Penalties are mounting too quickly for Canes

RALEIGH -- It took the Carolina Hurricanes almost nine minutes to pick up their first penalty of the season, a roughing call against defenseman Niclas Wallin.

They have come at a rapid clip since then.

Through the first five games, the Hurricanes have been called for a league-high 39 minor penalties. That's 13 more than at the same point last season, which Carolina finished as the least-penalized team in the NHL.

"It's a major problem," Canes coach Paul Maurice said Monday of the rash of minors.

Going into Monday's NHL games, Carolina ranked 29th in the league in penalty minutes per game (24.4). Only the Pittsburgh Penguins have been worse (24.6), and the defending Stanley Cup champions come to the RBC Center on Wednesday for what could be billed "Power-Play Night."

When the Hurricanes added some size and toughness in the offseason, some added penalties were expected. And Maurice isn't that concerned about defenseman Andrew Alberts or forward Tom Kostopoulos getting a roughing call here and there.

"That stuff we live with," Maurice said. "It's the hooks, the chops and the trips that are just carelessness with the stick."

Those penalties have caused the Canes to expend too much time and energy shorthanded and have been a big factor in their 2-3 start.

"I am worried about it," Maurice said. "It really changes the entire complexion of every game we've played. But I think where it's really affected us is our back-to-back nights."

The Hurricanes have played two back-to-back sets and are 0-2 in the second games. They followed up a 2-0 loss to Philadelphia in their opener with a 7-2 thumping by the Boston Bruins and lost 5-2 at Tampa Bay on Saturday the night after a 7-2 win over the Florida Panthers.

The Canes had seven penalties against Florida but were aggressively effective and didn't give up a power-play goal. Then they had six penalties against Tampa Bay, killing off the first five as Cam Ward made quality stops in net before the Lightning scored on its final power play.

"Our goaltender did a [great] job, but we burned big minutes with our high-end guys against that power play," Maurice said. "We had to work way too hard to kill those penalties off. ... And your five-on-five play just doesn't have it in the tank to get it going."

Not with such players as Eric Staal, Matt Cullen, Chad LaRose and Rod Brind'Amour logging penalty-kill minutes. Staal is fifth among NHL forwards in ice time per game (21:39) and has put in more than 15 minutes total on the penalty kill in five games.

Conversely, Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals has averaged 22:38 minutes but played 21 seconds total on the kill.

Staal came close to making a game-changing shorthanded play at Tampa Bay. Only a strong stop by goaltender Antero Niittymaki kept Staal from tying the score 3-3 with 7:44 to play in the game.

The Lightning then scored for a 4-2 lead. But the Canes have killed off 18 of their last 20 penalties after goiong 7-of-13 in the first two games.

"Our penalty killing has drastically improved," Maurice said.

Maurice said more time spent in the offensive zone would ease the penalty problem. "We're spending too much time on our heels," he said. And there's the belief the referees call the games tighter early in the season.

"They want to set the tone for the year," said Alberts, who has 13 penalty minutes. "Everybody realizes the more the year goes on, and in the playoffs, things slide a little bit more. But they want to set the tone, and that's something we have to adjust to."