Tonight's 4-2 victory over the Devils was easily the Carolina Hurricanes biggest win of this young season. Not only does it clinch a 4-1-1 record on their road trip, but they were also able to get a win over a team that has been at the top of the Eastern Conference for most of the year. As expected, the win did not come easy as they found themselves down 1-0 in the first period again despite outplayed New Jersey in most of that frame. They managed to battle back again and tie the game early in the second period on the back of a powerplay goal by Jussi Jokinen. Patrick Dwyer would then provide the go-ahead goal in the dying minutes of the frame by deflecting a Jay Harrison shot past Brodeur. 

A large reason why the Hurricanes gained this lead was because they were forechecking hard and skating circles around the Devils during the first 40 minutes of the game. They gained a big territorial advantage over New Jersey during that time and it was hard to tell that they were playing the second half of a back-to-back game. Then the third period happened. Carolina began to look tired, were getting pinned into their own end, lost one of their best defensemen in Joni Pitkanen and gave up an early goal to Ryan Carter which tied the game.

Carolina's dominance at even strength had all but faded by then, but they received some help from their special teams units, which have been rather cold as of late. First, they were able to successfully kill off Joe Corvo's penalty early in the period and would then get a huge powerplay goal from Jiri Tlusty to give the Canes a 3-2 lead. From then on, the Canes basically did the best they could to hang onto the lead by limiting the Devils scoring opportunities and they just managed to survive with some help from goaltender Cam Ward.

The Hurricanes definitely left everything all on the ice tonight and even if they just managed to get by, it was great to see them pull out a win all things considered. I'm sure many people would have been happy if they only earned a point in the standings with this being their third game in four days and the final game of a long road trip, but the Canes had their sights set higher and managed to achieve it.

Winning four out of six games in this stretch of the schedule is no easy feat at all, so this could hopefully lead to greater things down the line for this team.

Carolina Hurricanes at New Jersey Devils
7:00 p.m, Prudential Center
TV: FS-Carolinas, MSG+

The Hurricanes have a chance to end this six-game road trip on a high note by winning four out of six games and taking home nine out of a possible 12 points with a win tonight over the New Jersey Devils. At the beginning of the year, I said that the Hurricanes need to make it out of this road trip with a winning record and they managed to clinch that last night with a win over the Islanders. A win over the Devils tonight will make it a much bigger success but it isn't going to come easy because much like the Islanders, the Canes had little to no success against New Jersey last season.

Carolina is also going to come out much stronger than they did last night, too. They might be able to get away with a bad first period and giving up four powerplay goals against the Islanders but that probably won't happen against the Devils, who are arguably the hottest team in the NHL right now. This being the second game of a back-to-back on the road likely means that the Devils will be the fresher team tonight, but hopefully the Canes can build off last night's game and do enough to at least earn a point in the standings.

The good news is that the schedule gets slightly easier after this game and the Hurricanes will be back at the PNC Arena very soon.

Last night's game against the Islanders had all the makings of another loss for the Hurricanes. Carolina got off to a bad start, were dominated on special teams and generally looked slow compared to the Islanders for the first 25 minutes or so. Once again, however, the Canes were able to keep things from getting out of hand thanks to some timely goals and began to take over the game mid-way through the second period which helped them defeat the Islander 6-4. Slow starts have been a problem for this team all season long but this team has shown a lot of resilience at least and they wre able to pull a win out in Long Island on the back of four third period goals.

The Hurricanes ended up outshooting the Islanders and tying them in even strength chances, but the slow starts and terrible penalty kill are a big issue. Their comeback effort ended up working out against the Islanders and Rick DiPietro but something tells me they will have a more difficult time against other teams and better goaltenders. There were definitely a lot of Hurricanes who played well last night, but the team will need to play better for a full 60 minutes if they want to take home a win against New Jersey tonight.

Carolina Hurricanes at New York Islanders
7 p.m., Nassau Coliseum
TV: FS-Carolinas, MSG Plus

Despite the Hurricanes "so-so" 5-4-1 start to the year, they are still in the thick of things in the Southeast Division and are faced with a great opportunity in the latter stages of this road trip. They are still only one point out of first place thanks to a four-game losing streak by the Tampa Bay Lightning and can leap frog them in the standings with a win tonight. I mentioned yesterday that this Carolina team has a better chance of improving after ten games than last year's club based on their play so far and they have a good chance to take advantage of a great opportunity these next couple of games. It won't come easy, though as their next two games are against teams who dominated them last year and tonight's opponent, the New York Islanders, won all four of their games against the Hurricanes a season ago. 

This is obviously a different team and probably capable of beating the Islanders but they are going to need to play better than they have in their last couple of games in order to come away with a win tonight.

The playoff races are beginning to heat up in the CHL and the good news for Hurricanes fans is that many of the team's prospects should be in the post-season this spring, which will give everyone a chance to get a closer look at their performance. One team that has already clinched a playoff spot in Keegan Lowe's Edmonton Oil Kings and Lowe himself has played a pretty big role in that. Not only is he the team captain, but he was also forced to play some bigger minutes during late-December and early-January when the Oil Kings lost a couple of their defensemen to the World Junior Championships. Lowe played some very good hockey during that stretch and he continued to do so this week, adding a goal and three assists to his totals. As a third round pick, Lowe's ceiling isn't projected to be very high but he should be an invite to Carolina's training camp at the start of next season.

After the jump, we'll take a closer look at Lowe's performance and the rest of Carolina's prospect pool. 

Heading into this season, the Hurricanes had the making of being a team that could roll all four lines effectively. Even after they traded for enforcer Kevin Westgarth, they could have probably gotten away with rolling four lines because the forwards before him each have a defined role and aren't liabilities at even strength. You had the top-six handle most of the scoring and take on tough minutes in addition to that while the bottom-six would be relied on to play soft assignments and pitch in with some secondary scoring. On paper, this seems like a good plan but it hasn't exactly worked out so far as the third line has struggled out of the gate. That issue has been covered already, but something that isn't getting talked about is what the fourth line has done, or hasn't done in this case. 

Last season, the Hurricanes fourth liners provided them with a combined 24 goals, which was great but not likely to continue because of how often they were getting hemmed into their own zone. The Hurricanes must have realized this over the off-season because they opted to trade Anthony Stewart and buyout Derek Joslin, making the fourth line a completely new unit heading into this season. Between Kevin Westgarth, Tim Wallace, Andreas Nodl, Tim Brent, Jeremy Welsh, Zach Boychuk, Drayson Bowman and many others, the Hurricanes had plenty of options as to who they can use on their fourth line and what kind of role they want to play.

On opening night, the fourth line was used in more of an offensive role with Drayson Bowman, Tim Brent and Patrick Dwyer. Bowman and Dwyer have been promoted to top-nine roles since then and the fourth line wing spots have been jumbled around for the most part. Even with Welsh in Charlotte and Boychuk waived, the Hurricanes fourth line can still be useful if they were to use Nodl, Brent and Wallace either in a defensive role or soft-minute situations. Nodl and Brent are good enough to play 8-10 minutes a game while Wallace has proven himself as a capable fourth liner with other teams and can establish a physical presence.

This hasn't been the route the Canes have gone the last few games, though as Westgarth has been in the lineup more times than not and Nodl has found himself in the press box for all but two games since being called up. Westgarth obviously has a defined role and he hasn't been bad so far, as the Hurricanes are not leaking shots and chances against whenever he is on the ice. The problem is that Muller is rarely using Westgarth. He has played only a little over 20 minutes in seven games and plays maybe 4-5 shifts per game on top of that. 

Again, I know Westgarth has a role but if Muller isn't going to use him then what is the point of even having him in the lineup? The Hurricanes are essentially forced to play with 11 forwards whenever Westgarth is in the lineup and they are even more strained if another player has to leave the game early like Wallace did on Saturday. Considering that the Hurricanes top forwards are already being forced to play 20+ minutes a night and their third line has produced only two goals, one has to think that they would be better served with someone useful like Nodl in the lineup who the coach actually trusts to play more than four shifts a game.

Carolina's scoring depth hasn't showing up this year, so getting the most out of this forward corps is going to be very important. Dressing Westgarth and playing him for three minutes a game isn't doing that and it's a double whammy when you have guys in the press box and in the minors who can play a more effective role. Westgarth has a place on this team, but if Muller is going to keep using him in an incredibly limited role it's probably better that he sits in the press box.

After yesterday's overtime loss to the Flyers, I did a quick Twitter poll to see what the general feeling was about Carolina's first ten games. There were a lot of mixed responses but the most common answers I got from fans were were "improving," "fun to watch" and "inconsistent." So the general consensus among fans seems to be that this team is heading in the right direction but they still have issues that they need to sort out before they get to where they want to be. Overall, there were more optimistic/hopeful responses than negative, so fans are a little more optimistic about this team.

Fans spirits appear to be higher than they were a year ago, which is why it might surprise some people that the Hurricanes also had 11 points after their first 10 games last season. Their records were very different as the Canes have won at least half of their games whereas last season they were only 4-3-3 and gained a few points from overtime/shootout losses. Their goal differential of -2 is also the same as it was after 10 games last year, which is pretty interesting because of how badly things unraveled after that point. 

The good news is that this team appears to be less in danger of falling off a cliff and out of the playoff race early like last year's squad was. Their goal differential might be the same as it was after ten games last year, but the Canes have done a much better job at controlling the shot battle, which should lead to more positive things if they can keep it up. More importantly, they are also a much stronger team when it comes to even strength play.

Score effects (i.e. playing from behind due to giving up the first goal) have obviously played a role in the Hurricanes high shot totals, but they are still producing a lot of offense and are controlling possession more often than not. The only time they struggled to do so for an entire game was against Ottawa this Thursday. It's also worth noting that the Canes are outscoring their opponents at even strength (granted, it's only by one goal) so their goal differential is beginning to match their play in that area of the game.

Last season, the Canes were getting plowed in the shot battle at even strength even during close games and the percentages eventually caught up to them, which resulted in a poor month of November. Will winning the shot battle lead to a stronger next ten games this season? That remains to be seen, but history suggests that it will. That being said, I'm expecting their shot percentage to decrease a bit over the next few weeks because it's unsustainably high right now at over 60%. Scoring chances also paint a positive picture with the Canes outchancing their opponents 147-132 at even strength through the first ten games. It's much stronger than where they were at this point last year and should hopefully lead to some more wins.

Aside from special teams, the big concern with this team is their defense. They have been able to produce enough offense to be a net positive overall, but they are still giving up over 30 shots per game and 18-19 chances...at even strength. It was kind of expected with the defense corps being over-populated with puck-moving defensemen and not enough shutdown-type players. This style of run-and-gun hockey is very fun to watch and probably more suited for this roster, but it puts a lot of strain on the goaltending and I'm not sure how successful it will be in the long-run.

I mentioned in a recap that the Hurricanes aren't going to be able to outscore their problems every night and they haven't been able to so far this year. Their team shooting percentage at 5v5 is only 6.6% so they are probably due for some regression there but overall point remains. That being said, the Canes first 10 games this season have me feeling somewhat confident about this team but there obviously some concerns and holes to fill. They're still playing well territorially and are due for some bounces to go their way, so I think Carolina finishes these next 10 games with a record above .500.

Let's face it, the Hurricanes do not have a history of playing well against the Flyers, and this goes back to when the franchise was relocated to Raleigh. Since 1997, the Hurricanes have won only 30 of their 115 games against the Flyers and have earned points in a little over 36% of those games. Given that bit of information, some might be thankful that the Canes were able to escape Philadelphia with at least a point after losing a 4-3 overtime decision. Some might be happy with the point but this loss is frustrating because the Hurricanes had a great opportunity to steal two points from the Flyers.

Much like they did in Ottawa, the Hurricanes did not play their best game today but were able to stay in the game and force overtime thanks to good goaltending and a couple of lucky bounces. They took control of the third period and had a good chance to build on that in overtime. One odd-man rush by the Flyers and a bit of a lucky goal by Danny Briere ended that opportunity. Every point matters, obviously and the Hurricanes are probably content with earning five out of a possible eight on this road trip so far but it's always tough to not take advantage of chances like they had today, especially with the team having some problems on this road trip. 

Scoring chance breakdown after the jump

Carolina Hurricanes at Philadelphia Flyers
Wells Fargo Center, 1 p.m.
TV: FS-Carolinas, CSN-Philadelphia

The early part of the NHL season always comes with a lot of twists and turns. A good first-ten games can lift the spirits of fans while a bad start can make fans want to start building for the next season. This being shortened season makes these feelings even more extreme because there is less time to make up for lost ground. For the Hurricanes, their start of 5-4-0 falls right in the middle of the pack and things could go either way after that. However, a win over the Flyers today would put them two games above .500 for the first time this year and put them tied for first in the Southeast Division if Tampa Bay loses.

A win today would also give Carolina six out of a possible 12 points on the road trip and that's definitely not a bad thing since this is easily the toughest part of their schedule. Getting the win is going to be easier said than done, though considering they were beaten by Philadelphia 5-3 only a week ago and haven't exactly played their best hockey the last couple of game. They managed to pick up victories over Toronto and Ottawa but they were also outplayed for various stretches and gave up over 40 shots in both games. It's sort of the opposite of what was happening to them earlier in the season where they weren't getting any puck-luck despite heavily outshooting their opponents. 

It's obviously still too early in the season to make any conclusions but the Hurricanes will need to find some more balance and they will certainly need to play better than they have the last two games if they want to leave Philadelphia with two points. 

Lines & Preview after the jump

Even though the Hurricanes won last night's game in overtime, their performance reminded me a lot of how they played last year. Not only were they heavily outshot, but the Senators had control for most of the game and the Hurricanes were forced to play in their own end more often than they would have liked. They were able to stay in the game and force overtime thanks to great goaltending along with some solid special teams play. Like I said last night, it's always nice to edge out a win when you don't play your best hockey but let's hope the Hurricanes don't make a habit out of it. This is the first time the Hurricanes have resembled last year's squad and they were facing an Ottawa team that has been a powerhouse at even strength, so I will hold off on the worrying for now and just enjoy the win.

It's also worth noting that while the Hurricanes gave up a lot of shots, they weren't destroyed when it came to how many chances they were producing compared to Ottawa.