Searching for Consistency

I'm not going to panic. I'm not. Not yet. But I think every Caniac out there has reason to be concerned.

The Hurricanes fell to 0-3-1 tonight with a 6-3 loss to the Panthers in Sunrise, FL.

Ollie Jokinen and Gary Roberts scored two goals a piece, with Stephen Weiss and Martin Gelinas (still my favorite player in the league) chipping in as well. Alex Auld continued his strong play in goal for the Panthers with 32 saves, some of them nothing short of brilliant, and with Todd (the thug) Bertuzzi chipping in with 2 assists that trade with Vancouver is looking better all the time. Both of Jokinen's goals looked bad for the Canes with his first coming short handed after he stole the puck in the Canes' zone and just abused Eric Staahl, and the second on a bascially uncontested blast from the blue line that somehow mystified goalie John Grahame.

The Canes got goals from Scott Walker, Eric Belanger and Andrew Hutchinson, who scored on the power play in the third period to make things interesting...for a little while at least. John Grahame had a less than stellar debut in goal, the low point probably coming with Jokinen's blast from the blue line.

The Canes skated pretty well in the third period and tried to make things interesting. But in the end, it was too little to late.

Coach Peter Laviolette saw it this way: "I thought there were some people that gave good skating efforts, but again I'd have to say they skated probably better than we did, and it's a skating game right now. We need to get better."

That's the thing that concerns me most about the Cane's sluggish early start, they seem to be getting outskated every single night. There might be stretches of good skating, but it's not nearly as consistent as it needs to be. This is not a team that can win unless they are skating well. It is a team built for speed and aggressiveness, just like last year, when they outworked their opponents on a consistent basis, win or lose. I suppose it's natural to have a Stanley Cup hangover - their best players through the first week of the season have been Belanger, Walker, Litowski and Gleason, none of whom were around for last year's magical run - but they had better snap out of it soon and learn what it feels like to win again. Otherwise, losing can become a hard habit to break. The Southeast Division has seemingly improved from top to bottom. The Canes cannot afford to fall too far behind too early, or it could be a long uphill climb of a season.

There were a few signs of progress tonight, but overall it was in no way a big step forward. The defense was sloppy at times.
Rob Brind A'mour and Justin Williams continue to be invisible, offensively and defensively, and the Cole/Whitney/Staal line has produced no offense since the opener against Buffalo. When your best, and at times, only offensive threat is your 3rd line, you might be in for trouble.

The defense seems to mirror the offense, playing well in spurts but then making a foolish turnover or taking a silly penalty.

I'm not as concerned about the power play and some seem to be. Sure the Canes are only 3-for-27 on the season, and there is plenty of room for improvement, but that's better than or at least comparable to where they were at this point last year. My biggest concern is 5 on 5. That's where we are getting beat. That is where we are getting out skated, out hustled and out worked. And that is where the Canes made their hay last season.

It may be cliche, the Canes are going to be a marked team all year. They will get everyone's top effort every night out. They have to match that intensity. They have to rediscover that hunger, before it's too late.

I'm not ready to panic. I still believe. I'm just hoping things start to click sooner rather than later.

-m