Five game road swing ends

Carolina finished a five game road swing with a 4-3 overtime loss to Florida on Saturday night. They will come home for a single game against the Rangers before going back on the road for four straight. They lost three of the five games, and they lost Erik Cole for the remainder of the season. However, it wasn't all bad.

During the five game road trip, 10 points were available, and Carolina took six of them. Two wins, one overtime loss, one shootout loss, and a regulation loss. All in all, not bad. Although we lost Erik Cole, we picked up Mark Recchi. He's a great player, and he's gonna be a nice addition, especially heading into the playoffs, but Cole is a key piece of the puzzle in the room, and there's no way to replace that.

One area of concern, though, is that two of the games were lost in the third period. In the shootout loss to Philly and in last night's overtime loss to Florida, Carolina had the lead coming into the third. Prior to the Philly game, Carolina had managed to protect EVERY third period lead they'd had. Now they've blown two of them in a span of three games.

Another area of concern is the power play. Since the Pittsburgh game, Carolina has gone 1-28 on the power play (four games). This, simply, cannot continue. We went through a spell like this in December only to see the PP catch fire after that. I'm hoping the same thing happens here.

During that same span, though, the Canes PK has been great. They've killed 17 of 18 penalties since Pittsburgh. Our whole defensive unit, and especially Aaron Ward, has been great.

Another positive is that Dougie Weight has started to put up numbers. Maybe now the doubting Thomases can shut their pie holes. On Friday night, he had two helpers, and on Saturday night, he scored his first goal in a Canes sweater. I predict that we'll see this kind of production for the balance of the season.

So, with 18 games to play, the Canes have a 22 point lead over Tampa in the Southeast. The two teams have gone head-to-head five times so far, and Tampa has won four of them. With head-to-head games remaining, the best Carolina can hope for in the series is a 4-4 split. So Carolina is looking at 15 points to clinch the division. Any combination of points gained by Carolina and potential points not gained by Tampa totalling fifteen, and we've got it.

In the President's Trophy race, it's not that easy. It's anybody's to take at this point. I will say, though, that Carolina holds a tie-breaker over Detroit by virtue of the head-to-head win. They give up a potential tie-breaker to Ottawa because the two teams split, but Ottawa had more goals for. With respect to Buffalo, there are still two head-to-head matchups remaining, but Carolina has won the previous two. Rounding out the current top five is Dallas, who would have the tie breaker over Carolina because of the head-to-head win. I don't expect the race for the President's cup to be over until the final day of the season.