Harbingers

Ear muffs? When ever I see an infant at a hockey game that’s the first thing I look for.

Correction: It starts on the 24th at 7PM. they said the first day all teams play which is this Saturday but.

T-45 minutes boys! FYI Bally has been doing a super long pregame show. I’m assuming they’ll replay the Donny Wads and Rod interviews for this last half hour though.

Also ESPN+ is launching their version of NFL Red Zone on Saturday. A lot of people aren’t impressed with their choice of announcer though.

There was NHL Center Ice but I think that went the way of the dodo bird in the streaming realm after ESPN+ took over.

One thing I would add this year too at least for the canes. We are not running a normal defensive set. Generally all three of our D lines are stacked. Like the most stacked the NHL has seen in a long time and any of our line combos would be 1st line on other teams in the league. Usually defenses lines go something like: 1D Line - 22-26 minutes a game 2D Line - 20-24 minutes a game 3D Line - 12-16 minutes a game - sometimes even less. Depending on which liners are on the power play and penalty kill. We appear to be taking a balanced approach with all three of our lines, at least from the dress rehearsal preseason game, each taking between 17-20 minutes a game. Over the course of 82 games those minutes will add up. Of course when Svech(nikov) is back from his ACL I expect Slavin’s minutes to go back up to probably 22 with orlov and burns seeing 20 as they both penalty kill and power play. At least I think orlov is in the kill rotation(I’m going to keep an eye on that tonight).

Dundon on the siren tonight.

Yep 7.

I think that’s just kind of fluff around him, he’s good and I think on any other team he’d thrive. We should just don’t use him proper in a scheme. We force him to be one of those two things instead of his natural position.

Bally sports channel on TV(but I have no idea where and if with all the TV provider shenanigans) Bally Sports App for 19.95 a month or And a bottle of rum.

Holy jeeze the senators can’t even dress a full roster with cap issues + injury.

Why not name the thread “Fire Reich as play caller!”

Rod being coy.

No brainer here.

Bunting - Aho - Jarvy TT - KK - Necas Martinook - Staal - Fasty Lemieux - Drury - Noesen Slavin - Burns Skjei - Pesce TDA - Orlov Chatty Andersen Raanta. We will either play with the above 4 forward lines or Drudy - Noesen + 7 D with chatty.

This roster feels good man. Orlov bringing our top two D lines down to 17-18 minutes a game is going to go a long way over the course of the season. Bunting I think is going to elevate both Aho and Jarvy. Which will open up Svech even more when he’s back. Top that with both Necas and TT playing for contracts… oh boy.

It’s because for some dumb reason no coach has used him properly in the slot he should play. It’s mind boggling why they don’t. id rather picks at this point(if Fitts is gone after the season).

Slavin - Burns Skeji - Pesce TDA - Orlov Chatty He’s the odd man out currently on D and if we play Lemieux chatty will be sitting.

Was planning on writing up a longer post in the other thread later but here is the generalization. Back when JR was forced to sell the panthers, Tom Dundon bought the canes. We were bad for years and going through the same thing the panthers are right now. He cleaned house and promoted Rod Brind’Amour, who happened to be a player on the 2006 Stanley cup team to coach. We had some real good picks though that carried over, ala Cam, Luke style. Rod(RBA) turned this team around essentially over night. It’s a really tight knit team. Family is the culture as most of these guys have multiple kids and are all very active in family and community. Our younger guys are all chill introvert types that I’ve heard. On the ice we play a heavy forecheck offense, aka get the puck deep and keep it along the boards for board battles. Heavy pressure, kind of like an offensive blitz but all the time. We are a defense heavy - two way team. Two way being forwards that are good at focusing on defense and getting back too. Because we are one of the few if not the only current NHL team that plays man defense. Each player stick to their assignment. Most NHL teams play a zone defense called House where they each have a spot in kind of a triangle in front of the goalie. Which is kind of like a soft prevent secondary in the NFL. Cover your zone and bend but don’t break. We play straight up push your man and keep them on the boards and to the outside. The biggest issue with Man is if the play collapses around the goal close it’s a whole mess of bodies. But I really don’t know why more teams haven’t shifted back to it. Back to the team, we really are a team effort team. We don’t have anybody that’s truly in the top 10 on goals or points. No devas… RBA and them team move on from them quick. Everyone has to work as a unit all the time. Jordan Staal is our captain - one of the Staal brothers, won the cup with Pittsburg when he was young and followed in his brothers footsteps and came down here. He is a grinder in his older age. Hard methodical play. Sebastian Aho “fishy or sea bass” is our top star and alternate captain. Finnish prodigy. With a competitiveness to rival Luke. Jaccob Slavin is the best defensive blue liner in the league bar none. By defensive defenseman, I mean a he is just a brick wall on defense. In the NHL blue liners(defensemen) are ranked by their offensive production not by their defensive acuity. Andrei Svechnikov - currently coming off a partial ALC tear so we won’t see him for anywhere from now until Christmas. Is becoming our true power forward. Lays the wood and is a mean shot. Gotta do some stuff but I’ll continue the roster list later. The canes have made the playoffs every year since Covid straight. We also just find a situation where we just cant quite get over the hump with a goodly helping of ref assistance against us(calling back clear goals, etc). We picked up a good al beit chippy forward to pair on our top two lines this season and brought in Dmitry Orlov, a veteran offensive blue liner. To help just hopefully get over the hump. Honestly if Svech didn’t tear his ACL literally like two days after the trade deadline last year we would have won the cup. He would have been the perfect counter against Florida and we just didn’t have that grit he brings.

That’s good. That way our banter thread can sit top and center for the season.

Somewhat canes related as we are sitting in the 21/22 mark. So happy the cap should actually go up next year or we’d be fuged.

Cotchery caught it. That was the turning point of that game. If they ruled that a catch we would haven’t lost so much momentum and eventually all of it.

So yesterday Lemieux was in the practice lineup doing line rushes with the 4th line. Dunno if that was just to keep him in game shape or if chatty is sitting out today.

Finally. Let’s go get that W.

I’ll tag you on to watch games if you are feeling it. Hockey is a long season.