Ruutu returning to form

RALEIGH -- Tuomo Ruutu is back to skating and barreling around the ice and hitting everything in sight.

In other words, Ruutu being Ruutu.

Will that mean the Carolina Hurricanes will get back to winning? It takes more than one player at his best to end a 14-game winless streak that has tied the franchise record set in 1992.

But having Ruutu hitting - and scoring goals - is a must for a team struggling to score and at times lacking in aggression by its forwards. Ruutu was credited with a team-high nine hits Friday in the Hurricanes' 4-3 overtime loss to the New York Islanders and has three goals in the last two games.

Of the Islanders game, and Carolina's rally from an early 3-0 deficit to force overtime, Canes coach Paul Maurice said, "We had some battling going on, Ruutu leading it. We had guys who were grinding and fighting."

Three weeks ago Saturday, on Oct. 24, Ruutu was grim and dejected as he sat in the lobby of the St. Paul Hotel in St. Paul, Minn. The night before, against the Colorado Avalanche in Denver, Ruutu rammed into the Avs' Darcy Tucker from behind, causing Tucker to go face-first into the glass.

Tucker was knocked unconscious and had to be carried off the ice on a stretcher. Ruutu, who had a goal and assist in the game, was given a game misconduct and then learned the next morning he had been suspended three games by the NHL.

"I didn't know what to think," Ruutu said of the hotel lobby wait for the league decision. "I was worried if [Tucker] was healthy. It was disturbing, for sure."

After sitting out the three games, Ruutu returned for the Nov. 1 game against the San Jose Sharks at the RBC Center. And, almost immediately, suffered an injury.

As more games - and more losses - passed and Ruutu wasn't Ruutu on the ice, the Canes coaches had to wonder: was it the injury, or was the Tucker incident and suspension causing him to back off hits and checks?

"That's such a critical part to his game," Maurice said. "He had an upper-body injury in the first or second shift of the game back and it was really bothering him for the next couple of games, so we were really hoping that's what it was.

"We were hoping it was a physical thing and not a mental thing, because you know the physical will heal."

Ruutu, who has five goals and four assists this season, refuses to use the injury as excuse, while at the same time saying he wasn't holding back. He said it was more a matter of getting back into the rhythm and flow of the game after sitting out three.

"Everybody has to look themselves in the mirror and ask what you can do better," he said. "I knew I could play better and I've got to play better to try and help the team.

"If I'm not hitting, I feel like I don't even have an offensive game. That's how I get myself going and try to get the team going."

Ruutu had four hits Wednesday in the Canes' 5-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings. His two goals forced a 2-2 tie, only to have the Kings surge to victory in the third period.

Against the Islanders, Ruutu set up in front of the goal on a second-period power play to score the Canes' first goal and help kick-start the comeback. He had other chances to score, and set up Bryan Rodney with a nice centering pass late in the overtime for what would have been the winning goal had Isles goalie Martin Biron not stopped Rodney.

"With me, it's whether I'm working hard enough," said Ruutu, who was named the game's second star. "If not, I'm not the same as I can be. That's just the way it is.

"When you're skating, you're going to get in those hits. You can't force them. You've got to skate to hit. I've just got to keep my feet moving and everything else kind of comes from that."

Ruutu has his feet moving. He's hitting. He's scoring.

"We're looking for that fight and he's delivered it," Maurice said. "Everyone individually has to look at their own performance and gauge exactly how their battle level is, and he has no one who can question how hard he's played."

Does that mean the Hurricanes will beat the Minnesota Wild today to end the winless streak? It takes more than one. But Ruutu being Ruutu has to help.