Pittsburgh Penguins at Carolina Hurricanes
7 p.m., PNC Arena
TV: NHL-Network, FS-Carolinas, Root Sports

Much like Tuesday night's game against the Washington Capitals, tonight's showdown with the Pittsburgh Penguins has a bit of hype added to it. Not only will it be Jordan Staal's first game against his former team, it will also be Brandon Sutter's first game in Carolina since being traded to the Hurricanes. The national media is probably more focused on Staal right now because he won a cup in Pittsburgh and was a big part of that team for man years, but Sutter was also a very popular player in Carolina. He served as alternate captain for the last two years and fans loved his work ethic and personality. Sutter was an ideal third line center at the age of 22 and was seen as a big piece of the Hurricanes rebuild until he was traded this June.

Jordan Staal has done a lot for this team in a short period of time but most of the fanbase still loves Sutter and appreciates his time with the Canes, so I'm sure they folks at PNC tonight will do their part in welcoming him back to Raleigh.

While that's a nice storyline to add to this game, the Hurricanes also received some great news earlier this morning when it was announced that Jeff Skinner, Tim Brent, Jamie McBain and Tim Gleason will be returning to the lineup. Pitkanen will still be missed, but getting two top-four guys back in the mix going to give this defense a huge boost. Not having an adequate defense corps has been one of the Hurricanes biggest problems over the last couple of weeks, so getting two players back is going to help a lot. I don't even have to mention how much getting Skinner back will help but I just hope that he wasn't rushed since the last thing I want to happen is for him to sustain another head injury.

Either way, most of the gang is back together and that should at least inspire the Hurricanes to a better performance than they've shown the last few games. They are going to need to put together a good effort tonight since they are taking on arguably the best team in the Eastern Conference

After Game 10, I did a brief overview of the Hurricanes season up until that point and determined that the Hurricanes should be in good shape for the rest of the year. There were plenty of reasons to be confident, the team was crushing their competition at even strength, had two good scoring lines and were just finishing up a road trip where they went 4-1-1 against Atlantic & Northeast Division teams. Since then, the Hurricanes have suffered a barrage of injuries, losing five players in the span of less than a week and the team seems to have fallen apart. The Canes have won only two of their last six games since the road trip and have looked pretty lifeless in almost all of their last five games.Three of those losses coming against Southeast Division opponents, who they are battling for points with right now.

It's pretty easy for some to point to injuries as the reason for the Hurricanes recent struggles and it's a justifiable excuse. Injuries are tough to overcome and it's even tougher when three of those players are defensemen who regularly log big minutes. Not having Jeff Skinner is obviously a big loss too and they also lost a depth forward in Tim Brent, who is a fourth liner but plays often on both special team units. It also doesn't help that the lineup has changed basically every night, as the Canes have used 22 different skaters in the last week alone and at least nine or ten of these players started this season outside of the NHL. In addition to that, a good few of the players from the AHL are playing some pretty big minutes, too and there is only so much one can expect from this roster the way it is constructed right now.

At the same time, injuries are part of the game and every team has to deal with them. The Ottawa Senators lost their two best players and seem to have no problem with at least staying competitive in most of their games. Carolina probably isn't going to win many games with their defense corps consisting of only one proven top-four player right now, but this team has struggled to be even competitive lately. I try to stay away from questioning effort and compete level since I really don't know what goes on inside the player's heads but for the last three games, this team had a tendency to come out flat while the game is on the line and that's concerning. Take the Tampa Bay game for instance, the Canes were competitive in the first two periods and were down only 1-0 heading into the third. They came out flat, were outshot 13-2 and let Tampa run away with it. The same thing happened against Washington after the first period and it nearly happened once more against the Islanders before team mounted a comeback.

I really think it's best to stay rational in this situation since this is only five bad games with a depleted roster. Not to mention that the division still appears to be up for grabs since no one else the Southeast has yet to take control of things yet and the Hurricanes still have 13 divisional games left. Carolina is lucky to be in the position where they are now and the guys on IR are going to come back eventually but even if/when those players return, Carolina needs to get more out of some of the guys currently on the roster, namely their top players.

Last night was easily the worst game the Hurricanes played this season. It wasn't the first time they've been shutout this season but it's was the most dominated they have been at even strength since last season. Carolina's defensive play reached a new low last night by surrendering 23 scoring chances against to the Caps at even strength play alone. The Capitals only had three goals on the board, but they could have gotten at least five or six if it wasn't for the play of Cam Ward. Much of the criticism in this game was directed towards the Hurricanes offense or lack thereof and while that's fair, not having enough offense isn't the problem when your team gives up this many chances in one game. The reason why the Canes weren't creating much offense is because the Capitals had the puck in Carolina's zone 60% of the time.

The Hurricanes have done a good job of winning the battle at even strength this year, but that hasn't been the case since this barrage of injuries occurred and they got the stuffing kicked out of them last night. I've criticized the team's effort and have been saying that injuries aren't an excuse, but I don't think a healthy roster lets this happen to them.

Carolina had a lot of incentive to win or at least put together a good performance tonight. They still have yet to win a divisional game and one of their teammates was returning to the place he spent most of his NHL career. We heard a lot about how the guys wanted to win this game for Alexander Semin and we thought the Canes would have an inspiring performance en route to their first win against a Southeast team. Instead, we got to see the Hurricanes get shutout for the second time this season and put together a pretty horrible performance overall. 

The Canes had some jump in the first few minutes, but that was all washed away after they were called for a couple penalties and the Caps took a 1-0 lead on their second powerplay. After that, Carolina struggled to create offense and allowed the Capitals to do whatever they wanted for the next 30 minutes. The Caps were able to win just about every battle along the boards, were beating the Hurricanes to loose pucks and thoroughly dominated Carolina.

Don't let the final score fool you, the Caps dominated this entire game and the only reason things were close is because Cam Ward made a handful of fantastic saves to keep his team in the game. You would think that this would inspire the Hurricanes to put forth a little more effort and put together some more offense but the most they could do was create some one-and-done chances and nothing more. The team probably wasn't going to win many games during this stretch of injuries but there's a difference between losing because of a lack of talent, and losing because the team comes out sleep walking while the game is still in reach. The latter is what I have been seeing in too many games recently and it doesn't reflect well on the coaching staff and how much preparation the team is getting. This is by no means a "Fire Muller" statement, but it's up to the coaches to get the most out of the roster they've been dealt and I haven't been seeing it these past few games.

The Southeast is a very bad division this year, so the Canes will probably stay in the hunt for awhile but they are currently 0-5-0 and have been outscored 21-6 against divisional foes. These kinds of performances just aren't going to get it done. Period. 

Carolina Hurricanes at Washington Capitals
7 p.m, Verizon Center
TV: FS-Carolinas, CSN-Washington

The big storyline going into tonight will be that it is Alexander Semin's first game at Washington since signing with the Carolina Hurricanes. Semin had many successful years with the Caps before leaving for Carolina via free agency and he was pretty popular with a lot of fans but hated by others. Semin was a fantastic goal-scorer and underrated two-way player during his time in Washington but was criticized for his "work-ethic" and was scapegoated as a "lazy player" whenever things weren't going his team's way. It's not my place to say whether any of those accusations are true or not, but even some teammates have called him out on it. The most recent being Troy Brouwer who said that "there were some nights when you didn't know if he was going tos how up to a rink" in a recent interview.

His work ethic might be questionable according to those in the nation's capital but Semin's current teammates have had nothing but great things to say about him. They even went so far as to defend him on Twitter and in the media the last couple of games, saying that they loved having him around and that he has worked very hard every day this season. Seeing the Hurricanes players stick up for their teammate like this is a great sign and I'm sure they are ready to play for him tonight. It's great that they have some motivation, but they should have had enough motivation going into tonight since they are still without a win in the Southeast Division and need to keep pace with the Tampa Bay Lightning at the top of the division.

After hearing Brouwer's comments, I'm sure that many would love to see Sasha light up his former team, but I don't think Semin cares about how he performs on the stat sheet as long as the Hurricanes are the ones taking home the two points.

A little under four weeks ago, the Hurricanes made the decision to send Zac Dalpe down to the AHL to make room for Tim Wallace. Dalpe has been one of Carolina's best forward prospects for quite some time now but he has yet to make his mark in the NHL despite making the Hurricanes out of training camp for three years in a row. I'll admit that he was in a bit over his head during his first two seasons since he wasn't doing much to drive the play against opposing team's fourth lines. There also wasn't much room for him on the roster and he was constantly used on the fourth line instead of being placed in a scoring role, so giving him top-six minutes in the AHL made sense.

Dalpe has been able to thrive in the AHL with the Charlotte Checkers the last couple of seasons and earned a spot on the Hurricanes after training camp this year. The difference was that there was room for him in the top-six as he was played on the second line along with Jordan Staal and Jeff Skinner. Dalpe might have struggled in his previous NHL stints, but he played much better this season and looked like he could finally settle into a full-time role. Then he was re-assigned after playing only six games. Now he is back with the team again and will look to make a more lasting impression this time around, something he was well on his way to doing so during his last stint.

Sure, Dalpe's two points in six games might tell some people that he wasn't doing his job in the top-six, but goals and points are not everything in hockey. I know it's probably frustrating to know that Dalpe hasn't scored a goal since December of 2011, but he has only played in 11 games since then and only six this season. Judging his overall body of work based on a small sample size is not the best thing to do, so the door is open for Dalpe to succeed if he continues to build on what he did during his previous stint with the Hurricanes.

If I can quote an older post, here are some of Dalpe's underlying numbers from right before he was sent down.

Dalpe was making the most of his minutes by creating more scoring chances relative to his ice time than both of his linemates. He was also slightly better than his linemates at territorial play than his linemates while playing some pretty tough minutes on Jordan Staal's line. Dalpe was also one of the team's stronger players in terms of neutral zone play, by having control of the puck on 59% of his zone entries. That percentage is far away from being the best on the team, but it's a fine rate for a top-six forward and better than some other players were performing. Whether or not he can continue that remains to be seen, but it's a little confusing that the Hurricanes decided to send Dalpe back to the AHL when they did because he was doing just about everything right but score.

The Hurricanes have struggled to find linemates for Jordan Staal all season long and things got even more difficult after Jeff Skinner went down with a concussion, so this is a perfect time for Dalpe to step in and make an impact. Dalpe did not miss a beat when returning to AHL play as he continued to tear it up during his most recent stint with five goals and eight points in seven games and a 3.42 shots per game rate. He has already proven what he needs to in the AHL and now it's time for him to get a longer test at the next level. Personally, I thought he should have never been sent down because he was doing a lot of good things with the Hurricanes and didn't do anything to lose his roster spot. The team has needed another scoring forward for awhile now and he should be able to fill that void given the opportunity. .

Much like we can't judge Dalpe as a player based on his small sample size of NHL games he has played, we can't automatically guarantee that he will succeed based on six strong games at the NHL this year. That being said, if he continues to play like he did in his first stint with Carolina this year, then I think he will be in Raleigh to stay.

Last night's 4-2 win over the Islanders was an ugly win for the Hurricanes, so it probably won't surprise you to hear that they were outchanced at even strength. The Canes have made somewhat of a habit of pulling out wins like this as last night was only the fifth time this season they were outchanced and the third time they won a game where that happened. I'm not sure what that says about the team but at least they were able to pull out a win despite not being at their best for the entire game. We've seen this team put together better performances than last night and not be rewarded for it, so I guess you can consider this making up for lost luck.

The roster not being at 100% obviously effects how well this team can control play at even strength, so any wins are good right now. The Canes have enough forward to get by right now and some of their depth players have performed admirably in these last three games or so. The defense, however, is hurting badly and it's had a big impact on Carolina's territorial play. All teams have to go through injuries, but that doesn't change the fact have a noticable talent drop-off after their first pairing. The Canes do have some organizational depth on their blue line, but it's hard to expect guys from the AHL to slide into Pitkanen, Gleason and McBain's roles without some growing pains. This group will have their good and bad nights but defensive breakdowns and mistakes are going to happen that will result in some grade-A scoring chances for the opposing team. This is what we've been seeing the last few games but the Canes were still able to edge out a win despite the defensive lapses, so let's be happy but cautious going forward.

"Here we go again" was the phrase uttered by many Hurricanes fans after they saw their team fall behind early in the first period and were forced to play from behind yet again. Even more grumbles of frustration were unleashed later on that period when the Hurricanes were able to mount an attack but could not get anything past Islanders goaltender Kevin Poulin. Things seemingly reached a season-low in the second period when the Islanders just dominated the Hurricanes, outshooting them 12-1 mid-way through and looking like they were going to coast their way to a shutout win. After last night's collapse against the Tampa Bay Lightning, many Hurricanes fans were hoping for a better showing tonight and that this team would come out with a little more fire than they were showing.

The tides would then shift in Carolina's favor late in the second period when Islanders forward Matt Martin was whistled for an interference call. The Canes would then quickly make the Islanders pay by getting a lucky goal off a faceoff and then follow it up less than a minute later with a goal from Jordan Staal to tie the game. What had happened prior to that was now all but irrelevant as the Canes managed to put themselves in a position to win the game despite playing so poorly for the first 40 minutes. All they had to do was go out and finish the job, something they couldn't do yesterday but did tonight.

Now rejuvenated, the Hurricanes came out very strong in the third period and took control of the game, just as they did against this same Islanders game a couple weeks ago. Their top-two lines were finally clicking and their hard work paid off as a terrific shift from the Jordan Staal line resulted in Bobby Sanguinetti getting the game-winning goal. They would continue to wear down the Islanders and eventually salt away a 4-2 win after Alex Semin added on an empty netter in the dying seconds.

This was a thrilling victory and a much needed morale booster after the last three games, but I'm sure many fans would prefer to see this team show more of a complete effort instead of having to rally from behind like they have so many times this season. The fact that the Canes have been able to battle back and win games like this speaks a lot about their character and determination, but it isn't going to work every night. In the end, a win is a win and the Hurricanes will certainly take whatever they can get this year.

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

Forgetting about last night's terrible 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning should be easy because the Canes play again tonight and hopefully they can restore some confidence with a win. They're still going to be without five key players but injuries haven't stopped other teams from winning, so the Hurricanes will continue to have to make do with what they have and put together a better effort than they did last night. Injuries are often considered an "excuse" by fans and in many cases, injuries can prevent a team from delivering their game plan effectively and make it tougher to win. This is why I'm not looking at soley wins and losses with this particular Hurricanes roster. What I want to see is them giving their full effort and show some progress heading forward. They did this on Thursday but lost because of terrible goaltending but they didn't last night when they completely laid an egg in the third period.

What happens tonight against the Islanders remains to be seen, but head coach Kirk Muller was clearly unhappy with the team's performance last night so we could see some changes to the lineup and hopefully a better looking team than last night. 

The Hurricanes have another game in about 14 hours and I'm sure many fans want to forget about last night's 5-2 loss to the Lightning as quickly as possible, so let's get the statistical analysis over with now. This game will be remembered as a complete stinker for most Carolina followers, but that mostly applies to the third period. Let's not forget that the Hurricanes were reasonably in this game for the first 40 minutes. They played terrible in the third period and that is what everyone will remember because that's why they ended up losing the way they did. There is no excuse for how the team played during that frame and it was s terrible way to end this brief homestand, but saying that the season is over because they had a bad 20 minutes is just ridiculous.