On Friday night, the Hurricanes traveled to Pittsburgh for the fifth of six straight road games. They should have won in regulation, but by the end of the night, they were just happy to get out of there alive. The one standings point earned by losing in the shootout was just a bonus.
Carolina got on the board very early. There was an early penalty, and Carolina was employing the five forward PP unit (Cullen, Whitney, Brind'Amour, Hamilton, Stillman). Ray Whitney slapped one in from above the left circle, beating Dany Sabourin high on the glove side, just under the crossbar. Matt Cullen and Rod Brind'Amour assisted on the power play goal.
Petr Sykora knotted it up at 18:58 on a really nifty move right in front of Cam Ward's cage. Sidney Crosby's wraparound attempt was foiled, but Sykora jumped on the rebound and backhanded it in. It was a very nifty play that beat Ward cleanly high on the glove side. Crosby and The Recchin' Ball got the helpers.
At 3:57 of the second, Trevor Letowski potted his first goal of the young season. Sabourin had just made a dandy of a save on a Brind'Amour/Williams breakaway, but he allowed the rebound to go into the low slot area. First, The Dude attempted a wrister from the forehand that was again blocked, but he recovered the rebound and backhanded it in. On that play, Sabourin had been knocked down and there could well have been a Goaltender Interference call, but I guess the contact wasn't deemed to be significant enough, or the referees thought that Rod Brind'Amour had been shoved into the crease area.
At 15:20, Viva gave the Canes a 3-1 lead, and it looked like the visitors were on their way to a nice win. Williams corralled a loose puck in neutral ice, then entered the Penguins zone with two Pens in front of him, three right behind him and no Hurricanes players anywhere near. From the high slot, he just put one on net, and it must have surprised the goaltender, because he was beaten badly by it. Again, high on the glove side. It looked like he never saw it. It was an unassisted goal for Williams.
The rest of the game did not go so well.
Soon after the Williams goal, Scott Walker dropped to his knees in front of the Carolina bench area and appeared to be woozy. There was no contact by any player directly preceding his collapse, but there was speculation that it was a delayed reaction to a collision with Jarkko Ruutu earlier in the game. At first it was confusing, then worrisome, then scary. He stayed there on his knees for several moments, obviously having difficulty moving and breathing. In addition to the entire Hurricanes medical staff, members of the Penguins staff were tending to him. It got even scarier when a stretcher was brought out. Ultimately, he left the ice the same way Erik Cole left that very same ice back in March of 2006. One arm dangling, bent over, gliding (not striding). Not exactly "under his own power".
Walker was held in a Pittsburgh hospital, and according to a team spokesman, x-rays and CT scans were "clear". We still don't know much about it, but the team is referring to Walker's injury as a "torso injury". Some speculation is that it might have something to do with some cartilage. Although Walker traveled with the team to Philadelphia, he is in "a great deal of pain", and will not play.
As if that wasn't enough of a bad break, Carolina got another at 17:54 of the second. The Pens were going hard to the net, and Adam Hall's backhand wrister from close range was kicked aside by Ward. Justin Williams was there to gather the puck, but unfortunately, he did his impersonation of Bryan McCabe, and he put it in his own net instead of directing it to the corner. Officially, it was Hall, with assists from Ruutu and Maxime Talbot. Unofficially, it was Williams committing the Tevvy.
Before Carolina could regroup, or even limp into the locker room with a one goal lead, Sykora made it all even. During a five-on-three power play, Sergei Gonchar unleashed a bomb from the high slot. Sykora was there to tuck in the rebound from just off the right post. Game tied. Gonchar and Sidney Crosby with the helpers.
Nothing in the third.
Pittsburgh elected to go first in the shootout.
Eric Christensen scored.
Matt Cullen scored.
Petr Sykora scored.
Jeff Hamilton scored a really nasty one.
Sidney Crosby scored.
Ray Whitney put the puck right in Sabourin's glove.
The "official" three stars went to Justin Williams (third), Sidney Crosby (second) and Petr Sykora (first). I don't see it that way. Both goaltenders played very well, and both had to make some circus-style saves. Especially Sabourin. That shouldn't go unnoticed.
The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Justin Williams, CAR --- 1 goal, 1 assist (plus a Tevvy)
SECOND STAR Dany Sabourin, PIT --- 32 saves, win.
FIRST STAR Petr Sykora, PIT --- 2 goals (plus a successful shootout attempt).
Although Carolina lost a key player for an indeterminant amount of time, and they didn't win the game, they still emerged with a point. Also, a positive thing that can be taken away from this game is that the Canes have already had twice as many successful shootout attempts (2) as they did all of last season (1). Jeff Hamilton proved to us why the Canes brought him here. His shootout goal was a thing of beauty.
Pittsburgh travels to Washington tonight. Carolina travels to Philly. 7:30. No TV.
More details about tonight's matchup later. Plus, more about the "house of horrors" that Mellon Arena has become.
Showing posts with label shootout. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shootout. Show all posts
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Florida steals one, Atlanta can't shoot.
I just got done watching the game between Montréal and Florida.
WOW!!!
Florida played pretty poorly for 58 minutes, but somehow emerged from the Bell Centre with two points. With seven minutes to go, the Panthers had only registered 15 shots on goal, and it looked like Cristobal Huet was on his way to a shutout.
Mike Komaserik was called for slashing with about two and a half to play, and the Panthers suddenly snapped to attention. They were able to mount some serious pressure on Huet, especially after Vokoun was pulled for the extra attacker. During the furious six-on-four sequence, Huet was forced to make a couple of great stops. The Habs killed the penalty, but just two seconds after the expiration, Nathan Horton got one past Huet to tie the game with 10.2 seconds remaining in the third.
Florida had been outplayed for the entire game, and really only played well for the last 90 seconds, but somehow that was good enough to get them one.
Nothing happened in the overtime, and the frustrated home crowd watched as it went to shootout. Montréal opted to shoot first. All three of their skaters went low on Vokoun, and he easily made all three stops. Florida's first two skaters were stopped, but Jozef Stumpel scored, and the game was over.
This was a great example of why you shouldn't give up on a game. The Cats stank all game, and they seemed down for the count, but they fought their way into the extra frame and ended up "stealing" two points away from les Habs. Although the Canadiens didn't leave the rink empty handed, they can't be happy about pissing away one point.
One standings point may seem petty at this point in the season, but the Maple Leafs missed the playoffs by one point last year. The Avalanche suffered the same fate. I don't mean to be overdramatic, but if the Canadiens just barely miss the playoffs, they can look at this game. They can look at 10.2 seconds.
In other news, the Thrashers got smoked by Philly, and they remain the only winless team. It's a sad commentary when the pathetic NFL Atlanta Falcons aren't the worst team in town. Sure, they've run up against some good teams, but they've only scored nine goals through their first six games. Five of those goals came in one game. Including last season's playoffs and excluding this year's exhibition games the Thrash have lost 10 games in a row. They've scored a total of 15 goals in those 10 games and have surrendered 44. Ouch. They'll get on track eventually, perhaps.
Jennifer over at SESO has been lamenting the fact that the Thrash just aren't shooting the puck. Tonight, they were outshot 33-31, which brings their cumulative total to 206 shots for the opponents to 141 for the Thrash. Their average is 23.5 SOG per game whilst facing 34.3 from their opponents.
The Canes are in the middle of five days in a row off. What else is there for me to do?
WOW!!!
Florida played pretty poorly for 58 minutes, but somehow emerged from the Bell Centre with two points. With seven minutes to go, the Panthers had only registered 15 shots on goal, and it looked like Cristobal Huet was on his way to a shutout.
Mike Komaserik was called for slashing with about two and a half to play, and the Panthers suddenly snapped to attention. They were able to mount some serious pressure on Huet, especially after Vokoun was pulled for the extra attacker. During the furious six-on-four sequence, Huet was forced to make a couple of great stops. The Habs killed the penalty, but just two seconds after the expiration, Nathan Horton got one past Huet to tie the game with 10.2 seconds remaining in the third.
Florida had been outplayed for the entire game, and really only played well for the last 90 seconds, but somehow that was good enough to get them one.
Nothing happened in the overtime, and the frustrated home crowd watched as it went to shootout. Montréal opted to shoot first. All three of their skaters went low on Vokoun, and he easily made all three stops. Florida's first two skaters were stopped, but Jozef Stumpel scored, and the game was over.
This was a great example of why you shouldn't give up on a game. The Cats stank all game, and they seemed down for the count, but they fought their way into the extra frame and ended up "stealing" two points away from les Habs. Although the Canadiens didn't leave the rink empty handed, they can't be happy about pissing away one point.
One standings point may seem petty at this point in the season, but the Maple Leafs missed the playoffs by one point last year. The Avalanche suffered the same fate. I don't mean to be overdramatic, but if the Canadiens just barely miss the playoffs, they can look at this game. They can look at 10.2 seconds.
In other news, the Thrashers got smoked by Philly, and they remain the only winless team. It's a sad commentary when the pathetic NFL Atlanta Falcons aren't the worst team in town. Sure, they've run up against some good teams, but they've only scored nine goals through their first six games. Five of those goals came in one game. Including last season's playoffs and excluding this year's exhibition games the Thrash have lost 10 games in a row. They've scored a total of 15 goals in those 10 games and have surrendered 44. Ouch. They'll get on track eventually, perhaps.
Jennifer over at SESO has been lamenting the fact that the Thrash just aren't shooting the puck. Tonight, they were outshot 33-31, which brings their cumulative total to 206 shots for the opponents to 141 for the Thrash. Their average is 23.5 SOG per game whilst facing 34.3 from their opponents.
The Canes are in the middle of five days in a row off. What else is there for me to do?
Sunday, July 08, 2007
A little bit more about Jeff Hamilton
When the Hurricanes picked up Jeff Hamilton last week, the general feeling shared by most Caniacs was "Who?!?!". We were mostly hoping for a guy like Todd White, with a more recognizable name.
After looking at his numbers, you couldn't help but be impressed. 18 goals and 21 assists for a guy mostly playing on the third line. The Blackhawks had some injury issues which forced Hamilton onto the second line, but his TOI average was just under 13:00.
High output with limited opportunity. I like that. I've mentioned it before, but I also like his quickness, his nose for the net, and his puckhandling ability. And he's quite good on the shootout. Carolina went to shootout six times last year. Out of 17 attempts, they only succeeded once. Once. Obviously, they didn't win any of those shootouts. Jeff Hamilton had ten shootout opportunities, and he succeeded five times. This is one of the things Carolina missed from Matt Cullen. In 2006, Cully went to bat nine times in the shootout and "scored" six times, including two game deciding goals.
According to this nifty thing, there were 70 hat tricks in the NHL last season. Jeff Hamilton had two of them.
Jeff Hamilton isn't Matt Cullen, but he's damn close. Hamilton is a little younger, but Cullen has several years of NHL experience, while Hamilton has just the one. Cullen has routinely reached the 40 point plateau. In Hamilton's only full season, he sniffed 40. We don't know whether Hamilton played over his head last year, or whether he's just a late bloomer. We're certainly hoping that it's the latter.
For your viewing pleasure, please enjoy this YouTube clip of Jeff Hamilton's highlights from 2006-07. It was posted three months ago, and the author of the video made the eerily prophetic decision to use "Rock You Like a Hurricane" by Scorpions as the music.
After looking at his numbers, you couldn't help but be impressed. 18 goals and 21 assists for a guy mostly playing on the third line. The Blackhawks had some injury issues which forced Hamilton onto the second line, but his TOI average was just under 13:00.
High output with limited opportunity. I like that. I've mentioned it before, but I also like his quickness, his nose for the net, and his puckhandling ability. And he's quite good on the shootout. Carolina went to shootout six times last year. Out of 17 attempts, they only succeeded once. Once. Obviously, they didn't win any of those shootouts. Jeff Hamilton had ten shootout opportunities, and he succeeded five times. This is one of the things Carolina missed from Matt Cullen. In 2006, Cully went to bat nine times in the shootout and "scored" six times, including two game deciding goals.
According to this nifty thing, there were 70 hat tricks in the NHL last season. Jeff Hamilton had two of them.
Jeff Hamilton isn't Matt Cullen, but he's damn close. Hamilton is a little younger, but Cullen has several years of NHL experience, while Hamilton has just the one. Cullen has routinely reached the 40 point plateau. In Hamilton's only full season, he sniffed 40. We don't know whether Hamilton played over his head last year, or whether he's just a late bloomer. We're certainly hoping that it's the latter.
For your viewing pleasure, please enjoy this YouTube clip of Jeff Hamilton's highlights from 2006-07. It was posted three months ago, and the author of the video made the eerily prophetic decision to use "Rock You Like a Hurricane" by Scorpions as the music.
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