Blues 5, Hurricanes 2

Here's a novel approach! Send the entire team to Albany and bring the River Rats to Raleigh! Kids playing in the minors are dying for a shot at the bigs and it might take the pressure off the big-leaguers and give them the chance to find the fun in the game again!! And certainly the motivation to get back to the bigs where someone else carries their luggage! Hell - what's the worst that could happen? Raleigh team loses a couple more games?!!

I happen to agree with Maurice that the symptoms of the problem are obvious: (quoting Maurice)
"It's the simple, grinding things that we're just not willing to do and it starts with our best guys, in back-checking and stopping and hitting and not getting beat off walls. Doing it once doesn't make you a good guy. You have to do it every shift."

To me the obvious gap for the Hurricanes was that the team depended far too much on only two players, Ruutu and Cole, to provide consistent hitting. Accordingly, when Ruutu and Cole are out of the lineup, the Hurricanes struggle to beat any team, The other obvious glaring issue was the vulnerability of the Hurricanes to be dominated by the physically strong teams. To me there was simply no way LaRose and Whitney at forwards on the first line would work against teams built around physical forwards. It is not a new concept; and many people have called for the Hurricanes to add a large scoring forward to go with Staal. In the Blues game, the first goal was the result of the Blues outworking Staal/Whitney/LaRose. The second goal was the result of LaRose misjudging a chip and missing the puck with his glove. The third goal was also a breakdown. In short, the Hurricanes are killing themselves and the Blues obviously sought to pressure the Hurricanes into deadly mistakes in the Hurricanes offensive end. I don't blame Maurice or Francis for the slow start. No NHL coach on the planet can put together a winning strategy if the players throw pucks away in their own end of the ice.

I will be sure to trick or treat at all of the Canes' houses this year. They were giving away some sweet stuff last night. From the giveaways to a pile missed PP opportunities, on multiple gifts from the refs, there is no way even an average team would have lost this game.

Horrible turnovers in their own end (not all of which were scored on... it could have easily been 8-1), Staal giving up the puck, then just plain giving up which earned him one of the hockey puck t-shirt packs tossed from the stands (which could have cost the Canes Walkers PP goal if the refs had seen it and stopped play). Please stop complaining about B'A's $$, he actually put a few good shifts together... it's Staal that owes JR the refund at this point, his effort was not even worthy of the term 'lacking'. A well earned -4 for the night. Ughhhhh.

This is deja vu all over again, feels just like the end of October last year. The PP going nowhere fast, not getting back and playing together on D... blah blah blah. This was one of the worst performances I've seen from this team. Period.

Nothing seems to be working, perhaps benching or reducing ice time would wake them up, starting with Staal.

The glaring problem is that the Canes are skating too slow as a team. The difference between the opposition and the Canes in most of the games is really obvious. Why, I have no idea. The result is an inability to get the puck out of the defensive zone quickly or put pressure on the opposition.
Oh and where is the much-vaunted defense? They look like they have no idea how to play together.
I agree that those fights were unnecessary.

It's fast becoming a broken record. Not clearing the puck. Goal. Chad trips up. Goal. Sloppy pass. 3 on 1. Goal. At least they stayed clear of the penalty box. This team right now isn't getting any of the breaks because they're not forcing the other teams to make a bad play so we can capitalize in the mistake. Seems like a puck hits one of our players skates and it goes directly to an opposing players stick. When that happens to the other team, the puck seems to go right over our sticks to their stick. The bottom line is this team isn't doing enough of the little things to win games rather than lose. Calling up people from Albany (which many clamor for) is a short term fix. The team can't afford to do that because the sooner they get here, the sooner they accumulate time towards free agency. If they bring up Boychuck and Bowman and already having brought up Sutter, you risk the possibility of having all 3 become free agents at the same time. This team can't afford to get themselves into the same mess that Chicago will be in at the end of this season. Part of that is due to stupid contracts (Campbell and Hossa), part to bringing all the young talent up at the same time.

We may be seeing bottom here. Not sure. But Canes fans recognize this syndrome. It's the same one that has the team showing up on some occasions, and others not. The one that had them, time after time last season, coming back in the third.

My theory (which is just that--a theory) is that Brind'amour's injury, demotion, poor performance, etc. compared to his huge salary has weakened his confidence as a captain, (and everyone sort of senses it). So, he probably doesn't feel like he can step up and open his mouth too much, as captain, considering he's performing like a fourth liner and getting paid like it's 2006. It feels like every man for himself out there. No real leader for one reason or another. Or maybe it's just a weird transition time for this club.

It's hard to imagine that this team out on the ice is essentially the same team that went to the Eastern Conference finals. It's truly ugly hockey thus far this season. What a shame.