Maurice ‘very direct’ about defensive meltdowns

The day after the Carolina Hurricanes fell 5-0 to the Florida Panthers, coach Paul Maurice went to the drawing board during practice Friday at the RBC Center.

“We’re just trying to keep the game simple and keep our speed through the neutral zone,” said defenseman Joe Corvo. “We’re just trying to spend more time in the other team’s zone. That’s about it, nothing too crazy.”

On the Panthers first two goals, Corvo lost the puck behind the Hurricanes’ net, and both led to goals Maurice said can’t happen again. While he did point fingers, they weren’t at Corvo.

“The first two goals, we left a hole in the middle of the ice because we just didn’t work hard enough to get back there,” said Maurice. “Joe’s got the puck back behind the net and we’re waiting for Joe to do something good. The puck comes off the ice six inches in the air, those things happen to a defenseman. But we were in nowhere near a position to recover from it because we were a step ahead of the play instead of doing the hard work to stay onto the puck. … Everybody did a good job of watching Joe.”

Maurice said the game had to be dealt with, and was today, but that the team didn't play as bad as the score suggested. Likewise, he said they weren’t as good Saturday in their 7-2 win over the Phoenix Coyotes as that score would suggest. He looked at the big picture and noted that his team is 6-3-0 in their last nine games.

“Don’t get me wrong,” said Maurice. “I’m not taking last night’s game and saying, that’s no big deal. We had a very direct meeting today about what happened in that game last night. And I believe we addressed the problems we need to fix. But we’ve played well, and in an 82 game schedule — and this is part of that pressure that’s mounting, right — you feel great after a win and boy do we feel like snails here today. And that can’t show up tomorrow.”

Offensively, Maurice put the pressure back on his top lines.

“Missed opportunities,” he said. “Finish around the net. We had a bunch of chances where we were in tight where we didn’t convert on. And those are things you need your top-end guys to put away for, there’s no question.”

Forward Tuomo Ruutu said the team wasn’t “greedy” enough with the puck on both ends of the ice, despite the team’s 42 shots on goal.

“It was 5-0 at home so it wasn’t just us shooting more than them and having more scoring chances as them,” said Ruutu. “Every time they had a scoring chance, they had a pretty good chance. It wasn’t just like a shot on a goal. At the same time, I don’t think we were greedy enough in front of our net and in front of their net as well.”

On the injury front, Maurice said a decision on whether to dress defenseman Dennis Seidenberg for tomorrow’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets will be made tomorrow.

And the third and fourth lines were switched around. Captain Rod Brind’Amour was moved back up to the third line with Chad LaRose and Jussi Jokinen.

Brandon Sutter is back with Patrick Eaves and Ryan Bayda on the fourth.

“Roddy skated better last night than he has for a month,” said Maurice. “He looked good. Jokinen has played left wing before. He’s very comfortable there. I think the real challenge is for them to get comfortable together, do it over and over again. But those six guys were even. But that’s what they need to do, be even or better.”