First let me get the record straight on the following. A) I am a Canes season ticket holder and lost my voice after the loss to Pitt the other night b/c of how bad the officiating was in the 3rd period and B) I wore my Islander jersey to the game tonight.

I guess the Canes fans among us can thank me for the win as well. Last week I wore my Canes jersey…Shutout… I wore my Jets jersey Sunday… Shutout. So basically the stage was set for the Isles to get blasted. But don’t blame too much on me since the Canes really were due to break out of the scoring drought. They have too many legit scorers and have been buzzing too much not to have a breakout game.

To look at this games score of 7-2 you would think that “My God DiPietro was baaaddd”. Well not so much. I am not sure I have seen more lack of hustle out of a 5 man unit on the ice as I did for many times the Isles were on the ice tonight. I have to think that only Sutter’s goal where Ricky didn’t pay attention to the puck as he was covering it, was truely his fault.

Let’s recap a bit. Early in the 1st the Isles were out skating the Canes a bit. Even after the lackluster fight between Jay Harrison and Konopka which was stopped pretty quick either b/c they were so close to the boards or b/c Konopka had Harrison’s jersey over his head, neither team really pulled much momentum off this. The Isles had much of the zip until the interference call on Mottau at 7:46 of the 1st. Basically Ruutu slipped the puck past him down the right side and Mottau gave him the usual shove as he was going by and Tuomo fell down. He went down a bit easy if you ask me but the contact was so after the sliding of the puck that the whole call/no call debate could be had. The Canes didn’t score on the pp but they did get some good shots and were flying around the net, as the Isles seemed slow and non caring on the kill. Shortly after the penalty expired Rick pushed the puck out from behind his net and 2 of his own players picked him out of getting back to the crease and he had to dive back in just as Joe Corvo was firing a shot from the point which found it’s way to the back of the net. 1-0.  Five minutes later the Canes had a bang bang play down low where Sergei Samsonov found a streaking Jon Matsumoto who tapped in the nice pass for the 2-0 lead and Matsumoto’s 1st career NHL goal.  This was a pretty lazy goal b/c it wasn’t a 2 on 1 and the defenseman really should have put more of a body on Matsumoto here, so the laziness was just starting… As was the crowd who, after 6 periods of no goals at home just got 2 in five mins, were going crazy.

And then the breakdown begins. With just under 2 mins to play in the 1st period the play was, as usual, in the Isles end and the Canes were cycling the puck on the LW side. The defense for the Isles and the LW on the far side were COMPLETELY asleep. The best player on both of the two teams, Eric Staal, was able to come from the bench and skate all the way down the middle of the ice UNSEEN and Samsonov slid the puck to the high slot and Staal put an absolute ROCKET to the back of the net. The only one who even moved on the play was DiPietro, and he really had 0 shot of making this save. 3-0. The Islanders were dead and buried at this point. They didn’t give a crap and weren’t skating at all, and they still had 40 mins left to play.

In the 2nd period I was getting even more annoyed that the Canes were playing lackadaisical hockey. They were only up 3-0 but they were playing like it was 2 mins left inthe 3rd period. It was annoying b/c you have to stay on the team and push the play. Against the other teams in their own div. the Canes cannot do this or else the teams will make them pay and a winnable game will become an L. However, even more frustrating (if that’s possible) is the point that the Isles cared even less and just let the Canes control the lack of tempo and play their game. Brandon Sutter (son of Isles great and one of my fav all time players Brent Sutter), got on the score sheet next on a play where the puck took a nasty bounce off the back wall onto DiPietro’s pads and he went to cover it but he didn’t even remotely have it covered. It squirted free, Sutter grabbed it and sent it into the twine. 4-0.

The 5th goal was one which should have been waived off completely and ended up being the nail in the coffin. With Sutter coming in on net and banging with a D man he went into DiPietro and he was somewhat able to recover but it was too late as the puck rolled to Jiri Tlusty who found the back of the net. 5-0. Now I don’t want to hear any crap that Sutter was pushed. Push or not he was 10 feet out when he was hit and you have to make an attempt not to contact the goaltender. In the past week I have seen this happen multiple times where the offensive player was CRUSHED into the goalie point blank and he was the one who got the call. Here Sutter had all day to “try” and avoid contact and he just did not. No Goal, bad no call stripes, but when you don’t hustle and can’t get out of your own way sometimes you just don’t get calls like those.

The 3rd period was much more of the same. The only time the Isles actually histled were 1) when they were Short Handed and the Canes were real lax with the puck and 2) on their own PP’s when the Canes looked like they were just trying not to get hurt in a blowout. Rookie sensation Jeff Skinner scored a nice goal onthe PP in the 3rd for the Canes. He broke in on goal and took a good shot which Ricky came up with a quick save but let the puck just sit infront of him and Skinner’s quick hands were able to poke it 5-hole for the nice PP goal.

Both Isles goals inthe period Grabner and Parenteau, were hustle goals. Yes, I used the “H” word. They only happened b/c they sensed the Canes were playing prevent and I think they knew deep down they could get one or two easy goals as well. The blood was still in the water late in the period as time was winding down. Masumoto got another nice pass from Samsonov, and he rifled a one timer top shelf to make it 7-2. Normally, a good goal. Here? Here it was salt in the wounds and piling it on, which is just not done in the game. Less then a min left in the game, and I think he might have been the only guy trying to score on the ice. Rookie mistake, and he might see a few punches to the head by Konopka when the game is up on the island next time.

A few observations.

First this is the type of game that gets coaches fired. The Isles didn’t want to be here, and when you fight for every single point you get you simply cannot have this. The Isles are up the creek anyway with all the injury woes right now so they need to do the little things right, and they just aren’t… might be time for a change.

Second, the Canes defense still sucks. They need to do a few things better. They need to keep the puck in at the blue line better. And second for the love of God HIT SOMEONE. I am sick and tired of this corps being the biggest wusses in the enitre league. Gleason can hit but he doesn’t do it enough and only about 50% of the time tries to clear the crease. Pitkanen (hurt again as usual), has a slight mean streak but that only means he gets a penalty b/c he doesn’t know how to have a mean streak. Corvo isn’t here to hit people just shoot the puck mostly on the PP, so I will kindagive him a pass. Babchuk is the biggest puss of a 6’5″ mam I have ever seen. Harrison, well he blows but he seems to try, but he still can’t and won’t hit anybody hard. And finally the anointed next coming of Coffey by the team, Jaime McBain, needs to be sent down. He needs some confidence and some maturity on the back end. Sure he was great for the 14 or so games last year but he’s just not playing well at all. He’s out of position, coughs up the puck , charging at the complete wrong time.  McBain needs a 10 or so game stint in Charlotte, let him get 5 goals and 10 assists in those games and come back and realize what he needs to do. The extra few months Sutter had in the minors after his initial break in did him wonders, it’s time to try the same thing with McBain.

And finally, I am wondering where Roloson was tonight. Usually at the RBC center the visiting back up goalie will sit right off the ice where the opposing team comes on the ice from the locker room (Just happens to be right below where my seats are). There is enough room for the visiting teams goalie to sit the bench and handle door duity but the majority of teams have them site out here. Anyway, he wasn’t there at all tonight. I didn’t see the pre-game skate so I don’t know if he was there or not. This can be the only reason why Rick came out to play the 3rd period of this laugher. Nothing is written in the recap at all about no backup being available but I will keep an eye on it in the next day or so.

Let’s hope this both helps the Canes get some momentum into this weekend’s home and home vs Fla, and also wakes up the Isles to get off this schneide they are on.

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