I've been very critical of Hurricanes head coach Kirk Muller this season for a number of reasons. He isn't the sole reason why this team's season has gone down the drain but his system and certain habits have played a role in it. Muller is very strict about having players stick to his system and "staying the course," so he usually sticks with the same lines for most of the game and his approach also stays the same. We saw this change last night against the New Jersey Devils. 

Mid-way through the second period, the Hurricanes were down two-goals and were getting thoroughly outplayed by the Devils. This is when he decided to make some major changes to the lines and go with an "all-in" approach to try to claw at least a point out of this one. He loaded up his first line with the two Staal Brothers and Alexander Semin, slotted Ryan Murphy on the first defense pairing with Andrej Sekera and had the Hurricanes take a much more aggressive approach. Instead of dumping and chasing, they were constantly trying to enter the zone with as much speed as possible, showing more creativity than we've seen while and taking more risks in the offensive zone instead of settling for safe plays. The result? The Canes scored twice in the third period, one goal coming while playing shorthand, and Carolina was in a much better position than they were before.

The end result was another loss, but I have to give Kirk Muller some credit for making adjustments and at least getting the Hurricanes back into the game. Unfortunately, this effort ended up being all for naught, as the Devils scored less than a minute after Carolina tied the game and it came after a very poor decision by Muller. He elected to send out the forward unit of Manny Malhotra, Drayson Bowman & Jeff Skinner for a defensive zone faceoff while the Devils countered with their top line. The Hurricanes ended up losing the draw and Skinner lost his man in the high slot, who ironically was former Hurricane Tuomo Ruutu, and just like that, the Devils recaptured the lead. 

Loading up the first line caused some of the other forward groups to be jumbled, but I would love to hear Muller's reasoning for putting Skinner out for a defensive zone faceoff. Skinner's strengths are at the other end of the rink and his weakness is that he frequently gets lost in his own end. Sending him out for a defensive zone draw (against a top line nonetheless) just seems like a losing strategy. A big part of coaching is setting your players up in a position to succeed and Muller clearly didn't do this here. 

There were still about six minutes in the game after that point, so that one decision shouldn't have cost the Hurricanes the game, but it ultimately was one of the deciding factors and the Hurricanes ended up taking another loss. A nice effort with some individual standouts, but a few big mistakes and coaching decisions ended up spoiling that. 

This year's Hurricanes team usually needs a few things to happen in order for them to win. They're usually in good shape if they can get good production out of both of their top-two lines, whether that comes in form of goals & points or territorial domination depends on the night. If that doesn't happen, they might be able to squeak by if they get a lucky goal or two from their depth players and/or their defense. Should neither of these occur, then it's basically up to their goaltending to steal them a game and they've had to resort to this quite a few times this year. One of those games being last night's 4-2 loss to the New York Rangers. 

Despite having the lead for about 2/3 of the game, the Hurricanes were grossly outplayed by the Rangers and the only thing keeping them ahead was a valiant performance by goaltender Anton Khudobin. The newly signed goaltender carried the Hurricanes through the first two periods before finally breaking down in the third and allowing three goals. It's hard to put all the blame on him, though because the team in front of him didn't play a good game at all and he was the only thing keeping this from being a blowout. It would have been nice for Khudobin to steal this one and keep the Hurricanes slim playoff hopes alive, but it just wasn't going to happen and it was a stark reminder of how bad this team's depth is. 

The Rangers might be struggling to score goals, but they boast some very good forward depth and it only got better with the addition of Martin St. Louis. All three players on their "third line" of Mats Zuccarello, Deick Brassard and Benoit Pouliot have higher scoring rates than most of the Hurricanes top-six forwards and their entire team is capable of driving the play at even strength. Compare that to the Hurricanes, who have basically one scoring line and two lines capable of driving play and it's easy to see why one of these teams is in a good position to make the playoffs while another is likely heading for another long summer. 

Fans are going to blame this one on work ethic and intangibles, but the reality is that the Rangers are a much better team than the Hurricanes and played up to that level on Friday night. Yes, the Sharks are a better team than the Hurricanes, too but the difference in that game was Khudobin in the third period. That and the Canes first line performed much worse than they did on Tuesday in San Jose. This along with more terrible special teams factored into another loss and one of the final nails in the coffin of the Hurricanes season.

In my earlier post lamenting the struggles of Tuomo Ruutu that led to his departure, I almost neglected to mention the player the Hurricanes got in return from the Devils. That player being forward Andrei Loktionov. The Hurricanes lineup (namely the bottom-six) has been devoid of skill for most of the year and Loktionov should help out here, as he brings plenty of that to the table. He is a 23-year-old center who is very shifty & creative with the puck and was a adept scorer in both the OHL and the AHL. Unfortunately, like many skilled forward prospects he hasn't been able to translate this into NHL success. 

The Hurricanes will be Loktionov's third team in the last three years and he has only 38 points in 135 games. He was drafted in the fifth round by the Los Angeles Kings in the 2008 and after being unable to earn a full-time role there, he was traded to the New Jersey Devils last season. He had some early success there with 11 points in 18 games, but had only one point the rest of the year and has only 12 in 48 games this year.

So, what we have here is a skilled, young player who is still looking to find his place in the NHL. There's a lot of guys like him, but what has kept Loktionov from earning a full-time role?He was only 20 years old when he was with the Kings and it's hard to get ice time there as a center with Koptiar, Richards & Stoll on the team.

The Devils gave him an opportunity and he seemed to do well with those minutes for awhile but faded and fell out of their plans this year. Him being able to stick with the Hurricanes will probably depend on what he can do when he isn't scoring. The team's bottom-six basically a mishmash of players who couldn't fit anywhere else (namely the third line) so he'll likely get plenty of chances, but what exactly are the Hurricanes getting with Loktionov and what kind of role is he best suited for?

The main goal I had for the Hurricanes going into yesterday's trade deadline was for them to clear space for next season while adding a piece or two that could help the team in the future. They only made one trade, but they took a step in accomplishing both goals by trading winger Tuomo Ruutu to the New Jersey Devils for 23-year-old forward Andrei Loktionov and a 3rd round pick in 2017. They had to retain 20% of Ruutu's salary (about $1 mil. cap hit for the next two years), but they still cleared roughly $3.75 mil. off the books for the next two seasons, which should help. From that viewpoint, it looks like the Canes had an okay deadline but the whole situation regarding Ruutu is a little interesting. 

Two years ago, he was seen as a player critical to the Hurricanes success. Did the Hurricanes overpay to keep him? Yes, but they were also in a position where they had cap space and likely weren't going to get many better players through free agency. It was also around this time that Ruutu was pretty much exactly the type of player the Hurricanes needed. He was a sizable forward with enough skill to fit into any team's top-six and adds a lot to the physical game, as well. He was an ideal linemate for Jeff Skinner in his rookie season and a good fit on the Hurricanes power play, regularly being used in the net front presence role or on the half-wall. The Hurricanes had to overpay to keep him, but they were in a position where they were better off keeping what they had and four years seemed like not too long of a contract for him at 29 years old.

His absence was noticeable last year and most expected the Hurricanes get a jolt in the arm once he returned. He had a solid 17 games last season but this year, things haven't gone as smoothly. Ruutu has only 5 goals and 16 points in 57 games, is a negative possession player and has been struggling to get consistent ice time under Kirk Muller. He had a brief stint on the top line but Muller has mainly kept him to a third/fourth line role for most of this season. This probably relates to both Ruutu's performance and how much of a "fit" he is in Muller's system. 

Either way, a player that was seen as an important part of this team is now an overpaid, underperforming third-liner and was just dealt to basically clear salary. How much has Ruutu's performance really fallen off in the last year and what is the cause for it?

Riding a five-game losing streak while trying to hang onto their playoff lives, the Hurricanes were a team in desperate need of a win and they played up to this label last night against the San Jose Sharks. For the first 40 minutes, we saw the Hurricanes do a lot of things that have been absent for the last three games. Players were stepping up in the neutral zone to take space away from the Sharks forwards, defensemen were jumping into the play to create chances more frequently and most importantly, we saw almost every player finish their check and swarm on the Sharks whenever they had the puck. This kept the Hurricanes in the game through two periods, but after that things kind of unraveled.

Whether it was the Canes running out of gas or the Sharks finally waking up, San Jose really took it to the Hurricanes in the third period and had them playing in their own zone for basically the entire frame. It took a few big saves by Anton Khudobin (by few, I mean 16) and some key defensive plays to keep the score tied. This was the kind of performance we were all hoping to see out of the Canes on this Western Conference road swing and it's just a shame that they couldn't do this in the previous three games. The Canes had to weather a storm in the third period and were pretty lucky to get out of that unscathed, but they also did a lot of good things in the first two periods and were rewarded for it with a couple goals. That's essentially what you hope for when you're playing on the road against a superior team and Khudobin's performance in the third period helped them seal up a win in overtime.

At this point of the season, the Hurricanes need to go into every game with as much desperation as they did last night against San Jose if they want to keep their slim playoff hopes alive. It's a lost cause at this point, but a win like this can do wonders for a team's confidence, especially with most of the Canes remaining games being against the East. They'll need more of a full-60 minute effort if they actually want to pull off the miracle, though.

One of my favorite things to do in my spare time (aside from tracking games) is dig through old posts on the fantastic Edmonton Oilers blog, Copper & Blue, and read some of their articles on the team's former general manager Steve Tambellini. In case you've been living under a hockey rock for the last few years, you are all probably aware of the struggles of the Edmonton Oilers and their mismanagement under both Kevin Lowe & Steve Tambellini. It would take a long post to explain everything Tambellini has done wrong, but Copper & Blue's Managing Editor, Derek Zona listed 10 of his biggest flaws and a couple of them should ring a bell for Hurricanes fans.

Not that the Hurricanes front office has been as bad as the Oilers (who are kind of on their own level), but some of these just sound so familiar from a Carolina fan perspective. If Point #3 about Tambellini keeping three goaltenders on the roster to prevent Jeff Deslauriers from going on waivers reminds you of the Justin Peters situation then you're not alone. Point #5 about the team losing Sheldon Souray for nothing has a similar vibe to the Jussi Jokinen debacle, only with far less drama. The one that really rings home is Point #7: Dithering. 

There you'll see a few fans vent about how the worst thing Tambellini did was basically everything he didn't do. The Oilers had a miserable roster and he rarely made any moves to help. He was content with the hand he was given and didn't take many risks that may (or may not) have helped the Oilers get out of the gutter. You'll hear a lot of GMs and coaches talk about how a team needs to "stay the course" or "trust the system" when things get rough and this seems to be what the Oilers were under Tambellini's regime, despite how terrible they were.

The Hurricanes aren't nearly the disaster that Edmonton has been since 2009, but the whole "trust the system" ideology seems to be the MO of this organization lately. It's what they preached for most of last season when their season fell apart and most are worried that they might stick to this again with the trade deadline just a few days away. It's not the the Canes front office hasn't taken risks before. Trading for Jordan Staal was a pretty big one and so was signing Alexander Semin, but these moves haven't gotten the team very far which leads us to the question; what now?

This will be one of those games that most will point to as an example of why Corsi, Fenwick and other shot based stats are meaningless because the Hurricanes were blown out despite outshooting Anaheim 52-34 and having a big advantage in possession. Those who only take numbers at face value might feel that way, but anyone who watched the game (or followed the boxscore even) would agree that the shot totals were pretty indicative of how the flow of the game went. Yes, Carolina dug themselves into a 5-0 hole in the second period and the Ducks were essentially on cruise control for the rest of the night, resulting in the Canes piling up a lot of shots and making the score somewhat close at the end.

These are called score effects and Carolina has been involved in a few of these games over the last couple of years. They've also been in a lot of games where they fell behind early and allowed one mistake to snowball into three or four more, which is what we saw against Anaheim. The Canes actually had an okay start in terms of being able to create chances and they were able to test Anaheim goaltender Frederik Andersen a couple times early in the game. He came up with the saves and bailed his defense out. At the other end, Cam Ward wasn't as sharp and the team in front of him didn't help him out at all. 

This is illustrated well on the Ducks first goal of the game where they took advantage of the Hurricanes defense in a vulnerable position after Brett Bellemore broke his skate blade after blocking a shot and left his partner, Andrej Sekera, on an island in front of the net. This left plenty of room for Corey Perry to swipe in a loose puck at the side of the net. A situation that could have been avoided if the Canes played more aggressive defensively but a tough break nonetheless. This was followed by Ward letting in a soft goal to Francois Beauchemin and Jay Harrison leaving him completely out to dry two minutes later on Perry's second tally of the game. 

When you are in the middle of a losing streak, mistakes seem to come in bunches and it's hard to dig yourself out when you're a fragile team like the Canes. There's always hope that a new game will bring a fresh start, but this team always seems to be on the wrong side of the coin and they can never seem to sort things out once things go awry and it doesn't matter how well they start a game. By the time they do establish some confidence, it's too late and their opponents basically have the game locked up at that point like the Ducks did tonight. It's depressing but it's the reality we're at now. 

A 52-shot performance without a win is impressive and encouraging in October. In March when you're desperate for a win? Not so much.

The Hurricanes came up short in a game which they absolutely needed to win and it wasn't for a lack of trying, compete, heart, grit or any other cliche fans want to throw out there. Carolina is simply not deep enough to be a playoff team and it was painfully obvious in yesterday's 3-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings. They were up against one of the Western Conference's elite teams without arguably their best forward and basically did what they could to hang around & keep the score close. Unfortunately, they also got into penalty trouble and despite killing off the first five Kings power plays, Los Angeles eventually made them pay in the third period and that was all they needed to lock up a win. 

We can go on and on about how much these players make, how much potential guys like Elias Lindholm, Riley Nash & Drayson Bowman have and how much heart Nathan Gerbe & Manny Malhotra play with but at the end of the day, the Hurricanes are a team with three forward corps producing at a top-six rate, three top-four defensemen and a volatile lineup that's devoid of any sense of chemistry. Put this squad up against a team like the Kings and they are likely going to do their best to not get outplayed and try to stay in the game. This is exactly what happened and while they kept the score close, there weren't any moments where I thought they controlled the game.

Getting into early penalty trouble will make you a little more cautious, but the Canes kept things way too conservative for most of the game. They opted to get pucks deep and give Kings possession when there were other options available, they rarely activated their defense to join the rush or jump into the play and they kept some of their best players on the bench in key situations in favor of "safer" options. It was almost like they were too afraid to make that one mistake that might cost them the game. How else would you explain players like Riley Nash & Jiri Tlusty being on the first power play unit late in the game while the team's leading goal-scorer sat on the bench? Same goes for John-Michael Liles constantly dumping the puck at the red line on the power play when there is open ice available. 

Everything about this team has been too conservative this year and while I understand the reasoning, it's become counter-productive with the way this team is constructed. They go into almost every game trying to limit their opponents chances and either end up spending too much time in their own end or get caught in a run-and-gun style game that they usually end up losing. Last night's game against the Kings was more of the former and while the Canes weren't completely overwhelmed, it was another case of them playing right into their opponent's hand. 

In what ended up being Ryan Miller's final game in Buffalo, the Sabres goaltender put on a terrific performance to backstop his team to a 3-2 victory over the Hurricanes. Carolina did just about everything to try to beat Miller through the first 55 minutes of the game, outchancing Buffalo 26-9, getting traffic in front of the net and moving the puck around swiftly to create chances. Despite that, they only managed to get two past Miller and Buffalo was able to get a couple of soft goals past Cam Ward, making this game a lot more competitive than it should have been.

It's hard to say what more the Hurricanes could have done to win this game because they were doing enough to create chances and at least try to solve Miller. Sure, they could have done more on the power play but they still managed to create 26 chances despite that and against any other goalie, this may have been enough to win or at least earn a point. Hell, it almost earned them a point in this game but some terrible late-game management ruined that hope for Carolina.

The score was tied 2-2 with less than 90 seconds remaining and Muller elected to send out his fourth line of Drayson Bowman, Manny Malhotra & Radek Dvorak, a safe trio that is unlikely to burn their team with a huge defensive mistake. They didn't do that, but Bowman ended up making a very poor decision by dumping the puck into the far side despite having plenty of room to carry it in along the boards. It's a "safe" play that not many would criticize, but Bowman basically gave the Sabres possession of the puck when the game was on the line. While the Hurricanes wasted their time with the puck, Christian Ehrhoff of the Sabres went coast-to-coast, basically undetected by every Carolina forward and ended up banking a puck off Carolina defenseman Justin Faulk and into Carolina's net to seal a victory for the Sabres.

Going by the scoresheet and the shot clock, it doesn't look like the Hurricanes were playing for overtime and desperate for points, but that play made it look like they were and it ended up costing them in the end. Yes, the goal was fluky but the situation could have been avoided completely with some better puck management. Ironically, the "safe" play is what burned the Hurricanes in this game.

A game like this would be fine in October or November because you can at least say to yourself and the Hurricanes played well and should start to win more games if they keep it up. That is still true, but the Hurricanes spent most of October & November spinning their tires and need points now. They let at least one slip out of their hands and it's likely going to cost them any hope at the post-season, barring a miracle run to end the year. This loss coupled with the third period meltdown to the Jets before the Olympic break could likely be season killers.

No one likes overreacting or melodramatics, but the Hurricanes may have played their worst game of the season last night, taking a 4-1 loss to the Dallas Stars. Even on bad nights, the Hurricanes have had stretches where they looked somewhat competitive and into the game. There was none of this in Dallas. They were dominated from the opening whistle and looked thoroughly out of their league against the Stars. Some might write this off to them getting outplayed by a superior Western Conference team, but the fact that they got outplayed isn't the problem. They were flatout embarrassed and looked like a team that should be tanking for a lottery pick instead of fighting for a playoff spot. 

No disrespect intended to the Stars, they are a very good team and were on a hot streak before the Olympic break. It's just that the Hurricanes are a team that's in a similar position to Dallas, on the cusp of making the playoffs, and you honestly wouldn't know it by watching both clubs. It was yet another case of the Hurricanes spending most of the game chasing their opponents instead of taking the play to them. The Stars are a team with plenty of speed, size and talent and the Hurricanes responded by sitting back and trying to contain them instead of getting a forecheck going and playing with the puck. Dallas has a lot of skill in their lineup, so it's easy to be intimidated by them, but playing a passive/careful game usually leads to more mistakes and we saw plenty of those tonight.

If you're going to play a passive game and give the opposing team a lot of respect in the neutral zone, then you sure as hell better buckle down in your own end. Justin Faulk & Patrick Dwyer both covering the middle of the ice and leaving Tyler Seguin wide open for the first goal was the exact opposite of that. It's also important to play a hard game against Dallas' skilled forwards and Jeff Skinner's pathetic defensive play on Brendan Dillon's shorthanded goal was a good example of what not to do in that situation. Justin Faulk & Andrej Sekera's abysmal play on Jamie Benn's shorthanded goal would be another example of that.

This wasn't a game where the Hurricanes "did some good things and lost because of a few mistakes." They were outplayed and completely dominated and were lucky that Dallas didn't beat them by a wider margin. If this is going to become the norm over the next month, then this season might as well be a lost cause, especially with Alex Semin injured. January is looking more and more like a mirage.