A Vezina nom that should (but won’t) happen

With a 3-2 overtime over the Penguins win tonight, the Carolina Hurricanes clinched their first playoff berth in three years, easing a frustrated and rather spoiled fanbase. You have to hand it to the Hurricanes – they don’t do the whole playoffs “thing” halfway. This is a team that has made it to the finals twice in seven years. Other than the freakishly consistent Red Wings, who else can claim that? (Okay, the Mighty/NotMighty Ducks too.) And if they don’t make it to the finals, they blow it big time. No playoffs, no nothing. “Go hard, or go golfing.” That’s the Hurricane way.

The team had to work for this one. The Penguins came out firing and thoroughly outplayed the ‘Canes in the first period, though the latter somehow managed to grasp ahold of a 1-1 tie going into the second. The ‘Canes enjoyed a rare off night by Sidney Crosby, who was almost invisible save for one breakaway. Chad LaRose, The Little Engine that Could (be an NHL 20-goal scorer), put Carolina ahead when he fired a shot over Fleury’s shoulder.

Evgeni Malkin had the chance to seal the game with a penalty shot that came off a lucky break – or poor officiating, depending on how you want to look at it. Malkin was pulled down, no question, but was he denied a good scoring chance? Absolutely not. His first effort, which glanced off Cam Ward’s upper body, was a better shot than the one he managed one-on-one, when he wasn’t flying through the air. Malkin opted not to go high glove, as most players who have watched video featuring Ward tend to do, and had his shot blocked by Ward’s right pad.

Jordan Staal retaliated early in the third period, and a late Hurricane power play yielded no results. The game went to overtime, and the RBC Center was as loud as anyone had heard it since MySpace was all the rage. Guess who sent the game home? Anton Babchuk. Babchuk has kept his incredible, 100 mph slapshot under wraps recently, either because he’s feeling the wear and tear of the long season or because teams have figured out that they need to negate him. The Hurricanes dominated seemingly every second of overtime, and when Gleason slid the puck to a winding-up Babchuk, the crowd collectively held its breath. The puck soared past Fleury before he had a chance to react and the ‘Canes are suddenly in the playoffs. You heard it here first: this kid is going places.

Of course, one of the biggest stories in the ‘Canes’ run has been the regular season goaltending god that allows us to call him “Cam Ward.” Unless you’ve been a little out of it over the past month and a half or put your fingers in your ears and hum at the slightest mention of the Hurricanes (I have a feeling there are fans out there that do that) you must have heard about how well Cam Ward is performing in net for Carolina. He was the NHL’s player of the month for March. Ward posted a 10-1-2 record with a 1.98 goals-against average and .938 save percentage through the month, playing in every game since late February and doing so enthusiastically.

As recently as December, rumors were circulating as to whether Cam Ward was good enough to be an NHL starter. Was the Conn Smyth win a fluke after all? Can he only perform when the spotlight is on and the pressure is mounting? Can he consistently perform every night? Should the Hurricanes go out and get a goaltender that can actually get them to the playoffs? Ward shook off these doubts with a stretch of unprecedented consistency and inspired play.

Ward is third in the league in wins behind Miikka Kiprusoff and Evgeni Nabokov. He’s in the top-10 in every other major category. And yet, more likely than not, he will be shut out of the Vezina nominations. There are several highly deserving candidates this year, no question, but few of them have done for their teams what Ward has – taken their team on their back for half a season without any relief in net. Ward has played more minutes than any other goaltender on the short list for the Vezina. It’s not that Michael Leighton isn’t trustworthy…it’s just…well, actually, I’m not entirely sure why Leighton hasn’t been called upon since February. Perhaps it’s because he’s just that good at modeling hats on the bench? Kidding of course; more likely it’s because each game was so crucial that Mo didn’t want to take a chance on anyone but his red-hot starter, who was healthy and willing to go. Ward started a chain reaction that pushed a 10th place team to fifth, and any player in the locker room will tell you that there have been games that they didn’t deserve to win that he single-handedly won for them. Of course, that’s what a starter is supposed to do, but for the sake of argument, Ward has both quality and quanitity on his side. “Wardo” has shouldered more than his load this season, and that deserves recognition. A pat on the back by the league isn’t necessary, but it sure would be nice.

Posted by Kate Shefte on Apr 5 2009. Filed under Carolina Hurricanes, Eastern Conference, Southeast, Top Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.