A little more than two weeks ago, the Carolina Hurricanes were sitting pretty. Following a 7-4 victory over the New York Islanders at PNC Arena Jan. 14, the team’s fourth straight win and fifth in its last six, the Canes sat one point out of an Eastern Conference wild-card spot with games in hand on the teams ahead of them in the race.
Today, with the Canes set to return from the NHL’s All-Star break tomorrow, things are decidedly less rosy. Carolina lost five straight games heading into the break and really only looked competitive in two of them, as the skid included 4-1 and 6-1 blowout losses to the Columbus Blue Jackets and Washington Capitals, respectively, on the road. To make matters worse, the team suffered a 7-1 shellacking by the Pittsburgh Penguins on home ice, one of the Canes’ worst performances in years.
The skid threw the Canes right back down the mountain they had worked so hard for so long to climb after a rough October; the team now trails the Philadelphia Flyers by seven points for the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot, with four additional teams to climb over along the way.
So, is all hope lost? Not at this point. With 34 games to play, games in hand and head-to-head matchups left with several of the teams ahead of them, the Canes have plenty of time to rattle off some wins and get back in the race.
It’s going to take another big run; the Canes now have another extended stretch of poor play to recover from. February’s schedule actually sets up favorably for piling up some wins. However, the first order of business to righting the ship is figuring out what has it taking on water in the first place, and plugging those leaks.
In terms of what went wrong during the losing streak, the short answer is: everything. The Canes did not look good in any facet of the game. However, there are two areas the Canes can focus on that would go a long way toward getting back to their winning ways: better defense and the power play.
The Canes have been a pushover defensively during this slide. The team has surrendered grade-A chances galore, giving up odd-man rushes and breakaways along with turning the puck over. However, the biggest issue has been protecting the crease of starting goalie Cam Ward. The veteran netminder has seen his play decline with the rest of the team, but he also simply needs more help. The team in front of him has to be better.
If the Canes’ defenders can get back to showing a willingness to clear out the crease and deny opposing scorers access to the blue paint, it would be a big help to cutting down on goals against.
Of course, in addition to preventing goals, the team needs to start scoring more of its own as well. A great way to do that would be to improve the power play, which has been in a total freefall since a solid first couple months of the season.
The Canes’ overall 16.3 percent success rate with the man advantage ranks 23rd in the NHL, and Carolina has scored a grand total of three power-play goals on 50 attempts since Dec. 16. That is abysmal. With the emphasis on a defensive game at even strength in today’s NHL, a successful man advantage is essential to scoring enough to win.
The Canes power-play struggles stem from an unwillingness to shoot and force the play inside to prime scoring areas. It is not uncommon to see the Canes pass the puck around on the perimeter until the opposing penalty killers inevitably clear the zone. The team needs to get back to a simple, fundamental power-play approach: hammer shots away with traffic in front, crash the net and create rebound opportunities.
The Canes’ power-play ineptitude hit a boiling point in the team’s most recent game, a 3-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on home ice. In a game that was 0-0 for the majority of regulation, the Canes got four chances with their man advantage, and accomplished nothing with them.
The Kings scored three goals in the last five minutes of the game to do what every team has done against the Hurricanes since Jan. 14: skate away with a victory. In a tight-checking, defensive affair, a power-play goal that put the Canes on the board first definitely could have changed the game.
A power-play improvement will have to be front and center of any potential Canes’ playoff push.
If the Canes can fix what ails them, they should be able to take advantage of a favorable February schedule before a gauntlet in March. The team only plays 11 games total in 28 days in February, seven of which are at home, where the Canes are 15-6-1 on the year.
The team plays a grand total of one back-to-back set in February, with at least one day off between all the other games, including their CBA-mandated five-day bye week Feb. 12-16. The Canes will play five straight at home coming off their bye. With so much spacing between games this month, the Canes should have plenty of opportunities to rest, relax, get some good practice in and be fresh for every game.
Following a strong run of play to get back in the playoff mix, the Carolina Hurricanes have dug themselves another hole to climb out of. However, if the team can fix what has gone wrong during this poor stretch and take control of a good schedule during the month of February, there may be hope of returning to the postseason for the first time since 2009 yet.
