A Carolina Hurricanes blog with occasional news about the rest of the NHL.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Carolina drops fourth in a row

On Thursday night, Carolina lost its fourth game in a row and the seventh in their last ten. They went to Ottawa hoping to turn the ship around and climb back into first place in the Southeast. Unfortunately, they were going up against the best team in the Eastern Conference, and they continued to play like the worst team in the entire league.

The final tally was 5-1, but really it felt like 10-0.

Like a badly overmatched college basketball team, they took a lot of low percentage shots from long distance and bad angles. Their shot total was high, but like so many times this year, very few of their shots were quality. 99.44% of the time when you shoot the puck right at the crest on the goaltender's chest, it isn't going to find its way in the net.

Without any intention to discredit Ottawa, Carolina didn't play well. They haven't played well in a few weeks. Months, even. Their forechecking is non-existent, their backchecking a joke, their penalty killing dreadful, and so on. There is absolutely zero creativity in their playmaking and shot selection. The defensemen take too many stupid penalties. The goaltending hasn't been great, but more often than we'd like, the goaltender is hung out to dry.

Ray Whitney scored a five-on-three power play, which was the only thing remotely positive in this game. Carolina had thirtysomething shots, but probably 25 of those came from above the faceoff circles with no traffic in front.

Carolina will have a chance to end this horrible skid with a home game against the Oilers on Friday night. Edmonton played and won in Atlanta on in Washington Thursday, so neither team will be rested.

5 comments:

TJ said...

Painful. Just painful, that game. Let's just hope this is the lowest point.

Anonymous said...

Not to be nitpicky, but Edmonton lost in a twelve round shootout versus the Caps last night.

Anonymous said...

carolina is on a skid right now and i always say that a team on a skid needs to have their goaltender steal a game to get them back on track,,,

d-lee said...

no, tj. You're not being "nitpicky". I'd say my error wasn't a small one. Thanks for the heads up. I was thinking of Montreal, who was in Atlanta.
Duh.

Correction made.

kubiak said...

i' hoping for some big changes. I'm not happy about some of the rumors I've been hearing (And fortunately they come from some of my less-than-in-the-know associates.) but I just want something to shake this team up. This is dreadful hockey.

I get the feeling that C.Adams was the first of several things we're going to see. Part of me hated to see him go, but past loyalties only get you stuck in the past, I suppose.

disclaimer

Red And Black Hockey is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Carolina Hurricanes Hockey Club, the National Hockey League or any of its other member clubs. The opinions expressed herein are entirely those of RBH. Any comments made are the opinion of the commenter, and not necessarily that of RBH.
Whenever possible, RBH uses its own photography. Any incidental use of copyrighted material including photography, logos or other brand markings will not interfere with the owner's profits.