Make Or Break February

The Hurricanes are in a familiar position as they regroup after the All-Star break. They are on the outside looking in at the playoffs, sitting in tenth position in the standings with 58 points in the Eastern Conference, two points out of a playoff berth. The Hurricanes are close enough to where they could leap frog a couple of teams into sixth place.

The month of February will decide whether the Hurricanes are contenders or pretenders in the race to the Stanley Cup playoffs. They have 13 games in the month of February, eight of those at home. The Hurricanes lost the first game in of the second half to the Calgary Flames 4-1 and rode a four goal first period to a 5-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets in the second game. The Hurricanes face the Montreal Canadiens this afternoon in the final game of a three game road trip.

If the Hurricanes fall out of the playoff picture, will they be willing to deal at the trade deadline? The most marketable players they have are Eric Staal, who is in a contract year, Jordan Staal, and Kris Versteeg. If it comes to that point, hopefully the Hurricanes would not be willing to deal Justin Faulk or any of their other young talent.

The End Of The Road

The Carolina Hurricanes just finished up a seven game road trip with back-to-back wins and a 4-3 record on the trip. The Hurricanes needed to start strong this season and a 6-6 record and eight points is not what the Hurricanes were looking for. The Hurricanes offense has had a hard time getting started, a problem that seems to have carried over from last season. They are only averaging two goals a game but a lack of offense seems to be malady suffered by many NHL teams. The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers are also only averaging two goals a game with as much offensive firepower as those teams have.

The Hurricanes showed signs of breaking out of this offensive slump against the Islanders in their 3-2 shootout win as Jordan Staal and Jeff Skinner repeatedly crashed the net for scoring chances. It paid off on the game tying goal as Jordan Staal made a slick pass to Chris Terry to hit the wide open net and then Defenseman Ron Hainsey got the game winner in the three-on-three.

Off To A Good Second Half Start

The Carolina Hurricanes beat a pretty good Tampa Bay Lightning team last night 4-2. That is 4 goals in each of their last two games for the Hurricanes. Eric Staal and Justin Faulk had a goal and an assist and Jordan Staal had two assists. That was Eric Staal's 9th goal in 12 games and Jordan Staal has 8 points in 11 games since his return from injury. The Hurricanes improve to 17-25-5.

The Hurricanes At The All-Star Break

The Carolina Hurricanes carry a 16-25-5 record (37 points) into the All-Star break. They have been playing much better of late going 6-3-1 over their last ten games. They only have more points than the Buffalo Sabres and the Edmonton Oilers amd are tied with the Arizona Coyotes.

The Carolina Hurricanes biggest problem all season long has been goal scoring. They are 29th in the National Hockey League in Goals Scored ahead of only the Buffalo Sabres. Eric Staal leads the team with 28 points but has been hot of late scoring 8 goals in his past 11 games. The Hurricanes and Eric Staal's recent hot streak coincide with the return of Jordan Staal from a preseason leg injury. He returned 10 games ago and has 6 points. Jordan Staal's return and getting other players such as Jeff Skinner back on track will be key for the Hurricanes in the second half of the season.

The Hurricanes best unit has been the Penalty Kill where they are 4th in the league at 87.0%. The unquestioned leader of the Penalty Kill Unit is Justin Faulk. He has the Hurricanes only two short handed goals on the season.

The Hurricanes goal tending tandem of Cam Ward and Anton Khudobin are only allowing 2.5 goals per game and rank 11th in Goals Against Average.

In the games that I have seen, the Hurricanes have had trouble getting the puck out of their own zone. They are consistently out shot by their opponents, and although they rank 13th in the NHL on the power play, they are not getting as many opportunities with the man advantage. They need to be able to put more pressure on the other team's defense and create more opportunities. That is as simple as it can get. Is it puck handling? Team speed? Decision making? not having an offensive mind set?

It will be interesting to see if the Hurricanes can carry the momentum of the last ten games into the second half of the season.

The Captain To The Rescue

The Hurricanes had quite a game last night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Four goals, two fights, and a statement making empty net goal at the end of the game by Captain Eric Staal.

Brad Malone started it off for the Hurricanes by scoring a goal for the second game in a row and he also dropped the gloves with Maple Leafs David Clarkson later in the game. Elias Lindholm scored the second goal and the Hurricanes were comfortably in front 3-0.

Captain Eric Staal scored the final two goals, both on assists by his brother Jordan Staal. Those were his 14th and 15th goals on the season and he has 8 in his last 11 games. After his first goal of the game and with the Hurricanes holding a 3-0 lead, Maple Leaf Dion Phaneuf leveled Jordan Staal with a questionable blind side hit, and Captain Eric Staal immediately challenged Phaneuf and they both dropped the gloves. Fighting is not Eric Staal's strong suit but I think he held his own. Sometimes it is all about standing up.

With under two minutes to go and the Hurricanes holding a 3-1 lead, Eric Staal gained posession of the puck and all that was between him and an empty net was Dion Phaneuf. Staal wound up and fired a slap shot that was aimed more at Phaneuf's family jewels than it was at the empty net. I believe the puck went between Phaneuf's legs and luckily for both, the puck went into the empty net.

Where Is The Offense?

The Carolina Hurricanes are only ahead the Edmonton Oilers by one point when it comes to having the worst record in the National Hockey League. The Hurricanes are 9-19-3 for 21 points and have a solid hold on last place in the Metropolitan Division.

The Hurricanes are only averaging 2.1 Goals Per Game, good for 28th place in the NHL. Injuries have hit the Hurricanes hard as they lost Jordan Staal before the regular season and Eric Staal, Jeff Skinner, and Jiri Tlusty have all missed extended time and the offense has had a hard time jelling under new Head Coach Bill Peters.

Defenseman Justin Faulk leads the team in scoring with 19 points in 31 games and Jiri Tlusty leads the team in Goals with 10. Only three players that have played in games for the Hurricanes have a + rating and that is Andrej Nestrasil with a +3 in 8 games played.

I do not know if an element of toughness would help the Hurricanes or not but they traded away team tough guy, Defenseman Jay Harrison, to the Winnipeg Jets yesterday for a 6th round draft choice. Harrison had two of the Hurricanes five fighting majors this season. The Hurricanes last fighting major the Hurricanes logged was a month ago when Brad Malone went against Brayden McNabb of the Los Angeles Kings. The Hurricanes need someone to protect the top scorers.

The big question is how do the Hurricanes open up their scoring? I would love to see the Hurricanes develop "Fast Break" hockey like the NHL had in the 1980's with almost every team having a scorer that topped 100 points. I don't see that happening anytime soon especially with the Hurricanes.