Carolina Hurricanes: Keeping it Simple

Players stating that they just need to “keep it simple” is one of the biggest cliches in all of hockey. Just how has this simple phrase come to be ever so important for the Carolina Hurricanes of late?

Whenever a player or a team is in a bit of a slump they often resort to the same solution, “keeping it simple.” Something that has become one of the most used cliches in all of hockey couldn’t be more relevant to the Carolina Hurricanes of late. Caught overthinking and overpassing at times, this indecisiveness has cost the Canes some valuable points of late.

Although they recently ended a three game skid, the Hurricanes seem to be a team whose kicking themselves in the foot within each of their most recent losses. Whether it’s taking an abundance of penalties, turning the puck over,  defenseman jumping into the rush at inopportune times, or failing to start/end periods on time Carolina has found themselves without a point in a handful of games where they were clearly the better team.

Dating back to the 21st against the Florida Panthers, the first of the three game skid, the Canes’ penalty troubles began. While special teams were a major factor in their 4-2 loss, an equally concerning trend that impacted the game negatively for the Hurricanes was their shot selection.

Doubling up the Panthers in the shot department, 44 to 22, a vast majority of Carolina’s shots were right in the crest of Florida’s netminder Chris Driedger. Making the young netminder feel comfortable early on proved costly, as Driedger was able to get a feel of the puck early and often, only leading to an increase in confidence.

The Hurricanes have a history of making inexperienced goalies look elite, which proved to be the case once again.

The second of three losses came at the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs. In what was a back and forth contest of leaky goals, blown leads and awful goaltending on both ends of the rink, Carolina came back from an early 3-0 hole just to enter the Holiday break with a bitter taste in their mouths.

In this contest it seemed like any shot could end up in the back of the net with the poor play of both Toronto and Carolina. Momentum shifted back and forth with both teams scoring three goals within a short span of one another, allowing them to take command of the game. These types of matchups happen from time to time, and tend to result in a lot of video for the coaching staff to review post game.

Arguably the most annoying and disappointing loss of them all came against the New York Rangers this past Friday night. With the Hurricanes struggling against their Metropolitan Division foes, a fast start was going to be critical if they wanted to change the script this time around.

However, in what seems like clock work, they ended up falling short for the third time in three tries against Henrik Lundqvist and the rest of the Rangers. While Lundqvist had a few good saves here and there, robbing the Canes’ shooters of a quality scoring chance or two, the story was rather similar to the Florida game. Poor shot selection, holding on to pucks too long or one pass too many.

At the end of the day a loss is a loss no matter how you slice and dice it. The Canes had chances to come away with the two points in each and every one of these games but didn’t. When you compare the footage of each of these contests with that of the impressive road trip just days before, the difference is almost night and day on special teams.

While the penalty kill has lost its mojo, touched upon in greater detail here, the power play hasn’t been as effective as it had been. Even though going 2 for 11 isn’t that horrible for a small sample size on paper, when you watch the power plays themselves, especially against New York, they’ve left a lot to be desired.

Continuing their struggles at MSG, the Hurricanes went 0 for 5 on the man advantage Friday night. During the PPs players looked hesitant to shoot the puck, opting to differ the puck and pass instead.

Consistently these extra passes or dumped pucks back to the point man result in a mishandle and exit of the zone, either forcing the Canes to regroup or directly leading to a short handed chance against, killing any and all positive momentum that can stem from the PP.

Looking at the victory over the Washington Capitals, even though the mishandled passes were still plentiful,  the puck movement looked to have purpose and urgency. Players like Dougie Hamilton were one-timing the puck with pace, rather than taking any extra time to settle it down, in turn preventing Braden Holtby from making any adjustments.

Evident on Warren Foegele‘s short handed marker, when the Hurricanes get back to out working teams and allowing their instincts to kick in when they’re in the offensive zone, good things will happen. Of late it’s been visibly clear that if any player is in a slump they just need to stick with it, offer a reliable steady presence on the defensive side of the puck and then they’ll finally break through and find success.

None other than Lucas Wallmark is a perfect example of this. On a career high six game point streak, Lucas didn’t have the offensive production he probably would have liked to start the season but his commitment to playing the game the right way and keeping things simple has led to his recent breakout.

Further support of this comes when Andrei Svechnikov is interviewed post game after scoring the game winner or one of his signature lacrosse style goals, when he states that he just “closed his eyes and shot the puck” or didn’t think much about making a certain move and just did it. If a player is doing this, acting on instinct, good things happen both individually and collectively.

Going forward the Canes are going to want to “keep things simple” and not overthink things in the offensive zone. While they outshot teams in games fairly consistently over the past couple of years the lack of high danger or quality chances have been hurting them in their losses of late.

More from Cardiac Cane

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• Week Two Coverage Of College Hockey In NC
• Derek Stepan Ends His On Ice Career As A Hurricane
• The Southeast Rookie Showcase Will Be a Good Look at Carolina’s Future
• Noesen Ready To Provide Depth For Canes

When opposing goaltenders get the chance to feel the puck early and often with simple saves they not only get into a rhythm early on, but their confidence begins to take over the game making them rather difficult to beat in second and third periods.

Should the Hurricanes continue to play a hard compete style game for the rest of the home stand they are setting themselves up for success. With the quality of teams coming into PNC arena they’re going to want to keep things simple and get to opposing goalies early and often. We saw what a little traffic around the crease can to do a Venza winner in Holtby the other night, and we need more of it.

Question for CC Readers: What are you looking to see from the Canes during their seven game home stand?