RALEIGH - There is a massive storm brewing in Raleigh, but for once its citizens do not need to board up their windows and stockpile supplies.
Unless they play for the Carolina Hurricanes.
GM Norm Donovan is fuming over the lacklustre performance of the team thus far. After several years of rebuilding and being bottom 10 in the standings, management aggressively pursued several high-profile free agents. They committed over $15,000,000 in cap space on players such as Cory Stillman, Roman Hamrlik, Richard Zednik and Jason Allison. They also acquired pricey veteran help via trade, landing Brian Leetch and Dan McGillis to shore up the defence. For once, there was an air of cautious optimism about the team's fortunes and the direction of the franchise. So far, however, the team hasn't lived up to those expectations.
Even their unimpressive 5-7-2 record is not enough to fully express the problems with this squad. Head coach Joel Quenneville summed it up in a terse media scrum at this mornings practice skate.
"Until someone decides they are going to play defence, we are not going to win many hockey games."
Indeed, although the Hurricanes have the 4th highest goals per game stat in the league, they are dead last - and by a fair margin - in goals allowed. The success in one area, Quenneville is quick to point out, does not off-set the failure in the other.
"It would be easy to come in and say 'Oh well the top line is scoring a lot of goals so you can't blame Eric Staal', but the fact is defence is a commitment from everyone. If a line score three goals in a game but allow four from the other team because of boneheaded or lazy defensive play, we aren't going to win. That's what's been happening."
The Hurricanes came into this season with a long history of sub-standard defence. Although Donovan shored up the ranks with the additions of Hamrlik, Leetch and McGillis, defence was still not their strongest area. Still, few expected the catastropic meltdown of the defensive corps which has taken place. Not helping the situation is the equally terrible play of the Hurricanes' goaltenders. Starter Martin Gerber has been atrocious, with a glaring 3.84 GAA and .869 save percentage. When he went down with an injury, he was replaced by the equally awful rookie tandem of Ray Emery and Yutaka Fukufuji, and then continued to play poorly on his return. Gerber, to his credit, is not dodging responsibility.
"I haven't played well at all," admitted Gerber, "even before the injury I hadn't found my groove yet this year. It will come, but in the meantime we continue to lose games."
Gerber may indeed get his rhythm back, but he may not be in Carolina when it happens. Donovan has put the word out that he'd like a change in starting goaltenders, and despite his struggles Gerber's low salary has caused a number of GMs to kick the tires. Also reportedly on the block are Leetch, Jason Williams and possibly even Geoff Sanderson, though Donovan has been reluctant to move him out of appreciation for his commitment to the team. Loyalty, however, becomes a less pressing concern with each passing loss - as impatient fans wait yet again for the brighter future management has been promising for the past few seasons.