Hurricanes Drop Final Divisional Matchup Against Gritty and the Flyers

What Happened to the Defense?

When the Carolina Hurricanes started the season they were touted as the best defensive roster in the league. And you should believe it. Jaccob Slavin, Dougie Hamilton, Brett Pesce, and Jake Gardiner were a plethora of riches. Add on Trevor van Riemsdyk, Joel Edmundson, and Haydn Fleury and you can round out the best defensive core in the NHL.

One Dougie Hamilton injury later, the defense is rattled. But it isn’t broken yet. The loss of Brett Pesce, who will also miss the rest of the season thanks to a shoulder surgery he needs, and it is obvious that the defense has crumbled.

Brady Skjei has been an excellent pick up and probably one of the best defenders on the ice most nights since he came to Carolina. But he is still the proud owner of this turnover that led to this goal immediately killed whatever momentum came from the one goal that the Hurricanes did get:

Even if you were to overlook that gaff, and you should because Skjei was still on the best players on the ice, he doesn’t make up for the defensive mistakes made by defenders not named Slavin or Fleury. Jake Gardiner hasn’t found his confidence that he lost after a few weeks into the season, TVR is invisible, which isn’t always a bad thing, but then there is Joel Edmundson.

Joel Edmundson is a big guy that everyone is going to respect on the ice. He found his groove a quarter of the way into the season and started playing really well. Recently however, he has become a traffic cone. Don’t believe me? Look at where he is positioned as Provorov completely undressed Alex Nedeljkovic:

You can see him just watch and do nothing. Sure, Ned should have kept the puck, but every so often a hard shot is tough to corral. Edmundson should have denied Ivan Provorov that ice. He does that and perhaps Williams’ goal is the equalizer, perhaps it’s the go ahead, we will never know, but Edmundson simply cannot just stand there and spectate.

The Chemistry is Gone

Someone call Walter from Breaking Bad because we need a good chemist. This team needs someone to cast some voodoo. Perhaps some bonding lessons? Start a new scooter gang? Something.

Many of the blind passes, especially those happening in the offensive zone are going to the wrong jerseys. Only once, midway in the first period before Provorov’s goal did they show any real signs of generating offense. There was some good passing, good keeping of the puck, and good general positioning inside the zone. Then poof, it disappeared and was never seen again, like it flew into the bermuda triangle.

If this team wants to be serious about making the playoffs and perhaps even competing for a Stanley Cup they need to figure each other out. They need to bond behind something. I thought that something was going to be David Ayres, but there are three players from that night that are now gone to injury or trade. In are two new players that just saw it all on the news.

Perhaps this loss can be the thing that drives them to come back. They have now fallen all the way down to seventh in the division. I am upset, the fanbase is pretty upset, Rod can’t be anywhere near happy and as for the players themselves:

Pissed off is good. Pissed off means that they are going to start playing for each other as a team. This is it. This is the crew that needs to get it done. Don’t worry about Petr Mraze, James Reimer, or even Sami Vatanen coming back. The only ones that are going to save this team are the ones on the roster tonight.

That wasn’t obvious last night, but there are still 17 games to go and three points to make up and a game in hand. The next game against the Islanders will be the real turning point of the season if they can show real chemistry on Long Island.

It’s Not All Bad News

There is some silver lining to last nights game. Ned wasn’t too terrible in net. In fact, most of those goals against him were not his fault. A walk in goal off a power shot rebound, a two on one, a goal from an impossible angle high and off his back? Tough to really blame him for those. He also stood on his head for most of the night and kept the Hurricanes in the game until that third lucky goal.

If I am Rod Brind’amour I am starting him again against the Islanders on Saturday.

Jake Gardiner also had a much better game. In fact I would say it was his best game played this calendar year. He managed the puck well and was the quarterback for that one decently generated offensive play in the first that could have lead to the first Hurricanes goal if it wasn’t for some excellent play from Carter Hart.

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The Hurricanes were also perfect on special teams. Not hard considering only four total minutes of play were played anything other than 5v5. The Hurricanes kept their mistakes to a minimum with only two trips to the box. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if the Flyers actually played a perfect clean game or if the officials swallowed their whistles.

These are things to build upon for the next 17 games. This team is not looking good right now, but who knows, perhaps a ten percent luck, twenty percent skill, fifteen percent concentrated power of will… well you know how the song goes.

The next two games for the Hurricanes on this road trip are back to back on Long Island and in Steel City.  Time for Carolina to play a different brand of Hockey:

“We have to play desperate hockey and find a way to claw back into it now,” Brind’Amour said. “That’s just the reality of it.”

Question for CC Readers: Do you think the Hurricanes have enough in the tank to make a good push for the playoffs?