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.

Generally speaking, the Hurricanes have done a pretty good job of outplaying their opponents this year or at least keeping things relatively even against them. The wins haven't been coming as often as fans would like but the Canes have had more good games than bad this year by my account. Tonight's game against Ottawa had all the makings of being one of the worst games the Canes have played all year. They gave up 47 shots, were outplayed at even strength and struggled to get the puck out of their zone for most of the game. Despite all of that, they were able to tie the game late in the third period on the back of a goal by Alexander Semin and finish off Ottawa in overtime. 

The Hurricanes have been on the losing end of games likes this before, where they outplay the opposition for the majority of the game but end up taking the loss thanks to either bad luck, poor special teams or running into a hot goalie. Tonight, the Canes were outshot 47-26 but went perfect on the penalty kill, went 1/2 on the powerplay and Cam Ward came up big more than a few times in stopping 45 shots. It was definitely what most people would consider an "ugly win" but it's been awhile since the Hurricanes have won a game like this.

You don't want to make a habit out of winning games like this but the Hurricanes will take the two points regardless and move onwards towards a re-match with the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday afternoon. 

Most of the talk surrounding the Carolina Hurricanes right now is centered around how well some of their top forwards are playing right now. Eric Staal is off to his best start in quite some time, Alexander Semin has been producing well and so have both Jordan Staal and Jeff Skinner. The fact that these four are providing most of the offense is a good thing because the Hurricanes need them to produce if they are going to have a chance at the playoffs. They can't be the only ones producing, though because they are going to have off-nights and that's where the rest of the team needs to pitch in. So far, that hasn't been happening.

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that the Buffalo Sabres were going to run into trouble because they had one line doing basically all the work. The Hurricanes aren't too far off from being in that territory as their top-six has been on-ice for all but one even strength goal and their first line has produced about 36% of their total goals on the season. Again, it's good to see the top-six doing their job but not having much scoring depth is going to hurt the team eventually.

I made a few pie-graphs to show just how skewed Carolina's offense has been this year and it really illustrates how much the top-six is being leaned on, especially the first line.

The Hurricanes have been a pretty decent team at even strength so far this year but their underlying numbers are skewed heavily due to the fact that they have been forced to play from behind in all but two of their games. This is partially the reason why they have outchanced their opponents in every game this year and why most of their players have very positive underlying numbers. The usual solution to these problems is to only include stats from when the game was tied but Carolina's games have been tied for maybe a combined 60 minutes at the most, which is obviously too small of a sample size to make a judgment call on. We should find out just how "good" this team is at even strength in the upcoming weeks when they get more games under their belt.

Unfortunately, last night's game against the Toronto Maple Leafs probably did nothing but make their underlying numbers even more strange. The Hurricanes were dominated for the first 20 minutes and outchanced 11-4 by Toronto but they went into the locker room only down 1-0 thanks to the stellar goaltending of Cam Ward. They managed to pull a complete 180 in the second period and held the Leafs to only two scoring chances while producing 10 of their own. They ended up being outchanced 21-20 by the end of the game but that's actually pretty impressive when you consider how bad they played in the first period.

Ward's goaltending was able to bail out the Hurricanes after a bad first period but the team did a nice job of responding and taking over the game after that.

Tonight's game against the Toronto Maple Leafs provided the Hurricanes with a chance to get back to .500 and give the team some positive vibes as they continue this long road trip. It looked like they could be in for another long game as Carolina got off to the worst start imaginable in the first 20 minutes. The Canes were stuck in their own zone for about 60% of the frame, couldn't generate any offense and were constantly surrendering odd-man rushes to the Maple Leafs. Thankfully for them, they went into the first intermission only down 1-0 thanks to the goaltending of Cam Ward, who regained his form tonight and bailed the Canes out of a lot of bad situations.

Ward gave the Hurricanes a chance to win tonight and they took full advantage of it in the next two periods by giving one of their strongest efforts of the season. They were helped a little bit in the start of the second period  when Jordan Staal was left all alone in front of the net and received a gift of a goal to tie the game up at one. They followed this up by simply taking it to the Leafs, hemming them in their own zone and allowing only five total shots on goal after allowing 18 in the first period. They would eventually go onto take the lead after another lucky bounce where Eric Staal's centering pass deflected off Michael Koskta's skate and into the net. After that, Carolina continued to keep their foot on the pedal and scored two more unanswered goals to give the Hurricanes a 4-1 victory. I should also add that they scored twice on the powerplay while blanking Toronto on five opportunities.

It was strange seeing this team take over this game after playing some of their worst hockey of the season, but great goaltending can keep you in games on some nights and allow you to regroup after a bad period. I'm not sure what Muller said to the team after the first intermission but it clearly worked. 

Prospects sometimes become a bit of an afterthought when the NHL season gets rolling, but don't think we have forgot about them, as there is still a lot to report on regarding those in Carolina's system. This week wasn't as eventful as the last, but there were a couple big standouts. The most notable one was clearly Phil Di Giuseppe who had five points in two games with the Michigan Wolverines this weekend. We'll talk about him more along with the other NCAA kids but first, let's take a look at what the Hurricanes CHL prospects did this past week.

Carolina Hurricanes at Toronto Maple Leafs
7 p.m., Air Canada Centre
TV: FS-Carolinas, SportsNet-Ontario

Starting this long road trip with a 5-3 loss to an injury-depleted Flyers team on Saturday night probably wasn't what the Hurricanes had in mind, so they will look to turn things around tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs. That loss to the Flyers was yet another game where Carolina managed to outplay their opponent at even strength but end up on the losing end thanks to a couple miscues and bad special teams play. Both the powerplay and penalty kill are becoming a huge story for the Hurricanes this year and not in a good way, as it appears that both are the Achilles Heel for this team that looks much improved on paper compared to last season. Most people saw the penalty kill going through a rough patch this year since this team doesn't have many shutdown defensemen, but the powerplay going only 4/36 on the season is a bit of mystery with all of the talent present. Both areas have been a focal point during practices the past week but we've yet to see much results. This could change tonight when they take on another club with struggling special teams in the Maple Leafs.

The Hurricanes made a surprising move today by deciding to send down forward Zac Dalpe to the Charlotte Checkers of the American Hockey League and recall Tim Wallace. Dalpe had two points in six games and is the only forward on the team who can go to the AHL without needing waivers, so he was sent down in favor of Tim Wallace who could possibly add some grit to the team. Wallace sometimes played in the top-six for the Charlotte Checkers, can kill penalties and has 20 goals and 43 points with them. He hasn't been much more than a fourth liner at the NHL level. Wallace can be useful to Carolina, so I don't have an issue with being called up, the problem is that Dalpe deserves to be on this team.

Dalpe was playing on a line with Jordan Staal and Jeff Skinner for most of the year, so sending him down opens up a hole in the top-six. That alone makes this move a bit perplexing because the Hurricanes are already starved for secondary scoring and don't have many candidates who can slide up into Dalpe's spot. Not only that, but Dalpe was a contributing member to the second line.

Second Line Scoring Chance Numbers

Dalpe's two points in six games do not look like much, but whenever he was on the ice during five-on-five play, scoring chances were going in the Hurricanes favor. Dalpe was also creating a high amount of offense relative to the minutes he was playing. Oh, and he managed to do this while playing alongside Jordan Staal, which means that he was being given some of the toughest assignments on the team. I try to keep rants and complaints out of this blog, but demoting a forward who can drive the play, produce offense and is competent enough to play the toughs makes little sense, especially with Carolina's need for secondary scoring.

So now the question is who slides up into Dalpe's spot? Chad LaRose was playing there for most of the third period on Saturday night against Philadelphia but he didn't do much of anything at even strength, so I'm not sue if he'll stay there. The other candidates are Drayson Bowman and possibly Patrick Dwyer all of which are good third liners but not ideal top-six options. That's the same problem Carolina had with their top-six last year, though. They were overslotting third liners into top-six spots because they didn't have much else to turn to, something that many thought wouldn't happen this year. With Ruutu's injury, Boychuk being lost on waivers and now Dalpe being demoted in favor of a fourth liner, the scoring depth Carolina once had is now in jeopardy.

The good news is that Dalpe can be recalled at any time, but sending him down doesn't make much sense in the first place.

Once again, the Hurricanes were involved in a game where they were playing from behind and ended up having a huge lead in shots and scoring chances partially because of it. Don't get me wrong, Carolina having an advantage in shots and scoring chances for yet another game is a good thing in the long-run, but it's still very early in the year and I'm not sure how much stock can be put in these numbers since the Hurricanes are being forced to play catch-up in almost every game they've played in. The good news is that Carolina had the slight upper-hand at even strength when the game was close and that should lead to more wins down the line. The bad news is that it may not matter as much if their special teams continue to be as bad as they've been this season.

Even strength play is often what leads to more wins but it's worth noting that there are more penalties being called this year, so special teams play could have a bigger impact than usual. Not being able to score on the powerpaly or kill penalties could be the difference in a team making the playoffs and the Hurricanes are currently on the wrong end of that.

Scoring chance breakdown coming after the jump.