Carolina Hurricanes Head To Boston Looking For Answers

The Carolina Hurricanes are making the short plane ride back to Boston for game 7 of  the series. One can only wonder what is going through the minds of the Hurricane players and coaches alike.

Having a commanding 3-1 series lead in this best of seven all but should have guaranteed the Hurricanes of advancing to the Eastern Conference championships for the second time in 4 seasons.

But somewhere something with the Hurricanes went terribly wrong. In game five Boston completely dominated the Hurricanes and brought the series back to a bit more of a palatable margin of 3-2.

Last night back in Carolina the Hurricanes had Boston where they wanted them. At home in the RBC center where Carolina was 16-2 in their last 18 games. With the loud and excited home crowd behind them. Looking to close out the No. 1 seed in the East.

Again something went wrong. the first five minutes of the game was the demise of the Hurricanes. Two costly errors that were directly turned into goals for Boston had the Bruins off and running.

The Hurricanes put up a valiant effort after being down 2-0 but to no avail as Boston walked past them for the second time in as many games, and knotted this series up at three games each.

Now Carolina is forced to work some Majic again. This time on the road in Boston with a very confident Bruins team that seems to have found their groove once again.

If Carolina is going to have a chance in this final game they must make it a point to get forward Eric Staal the puck. Carolina is 6-0 when Staal scores and 0-6 when Stall is held without a goal. 

It seems the Hurricanes in the last 2 games have decided not to keep traffic in front of goaltender Tim Thomas every time they gain the offensive zone. This is key for the Hurricanes.

The forwards have to be willing to take the beating on front of Thomas to rattle the goaltender and work on loose pucks that bounce off of him.

Too much perimeter game not enough quality shots. Last night thomas weather some quality scoring chances by the Hurricanes, but too often you saw the Hurricanes take very low percentage shots, or shots that are easily blocked by opposing players sticks on the ice. Game Five saw Carolina only muster a total of 19 shots on Thomas.

That is just not going to be good enough for the Hurricanes to win. High percentage shots,quick cross ice passes getting Thomas to move and not be able to allow him to get square to the shooter is key. 

Goaltender Cam Ward also needs to be better. While his defense let him down a couple times Ward needs to be the backbone. Last night Boston was held to 19 shots but got 4 past the net minder.

The previous game Ward faced 46 shots and allowed 4 goals as well. The answer for Ward should be not allowing more than 2 goals versus the Bruins Thursday night.  

In all three loses to Boston this playoff series Ward has let up 4 goals in every game. In all three wins Ward has not allowed more than 2 goals in a game. Two is the number Hurricane players,and fans should be looking for.

The defense simply needs to be better. Yes last game they held Boston to 19 shots but had too many mental breakdowns along the way. the defense needs to iniate the contact against Boston's tough rugged forwards and stand them up entering the zone.

This may seem like a tall task for the Hurricanes Thursday night but I still believe Carolina pulls out another game 7 victory .