Carolina Hurricanes Weekly Thoughts: Brock McGinn, Cam Ward and the Staal Brothers
By Brett Finger
A slow start has once again plagued the Carolina Hurricanes. What is going on and how will Brock McGinn help? Here are the weekly Canes thoughts.
There’s never an easy solution for a bad start to a season, and the Carolina Hurricanes have learned this the hard way once again here in October.
Losses to the Nashville Predators, Detroit Red Wings and Florida Panthers give the Canes a record of 0-3-0 as they enter a challenging road set that will likely determine the outcome of the season, as it has in the past for this club.
The offense has been shaky at best through the opening week. Carolina has amounted just 5 goals in 3 games. Only the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings have found the back of the net less over that span.
There’s a lot of fingers to point. Jeff Skinner and Jordan Staal both have 0 points, and defenseman Justin Faulk is the only Hurricanes that has kept up a point per game pace through 3 games.
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The offense needs to do something, and they need to capitalize on opportunities. On Saturday, the Hurricanes were gift wrapped several powerplay chances early on in their home opener and they failed to capitalize in front of a rowdy crowd at the PNC Arena. An early goal would have taken the roof off the building, and I would wager that the Canes would have won that hockey game, but instead they failed to capitalize, and that continued throughout the evening in route to a 4-3 loss.
Obviously that has to change, but at some point you have to wonder if this core group of players can make it happen.
Brock McGinn was recalled on Thursday and he will make his NHL debut in Detroit, but is he ready to step into a big role? Bill Peters thinks so, apparently.
McGinn will skate alongside Eric Staal and Kris Versteeg on the first line against the undefeated Red Wings. Welcome to the NHL.
Peters even said yesterday that McGinn is close to being an everyday NHLer. To me, that seems pretty rushed, considering the guy hasn’t even played a game with the big boys in the NHL, but hey, maybe he is close and he will be an impact player against the Red Wings on Friday and beyond. The Hurricanes certainly need something or someone to jump-start their offense, so hopefully Brock McGinn can do that. He had 2 goals in 2 games played this season with the Charlotte Checkers prior to being called up.
Cam Ward will get the start for Carolina on Friday after a let down performance from him just two games ago against the same Red Wings club.
This is a must win for him. If he comes out and has a similarly poor performance to the one he had on Saturday, he opens the door once again for Eddie Lack to come in and play well enough to steal some starts away from him.
This isn’t a goalie controversy, but there is definitely a question as to who the starting goalie is for Carolina. If you want to base that off of games played, then Ward is, but that story is definitely far from being over as we are just a week into the season.
Eric Staal and Jordan Staal both just need something to go right for them.
Carolina Hurricanes
I think Eric has played some great hockey so far this season, especially in games 1 and 2 against Nashville and Detroit, but he has been rewarded with just 1 point and no goals. He has been shooting the puck with confidence, going to the net, and creating a lot of problems for opposing defenders. If he keeps doing that, he will be a 65-70+ point scorer this season, provided he stays healthy. The points will come if he keeps working hard and setting the right example.
Jordan Staal looks like he has very little confidence on offense. He is in need of a good bounce or a good play to get his confidence back and get things on track. He has been absolutely unnoticeable on offense this season, and that needs to change if the Carolina Hurricanes are to succeed.
Jordan knows that he hasn’t been playing as well as he can be, and he addressed that after Tuesday’s loss against the Florida Panthers.
“Hopefully myself and a few other guys can start playing better and start showing the young guys how the Hurricanes want to play hockey.” Jordan Staal said following the loss to Florida. “Tonight wasn’t it. Hopefully I , myself, can be better.”
The players aren’t ignorant to the fact that they aren’t playing well. There were a lot of “hopefully”s coming out of the mouth of Jordan Staal on Tuesday. Those hopefully’s need to turn into actual results on the ice.
The Carolina Hurricanes will take on the Detroit Red Wings on Friday night, followed by a Saturday night matchup against the Washington Capitals in the nation’s capital.