The Hurricanes ended their road trip on a high note by defeating the Phoenix Coyotes 3-1 and have now earned points in three of their last four games. Losing in overtime to Edmonton and Calgary stings, but the Hurricanes did manage to keep ground with the other teams in the Metropolitan Division by winning this final road game and losing only one of their last seven games in regulation. With the East being as vulnerable as it is right now, this stretch of games could be very important for the Hurricanes later in the year as they jockey for playoff position. Right now, the Canes are doing just enough to get by, so they will need to build off this for the rest of the year and start to win more games in regulation. Does their recent performance suggest that they can do this? It's kind of a mixed bag.

Take Saturday night's win over the Coyotes for example. Once again, the Hurricanes gave up the first goal, let their opponents dictate the play for the first 20-30 minutes and came out on the losing end of the possession & scoring chance battle. That suggests that reality should hit them soon in the form of a long losing streak, but there are some things which suggest otherwise. For one, the Hurricanes manage to rally back from another early deficit and take over the game once they got their legs going. They also got a great performance out of goaltender Justin Peters, who had to do a lot of work to keep them in the game during the second & third periods.

The fight and resiliency of this club is something that I keep coming back to and that's because it has been their best quality this year. They've managed to earn points in games they had no business being in and keep even some of the best teams on their heels even after they fall down early. This goes hand-in-hand with the goaltending they've received this year, as he has managed to keep them in a lot of these games and the fact that their third-string goalie is the one doing most of the work right now is encouraging. Being able to play at this level for a full 60 minutes has been their problem and this game was another broken performance. The end result was good, but it may have been a different story had it not been for Peters.

This Western road trip hasn't exactly gone in the direction that Carolina had wanted, as they have now dropped three in a row in a row after losing last night's game to the Calgary Flames. It hasn't been a complete waste, they have earned a point in each of the last two losses, but the games against Edmonton & Calgary were Carolina's best chance at putting some wins together and gaining some ground in the Eastern Conference.  With so many teams in the East struggling to find their form right now, the Canes needed to take advantage of playing against some of the West's bottom-feeders and so far, they haven't been able to do that. Earning two loser points on the road might be acceptable in some parts of the year, but the Hurricanes really needed to come out of Calgary with a win and they were three seconds away from having an opportunity to do so.

Missed opportunities have been a reoccurring theme for the Canes this year and there were plenty of those last night. Carolina outchanced the Flames at even strength, dominated the third period and had a lot of chances to put this game away late. Unfortunately, most of their best chances were stopped by goaltender Karri Ramo, had a very solid night in goal and kept the Flames alive. The Hurricanes inability to solve him allowed the Flames to stay in the game and they eventually got their reward in OT with Chris Butler scoring on a seeing-eye shot with three seconds left. 

Despite the bad result, there were a lot of positives for the Canes in this game but this is a league driven by results and not escaping Alberta with at least one win could come back to haunt them later in the year.

Out of all of the games on this road swing, Tuesday night's game against the Oilers was the one I was the most confident about. The Oilers have a lot of talent and some dangerous, young goal-scorers, but the Hurricanes match up more favorably against them than they do Vancouver, Calgary or Phoenix. They play an open style and while it results in them creating a lot of offense, they also have one of the worst defenses in the NHL. The Oilers rank near the bottom of the league in possession and most of it is due to them surrendering over 55 shot attempts per 60 minutes during five-on-five play. This was a chance for the Hurricanes to unleash some of their offense and have a big game.

However, much like the Oilers are a favorable matchup for the Hurricanes, the Oilers were probably coming into this game thinking the exact same thing. Like Edmonton, Carolina is a poor possession team with a defense that ranks near the bottom of the league in terms of shots allowed. Superior goaltending is the only thing keeping them from having a worse goal differential at even strength. It was basically two bad teams going up against each other with the Oilers having a slight advantage due to the Canes playing on the road the previous night. 

The Hurricanes must have been really jet-lagged coming into this game because they did not look ready for this game at all and were dominated by the Oilers for the first 20 minutes. They trailed 3-1 after the first period and gave up a baffling 11 scoring chances to an Edmonton club which has struggled to carry the play against just about all of their opponents. Carolina managed to rally back from a three-goal deficit and escape this game with a point, but this was another case of the Canes letting their opponents dictate the play and decide how the game would be played. Seldom have the Hurricanes been the team that comes out strong in the first period and they end up fighting an uphill battle the rest of the game as a result. Now, the Canes being able to come back and earn points in these games isn't a bad thing, but if this club is going to be a contending team, it would benefit them to be more assertive instead of waiting to see what their opponent does first. Tuesday's overtime loss to the Oilers was probably the perfect example of this.

The Hurricanes win over the San Jose Sharks on Friday night installed a lot of confidence in this team, they showed what they are capable of doing when everyone is playing to their ability. Despite underperforming for most of the season, the Hurricanes showed that they can be a team capable of hanging with some of the best clubs in the league and contending for a playoff spot. We've been down this road before, though because even in their worst seasons, the Canes had games where they were able to outplay some of the NHL's elite, but they never played at that level every night. This is what makes the rest of this road trip so important and more importantly, Monday night's game against the Vancouver Canucks.

While their record doesn't show it, the Canucks are one of the better teams in the Western Conference and how the Hurricanes played them would be a good indicator of where this club is and if they can build on what they did on Friday night. They already played one game against Vancouver and managed to win the five-on-five battle but were brought down by terrible special teams. Did Monday's game have a better ending?

Unfortunately, no. Once again, the Hurricanes outshot and outchanced the Canucks at even strength but were shutout by rookie goaltender Eddie Lack. The Hurricanes didn't play as poorly as the final score indicates, but their offensive struggles reared their ugly head again and they had a difficult time getting through Vancouver's defense. Carolina played well enough to earn a point on Monday night, but a rocky first period and a goal that came off a bit of a fluky play had them going home empty-handed. There are worse losses, but this one was pretty frustrating to watch, much like the last game against Vancouver.

It's only December but the Hurricanes season has already been quite the roller coaster ride and the high points haven't lasted very long. That's why it's a little hard to get excited about the team's three game win-streak, because no one knows if it will develop into a great run or if the Canes will follow it up by dropping the next four or five games. That's just the way this season has gone and it has been frustrating to watch to say the very least. However, some good news about the Hurricanes recent win streak is that they are playing some of their best hockey of this (still young) season.

Over the last three games, the Canes have outscored their opponents 14-6 and they haven't just been beating them on the scoresheet, they have outplayed them dramatically. Their most impressive victory being Friday's come from behind win over the San Jose Sharks where the Canes won the possession battle against one of the Western Conference's elite teams. Expecting the Hurricanes to do that every night is probably asking for too much, but that game did show us what this team is capable of and that they are maybe better than what their record has shown thus far. The Canes have had a lot of banged up players in their lineup and now that everyone is slowly getting healthy, we could see their performance improve as the year goes on. Or at least that's what the last three indicates. We'll have to wait and see if it turns into anything, but it's still nice to see this team show some improvement.

Goaltending depth is an issue that has plagued Carolina for years. Ever since Cam Ward led this team to a Stanley Cup in 2006, the Hurricanes have struggled to find him a decent back-up and he often finds himself playing around 60-70 games a year. While not an elite goaltender, Ward has been a workhorse for years and has posted above-average save percentages behind terrible defenses for most of his career. With how much the Hurricanes lean on him, they have had to search for bargains when finding a back-up goaltender and for many years, they have struggled to fill that void. This year, however, the Canes find themselves in a completely different situation.

After how much goaltending played a role in Carolina's collapse last season, Jim Rutherford tried to solve this by bringing in Anton Khudobin to give Ward a solid back-up. Khudobin was far from the most proven option on the market this off-season, but he had posted great numbers in limited NHL games and was at least an upgrade over Justin Peters, who failed to establish himself as an NHL goaltender last year. With that in mind, the Hurricanes goaltending situation appeared to be set in stone as long as Ward could stay reasonably healthy. Unfortunately, disaster struck in October as both Ward & Khudobin got hurt and Justin Peters was forced to carry the load for a few weeks.

The Hurricanes came out of this stretch relatively unscathed, as Peters has given the Hurricanes very solid goaltending during his time, posting a .922 save percentage over 14 games and looking a lot more comfortable in the NHL compared to years past. This is good news because they could easily be near the bottom of the  standings if he struggled, but it does create a complicated situation with what they should do with their goaltending. With Ward now healthy and Khudobin being relatively close to returning, the Canes now have three NHL goalies on their roster and it's tough to figure out what they should do with each of them.

The original plan was likely to send Peters down to the AHL once Khudobin or Ward healed, but he has been with the team too long and will have to pass through waivers if they want to send him down. He has also played like an NHL goaltender and will likely get claimed if they let him go unprotected. Then you have Khudobin, who has played only three games this year but has looked very good in limited NHL action. He might be a better goaltender compared to Peters and give the Hurricanes someone who can steal games even if he is just a back-up.

Jim Rutherford said that he plans to keep all three goalies for now but with teams like Chicago, Nashville and the Islanders possibly in the market for a back-up, that could change. He is in a good situation and one of the three goalies on the roster might be able to fetch a decent return. The question is which goalies should the Hurricanes keep and how will the Hurricanes use each of them for the rest of the year? After the jump, we'll look at what all three goalies and what the Canes can do with each of them.

This game is a few days old, so I'll spare you the detailed analysis and leave you with the numbers. There isn't too much to say about this one, though. Carolina caught Washington goaltender Braden Holtby on an off-night, burned him for three quick goals in the third period and then coasted for the rest of the game. It wasn't an overly impressive game from a possession or scoring chances standpoint, but good enough to beat another weak even strength team like Washington and give the Canes a much needed confidence boost. That said, there were a couple of standout performances, the biggest coming from the new first line of Tuomo Ruutu, Eric Staal & Jeff Skinner. A look at their numbers & more is coming after the jump.

If the Hurricanes were going to have a bad game, last night's matchup against the San Jose Sharks would have been a solid bet. After all, the Sharks are one of the best teams in the Western Conference while the Canes have been treading water in the lowly Metropolitan Division. San Jose is also a top-ten team in terms of possession, goal differential, goals per game, goals allowed per game and shots per game. In addition to that, they have been a very good road club this year, earning points in 12 out of 15 games, and matched up favorably with the Hurricanes on paper. Carolina may have came into this game winning two straight, but San Jose is much stronger team than either Washington or Nashville and has enough forward depth to give the Hurricanes fits even at home.

When taking that and the Hurricanes struggles against other good possession clubs, San Jose should have been able to throttle Carolina, especially at even strength. Hockey can be an unpredictable game, though and we saw an example of that last night as the Hurricanes defeated San Jose 5-3. Not only that, but the Hurricanes also outplayed and outworked the Sharks and looked more like the club we expected to see last season. This is a team that has been grossly under-performing their expectations for the last nine months (both in terms of wins and underlying numbers) but they seemed to have found a groove over the last week and are playing more up to their standards, last night's game possibly being their most impressive game to date. 

Some might disagree with that last statement because they fell down 2-0 early but even then, I don't think they ever let San Jose take over the game. Carolina had control of the play for most of the first period, were creating chances and winning most of the battles for the puck, but found themselves trailing by two goals thanks to a bad turnover and a deflection. Mistakes like that can throw off a team's game plan, but the Hurricanes didn't seem to shell-shocked by this and were able to slowly mount a comeback and get their reward in the third period, scoring four goals and going on to win 5-3.

I've talked about the fight that this team has shown in them all season, but that will only take you so far if you don't have skill, talent and finish to back it up. All of this has been absent for the majority of the year and we are starting to see it come to life over the last three games. What has changed during then? The roster has gone through some shuffling due to injuries, but I think some credit should go to the coaching staff for making some lineup tweaks that have really worked in the team's favor. The new first line of Tuomo Ruutu, Eric Staal & Jeff Skinner really gave the Canes offense a jolt in the Washington & Nashville games and last night, it was the new "second" line of Jordan Staal, Elias Lindholm & Nathan Gerbe that led the way for Carolina.

Complete team efforts have been hard to come by with the Carolina Hurricanes this year, but last night's 5-2 win over the Nashville Predators was exactly that. Aside from a brief hiccup in the second period, the Hurricanes owned Nashville from the opening faceoff and turned in an incredibly solid performance in all three zones. It was one of those games where, as a fan, you find more things to like the more you think about it. Obviously, Jeff Skinner's hat trick and the Hurricanes offensive explosion in the second period will get top billing, but there was definitely a lot more to this game than just that. 

Nashville is far from the most offensively talented team in the league, but they are a hard working club and will jump on opponents who take them lightly. Carolina did the exact opposite, as they showed up ready to play and scored a bit of a fluky goal within the first minute thanks to some good forechecking by the first line. They continued this throughout the game, holding Nashville to under 25 shots and nine scoring chances, only four of them coming during five-on-five play. Considering that the Hurricanes were already playing without Brett Bellemore and were playing down three skaters for a portion of the game, it was really impressive to see them put the clamps on Nashville's forecheck and not let them create any offense for most of the third period. This is something that has been a problem all season long and it was nice to see the Canes start to turn the tides in a different direction.

Last night was also one of those games where the Hurricanes got themselves into a hole after allowing Nashville to score two quick goals in the second period, but were able to battle back and keep their foot on the gas pedal even after they recaptured the league. The resiliency that this team has shown this year is a welcome change from last season if they can continue to outplay their opponents as well as they did last night, then they could surprise some people. The Predators are obviously a weaker team than some of the other clubs they have played in the early portion of the season, but it was still encouraging to see the Hurricanes dominate them in the manner that they did last night, especially with a tough Western Conference trip on the horizon.

This may have been the best game Carolina has played all season and we will break it down more after the jump.

If there were any positives that the Hurricanes could have dug out of last season, it was that they were a better team than their record indicated. For the first time in years, they were consistently outshooting teams and winning the possession battle at even strength, which usually results in more wins in the long-run. That obviously doesn't mean much in a 48-game season with a condensed schedule, but it did give the Canes something they could build on and install some faith in Kirk Muller as a coach. They weren't winning, but they were at least playing well enough to stay competitive in games and control most of the territorial play. With a stronger defense and goaltending, they could have had some better results and that was the mindset this summer.

The Hurricanes adjusted accordingly and had a bit of a defensive overhaul this off-season, bringing in three new blue-liners and adding two more from within (Bellemore & Murphy). On paper, the Hurricanes looked like an improved team and one that could content for a playoff spot in the East if they continued to stay strong at even strength. The only problem is that their five-on-five play has taken a complete tail-spin this year. Carolina has only outshot their opponent at five-on-five in eight out of 27 games this year and have won the possession battle in only seven of them, two of those coming against the Philadelphia Flyers. To make things worse, they rank 25th in the NHL in Fenwick percentage and 27th in this category during close games. That is alarmingly bad, especially when you compare it to where they were last year, which was in the top half of the NHL

I had a lot of confidence in this team coming into the year because of their strong underlying numbers last season and the fact that most of their core stayed in-tact. Unfortunately, that has not carried over and they have been "chasing the game" way too much this season. It's hard to figure out what exactly happened to this team over the summer because, as I said earlier, most of their core pieces are still in place. Are they underperforming or are the new additions dragging the team's five-on-five play down? After the jump, we will look at that and other possible explanations.