There are still a few months left to go in the season, but we are at that point in the season where we can start getting a gauge on how good each team is and how they stand in comparison to everyone else. For the Hurricanes, they have gotten off to a rocky start this year with 10-10-5 record and currently post a brutal -17 goal differential. However, they are in decent shape compared to the rest of the Metropolitan Division despite their mediocre start. They are only one point behind the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals for second place in the division and still have a reasonable chance of making the playoffs if they can sustain this. 

The Canes are in a position where their season can go in either direction because a decent run or winning streak can put them right in the thick of playoff contention. On the other hand, a bad losing streak can easily put them into lottery territory, especially with how weak the Metropolitan Division is right now. This is where looking at the underlying numbers can come in handy, as they should give us an idea of how the rest of Carolina's season can go. Are the Hurricanes on the verge of a winning streak or are they prone to regress even further?

Last night's 4-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings was all about missed opportunities. After starting slow and falling behind 2-0, the Hurricanes managed to really back and tie the game in the second period. Near the end of the frame, they were given a five-on-three power play and had a chance to really tilt the ice in their favor. They ended up producing only one scoring chance during that sequence and entered the third period with the score tied. This is where most Caniacs watching said to themselves "that will probably cost us the game" or something of that manner. That sentiment was pretty much dead on. 

After the Hurricanes failed on yet another power play in the third period, the Red Wings eventually got a two-man advantage of their own and they capitalized despite Carolina's best attempt to hang on. The Wings would then go onto salt away time and put the game away late in the third with a goal from Gustav Nyquist. Had Carolina scored on their earlier power play, perhaps this is a different game. We have seen many games like this over the years where one goal or one sequence can change the entire landscape of a game and the Hurricanes definitely had plenty of chances to escape Detroit with at least a point. Unfortunately, they came up empty-handed and this game is a good example of what separates good teams from bad teams. 

Both clubs made a lot of mistakes, but the difference was that Detroit was capitalizing on Carolina's while the Hurricanes did were doing whatever they could to stay close enough and not let things get out of hand. A lot of the credit there should go to goaltender Justin Peters, who played one of his best games as an NHL-er and made 43 saves. This has been the story for the last three games or so, as Carolina was vastly out-played in all of them but managed to do just enough to stay close to their opponent and keep it a relatively competitive game. That just isn't going to get it done and it doesn't matter who you are going up against. 

The odd thing about last night's game is that while the Hurricanes kept the score close, a look at the numbers shows that they were very lucky that they were not blown out.

There are a lot things to be happy about with last night's game. Not only did the Hurricanes win, but they got their first win against the Western Conference, handing the Colorado Avalanche only their third loss of the season. They also extended their point streak to four games and are starting to see some of their top forwards produce. The play of Justin Peters has also been very encouraging, as the goaltender has allowed only four goals over the last four games and came up big a few times last night. The Hurricanes aren't relying on Peters to steal these games for them but he has made a lot of timely saves and was a huge factor in them defeating the Avalanche in regulation last night. 

This was one of those games where the Hurricanes had some scary moments, but they did enough to win and showed that they can be competitive against good teams, something that was missing in late October. It all starts with a good game plan and the players executing it well.

We're only six games into the season, but there are already some signs of major concern in Raleigh, as the Hurricanes dropped a 5-3 decision the Phoenix Coyotes yesterday. Not only did the Canes lose their third game of the last four, they did it while getting grossly outplayed at even strength and looking outmatched by a team who they probably should have matched up better against. Couple that with back-up goaltender Anton Khudobin suffering an injury and the first line looking lost, and there are many Caniacs beginning to hit the panic button.

I won't try to sugar coat it, the Hurricanes played a lousy game tonight and this is the third time this week where I can say that. They looked unprepared in the first period and paid for it by giving up an early goal and were forced to play an uphill battle the rest of the afternoon. There were definitely some encouraging moments, but this was far from a 60-minute effort and it's really frustrating to see this team continually get crushed during 5v5 play after how good they were in this department last year. Granted, they've gone up against some good teams early on in the year (LA, Phoenix, Detroit & Pittsburgh are among the best in the league at 5v5 territorial play), but the fact that the Canes are losing the battle at even strength against these clubs so badly is a little troubling, especially long-term.

How worried should everyone be, though? It's only six games after all and what we're seeing now could be very different a few months from now, but slow starts are something that have crippled the Canes in past years and they need to be careful not to go down that road again. The personnel may have changed, but we're seeing the same old bad habits that have been around for years (penalties, bad special teams, etc.) and this loss to Phoenix really showcased all of those flaws.

"Sloppy," "gritty," and "ugly" are a few choice words that have been used to describe Carolina's performance against the Los Angeles Kings last night. The end result was disappointing with the Canes losing in the shootout, but they managed to get a point thanks to a nice comeback effort in the third period and managed to hang tough with a team that is considered at a much higher level than them. That's the glass-half full point of view. Others might see this game as one that Carolina was lucky to earn a point in, as they were grossly outplayed for most of the contest and the score was only close because of Cam Ward and a fortuitous bounce that Jeff Skinner ended up cashing in on. A point is a point, though and Carolina being able to climb in the standings despite not playing their best game could benefit them later in the year.

That said, the Kings exposed a lot of the Hurricanes flaws last night and could have had a much more decisive victory if it wasn't for a terrific showing by Ward.

Perhaps the biggest question coming into this season was whether or not the Carolina Hurricanes would dispel the narrative about them being a "fragile" team. Last night's 3-2 win over the Washington Capitals was a good step towards that. The Canes were faced with a bit of adversity in yesterday's game and had every reason to lose just like the team last year did, but that didn't happen. Between the Caps getting two fluky goals and the Canes getting into penalty trouble, this had all the makings of a 2013 Hurricanes collapse, but Carolina managed to battle back from every road block and get a nice win.

The team showed a lot of resilience and this was a good character-building win, but how was their actual on-ice performance?

Anyone who is into advanced hockey statistics usually puts a lot of emphasis on even strength play because that is where the majority of the game is played and where most games are won. it's been shown in recent history that the teams who make the playoffs are those who are good at controlling even strength play and the elite ones usually go far in the post-season. Last year's Los Angels Kings were a good example of a dominant even strength team but the Chicago Blackhawks of this year might be even better.  The Hawks were one of the best teams in the NHL at controlling puck-possession during the regular season and they carried it into the post-season by controlling the play against most of their opponent's, the latest victim being the Boston Bruins.

The Bruins are also one of the better teams in the league at controlling even strength play and they were getting top-level scoring and elite goaltending to back it up. That was going to make them a tough out for anyone and they certainly gave the Hawks a run for their money before being eliminated in six games. If you've been keeping up with the recaps of this series, then you probably noticed that Boston was getting outplayed at even strength in almost every game but this series seemed a lot more even than the underlying numbers indicated. Special teams and goaltending are the reason for this.

Despite getting outchanced by 15 at even strength, Boston was able to push the series to six games and stay close in the games they lost because they had superior goaltending to the Hawks and dominated the special teams battle. Sometimes that's enough to push your team over the edge even if you get outplayed at even strength, but it wasn't the case here. Chicago was just too much for Boston to handle at even strength and they also received great goaltending from Corey Crawford (aside from Game 4) which prevented Rask from stealing this series for the Bruins.

All in all, this was a very entertaining final and a well-deserved Stanley Cup victory for the Blackhawks. We'll break down the further details from this series after the jump.

First off, congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks and their fans on a well-deserved Stanley Cup victory. It's rare that we see one dominant team for the entire season and playoffs, and the Blackhawks were just that this year. They had to go through a couple of bumps in the road along the way and were in a couple of rough spots, but for the most part, they handled all of their opponents well and just ran them over at even strength. To make things even better, some of the teams they ran over were very good possession clubs like Detroit, Los Angeles and Boston was their latest victim. The Hawks may have not been the even strength power house that the LA Kings were last year, but they were still an elite team and cup favorites for a good reason. 

With all of that being said, the Bruins managed to give them a good fight and it took Boston giving up two goals in 17 seconds for the Hawks to get the job done in Game 6, so this didn't come easy. The Bruins actually had a decent chance of pulling off an upset despite being inferior at even strength because they had better goaltending and special teams. That was enough to win them a Cup two years ago against Vancouver and there was a reasonable chance of it happening again with Tuukka Rask playing out of his mind and Chicago's power play being dreadful. The better even strength club prevailed in the end, though. 

Oddly enough, special teams were the reason why the Blackhawks won Game 6 and it all relates to lack of execution on the Bruins part. They had a few chances to put this game away early, but let Chicago hang around for too long. Eventually that came back to haunt them and the Hawks took home their second Stanley Cup in four years.

Since the beginning of June, Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask had only allowed seven goals over a seven game stretch and was running hot with a save percentage of .960-.980. He has done more than enough to prove that is a top-tier goaltender, but any goaltender sustaining those kind of numbers over any period of time is unrealistic and Rask was going to come back down to Earth sooner or later. Last night, that finally happened as Rask gave up six goals in the Bruins overtime loss to the Blackhawks. It's hard to put all of the blame on the Boston goaltender because he had to make 41 saves, but he showed signs of being human last night after stopping almost everything for the past month or so. 

Rask's excellent play has carried the Bruins through more than a few games this post-season and even though that didn't happen last night, they still forced overtime and gave him five goals in support. This is mostly thanks to Chicago's goaltender Corey Crawford having a very sub-par night on his own, allowing five goals on 33 shots and he didn't look good on at least three of them. Chicago carried the play and had the puck in the Bruins end for most of the game when the terms were even, but the Bruins scoring on over 27% of their scoring chances mitigated Chicago's territorial advantage at even strength. Boston hasn't been great in terms of possession in the last two rounds but they've found ways to get around it, whether it be elite goaltending or being able to outscore their problems. Last night, it was the latter and that wasn't enough for them to win, so it will be interesting to see how the rest of this series shakes out.

For most of the playoffs, Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask has had to bail his team out of a lot of tough situations and steal a few games for the Bruins. This was not one of those games. He did make 28 saves to earn his third shutout of the post-season, but Chicago's offense was basically non-existent last night. The Hawks had possession of the puck for the majority of the game and had an advantage in shot attempts, but not many of them were threatening. The Blackhawks had to play this game without one of their best forwards in Marian Hossa, but even without him they should have been able to produce more than eight scoring chances at even strength. That kind of offensive production is just woeful even against a solid defensive team like the Bruins. Couple that with the Hawks having an atrocious special teams performance and the Bruins got themselves a fairly easy win to take a 2-1 series lead.

This was a very sloppy game, as both teams looked pretty out of sync and were having a lot of difficulty controlling the puck in the bad ice conditions. As a result, this was a fairly low-event game with neither team creating that much offense. Although, the Hawks have much more than the bad ice to blame for their performance last night since this was just an ugly performance all-around.