The Hurricanes managed to put together one of their best defensive efforts of the season last night and they somehow did it with a depleted blue-line corps. They held the Maple Leafs to only seven scoring chances at even strength (six excluding empty net situations) and only 10 chances overall. Part of the reason for their success was having their top-nine be relentless on the forecheck for most of the game and trapping the Leafs in their own zone. The plan worked out quite well as Toronto's offensive chances were very limited and the Hurricanes dominated both the shot and chance count.

Carolina played a terrific game but the Leafs were also horrible in their own regard and that has to be taken into account. Sure, a reason why the Leafs played so poorly is because of how well Carolina was able to bottle them up at even strength but you'll struggle to find a team who played worse than Toronto did last night. On the bright side, the Hurricanes won a few games on the road trip despite not playing their best hockey and last night, they played went back to dominating their opponent at even strength and played one of their best games of the season.

The Hurricanes managed to pull out a 4-2 win over the New Jersey Devils last night and they did it on the back of one of their weakest offensive performances of the young season. The Devils held Carolina to only nine scoring chances at even strength and 12 overall, which are season lows for the Hurricanes this season. New Jersey is also only the third team this season to outchance the Hurricanes this year, so you could probably classify this as another game the Canes won despite not having their best showing. While that might be true, I think the Canes played a solid game considering the circumstances (last game of a six game road trip and the second night of a back-to-back) and against a very tough opponent in the Devils. 

Still, I think it's worth pointing out that the Canes have not outchanced an opponent at even strength since the Toronto game last Monday and haven't been nearly as good at even strength as they were earlier in the season. It might be due to a combination of them playing in more close games and having their last six on the road. A return to the PNC Arena might help fix this but until then, let's enjoy the fact that they won four out of six games on this road trip. 

Last night's game against the Islanders had all the makings of another loss for the Hurricanes. Carolina got off to a bad start, were dominated on special teams and generally looked slow compared to the Islanders for the first 25 minutes or so. Once again, however, the Canes were able to keep things from getting out of hand thanks to some timely goals and began to take over the game mid-way through the second period which helped them defeat the Islander 6-4. Slow starts have been a problem for this team all season long but this team has shown a lot of resilience at least and they wre able to pull a win out in Long Island on the back of four third period goals.

The Hurricanes ended up outshooting the Islanders and tying them in even strength chances, but the slow starts and terrible penalty kill are a big issue. Their comeback effort ended up working out against the Islanders and Rick DiPietro but something tells me they will have a more difficult time against other teams and better goaltenders. There were definitely a lot of Hurricanes who played well last night, but the team will need to play better for a full 60 minutes if they want to take home a win against New Jersey tonight.

Let's face it, the Hurricanes do not have a history of playing well against the Flyers, and this goes back to when the franchise was relocated to Raleigh. Since 1997, the Hurricanes have won only 30 of their 115 games against the Flyers and have earned points in a little over 36% of those games. Given that bit of information, some might be thankful that the Canes were able to escape Philadelphia with at least a point after losing a 4-3 overtime decision. Some might be happy with the point but this loss is frustrating because the Hurricanes had a great opportunity to steal two points from the Flyers.

Much like they did in Ottawa, the Hurricanes did not play their best game today but were able to stay in the game and force overtime thanks to good goaltending and a couple of lucky bounces. They took control of the third period and had a good chance to build on that in overtime. One odd-man rush by the Flyers and a bit of a lucky goal by Danny Briere ended that opportunity. Every point matters, obviously and the Hurricanes are probably content with earning five out of a possible eight on this road trip so far but it's always tough to not take advantage of chances like they had today, especially with the team having some problems on this road trip. 

Scoring chance breakdown 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.

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.

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.

Carolina's 1-0 win over the Ottawa Senators might be seen as another game that goaltender Dan Ellis "stole" for them because he recorded a shutout and the Hurricanes were outshot at even strength. While both of those points are true, the Hurricanes defense also deserves a lot of credit for Ellis' shutout as they did a fantastic job of not allowing many scoring opportunities against to the Senators. Carolina was outshot at even strength, yes but they had the upper-hand in scoring chances with a 17-13 advantage during five-on-five play and 23-16 overall. Don't get me wrong, Ellis was good when he needed to be and he came up big a few times in the third period, but this was a great defensive effort from the Hurricanes. The Canes offense also did their part in creating a healthy number of scoring chances, too but they had a tough time trying to solve Ottawa goaltender Craig Anderson and could only get one past him.

That one goal ended up being enough to win the game, though and the Hurricanes did their part in protecting the lead so there won't be many people complaining about their performance last night. The only thing that needs to drastically improve is the powerplay, which we will discuss and more after the jump.

Last night's 5-3 loss to the Boston Bruins was easily the most frustrating loss for the Hurricanes in this young season. The team got off to a poor start and fell in a 2-0 hole but managed to battle back and had the Bruins right where they wanted them at the second intermission. Unfortunately, they could not capitalize on this opportunity and came out flat for the third period which resulted in them being stuck in their own end for most of that frame and the Bruins eventually taking advantage of it by scoring a late third period goal. It was a classic case of one team playing to win and the other simply trying not to lose. Whether this was due to the Canes top players being worn out from playing too many minutes or simply being outworked by the Bruins is something that's up for discussion but either way, it was not pretty to watch.

Scoring chance breakdown coming after the jump.

Those who are fans of exciting hockey were in for a treat if they watched any of the back-to-back series between the Carolina Hurricanes and Buffalo Sabres, because that is exactly what these two teams delivered. On Thursday, we saw a high-scoring affair that featured a lot of great action at both ends and last night, we saw a terrific goaltending duel between Dan Ellis and Ryan Miller. Both goaltenders recorded 40 saves, as they did all they could to at least get a point for their respective teams but in the end, it was Ellis and the Hurricanes who came out on top with a 3-1 win.

Saying that Ellis "stole" this game for Carolina would be somewhat of an accurate statement because he had to make 40 saves and came up huge a few times in the second period to keep the game tied at zero. That being said, I always felt like saying a goaltender "stealing" a game implies that the team in front of him played poorly, which wasn't the case with the Hurricanes last night. They also recorded over 40 shots, were only outchanced 21-20 and had the upper-hand at even strength by outshooting and outchancing Buffalo 34-30 and 16-15 respectively. Ellis played a huge role because the Canes could not get anything by Miller until the third period when it took a perfect shot by Alexander Semin to beat him top shelf. They also got a bit of a lucky bounce on Jay Harrison's game-winning goal but sometimes that's what it takes to beat a goalie who played as well as Miller did.

Ellis still deserved the first star of the game, though because the Canes would have likely been playing from behind for most of the game if it wasn't for his performance. They were playing without Justin Faulk for the entire third period, too so the fact that they were able to pick up the win last night is huge. The Canes did a lot of good things last night, though and we'll break those down along with the scoring chances after the jump.