-Tara Hun-Dorris-

Filling in for Gabriel again tonight. This will be short and sweet.

Last Time Out

In the modern era of ‘Canes hockey, I’d never seen the 7th man flatline. Until Wednesday’s loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. It wasn’t that we lost. It was how we lost. The ‘Canes team was both lackluster and passionless from puck drop through the final painful minutes. I’ve seen them do that for a period or two and then rally, but Wednesday everything was out of sync.

And the crowd noticed.

The Loudest House in the NHL was subdued. The decibel meter eked out maybe a 93. When the announcer said “make some noise,” in the third period, I heard someone say, “give us a reason.”

They did not.

It was like any other arena on a fall weeknight. The magic was gone.

So was our defense. I don’t blame Pytor Kochetkov for the loss. To my amateur eye, only the first goal was really on him. The second and third were on the anemic defense.

I don’t know what was going on on the ice. Players were tumbling at a rate similar to my son’s PHHL games. The game was sloppy, boring, and disappointing. Team Captain Jordan Staal called everyone out on the loss, “The effort of the way we want to play is what’s holding us back. The edge that you have in the NHL is that you kind of know where the puck is going because that’s the way we do things,” he told Walt Ruff (More Inconsistency Plagues Canes In Loss To Flyers | Carolina Hurricanes (nhl.com)). “It seems right now we’re just not sure what’s going to happen. It starts to look like that sloppy stuff in the neutral zone when pucks are bouncing around and guys are just twirling around. It’s a less direct game than the Hurricanes know and love. I’m sure the fans love to watch it and tonight they didn’t really look like they loved that game. And I don’t blame them.”

This fan was certainly disappointed to be out past her bedtime for what looked worse than Disney princesses on ice.

This Time Out

Tonight we face off against the Pittsburgh Penguins at PNC. I am from West Virginia, and my mom is from Wheeling, which is basically a suburb of Pittsburgh. I have relatives who cheer for the Pens. I have a slight fondness for them from my childhood and also because bird mascots are cool. I’d rate them as my third favorite team after our Canes and the Seattle Kraken. But I hope the Penguins are the team that fails to take flight tonight.

I don’t know what Rod and boys have been up to, but I hope they are looking for that lost mojo. Antti Raanta will be on goalie tonight after Kochetkov started two in a row. Raanta is 4-2-0 (with no home losses!); 0.877 SV%; 3.01 GAA versus the Penguin’s Tristan Jarry at 6-6-0; 0.910 SV%; 2.56 GAA. Hoping tonight’s line configuration can work some magic. Not happy that Jalen Chatfield is not in tonight’s defensive line up. While he was flat in Florida, he generally plays with more heart and spirit (and fewer spills) than Tony DeAngelo.

Prediction

On paper, the Canes and Pens are fairly evenly matched. Assuming the 7th man shows up along with the team, I’m giving us the slight edge at home: 2-1 Canes.

Record (Tara): 0-1 (but I have never been so happy to be wrong about a game as I was the shutout against the Tampa Bay Lightning).