernier

James Reimer

Scratched: None

Injured: Joffrey Lupul (lower body), Peter Holland (upper body), Leo Komarov (upper body), Stephane Robidas (upper body)

Recap: Hurricanes 4, Maple Leafs 1

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Khudobin wins fifth straight start and Carolina is now 6-2-1 in January

The Carolina Hurricanes took advantage of a struggling team and defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-1 on Monday night at the ACC.

The Canes won back-to-back road games for the first time this season and now have a 6-2-1 record in the month of January.

The Leafs have now lost five in a row and have only scored two goals in that time frame.

Anton Khudobin made 34 saves in the effort and has now won five straight starts.

Carolina wanted to get off to a good start and they succeeded with the help of their red-hot fourth line.  Brad Malone scored his third goal of the season off the rebound of a Patrick Dwyer pass/shot.

Just 41 seconds after the Malone score, Elias Lindholm made the score 2-0, at 7:47 into the first period when he got a step on the Leafs defense.

Malone also dropped the gloves with David Clarkson in a busy first period for him.

The Canes made it 3-0 in the second period when Eric Staal took a pass from brother Jordan and beat Jonathan Bernier in close.  That was all for the Toronto goalie as James Reimer took his spot.

There were a lot of penalties in this game and things got a little chippy in the third period.  At one point, Eric took exception to a hit by Dion Phaneuf on Jordan Staal and the two captains dropped gloves.

The Leafs would eventually score with five minutes and change left when Nazem Kadri beat Khudobin during a powerplay opportunity.   That score ended the Carolina penalty kill streak at 14 games and 36 consecutive kills.

Toronto pulled their goalie for an extra attacker, but Victor Rask made a hustle play to get the puck behind the Leafs net and he passed to Jordan Staal who fed it again to Eric.  The elder Staal saw Phaneuf blocking the net so he wound up and fired a slapper which went in the net for the final score.

After the game Staal was interviewed and he said that he saw the defenseman in the way and fired the puck hard to either score or hit him.  Obviously, there is no love lost between those players.

The Canes, who probably would prefer to keep playing, will now have eight days off for the All Star beak and will play again next Tuesday at the PNC.

Game Notes:

  • Khudobin has been nothing short of outstanding in the past few games and should continue to be the starter until he falters.  We will see if the coaching staff agrees.
  • Andrej Sekera and Justin Faulk led the team with over 24 minutes of ice time each.  Sekera had three blocked shots, Faulk two.
  • The Canes had 32 shots on goal.  The Captain led the way with six.  He got the fireman's helmet for being the team's player of the game.
  • Faulk and Jiri Tlusty had a team high four hits each.  The Canes were credited with 27 for the game.
  • Carolina dominated the faceoff circle and won 64% for the game.
  • stats and post game audio

Why Craig Anderson Shouldn't Be Traded

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The first of a pair of articles looking at a potential trade of Craig Anderson. This one argues why he shouldn't be traded.

Craig Anderson's stat-line reads pretty impressively this season: .927 save percentage, 2.33 GAA, 3 shutouts. His .933 even-strength save percentage puts him 7th among goalies who've played at least 20 games this season. The other thing is, he's 33, and plenty of stats show us that by about age 35, goalies start to drop off rapidly in terms of their stats. So it's very likely we're seeing the last good season of Andy, after which he will deteriorate like most goalies approaching 40. Some think this means we should sell high on him, trading him before his three-year extension kicks in. On the surface, this makes sense, but I think he holds more value in a Sens uniform than as trade bait. I'll try to explain.

For this thought exercise, I'm thinking about what the Sens will need two years from now. In two years, I hope the team has at least returned to respectability. They may not be Cup contenders yet, but I'm hoping for them to at least be solidly in the playoff mix. Thus, it makes sense to compare the value of Anderson to the value of whatever a potential trade could bring back in the 2016-17 season . To do this, I first want to consider what Anderson could fetch as a trade return.

Let's get the idea of a first-round pick out of our heads. Mrs. O had a piece asking what a trade for Anderson could yield, in which she ran down all the recent goalie trades. The goalies who brought back first-round picks? Cory Schneider, Semyon Varlamov, and Ryan Miller. The first two guys were expected to be franchise goalies for the next decade. Anderson's age immediately excludes him from that category. The Miller trade turned out to be a mistake, and in a so-called deep draft year, teams will hold on tighter to their first-rounders. I think it's fair to say teams below Ottawa in the standings won't give up their picks for anything. Andy could maybe net a late first-rounder, but I don't see any of the Cup favourites in need of a goalie. At any rate, a late first-round or a second-round pick won't be ready to contribute in Ottawa in two years.

Now, if a first-round pick is off the table, what kind of roster player could the Sens get back? Bryan Murray is always reportedly searching for a top-six forward (warning: that's an Ottawa Sun link), and might want to trade Anderson for a top-six forward. The guys recently traded in goalie trades? Steve Ott, Cory Conacher, Shawn Matthias, Matt Frattin. Three of those guys were packaged with a backup goalie. Conacher was the only one with any real hope of ending up in a team's top six, and he was a bust. The other option, and definitely the most intriguing, is the return of a top-four defenceman. The Sens are desperately in need of help on the back-end, and maybe a solid goalie could bring back such a return.

Which teams are most in need of solid goaltending? The Oilers come immediately to mind. You could probably make a case for the Coyotes and the Hurricanes too. On these teams, who could you pry free? As an example, the Wild weren't about to trade Jonas Brodin or Charlie Coyle for goaltending help. Maybe from Edmonton you could pry Jeff Petry, or maybe from Carolina you could pry Andrej Sekera, or maybe from Arizona you could pry Keith Yandle. But with how scarce good defencemen have been this year, you gotta think these teams will get better offers than a 33-year-old goalie. And in two of those cases, they'd need help fitting in a third goalie contract, and so you're probably looking at two more overpaid years of Cam Ward or a million (actually just four) more overpaid years of Mike Smith as a return. I'd do that for Keith Yandle, probably not for Lauri Korpikoski.

I guess the problem for me is that I see the return being a second-round pick, a forward in the mould of Alex Chiasson, or a defenceman in the mould of Mark Borowiecki. None of these are bad returns, they're just not what Ottawa will need in two years. Ottawa's farm system for goalies looks like a mess right now. Andrew Hammond is beginning to show why he was never drafted. Chris Driedger isn't showing much reason for confidence with this performance in the ECHL. Marcus Hogberg is probably the best goaltending prospect in the system right now, and he has yet to play a game in North America. I think in two years I'd rather have Anderson backing up Robin Lehner than any of those other guys. And in two years, this team won't care much either way if they have another bottom-pairing defenceman or another guy trying to crack the bottom six.

Some people argue that you can find an adequate goalie through free agency. My caution against that is to look at the goalies who were scooped up as free agents this off-season: Evgeni Nabokov, Anders Lindback, Chad Johnson, Justin Peters... only Ryan Miller and Jonas Hiller were reliable, and both definitely come at a higher price than the Sens would be willing to pay. Mid-season, Martin Brodeur and Ilya Bryzgalov were both scooped up, and neither of those excites me very much either. Coming up this season? Ray Emery, Jhonas Enroth/Michal Neuvirth (whoever Buffalo doesn't keep), Viktor Fasth, Thomas Greiss, as well as a bunch of the same guys as last year. I don't think you replace Craig Anderson, even 35-year-old Andy, through free agency unless you're willing to shell out for a guy like Miller.

Of course, the easiest way around this is for the trade to return a backup goalie. That would interest me somewhat. If Ottawa could trade Anderson, Eric Gryba, and Zack Smith to Edmonton for Jeff Petry, Ben Scrivens, and maybe a third-round pick, you make that deal. That's better for the Sens two years from now. (As long as Petry is re-signed, but that story could get its own article.)

The problem for me is that in 95% of the trades I can envision, Ottawa either gets back someone who will never fit Ottawa's needs, or gets back something like a second-round pick that could be good in six years. I think that removing Craig Anderson makes this team definitely worse in two years. The article linked at the top shows that goalie decline starts to get noticeable by age 30. The fact that Anderson is still playing well at age 33 suggests that his decline probably won't be as bad as it is for most goalies his age. I think he'll make a better backup than pretty much anyone else available.

Trading Anderson, barring a great return, would put this team's success on hold for multiple seasons. I'm not prepared to do that. For that reason, the best course of action would be to not trade him.

Poll
Should the Sens trade Craig Anderson?

  202 votes |Results

Game Analysis: Hurricanes Pile On Struggling Maple Leafs

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For the first time this season the Carolina Hurricanes have won back-to-back road games. The Canes easily handled the Toronto Maple Leafs Monday, winning 4-1 in their final game before this weekend’s All Star festivities.

Eric Staal scored twice and Anton Khudobin put in another stellar performance to lead Carolina to a 4-1 win Monday at Toronto.

Three Observations

1. Was Dion Phaneuf’s hit on Jordan Staal a bad hit? That depends on what we're calling "bad." Was it illegal? Probably not — there was a blindside aspect to it, but there wasn't contact with the head. But the question of whether or not it was a responsible hit is definitely in play. In a time when many speak of a lack of respect from the health of fellow players, a hit like Phaneuf’s got the correct response from Jordan’s teammate (and brother) Eric Staal. I would say Eric’s decision to rip a slapshot past — or at — Phaneuf for the empty-netter was no more "dirty" that Phaneuf’s hit. Both were completing a play in the game, but maybe took it a bit far.

2. Carolina’s fourth line continues to set a tone each night. They frequently grind out shifts, and they are now being rewarded with points on the score sheet. In the past four games, Jay McClement has three assists, Patrick Dwyer has a goal and two assists, and Brad Malone— who was a healthy scratch against Vancouver — has goals in his past two and an assist the game before. Malone now has five points (including three goals) in his past eight appearances after not even being on the ice for a Hurricanes goal in his first 27 games with Carolina.

3. Elias Lindholm used his speed to his advantage Monday. First, he drew the game’ first penalty by blowing past Toronto defenseman Jake Gardiner. Then shortly after the penalty expired, Lindholm took a deflected pass in the defensive zone and raced down the ice — pulling away from the speedy Morgan Rielly— for his ninth goal of the season. Lindholm continues to show off different aspects of his game each night. Once he pulls them all together, Carolina will have an All Star-worthy player on their hands.

Number To Know

5 — Years since Staal took over as Carolina’s captain. On Jan. 20, 2010, Rod Brind`Amour— now a Carolina assistant coach — turned over the team captaincy to Staal. On the eve of his milestone, Staal showed perhaps the most fire he has in his half decade with the Hurricanes "C" on his sweater. Staal not only notched two goals, but he engaged Phaneuf in a fight following the Toronto defenseman’s hit on Jordan Staal. It was a rare captain-on-captain tilt, and even rarer fight for Staal. It was Staal’s second career fight and first since he took over the captaincy. The other was in Carolina’s Stanley Cup-winning season, when Staal fought Washington’s Jeff Halpern on April 3, 2006. The significance of that fight? Halpern fought again that game, this time against recent trade acquisition Doug Weight. The Weight-Halpern scrap served to fully weave Weight into the team’s fabric in the eyes of both his teammates and Carolina fans, and it helped set the tone for what turned out to be an historic run to the Stanley Cup.

Plus

Anton Khudobin — The Hurricanes are back to square one with their goaltending situation, and that's probably a good thing. With Cam Ward slipping a little of late (12 goals allowed in his last four starts), Carolina is reacquainting itself with Khudobin. Khudobin has now won five straight starts to improve his record to 5-8-2. It was Khudobin who was the odds-on favorite to be the No. 1 goalie heading into training camp, but a sub-par preseason and a rejuventated Ward relegated Khudobin to backup status until recently. Now, Khudobin has seemingly seized the reins of the No. 1 job and is running with it.

Minus

Jeff Skinner— There wasn't much to dislike about Monday’s win, but Skinner is still struggling to create chances and having issues in the defensive zone. Skinner is mired in a four-game point drought and has only 19 points in 41 games. Plainly put, the Hurricanes need more out of No. 53.

Silver Nuggets: If you could only have one redux

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The last edition of this was so successful that I decided to do a similar exercise for today's Nuggets, just with a different, but very pertinent issue.

Here's the question: If you could only have either competent management (hockey operations staff), coaching staff, or ownership, which would you pick? The key here for our thought exercise is that the two areas that you don't choose would be inept. The NHL team would be bad at trading/drafting/signing talent, use their personnel ineffectively or have bad systems, or always be a cap floor team.

For the Senators

  • competent management despite an inept coaching staff and ownership would mean that despite usage and budget, Bryan Murray and co. are drafting useful players and are valuing the right skills. Trading for Kyle Turris, signing Clarke MacArthur, drafting Erik Karlsson, Mike Hoffman, Mark Stone are all things that come out of a competent hockey operations department.
  • competent coaching staff would mean utilizing your talent in the right roles. Not giving Erik Karlsson PK minutes, playing Kyle Turris the most of the Senators centremen, playing the skilled players like Hoffman, Stone, and Zibanejad more than your veterans if they've been trending in the right direction.
  • competent ownership would mean having the ability to re-sign players that you've drafted or to sign marquee free agents to put your team over the time; being able to take on bad contracts to get a tangible asset in return (full use of asset management); take off the pressure from your management and coaching staff so that you can build a team properly for long-term contention rather than needing short term results
Excited to see what you come up with in the comments!

Sens Links

  • The Senators dominated the Hurricanes, but lost on Sunday. No way they can keep up a pace of 40+ scoring chances a game, but Erik Karlsson could've had multiple hat-tricks!!! [Silver SevenRank the PerformancesOttawa CitizenWTYKYSensChirpSenShot]
  • Chris Neil is returning tonight against the Rangers. Mark Borowiecki will still be out until the all-star break. [Ottawa Citizen]
  • A lot of the following pieces will come as reaction to a Bryan Murray interview yesterday. Here's the audio and the Citizen piece that recaps the entire segment. [TSN1200Ottawa Citizen]
  • After Bryan Murray hinted that he'd be open to a "Bobby Ryan" type trade, Richard wrote a pertinent fanpost on a potential target: Ryan O'Reilly. [Silver Seven Fanpost]
  • Bryan Murray also touched on how he's giving Colin Greening's agent a green light to seek a trade after the all-star break. Afterwards, it's waivers for the big forward. He's been passed by too many players on the depth chart, but I wish him all the best in finding a new NHL home. [6th SensSenShot]
  • A tooooooon of reaction regarding Phillips comments in this Citizen piece. Chirp has a recap on it, Tra Mike has his take on the news. [Ottawa CitizenSensChirpBonk's Mullet]
  • NKB finished up our look at 2015 RFA's with a piece on Jean-Gabriel Pageau. [Silver Seven]
  • Steve talks about the noise at the CTC... and budget?? [Bonk's Mullet]
  • NKB was also on Ups and Downs duty this week. Click through to see his rankings. [Silver Seven]
  • The BSens played three games since the last Nuggets, so make sure to check out Ian's prospect update for recaps. [Silver Seven]
  • Jeff also has recaps of the BSens three games, with thoughts at the end which I always make sure to read. Also of note, Chris Wideman is the BSens lone representative to the AHL All Star game. I thought Shane Prince might've had a shot but oh well. [SenShot - vs. Syracusevs. Lehigh Valleyvs. SpringfieldAll-Star game]
  • With some more BSens news, Todd Bertuzzi suffered a knee injury over the weekend and went back home to re-evaluate where he's at. [SenShot]
  • An absolutely fantastic piece by Varada on the Senators prospects and development system. [WTYKY]
  • Mark Stone has been showing his worth to the Senators since he was drafted with a 6th round pick in 2010. Here's a column on his play so far. [Ottawa Citizen]
  • Trevor discusses Milan Michalek, who is often forgotten by many fans (myself included). [SenShot]
  • I always like to end the Nuggets with something to listen to, and I can't think of a better way than Episode 9 of WTYKY's Scotchcast. [WTYKY]

Game 48 recap: Bolts PK to the rescue in 4-1 win over Vancouver

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The Tampa Bay Lightning relied on an exceptionally effective penalty kill, and another impressive outing from goalie Ben Bishop to put away the visiting Vancouver Canucks 4-1 Tuesday night, tying a franchise record for consecutive wins at home with eight.

The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-1 in front of an announced crowd of 18,517 at the Amalie Arena in Tampa Tuesday night.

This first (extended) half of the 2014-15 season has given Lightning fans ample opportunities to at least scratch their heads in confusion, if not gnash their teeth in anger, over the ineptitude displayed by Tampa Bay's special teams units. Although, even the harshest critics have to admit that throughout out the first 48 of 82 regular season games there have been glimpses of being pretty good, like tonight, at least in the case of the penalty kill.

"Clearly the penalty kill saved us tonight. Outstanding. It's rare to see one five-on-three in a game, let alone two, and long ones. Can't say enough about how those guys kill penalties. They bailed us out tonight.  " - Lightning head coach Jon Cooper

Things didn't exactly get off to a rip-roaring start; there were a total of five shots taken, all by the Lightning, through the first 14 minutes. Vancouver didn't register a shot on goal until there were about five and a half minutes remaining in the period. Little surprise that the teams headed into the first intermission in a scoreless tie, with the Lightning logging six shots to the Canucks' four.

"We didn't shoot pucks tonight. I think we had 11 or 12 shot attempts in the first period which is not near good enough. We passed up a lot of opportunities to shoot pucks." -  Cooper

The Lightning started off the second with a penalty box parade that saw them rack up calls against at :28, :38, 1:45 and once more late in the period, at the 18:45 mark. As Cooper mentioned, the PK was up to the task each time.

Meanwhile, the Bolts got on the board at 13:32 on a goal by Valtteri Filppula with assists from Steven Stamkos and Ryan Callahan.

The Lightning carried the 1-0 lead into the third period.

With the puck down in the second, they wasted no time in doubling that lead, with Alex Killorn scoring 11 seconds in. Victor Hedman and Filppula chipped in with assistance.

At 4:16, the margin was three thanks to a goal by Brian Boyle, made possible by the hustle of Brett Connolly who began the play by winning a race to wave off an icing call. He and Brenden Morrow were credited with assists.

The Canucks finally got a puck past netminder Ben Bishop, who would go on to turn away a total of 27 out of 28 shots against, when a scrum of Vancouver and Tampa Bay players crashed the net and just kind of dragged the puck with them over the goal line at 8:09. Credit for the goal was given to Frank Corrado, his first of the season. Assists went to Alexandre Burrows and Chris Higgins.

At 4:45, with Stamkos serving Tampa Bay's seventh and final penalty of the night on a dubious Delay of Game/Face-off violation, Vancouver coach Willie Desjardins pulled goalie Ryan Miller to create a six-on-four attack. The Lightning weathered that threat and Miller returned to his crease with 3:15 remaining.

He was pulled again just a few seconds later and the Lightning added an empty-net goal from Killorn to cap things off at 17:34. Cedric Paquette and Hedman picked up the helpers.

The win is the Lightning's eighth consecutive victory at home, which ties the franchise record.

"You have to win at home and we've had a really good run at home. The arena is full, it's electric, the fans are into it and it gives the guys a ton of energy. It's a lot of fun to play here." - Cooper

The Lightning are off now for the all-star break and will be in action again a week from tonight, January 27, when they travel to Raleigh to face the Carolina Hurricanes.

Game notes:

  • Tonight was the last regular season meeting between the two teams, with the Lightning also picking up a 4-2 win in Vancouver on October 18.
  • Stamkos has scored at least a point in each of his past seven games against Vancouver, while recording multi-point efforts in the previous five.
  • The Lightning's previous three games had each been decided by a single goal.
  • Tonight was Luke Witkowski's first NHL game. He skated 20 shifts, 14:29 of ice time and blocked two shots. "I couldn't get a pre-game nap and I was a little nervous warming up, but once I got on the ice and got some shifts, it was just hockey."
  • Tonight was also Nikita Kucherov's 100th NHL game.
  • Stamkos, Tyler Johnson and Jonathan Drouin will represent the Lightning at All-Star festivities in Columbus, Ohio, this weekend.
  • The Lightning honored Moses Brown as the 24th Lightning Community Hero of the season during the first period of tonight's game. Brown, who received a $50,000 donation from the Lightning Foundation and the Lightning Community Heroes program, will donate the money to Feed our Children Ministries, Caregivers, Pastor on Patrol, Emmnaul, New Testament Outreach Clinic and Calvary Community Clinic. In 1986, Brown founded Feed Our Children Ministries, Inc., a non-profit organization supporting the Greater Tampa Bay community, orphans, elderly and the poor throughout the world by providing food, clothing, transportation, housing, temporary shelter, counseling, financial assistance and spiritual support. Brown, a minister by trade believes in reaching people beyond the pulpit, and lending a hand on the frontlines. This belief has influenced Brown's philanthropic work in the Tampa Bay community. Under Brown's leadership, Feed Our Children Ministries has attracted over 65 committed volunteers who help deliver the organization's monthly contribution of 80 hours of service, 3,500 meals and tutoring for 45 kids.

Thursday Habs Links: How will Marc Bergevin deal with Alexei Emelin?

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Here are your daily links covering the Canadiens, including Bergevin's thought process, Subban's blue line prowess and Toronto's jersey throwing crackdown.

Montreal Canadiens

  • Marc Bergevin has been known to value cap space, and with Alexei Emelin finding himself in the same situation as Josh Gorges was in a year ago, could Emelin be the next player to be traded? Elliotte Friedman thinks that Bergevin might try to make a move, although he definitely makes it clear it's just his thoughts on the situation, and that Bergevin's camp hasn't leaked anything regarding a possible move. [Sportsnet]
  • PK Subban has been on fire over the past 8 games, recording 3 goals and 5 assists in that span. More encouragingly, his underlying stats leave him one of the top 10 defensemen in the league. [TSN]
  • Subban also responded gracefully when asked about his All-Star snub, mentioning that the Habs were well represented in Columbus with Price and Sekac. Seriously NHL, why is this guy not at the All-Star game? [TSN]
  • The importance of Carey Price's play this season hasn't been lost on his team. Despite possessing the worst score-adjusted Fenwick among Eastern contenders, the Canadiens are still on pace to post a 111-point season. [Globe and Mail]
  • With Montreal's powerplay finally clicking as Subban and Markov find ways to put the puck in the back of the net, now is the perfect time to get your very own "License To Snipe" shirt. [EOTP]
  • Enjoy the Club 1909 bloopers and Brendan Gallagher's infectious laugh! [Canadiens]
  • P.K. Subban would like to be at the All-Star game, but he's not losing any sleep over the snub. [TSN 1050]

Around The League And Elsewhere

  • Shot-blocking defensemen are more of a hassle then help, as their presence in front of the crease creates more work for goaltenders. The new NHL may no longer have any use for them, as puck-handling defensemen continue to play more minutes and generate more scoring opportunities. [CBS Sports]
  • After spending 22 years in the NHL, Ray Whitney has announced his retirement. The former All-Star had career seasons with the Carolina Hurricanes, with whom he won the Stanley Cup in 2006. [CBC]
  • The latest Leafs' fans who threw their jerseys on the ice, have been fined and banned from the ACC for a year. While fans do have the right to be frustrated at their team, their frustration doesn't give them the right to be entitled. [Sportsnet]
  • While the Winter Classic is shaping to be a showdown between the Habs and Bruins, it looks like the NHL will award Minnesota and Colorado with outdoor games as well. [Puck Daddy]
  • Watch Alex Ovechkin score a fantastic goal and shatter the camera in net as well! [Sports Illustrated]

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