Happy New Year? Not So Fast...

[Anybodyhome]

The Canes decided to ring in the new year with a second shootout loss to Columbus Tuesday night. Same team, same building. The only 2 shootout losses of the season and both to a team who was below .500 at the start of the night.

After a 7-2 start of the season in October- remember, most of that was on the road- winning 4 in a row in Edmonton, Calgary, Seattle and Vancouver; returning home to curb-stomp the Bruins 8-2. Freddie Andersen was lost to injury on October 26.

November was a second good month with a few more home games to make up for the NC State Fair road trip. Late in the month things began to slide the wrong direction. A loss to NJ on the 2nd game of a b2b followed by the first shootout loss to Columbus. But things might have looked a little better following wins over Dallas and the Rags at home... and then a b2b with Florida to end the month was a disaster, giving up 12 goals while scoring 3.

A 9-5-1 month of November isn't enough to complain about, is it? A 63% point month? Not so bad?

December was, based on the Canes winning history over the past 6 seasons, a nightmare. 6-6-1 to finish the month with a single 2-game win streak the entire month, beating Columbus and the Islanders. And, to match that effort, the Canes also had a single 2-game losing streak. A loss to Nashville heading into the holiday break and a loss to NJ coming back from the holiday break. A strong answer to that NJ loss was a 2nd game b2b win over NJ the next night.

My 2025 starts with much lower expectations as the Canes will face Florida on the road Jan 2, followed by home games against a strong Minnesota team and the Pens. And so it goes. If I'm being honest, January looks like another .500 month. Three b2b sets, starting with Saturday-Sunday this weekend at home; next Thursday-Friday at home and a b2b road trip in Chicago and Dallas. I've got the Canes pegged for 7 losses in a January filled with 15 games. The trade deadline is March 8th this year.

And don't forget the 4 Nations Face-Off with Canada, Finland, Sweden and the USA from February 12-20. The Canes play their last game heading into the tournament on Feb 8 and don't return until Feb 22.

Edited Thursday at 03:26 PM by Anybodyhome