Last night, I said the Hurricanes turned in a good effort in a 5-1 loss to the Blue Jackets but were on the receiving end of a few bad bounces & gave up towards the end. Some might say the same thing about tonight's 5-4 loss to the Detroit Red Wings but I actually thought this was one of the worst games the Hurricanes played this season.Yes, they only lost by one goal to one of the league's elite possession teams but they also blew a 4-1 lead, were outchanced 25-10 and gave up over 50 shots on goal.

Something that may have been lost in this "playoff push" is that the Hurricanes are still a team that is rebuilding and going through growing pains. They are still one of the bottom-ten teams in the league in possession and it's hard to be a competing team when you're relying on third liners for most of your scoring and are giving up over 30 shots a game. A game like this was bound to happen and I think it was a humbling experience to say the least. After looking at the underlying stats for tonight's game, it's very surprising that the Canes nearly escaped Detroit with a win, but the better team was rewarded tonight. That's for sure.

As awful as these last couple of games have been, it's important to remember that the Hurricanes is some odd pieces away from being a good team and we saw that tonight as a legitimately great team picked them apart. Granted, Carolina was playing the second night of a back-to-back on the road but they've been outchanced more times than not this season. I just can't remember the last time it was by this big of a margin. Nothing left to do now but put this behind us and enjoy the two days off before Tuesday's showdown with Toronto.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

The final score of last night's 5-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets does not accurate reflect the way the game went, because the Hurricanes did not turn in a horrible effort and outchanced the Jackets 20-15. The bounces just weren't going Carolina's way early and after having most of their best chances turned down by Columbus goalie Steve Mason, the Hurricanes became frustrated and just gave up. That's the best way I can summarize this game. Sometimes you'll have games where absolutely nothing goes right and that's what happened tonight. Cam Ward turned in a very weak performance, neither the powerplay nor penalty kill was working at all and all of Carolina's mistakes ended up resulting in goals against while Columbus was bailed out by Steve Mason numerous times. After numerous attempts to solve the Columbus netminder, the Canes just completely turned off the gas and let the Jackets do whatever they wanted and took a 5-1 loss.

Ever since Kirk Muller took over, one thing the Hurricanes have prided themselves in is giving a full effort every night and competing no matter what the score is. We saw that tonight...until RJ Umberger scored to make it 4-1 Jackets in the third period and then they looked like they had already left for Detroit. It wasn't a pretty sight and it reminded me a lot of the opening night game against Tampa Bay. A three goal lead that late in the game is tough to come back from but the Hurricanes could have at least made an effort to score one goal or generate a few chances to give themselves something to build off for tomorrow's game. Anything is better than just laying flat for the last five minutes.

Carolina had a good showing for two and a half periods even if the score doesn't indicate it, but the way they finished this game is something they shouldn't be proud of.

With last night's 3-1 win over the Florida Panthers, the Hurricanes now sit at 11th place in the Eastern Conference, only two points behind the 10th place Winnipeg Jets and five points out of a playoff spot. Realistically, the Hurricanes will have to win all of their remaining games to even have a shot at the playoffs and that probably won't happen, but just looking at the turnaround this team has gone through since January has been pretty fun to watch. Remember when the Canes were sitting at last place in the Eastern Conference and destined for a lottery pick? Things really have changed in two short months. This run could end up being fruitless and costing us a higher draft pick in the big picture but it's great to see this team playing well again last night's game was one of their strongest performances of the season.

We saw the Hurricanes take advantage of a tired Panthers team by forechecking strong early, make great use of their powerplays and have just about everyone in their top-six producing. You can credit this to a few things; first, the return of Joni Pitkanen, which really had an impact on both the Canes' powerplay and zone exits. Another thing was Kirk Muller reuniting the "Skinns & Finns" line who were on fire tonight and lastly, the penalty kill shutting down all five of the Panthers' powerplay opportunities. Carolina ended up on the positive side of the shot and chance count and hopefully they can continue to play like this to close out the year. The playoffs are just about out of reach but if the Canes can continue to play like they did tonight, they could make things interesting. That's a big if, though.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

It wasn't too long ago that Hurricanes fans dreaded the third period because the Canes would always seem to save their worst performance for that frame and ended up losing many games because of it. Over the last three games, the Canes have outscored their opponents 6-0 in the third period and have comeback wins in two of those games, as well. What is even more encouraging is that they've outshot and outchanced their opponents in all three of these games so it's not just luck that's been carrying them through the third period. The Canes have been working hard to win these games and it's something I hope we continue to see under Kirk Muller.

Tonight's 4-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets was very satisfying because not only was it a win against a division opponent on the road, but it was also a nice way to make the Jets pay for their dirty play throughout the game. We saw three very ugly hits from Winnipeg players, one of which was a blatant charge that will likely put Andreas Nodl on the shelf for a bit, and while many are hoping that these players receive a punishment from Mr. Shanahan, Carolina picking up the victory tonight and putting a dent in Winnipeg's playoff hopes is satisfying enough for me.

Despite the thrilling win, Carolina was sloppy for the first two periods and probably could have put this game away much earlier when you factor in that they had five powerplays to work with, one of which was five minutes and still let the Jets take the lead. Their play at even strength was pretty weak as they only registered nine scoring chances but they limited the Jets to 12 and kept the game in reach for most of the time. You have to love the way Carolina played in the third period, though. Their efforts in the final 20 minutes of the last few games have been terrific and it would be great to see them play like that over a full 60 minutes.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

A couple of the Hurricanes players had today's game against the Minnesota Wild circled on their calendars because it was the first time that they would be playing in their home state at the NHL level. Justin Faulk and Jamie McBain both grew up playing in Minnesota and the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul was the building where Faulk's University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs won their first NCAA national championship a little under a year ago. Both of them had an emotional return to the State of Hockey but the guy who stole the show today was Colorado-native Drayson Bowman, who had a two-goal, three point performance to lead the Hurricanes to a 5-3 victory over the Wild.

This win did not come easy, though as Carolina had to battle back from a 3-1 deficit and really made goaltender Brian Boucher earn his first win of the season late in the game. Neither team had much of a territorial advantage and things could have gone either way but it looked like the Wild had a win locked up when they took a 3-1 lead. This was a team that was 18-4-2 when leading after the second period and Carolina wasn't exactly producing a lot of offense but if there's one thing Minnesota hockey has taught us this weekend, it's that a two-goal lead isn't safe in hockey and the Hurricanes showed that today. They got a late second period goal on a lucky bounce and then came out strong in the third with two more goals to take the lead. Despite not recording a scoring chance in the last ten minutes, the Hurricanes held onto the lead and took home a win.

A very nice win to build off of as we head into the final stages of this road trip.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

The "first" game at the newly christened PNC Arena was a great one as the Hurricanes and Blues had themselves a good old fashioned goaltender duel between Cam Ward and Brian Elliott. Both netminders were tested plenty and played well enough to give their teams a chance to win but in the end, Carolina came out on top and Ward earned his 200th win with a 40-save shutout performance. He certainly did his part to keep this game tied at zero for the first two periods and the offense eventually came through for him in the third period with two goals.

This was a pretty odd game because despite a quarter of it being played at special teams, nothing too drastic happened as a result. The Blues and Hurricanes both had five powerplays a piece and neither scored on any of them. That doesn't happen too often so both teams should consider themselves lucky to get out of that mess relatively unscathed, and the Hurricanes should be glad that going 0/5 of the powerplay didn't come back to hurt them in the end like it has many times this year.

Solid win for the Canes against one of the best possession teams in the league. They were outshot 40-30 but they lowered the amount of chances they were giving up at even strength, got the goaltending they needed and the offense showed up at the right time. They also got a solid performance from the top line for the first time in about a week. Lots of things to feel good about with this win that we'll dive into after the jump.

The Hurricanes are now winless against both New York teams as they dropped a 4-2 decision to the Rangers last night. The game went about as most would expect considering the Rangers are sitting on top of the Eastern Conference and the Hurricanes are out of the race but are still battling to win games. Despite the score, that's pretty much what this game was like. Carolina managed to turn a 3-0 game into a one-goal deficit but could not complete the comeback as the Rangers put the Canes on lockdown for the rest of the third period an got an insurance goal from Carl Hagelin to put the game away. Hagelin's line with Brad Richards and Marian Gaborik was the story of the game as that line scored all of the Rangers goals, had 15 shots on goal and 13 scoring chances. Not many defenses are going to stop that.

"Good effort" is a phrase that's been thrown around here lately and that's all you can really say about Carolina's play when they lose. They haven't been playing bad and there's even been a few games when they've been able to outchance their opponents despite not coming away with the two points. Last night wasn't one of those instances, but the Canes certainly did not look bad. The Rangers just played better and got a couple more bounces.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

One very small positive thing about this season for the Hurricanes is that they have avoided the embarrassment of being shutout for the most part. Tonight's 2-0 loss to the Florida Panthers was only the third time that the Canes have been shutout this season as Jose Theodore stopped all 34 shots thrown his way. Some might say that this was a "strong effort" by the Hurricanes because they outshot Florida 34-33 and had some good chances, but they definitely looked off for a good part of the game. A team is expected to look sluggish when playing the second night of a back-to-back and that was certainly the case with the Hurricanes tonight. They outshot the Panthers, but they were outchanced 16-17, showing that they were a bit off tonight and were not the better team. When your best player isn't at 100% and your third line is the most active offensively, it's hard to win a lot of games. That seemed to be the case tonight.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

A couple of weeks ago I said this:

"Despite having only two goals, Skinner actually had a great month and the chances were going heavily in Carolina's favor when he was on the ice. Same goes for Jokinen only on a lesser scale. The reason for Skinner not scoring enough despite driving play in the right direction is mostly due to bad luck. Skinner had 35 shots on goal, was clearly getting plenty of opportunities at even strength but the pucks just weren't going in for him....If Skinner keeps playing like this then the goals will eventually come."

We are now five games into March now and Jeff Skinner has three goals and five points during that time. Part of the reason for this outburst is because he and his line with Jussi Jokinen and Chad LaRose have been constantly getting pressure in the offensive zone and creating scoring chances. It is no surprise that he has been on ice for 28 of Carolina's even strength scoring chances this month, an amount that leads the team. There's always a stretch of time when the bounces don't go a player's way but hard work and good play will not go unrewarded forever and we saw that hard work pay off for Skinner's line tonight in a 4-2 win over Tampa Bay. He, Jokinen and LaRose contributed to three of Carolina's goals and they were Carolina's best line for the third night in a row. A strong performance from them and goaltender Cam Ward, who made 36 saves, is main reason why Carolina was able to pick up a victory in a game where they were heavily outshot and outchanced.

We've seen a lot of games go this way lately, haven't we?

Scoring chances & more after the jump

Carolina's game against the Sabres on Wednesday ended on a sour, familiar note as they dropped yet another game in overtime. How poor their performance in OT games this year is one story but that isn't the main reason why they lost this game. Penalties were. You know it, I know it, anyone who watched the game or looked at the box score knows it. It doesn't matter how badly you outshoot, outplay or outchance the opposition, when HAND your opponent seven powerplay opportunities, you are digging your own grave, especially in a game on the road. The worst thing about the penalties was that they were all legit and were the result of incredibly poor discipline from guys like Chad LaRose and Jussi Jokinen (who had THREE minors on the night).

The final shot & chance total (10-16 & 24-42 respectfully) indicates that the Sabres controlled this game, but narrow it down to just even strength play and things are slightly more even. Buffalo outchanced the Hurricanes 14-10 at even strength and Buffalo only had a 24-20 shot advantage, so this wasn't that much of a "blowout." Carolina got themselves into penatly trouble and things ended up looking much more lopsided in Buffalo's favor on the statsheet, but the penalties are what doomed Carolina in this game. That along with the Canes doing nothing in the third period and their powerplay looked absolutely horrible on all three opportunities. The "special teams" battle has been a reoccurring theme for the Canes lately and them losing that battle ended up burning them on Wednesday night.

Aside from the penalties and awful powerplay Carolina played a decent game considering it was the second night of a back-to-back on the road. They really need to give Cam Ward a breather, though. I thought the reason for signing Brian Boucher was to use him in situations like this but the coaching staff clearly trusts #30 more. He played great, but the team can not keep giving up 40+ shots a night and expect him to be a brick wall. Give him a night off or two off to rest.

Scoring chances & more after the jump