The Hurricanes may have finished March with a "winning" record of 7-6-3 but they did not play their best hockey this month at all. Out of the 16 games they played, the Canes outchanced their opponent at even strength a grand total of four times and controlled roughly 45.6% of the scoring chances during five-on-five play. A few awful games are bound to happen with those kind of numbers and the Canes had their fare share of blow-ups in March. They were shutout twice, were blown out by Columbus and surrendered a 4-1 lead against the Red Wings in a game where they were outchanced 23-9 at even strength.

They had a nice four game winning streak which gave fans some false hope of a miracle playoff push but the writing was on the wall that this team was about to go through another rough patch and it happened. The Hurricanes aren't doing enough at either end of the rink to be a competitive team and things seemed to hit a wall this month as they gave up almost 40 more chances at even strength than they created. Hence why I think the team's defensive play is something that needs to be heavily addressed this off-season.

You'll notice that in the individual player reports, that a lot of the team's top offensive contributors are giving up way too much in their own end. We'll look at those numbers after the jump.

Since the Hurricanes are now out of the playoffs, all that's left to worry about is their draft position. Even with only three games remaining, the Canes draft position can change dramatically because of how cluttered things are at the bottom of the standings.

The Jackets and Oilers have their spots in the lottery all sewn up but the difference between 21st and 27th place is only five points. The Hurricanes can finish the year in 21st or 28th place depending on how they do in these next three games and the other teams' performance will have some impact on that, as well. It's a little odd to think that only two points separate Carolina from a lottery pick right now but things could definitely turn out that way depending on what happens.

Here are the possible scenarios:

If the Hurricanes win out:

The Hurricanes will have 84 points if they win their last three games, the highest they can pick is 6th or 7th depending on how the tie-breaker is decided with the Minnesota Wild should they win out, too. Now, the odds of everyone else also winning out is unlikely (especially with some of these teams having games against each other), so the more realistic result is the Canes picking around 8-10th if they win their last three games. That would put them in a position to take an impact player, but their chances of grabbing one of the top forwards in the draft would decrease if they pick outside the top 5.

If the Hurricanes lose out:

The Hurricanes losing their final three games would mean that they would end up picking in the top five if the Habs win out, the Wild acquire three points and the Islanders, Leafs and Ducks acquire at least two points. If the Hurricanes turn in the kind of effort they had on Saturday, this could very well happen but I honestly hope that doesn't happen. Yes, I would like to see the Hurricanes get a high draft pick but I also want to see this team put forth some effort in their last two games. I didn't see any of that on Saturday and I know Muller is probably thinking the same thing. Either way, if Carolina does drop their remaining three games without securing any points, they will have a good chance of picking in the top five but a lot of it may depend on ohwo the Wild, Islanders, Ducks & Leafs perform in their last fwe games, too. The Ducks have one game in hand so they have a better chance at moving up in the standings.

What will likely happen

Carolina has two games remaining against playoff teams (Ottawa & Florida), one of which has already clinched and they have a game against Montreal on Wednesday. The game against Ottawa could go either way since they already clinched and can't get any higher than 7th place right now. Montreal is getting a lottery pick no matter what, so that game could be a toss-up and I wouldn't be surprised if we see Peter Budaj in net. The Panthers, however, still have not clinched the division or a playoff spot and may still need to by Saturday when they play Carolina on the last game of the season. For their sake, I hope they clinch before then but it could very well come down to the last game of the season, which will make game 82 very interesting for both the Panthers and the Hurricanes.

Things could really go either way with the last three games but I see Carolina finishing in the realm of 7-9th place at the end of the season.

Finding a top-line winger for Eric Staal is likely going to be one of the first priorities for GM Jim Rutherford this off-season. One of the problems throughout the season has been the lack of top-six wingers and it's definitely had an effect on the Hurricanes' positioning in the standings right now. Staal has recently found chemistry with Jiri Tlusty and a combination of Tuomo Ruutu and Chad LaRose but with Ruutu playing better on the second line and Tlusty's ceiling being only so high, it's safe to say that the Canes can do a better job at giving Staal better talent to work with.

Although, if you look at Eric Staal's most frequent linemates throughout the years, you'll notice that he's never had one or two consistent wingers he plays with from year to year. Ever since 2007-08, Staal's regular linemates have changed every year, and I wouldn't be surprised to see this trend continue next season. Something that I noticed is that some of his frequent linemates had career seasons when playing on his wing, and we are seeing that this year with Tlusty.

A great center can make his linemates better and Staal is in that category, but just how good can he make a certain player? This is something to keep in mind when looking for a winger through free agency because while Staal can make his linemates better, he can't make everyone a top-six player. After the jump, we will take a look at Staal's linemates since 2007-08 and which ones he had the most success with.

This may have been one of the worst performances that the Hurricanes have turned in this season. Not only were they shutout 5-0 by the Devils, but they looked just flat-out pathetic in doing so. Carolina had only six even strength scoring chances through two periods of play and that was with them playing from behind. The 'Canes getting outchanced every game is something that I am used to, but this is the first time under Kirk Muller where the Canes looked like they weren't even trying. They took careless penalties, were lazy in all three zones and committed some horrendous turnovers that led to chances and goals for the Devils.

I know that they were "officially" eliminated from the playoffs and played a game last night, but this was a completely lazy and uninspired performance from the Hurricanes and I know that Muller will not stand for this. It's a little hard to get too upset about this kind of performance because all losing does is effect the team's draft position but if the Canes are going to lose out, I'd rather it be from lack of talent than lack of effort like we saw tonight. A high draft pick isn't going to magically fix a team and it certainly won't fix the Hurricanes if they put together another performance like tonight.

There's three games left in the season and I hope the Hurricanes can put together some stronger performances than this. Win or lose.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

For what I feel like is the twentieth time this season, the Carolina Hurricanes played a solid game for about 40 minutes, took a lead into the third period only to give it up and lose the game in overtime. That might be a bit of an exgerration, but I feel like I've seen this script way too many times this season and seeing this team constantly blow leads eventually grates on you.

Tonight's 4-3 loss to the Jets was especially frustrating because it seemed like Carolina had control of this game for the first two periods but let things slip away by playing poorly in the third period. While Carolina did have a huge advantage in shots, they were not winning the battle at even strength at all. Both teams were tied with 10 even strength chances through two periods of play and what gave Carolina the advantage was the excellent play of their penalty kill and their powerplay producing seven scoring chances.

Those helped the Canes out on the shot and chance chart, but not on the scoreboard. It's not too often you see a team create that many powerplay chances and not get rewarded for it, but that was the case tonight. Had they scored on one of those chances, then this could have been a different game but it's hard to fault the failed powerplay for the other things that went wrong in the third period.

There's a lot of things to breakdown but I think this stat sums things up well. The Hurricanes held the Jets to 16 shots on goal through the first two periods. They allowed 18 in the third alone. Protecting a lead. How does it work?

Scoring chances & more after the jump

An ongoing issue throughout the season is that neither coach has been rolling four lines as often as fans would like. Ideally, most coaches would like to roll four lines and have their fourth unit out there for around 8-10 minutes a game. The role of the fourth line depends on the coach and under Paul Maurice this season, the fourth line was barely used. That has somewhat changed ever since Kirk Muller took over as head coach as Tim Brent has seen his ice time and his role increase quite a bit, but that hasn't been the case for others. Anthony Stewart and pretty much anyone else who has been plugged on the fourth line, the most recent one being defenseman-converted-to-forward Derek Joslin, have been averaging around 7-8 minutes per game.

With Staal's average ice time being well over 20 minutes for most of the season, I wouldn't mind seeing things more spread out but I think the fourth line itself is part of the problem. What I mean is that it wouldn't hurt to upgrade the personnel we currently have there. However, in order to improve the fourth line, we may need to address other issues in the lineup beforehand.

On Monday evening, I joined the folks at Driving Play for their playoff race podcast and one of the topics that came up was the battle for the last two spots in the Eastern Conference. The Ottawa Senators, Buffalo Sabres and Washington Capitals are currently separated by a total of four points and at the time of the recording, the Sabres and Caps were tied with 84 points going into their showdown the next day. When we were asked which two of these teams would be the most likely to make the playoffs, I said that Ottawa will likely stay in the 7th spot and that Washington will make it in because Buffalo isn't that good.

Well....I got at least one of those predictions right. Ottawa is sitting tight at the #7 spot but the Sabres absolutely demolished the Caps last night 5-1, have claimed the #8 spot in the East and I look kind of like a jackass. There is still another week of hockey to be played so things can change but Buffalo definitely has to like their chances of making the playoffs now when you compare their schedule to Washington's.

The reason why I did not pick Buffalo despite their recent hot streak is because they are still a pretty bad team when playing at even strength in close games . Another thing is that a main reason for their turnaround is Ryan Miller having a .937 even strength save percentage in March and quite a few of their skaters have been striking gold lately as nearly 10% of their five-on-five shots have been goals. I figured that they will cool off eventually and return to how they were earlier in the season but I overlooked a couple things.

1. There's only a week left in the season the small sample size of Buffalo's hot streak could be enough to get them in.

2. Washington hasn't been that much better, if at all.

More to come after the jump.

Sometimes a great first period, solid defensive play and bad goaltending by the opposing team is enough to win you a few games and that was the case for the Hurricanes tonight in their 3-0 shutout over the Maple Leafs. The Hurricanes played terrific for the first 20 minutes in outchancing the Leafs 5-1 and gaining a 2-0 lead and then finished things off by sitting back and letting their defense and Cam Ward do the rest of the work. They gave up 31 shots, but only 12 were registered as scoring chances by my count and Ward didn't exactly need to stand on his head for the Canes to win this game.

Taking advantage of a cold goalie also helped as all three goals that Jonas Gustavsson let in were very soft and he was given the hook less than a minute into the second period. Toronto's offense really could not generate much the rest of the way as the Canes managed to bottle them up in the neutral zone and keep most of their shots from outside of the scoring chance range. After getting hammered by Detroit on Saturday night, it was good to see Carolina's defense respond with a strong performance against Toronto. Albeit, it was against a much weaker team with one of their top scorers out of the lineup.

Carolina is likely going to get a high spot in the draft so I don't really care about "tanking" at this point of the season so I'm happy with the team winning.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

It's time for our weekly look at the Southeast Division and it looks like things have boiled down to a two-team race as the Jets have fallen out of the picture. The Southeast Division will likely be won by either the Florida Panthers or the Washington Capitals and from the looks of things, the Cats have a big advantage. They have a three point lead and one game in hand over the Caps which means that they will probably win the division unless they lose out or something drastic. The Panthers also have games against Columbus, Minnesota and Carolina, which gives them an advantage compared to the Caps who have to play Boston, Buffalo and the Rangers to close out the year.

Based on schedule alone, Florida has a huge advantage even though they don't appear to be much better than any other team in the division. Washington has a shot at the division but it might take them winning out and getting a little bit of luck along the way. They haven't been getting much of it on special teams lately, so they will need for things to turn around there.

Regardless, I think Washington is good enough to at least make it in the playoffs but they really need to win their next game against Buffalo and at least earn points in all of their remaining games to solidify their chances. Ottawa winning tonight makes things slightly more difficult for them.

Any hope that the Hurricanes had for a miracle playoff push is all but gone now as they went 1-2-0 last week with two bad losses to the Columbus Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings. They ended up getting outshot and outchanced by a wide margin overall but that's mostly because of the Detroit game where they gave up over 50 shots on goal and 25 scoring chances. Carolina actually had the advantage in scoring chances in the games against Florida & Columbus but ended up negative overall because of the beating they took in Detroit. 

They always say that the scoreboard is where things count the most and Carolina was outscored 10-4 at even strength this past week. The Hurricanes have been able to keep a respectable goal differential over the past couple months but that obviously went out the window after that Jackets game. This is what usually happens when you get outshot regularly, though and it was only a matter of time before the Canes ended up getting burned. The team's talent level just isn't high enough to compete with the top teams in the league right now and we saw that against Detriot when they blew a 4-1 lead and were heavily outshot. Carolina has some nice pieces but they need to add a couple more forwards and maybe a defenseman to become a better possession team than they are now. Then we can start talking about whether or not this team will become a playoff contender.

The only thing that was discouraging about this week was that the team has at least been competing in every game under Muller and not laying down but we didn't see that in the Columbus or Detroit games. Brighter days are ahead but first, let's revisit this past week and single out some performances.