When you take a look at the roster the Hurricanes dressed tonight, you will see that they had three forwards who have never played a full-season in the NHL before, two of whom would likely be playing top-six minutes and their 7th/8th defenseman was being used as a forward. To the casual fan, this looked like an easy win for the 5th place Nashville Predators but that wasn't the case as the Hurricanes took home a 4-3 victory. The best part about it was that they outplayed Nashville for most of the game but a main reason for that was due to the Preds constantly digging their own grave with penalties.

Carolina had six powerplay opportunities tonight and scored twice, two of which were goals that either tied the game or gave them the lead. The Canes ended up outshooting and outchancing the Preds overall but they ended up trailing them at even strength. That's largely because Carolina was playing with a lead in the third period and elected not to play too aggressive. It wasn't exactly a pretty finish but it's another win. Besides, special teams is what help decide the last game when the Preds scored four PPGs so it only made sense for the roles to be switched this game, right? I'll go with that.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

If you've following the Hurricanes this month, you should not be surprised that all five of their losses have been by only one goal. To add to that, four of those losses have come in overtime or the shootout with their second shootout loss coming tonight at the hands of the Florida Panthers. It is their sixth loss in the breakaway competition this season and they have still yet to win a game that has gone this far.

Before we talk about how silly the shootout is, let's back up and look at the rest of the game and see why the game even went to extra time in the first place. The Canes had a 2-0 lead entering the third period but they also were being outshot 30-19 and outchanced 14-9 at the time. With how well Justin Peters was playing, all the Canes had to do was not sit back and try not to lose the game. Unfortunately, that's what they did and Florida ended up tying the score with goals from Tomas Fleischmann and Wojtek Wolski. You can say that the shootout has been a problem for the Canes all season but the truth is that horrible territorial play and lackluster showings in the third peirod are bigger problems that need to be fixed. It's been going on all season and it reared it's ugly head again tonight.

Florida was the better team but Carolina got the bounces and the goaltending they need to get at least a point. What they didn't get was the strong defensive play and territorial game that you need to secure a regulation win.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

The shootout hasn't exactly been the Hurricanes strong point this year as they have yet to win a game that has gone that far and dropped yet another decision via the shootout tonight with a 3-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks. You can debate all you want about how silly the shootout is and how it determines whether or not a team gets an extra point, but that's unfortunately how the game works now. Overtime play in general has been a problem for Carolina this year as this puts them tied for the league lead in OTL's with Los Angeles and Florida. Carolina's point total enjoys those 12 charity points, but the team's inability to play well four-on-four has been exposed many times this year and it's usually in games that go to OT.

Tonight's game, however, was not one of those times. Carolina played a fine game at even strength and outchanced the Ducks 23-16. They were outshot overall, but that was mostly due to the Canes inability to stay out of the box and the Ducks taking full advantage of their powerplay opportunities. Carolina was able to test Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller numerous times but he was constantly up to the challenge and shut down most of the Canes best opportunities. At the other end, Justin Peters played another solid game for Carolina as he had to make quite a few impressive saves himself, which is why this game ended up going to overtime and eventually a shootout.

I know Carolina is only eight points back, but in order to make the playoffs the Canes would need to go on a miracle run. When I say that, I mean they need to win 18 of their next 21 games in regulation to get in. The odds of that happening are highly unlikely, so there's no need to get upset about losing in a shootout. Carolina played a good game tonight, they got another quality start from their #3 netminder and they are figuring out who fits into the team's plans going forward. That's what matters right now.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

Last night's game was the first time this season that the Hurricanes truly dominated their opponent. They've had a lot of great games and big wins, but their 5-0 shellacking of the Caps was the first time that I can remember them walking all over another team. Everything seemed to be firing on all cylinders yesterday. They outshot the Caps 40-17, outchanced them 15-7 at even strength, scored on both the powerplay and penalty kill and they got one of the best efforts of the year from Eric Staal. Like last Monday's game against Montreal, Staal seemed to be playing on another level that we haven't seen much of this year and added another two goal, three point performance to his resume this year. With Ward, Pitkanen and Ruutu out of the lineup, Staal needs to be the team's best player and he was last night. Granted, Washington looked awful on so many different levels but the Canes took full advantage of that and bulldozed them.

Congratulations also go out to back-up Justin Peters who earned his first NHL shutout last night even though he didn't have do to much. I have been begging for the team to give him a lighter workload for awhile and they did just that as he only had to stop 17 shots and 10 scoring chances in a rocking chair, shutout performance. The team always seems to give up 30+ shots with Peters in net anyway, so this was a refreshing change.

Every year, there always seems to be that one player who has your teams number whenever you play against them and for the Hurricanes this season, that player is John Tavares. The former number one pick scored two goals and had an assist tonight which now gives him six goals and twelve points in four games against the Hurricanes this year. Carolina has had some difficulty containing dangerous liines (Neal-Malkin-Kunitz come to mind) but none of them have come close to what Tavares has done. The Hurricanes aren't the only team that Tavares' line has walked all over this year, but his domination of them shows that the Canes defense could use some improvement. Gleason, Allen, Faulk, Nodl, Sutter, Dwyer & Harrison have all done a solid job this year but they have their limitations and we saw that tonight. It's a big reason why they lost tonight and why they are 0-2-2 against the Isles this year.

Aside from getting run over by the Islanders first line, the Canes played well tonight and had the advantage in scoring chances 19-17 despite taking the loss. Carolina didn't get off to a good start but they eventually shook off the cobwebs and were able to keep up with the Islanders for most of this game. A horrible stretch of play to begin the third period is what ended up dooming the Canes, though as they had to play from behind for the entire third period and couldn't do enough at even strength to tie the game.

Again, a good effort from Carolina even if it resulted in a loss (only the second loss in regulation in the last month) but the Canes had poor starts to the first and third period and it ended up hurting them. An injury to Cam Ward before the third period didn't help either.

Scoring Chances & more after the jump

Today marks the first time this season that a Carolina goalie not named Cam Ward recorded a win. After performing below replacement level last year, many wondered if we would see back-up goalie Justin Peters even play a game in Raleigh this season. He did start the year in Charlotte but an injury to Brian Boucher led to him being called-up and because he doesn't get to play much, Peters needs to make the most out of his starts. Tonight, he did just that in stopping 35 of 37 shots and playing a huge role in the Canes winning tonight's game 3-2. I know that he got a two-goal cushion to start things out but Carolina's offense fell asleep in the third period and Peters was the main reason why the Sharks didn't break this game wide open. He earned every bit of this win.

While I am happy for Peters, I have to say that I wasn't pleased with Carolina's overall effort tonight. I know the Sharks are a great team but seeing the Canes come out flat in the third period with a 2-0 lead was very discouraging. They were playing so strong defensively for the previous 40 minutes and then they just let the Sharks walk all over at the beginning of the third period and they tied the game. A good shift and a deflection goal from Jussi Jokinen put Carolina back on top but this win could have come a lot easier than it did.

In the end, a win is a win and after how many bad bounces the Canes got last week, I will gladly take a victory like this. Carolina managed to only hang on by the skin of their teeth but it's still two points in the standings and another step out of the cellar of the Eastern Conference.

Scoring chances & more after the jump.

Before getting into the details, I just have to say that the Canes 5-3 win over the Canadiens last night was one of the best Carolina games I've seen this year. We have seen the Canes come back from a deficit before but what made this win feel so good was the play of Eric Staal. Carolina was constantly getting into penalty trouble and was down their leading goal-scorer for most of the night but that didn't seem to phase them even when they blew a 2-0 lead in the second period. Staal took over the game in the third period and it all started with his shorthanded goal where he made former Hurricane Tomas Kaberle look like a traffic cone. After that, he played like a man possessed and ended the game with six shots on goal, 11 shot attempts and a two goal/three point night to boot.

On a night where head coach Kirk Muller was returning to the city where he once led the Habs to many victories, it was only fitting to see Staal do the same for Carolina. I know Staal's been having an off-year by his standards but I don't think you can deny that he's been Carolina's best player ever since the calendar turned 2012. While he has played better than his goal total and plus/minus indicate, Staal's performance last night was exactly what fans were hoping to see out of him all season and more. I hope he can continue to have more games like that down the stretch.

Moving onto the more technical details, last night's game was actually pretty odd. A little over 30% of the game wasn't played at even strength and we saw plenty of 4-on-4 and 4-on-3 situations, so there were bound to be a lot of strange occurrences. Five of the eight goals scored last night were on special teams situations as the Habs struck twice on the powerplay and the Canes scored twice with the man advantage and had a shorthanded tally in addition to that. Like I said, strange things happen when a good chunk of the game isn't played at five-on-five and the Canes won last night because their special teams were slightly better than Montreal's. Want proof of that? The Canes were outchanced 14-13 at even strength but had 21-18 advantage overall because of how good they were on the powerplay. Sometimes goalies steal you games and sometimes the powerplay will. This time it was the latter.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

The hockey gods giveth and they taketh away. I feel that phrase sums up tonight's game well as the Hurricanes suffered their second consecutive overtime loss and this time the game-winner goal came with less than two seconds left in overtime. To make matters worse, Carolina had a 38-28 even strength shot advantage and controlled this game for a good 40-some minutes but a few defensive breakdowns, two soft goals and a lackluster third period led to them taking the loss. The optimists will say look at how the Canes have earned points in both games of their Western Conference road trip but the way they lost both games will leave a bad taste in fans mouth for awhile. Tonight's loss probably hurts more because the Canes let a good start and solid road effort go to waste and the only ones they have to blame are themselves.

However, the Canes do have some positive things to look at despite two heart-breaking losses. This is the second game in a row they have outshot a team at even strength, and on the road nonetheless. The problem was that it wasn't a full 60-minute effort and they made some horrible defensive mistakes, Justin Faulk's turnover to Ryan O'Reilly that caused the game-winning goal being the one that everyone will remember. Faulk screwed up there and he knows it but to put the entire blame on his shoulders is wrong because what doomed the Canes in this game was their effort after the first two periods. That's all there is to it. The good news is that the Canes should win more games if they can continue to outshoot opponents on a regular basis.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

During the Hurricanes-Ducks telecast on FS-Carolina the other night, the announcers mentioned that Carolina defenseman Justin Faulk should be considered in the Calder Trophy race for the NHL's best rookie. If you watch the Hurricanes every night or follow them at all, you can certainly make a case for Faulk being one of the NHL's top rookies. He plays 20+ minutes a night, contributes on the powerplay, kills penalties and his game looks very impressive by the eye-test. For a kid that is only 19 years old, that is very impressive and it makes you wonder why he hasn't gotten much recognition around the league. Is this enough to take home the Calder, though? Unfortunately, probably not.

While I do think that Faulk's season has been overlooked by the national audience, the fact is that it is tough for defensemen to win the Calder. The only time a defenseman wins the Calder is when there is no real standouts among the forward class. Voters and fans are going to look at points before anything else and with players like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Adam Henrique, Gabriel Landeskog, Matt Read and Cody Hodgson on pace for at least 40 points a piece, it will be tough for Faulk to stand out. He's also played fewer games than some of the other rookies so that probably hurts his Calder chances, too.

Rookie of the Year seems like a tough bet for Faulk but a good question is where does he rank among other rookie defensemen? Most coaches give their younger players easier ice-time against relatively weak competition to help them get a jump-start but we know that this hasn't been the case with Faulk. He and his partner Jay Harrison rank third and fourth respectively among Hurricanes defensemen in quality of competition, so we know that Faulk isn't getting soft minutes. What other rookie defensemen are doing this, though? We'll look into it after the jump.

It is always a bummer when a great game is decided on a horrible call and that is what happened tonight in the Canes 3-2 OT loss to the Anaheim Ducks. Both teams played a strong game and the Canes had one of their better road efforts of the year but unfortunately, they ended up walking away with only one point when it very well could have been two.

The call (or non-call I should say) in question occurred about three minutes into overtime when Jussi Jokinen was playing the puck behind the net. He was being chased by Anaheim forward Corey Perry behind the net and, in an attempt to strip the puck, Perry tripped Jokinen (and blatantly I might add) but referee Tim Peel let play continue as he saw no foul here. Perry was able to gain possession of the puck and The Ducks were quickly able to set up the play and Perry fired a one-timer past Ward to win it for Anaheim.

With how quick the game of hockey is and the human eye having it's limitations, bad calls are bound to happen but this was a non-call that directly led to a game-winning goal for Anaheim, so it's going to be awhile before Canes fans forget about this one. It's especially bad if you look at the play in question because the evidence doesn't exactly speak in Peel or Perry's favor. It was an awful call but I think it is best to be level-headed & reasonable in these situations. Humans make mistakes and this one is pretty big on Peel's part but we don't know for sure that Carolina would have won the game in OT or the shootout even if the call didn't happen. We can speculate but we don't know for sure. Either way, I think the best thing to do is to move on because this was truly a great game outside of that horrible call and I'd rather discuss that instead. Be upset. You have every right to be but in the end, you have to remember that it's only a hockey game and the outcome affects you only as much as you let it. As is the case with all sports. Letting this drag on for days, weeks & months isn't going to do much good.

Now that I have said all that I wanted to about Tim Peel and the non-call, let's talk about the other things that happened in the game because there's a lot of positive things for the Canes to build on here.