Games like the one we saw at the RBC Center haven't happened much this year. Not only did we witness Cam Ward's second shutout of the season, but we also got to see the Canes put together one of their best team efforts in a 3-0 win over the Washington Capitals. It was their first regulation win against the Caps in over two years, so I'm sure this was a big monkey off their backs. This was also the first time in awhile that the Canes completely dominated their opponent in all three zones which is something I hope to see more of the next couple of months. It doesn't matter whether you go by the final score, shots (33-22) or scoring chances (21-10), everything was heavily tilted in Carolina's favor while nothing seemed to go right for the Caps.

I must say, it is really nice to be on the winning side of one of these games for a change.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

Yesterday it was announced that Zac Dalpe will be called up from Charlotte and that he could be playing on the second line in Alexei Ponikarovsky's spot. This has gotten many fans excited because Dalpe is known as the type of player "who needs top-six minutes to be effective" and a big reason why his point total in the NHL is so underwhelming is because he's usually plugged in on the fourth line for most of his call-ups. What prevents me from being advocate for giving Dalpe top-six minutes is that his possession numbers have been horrible at the NHL level and he hasn't exactly been scoring either. Players like Drayson Bowman and Zach Boychuk were at least making the most of his ice time and creating scoring chances during his time here but I can't say the same for Dalpe. My thought is that he should be in Charlotte to work on his all-around game and have the team call him up when he is ready.

The argument against that is that Dalpe hasn't really been given a chance in Carolina because former head coach Paul Maurice regularly gave him only 4-9 minutes of ice-time. Over his 28 game NHL career, Dalpe has only played more than 10 minutes in eight games, so I consider that argument to be valid. Eight games is an incredibly small sample size, but to play Devil's advocate, I went through those games and looked how Dalpe performed to see if he does play better with top-six minutes. The results were pretty disappointing.

CF/15 = Carolina chances per 15 mins., CA/15 = Chances allowed per 15 mins.

This is Zac Dalpe's scoring chance data over his short career in Carolina and it isn't very promising. It is true that he plays better when given more ice-time but he is still underwater in scoring chances, which isn't good. Although, that is covering only eight games worth of data so making conclusions based off this would be silly. One thing we can say from the 28 total games worth of data is that fourth line minutes haven't done Dalpe much good in terms of development. Putting someone like him in a checking role is pretty much useless and he would likely be better off in Charlotte. It is also worth remembering that Dalpe was playing through an injury at the start of the year and that could have been one of the reasons why his ice-time was cut back earlier in the season. It seems that we won't have to worry about that this time because he's healthy and there aren't that many better options in the top-six. Ponikarovsky is controlling possession but not scoring, Tlusty has been on a huge decline for the past two months, LaRose is injuried and so is Samson. There is definitely room for Dalpe now.

I know that Dalpe is at the age where most high-ceiling players break into the league but it's not like this HAS to be the year for him or he'll be a bust. There is still plenty of time for him and I am excited to see how he performs during this next call-up. Bowman and Samson have all gotten their chances under Muller, now I guess it's time for Dalpe to get a "non-emergency call-up" audition.

Most of us have been waiting for Jim Rutherford to make a few trades and he did so last night by dealing forwards Jon Matsumoto and Mattias Lindstrom to the Florida Panthers in exchange for forwards Evgeny Dadonov and AJ Jenks. This trade likely won't much in the grand scheme of things but it does make sense for both teams. Florida needs forward depth for their AHL team in San Antonio and Matsumoto is the Charlotte Checkers leading point-getter. Carolina, on the other hand, needs more forward prospects that are close to being NHL ready and Dadonov fits the bill there. You can never have too many good prospects or players under 25, so I do like this trade for the Hurricanes even if Dadonov never pans out in the NHL, which is very possible.

The other two prospects in this deal could also have an impact but Dadonov appears to be the centerpiece because he has prior NHL experience and has the highest ceiling. He is a very skilled and talented player who possesses a solid two-way game but hasn't been a top-point producer at the KHL or AHL level, which does show some cause for concern but he was a very useful player for the Florida Panthers last year and could serve the Hurricanes well, too. We'll explore Dadonov and what he can do for the Hurricanes after the jump.

Only eight months removed from their Eastern Conference final appearance, the Tampa Bay Lightning have fell way short of the expectations that people had for them this year. They are currently in a three-way tie for last place in the Eastern Conference with the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Islanders with only 40 points and have the second worst goal differential in the league with a -33, only bested by the Columbus Blue Jackets -39. Many bloggers, pundits and hockey fans had this team making another playoff appearance this year and rightfully so. The Bolts didn't lose much of their core from last season and were a terrific possession team with a 54.4% Fenwick rate with the score tied.

Most are pointing at goaltender Dwayne Roloson's sub <.900 save percentage as the root of their problems and while he has been atrocious, there's a lot more wrong with this team than just goaltending. Even if we were to adjust their team save percentage to the league average (.912), their goal differential would still be in the negative range and the Bolts would be a bubble playoff team going by Pythagorean expectations. Their goaltending is clearly an issue (and has been for as long as I can remember), but Tampa Bay has also gone from being one of the top possession teams in the league to one of the worst. Their Fenwick rate when the score is closed is a horrible 48.45%, which is bottom-10 in the league so their goal differential and place in the standings accurately describes their play this season. What's the cause for such a huge drop-off? Most of it stems from injuries and under-performance from nearly all of their depth players.

We'll explore this more closely after the jump

The main thing I talked about in the preview was how Cam Ward is showing signs of his usual self and that the Canes should see more wins as a result even if they continue to be outshot night in and night out. Tonight's game seemed to fit that prediction well as the Canes were outshot 37-22 at even strength and outchanced 20-13, but were able to pick up a point in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Penguins thanks to a marvelous 40 save performance by Ward. He may have actually needed to do more if it wasn't for the 24 blocked shots and 21 misses. It is safe to say that the Pens controlled this game after the first period but it was good to see the Canes steal a point and continue to work their way out of the cellar.

However, the result of the game isn't terribly important to Canes fans at the moment as we are all wondering about the status of Jeff Skinner, who took a huge hit in the neutral zone from Brooks Orpik and had to leave the game with what looked like another head injury. He returned later in the third period but he could have suffered another concussion for all we know since he was clearly woozy after taking that hit. One would hope that the team doctors wouldn't let him back into the game if he had a head injury so we are all hoping for the best right now.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

Carolina Hurricanes (16-24-7) at Pittsburgh Penguins (23-17-4)
7 p.m. Consol Energy Center
TV: FS-Carolinas, ROOT Sports

Tonight's game marks the final meeting this season between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Pittsburgh Penguins and only the second time  that one of the team's will not be playing as part of a back-to-back when they play each other. Although, the back-to-back games didn't seem to hurt Carolina on Sunday as they outshot the Washington Capitals 45-24 in a 2-1 loss, which came a day before they defeated the Boston Bruins 4-2 despite being outshot 33-21 at even strength. In my post where I looked at the team's possession rates this season, I said that the Canes should win more games in the second half of the year becuase while the team's "true talent" appears to be below average in just about every possession metric (think 48-49%), one of the main reasons why got off to such a horrible start is due to the less than stellar play of goaltender Cam Ward. It was the perfect storm where the team was playing poorly and getting horribly unlucky on top of that. We all know that Ward is better than he's been this year and he actually has shown signs of his usual self this past month (quality performances in all six of his starts), so more wins should come along with Ward's improved play. Will it be enough to make a playoff push? Highly unlikely, but the Canes could get themselves out of the bottom of the Southeast with Tampa Bay struggling so badly.

As for our game with the Pens tonight, I am not sure what to expect because Carolina just played two of the league's better possession teams in Boston and Washington. They were convincingly outshot in one game and won but lost the game where they outshot Washington by 20, so what is in store for them tonight when they take on another one of the league's best possession teams? With Ward starting his fifth straight start, hopefully good things.

Lines & more after the jump

One of the more frustrating players on the team has been young defenseman Jamie McBain. He originally didn't make the opening night roster and has been scratched a few times this year but his usual role on the team is a top-four defenseman who sees a lot of time on the first powerplay unit. He was very efficient in that role last season with a seven-goal, thirty-point campaign and wasn't a complete liability in his own zone. Therefore, my expectation for him this year was to improve his defensive play so he could turn into more of an all-around/Joni Pitkanen type player. That hasn't quite happened and McBain has looked just plain ugly and confused in his own end at times, which has led people to throw around the "sophomore slump" narrative for him.

Here's the thing, I hate the term "sophomore slump" in hockey because it usually means that a player had an insane rookie season that is hard to replicate or undergoes a string of bad luck during his second year and has worse counting stats. McBain's rookie year wasn't anything monstrous and he is on pace to have around the same point total so this doesn't look like a "sophomore slump" at all. What about his inconsistent play in the defensive zone? Well, in my post where I logged every defensive error last season, I wrote this about McBain:

"Jamie McBain had a good rookie season and looks like he can be a solid puck-mover but he definitely had a lot of ugly gaffes in his own zone and at the blue line. He mishandled a lot of pucks which led to breakaway chances for the opposing team and a good few of his errors were from failed clears, which might be why he did not get a lot of time on the penalty kill."

That sounds a lot like this year, doesn't it? Further research into his underlying numbers show that McBain's play is about the same as it was last season and he only seems worse this year because he is playing in a slightly tougher role. Follow me after the jump to find out what I'm talking about.

Tonight's recap will be a little different from the usual form because I was in attendance for the Canes-Capitals game and obviously could not log chances, so I will get those done as soon as the game becomes available on NHL Game Center live (which should be Tuesday night). Instead, I'm going to talk about my experience as an opposing fan in the enemy environment and give my thoughts on the game from the 403 section of the Verizon Center.

Here's what my view was like.

You might be a little high up, but there is truly no bad seat in the 400 level at Verizon Center.

It's kind of tough being a Canes fan in Maryland because there's only so many times a year I can watch my team, which is why I always try to make at least one trip to Chinatown per year to watch the Hurricanes take on the Capitals. I haven't been able to go as often as I would like since tickets are hard to come by (last time was in 2009 when the Canes won 5-1) but I do my best and was glad that I was able to see the Canes tonight. This game didn't have as good of a result as my last visit, but it was still a great effort and one of the few times this year that Carolina registered over 40 shots. Not a loss to hang our heads about, but I really thought the Canes could have gotten out of DC with at least a point. Tomas Vokoun had other ideas.

More thoughts after the jump

Tonight's dramatic 3-2 win over the Bruins reminded me a lot of some games that the Hurricanes would win last season. They had a lot of trouble creating offense and were kept in their own zone for most of the game but what kept them in it was the great play of Cam Ward. He stopped 33 of 35 shots, 21 of which came from a dangerous scoring area and looked a lot more like the goalie we had hoped to see for most of the year. That isn't to say that he was the only reason the Canes won this game because there are few other things you could point at. All three of Carolina's goals happened because forwards were able to get in front of Tim Thomas and create traffic. A couple of timely turnovers (see Brandon Sutter on Dwyer's goal) and instances of the Canes winning battles along the boards (Brent vs. Corvo on Faulk's goal) also helped but for the most part, it was Ward who kept the game in reach. Getting outshot 33-21 at even strength isn't going to win you a ton of games, so let's enjoy this win but not get used to it. Hey, whatever makes us 3-0 against the defending champs is fine in my book.

With every team now playing at least 41 games, we are officially at the half-way mark of the season which means it's time to see how the Hurricanes have performed up to this point. They have a 15-23-7, have been sitting at last in the Eastern Conference for most of the year and have won only five games on the road, so I think it is safe to say that the Canes haven't lived up to expectations. The worst part of it is that their underlying performance hasn't been good either so their place in the standings is a pretty accurate representation of how they've played. Just to add even more salt to the wound, the intangibles haven't gone in their favor either as both the goaltending and shooting percentages are below what is considered the league average. In other words, the team is playing poorly and they are getting horribly unlucky, which is always a bad combination. They've also been pretty consistent as a poor possession team throughout the year but are things getting better or worse under Kirk Muller? We'll take a look at that, after the jump