2016/17 Carolina Hurricanes

[lightsout]

The TSA line will do fine I think. Stemp can match up physically with the top two lines for Pitt and Teuvo/Aho can match speed. Will be interesting. Probably will be a game of mistakes and bad turnovers. Whoever can play the more complete game. I'm not sure Cam's confidence can carry us if we're giving up good looks to their top 6 all game.

[iamcline]

The Penguins game sold me on Cam not having a resurgence as much as dumb luck behind a defense that limits the type of shots he sees on a nightly basis. He gave up three (at least) five hole goals. No thank you. Take that to the SPHL.

I still believe we can win a Playoff series but it wont be because of Cam, we'll win in spite of him.

[lightsout]

3 hours ago, iamcline said:

The Penguins game sold me on Cam not having a resurgence as much as dumb luck behind a defense that limits the type of shots he sees on a nightly basis. He gave up three (at least) five hole goals. No thank you. Take that to the SPHL.

I still believe we can win a Playoff series but it wont be because of Cam, we'll win in spite of him.

He has been a top 10 goalie this season, and I'm sorry but that isn't just dumb luck. The guy has also started a ton of games and I don't think starting him was the right call last night anyway. Cam had a few saves that were tremendous last night.

Puck luck is a thing. Cam didn't just fail to close his 5 hole. A couple just leaked through. It happens. There were only two goals I can think of that I can honestly say were entirely on his positioning or making the wrong decision on the type of save he was going for. The others were on poor decision making in the zone in front of Cam or dumb luck on the shot. 

Cam saw the same types of shots last night as he has all season. The Pens did nothing special. Cam saw 41 shots. We got worked as a team, and Cam wasn't able to carry us. As much as I'll sit here and defend his season as being more than just dumb luck, I will say that Cam can't carry us. He hasn't been able to since 08/09. But he can absolutely keep the other team to generally 2 or 3 goals at most on any given night. That makes every game winnable.

Let's think about each of the 7 goals. Two were turnovers in our own end which resulted in a great scoring chance, which is advantage shooter. One was Cam having to reset himself after a save and getting blasted in the middle of his transition because nobody got to the puck before the Pens did, even though we had guys closer to it in the slot then the Pens did. Cam misread the moment, but that's also on his D for not hustling and getting that puck out of there. The 4th goal was legitimately a tremendous play on their part. Puck luck. Whatever you want to call it, but to blame Cam for not making that save on his stick side is expecting perfection from any goalie, which isn't fair. Still, Cam ALMOST got to it, but that play is on the defense. The 6th goal, well, Cam is there. The puck got forced between the boot of Cam's skate and the post. Nobody came in there to clean Malkin up. They just stood there and let it happen. Not. Cam's. Fault.
 The last one is Cam just being aggressive and having 4 guys watching and defending 1 guy. Hanifin doesn't check back door, guy sneaks behind him. 

To say that Cam is to blame for 7 goals is absurd. I'd put 3, maybe 4 on him. The others? Turnovers or flat out bad defensive team play from the 5 in front.

Did I mention in this post that Alex Nedeljkovic is our future in net? No? Well, he is. Look at him again.




Such a majestic creature.

Anyway, we were outplayed as a team. Rough night. Give Cam a week off. He's earned it. Let him recover and shake off these last two games and refocus while Leighton gets the net.

[RealBitsOfPanther]

Game day 45: Uhhh?  - CANES LOSE 

This game was very similar to Christmas. You look forward to the day all year, wake up stoked as hell about the stuff Santa left you, only to find socks and underwear under the tree. No sweet ass transformers, just sweet, sweet disappointment. That feeling is perfect for last nights game. As I said yesterday, this was a measuring stick game for our young Canes, and it boy was it. The Pens just flat out destroyed us last night. Let's get to the recap. 

 

Period 1 

The first couple of minutes in the first period actually went pretty well. The Canes played the majority of the first couple of minutes in Pittsburgh's end and out shot them 6-1 at one point. Matt Murray was making crucial save after crucial save. If he lets one of those early ones squeak through, we have a totally different game. He didn't though. The Canes get an early power play and do absolutely nothing with it. Like seriously, this power play blows.This is when the game started to get really wide open.  Aho gets a partial breakaway, gets pulled down, no call. Whatever. Literally right after that, Cam makes a big save on Malkin. Keep playing and the Pens hit a post. Little bit later, the Canes get a 2 on 1 chance, Staal shoots and a Murray save. Jordan Staal has no hands. Like at all. 

Jeff Skinner has a good scoring chance on the backhand and Murray shut that poo down like Neegan. This is when the Pens started to impose their will. After what seemed like an eternity playing in our own end, the Pens finally break through. Daley scores with an absolute laser beam of a shot after we suck at getting the puck out. 1-0 them. Pretty much all that happened in the first period. There was a waived off goal for Pit because Hornqvist went hard at the net (or the paint) and knocked the net off it's morins. That took like 10 mins to sort out. 

 

Period 2 

Canes came out and tried to establish some momentum. Skinns actually drew a tripping penalty. Cue the Mortal Kombat music.

 

 

Too bad that that the MK theme was the most exciting thing to happen on the power play. We couldn't even get the puck into our zone. Some time passes, and Haglin scores off a rebound. Pens had goalie screens for days. Teuvo needs to clear the crease there. 2-0 

Time passes, more poo play from the Canes. Sid gets a break away and Cam makes a save and then a follow up by Sheary. Trip was all like "remember those saves." I think everyone knew better. Time passes and Car gets a nifty little play from Staal that almost scores. It didn't. Pens just lived in our end this game. We finally break it out with a nice little loft pass from Slavin to McGinn who was streaking behind the D. 

 

 

 

Puck ends up on Staal's stick and finds a wide open Linds tap dancing to the crease. Pit D makes a nice play to knock it off. Literally right after that sequence, the Pens scores again with a shot from the point and a Sheary rebound.. 3-0

Then like, right after that, (not an exaggeration), we turn the puck over in the defensive zone, Fehr steals, puts a shot on goal and Kunitz knocks home the rebound. 4-0 

 

  

 

After that, Carolina takes a penalty and gives the Pens a power play. After like a minute, the Pens take some penalty and we have 4v4 hockey. Nothing happens. After all that is sorted out, Skinner takes his second penalty of the period and gives the Pens another power play and they score on a beautiful tic-tac toe play. Kessell goes top shelf where the peanut butter is. 5-0 

 

Just nasty

 

3rd Period

 Malkin scores on a wrap around because fug us right? 

 

 

Cam punches Hornqvist in the face because he's bad at hockey right now and gives the Pens another power play. Stalberg scores a shorty to break up the shut out. This turned out to the be lone bright spot for the Canes tonight. All 6 fans that were still there lost their poo. Crosby has a nasty assist. That's really about it. 

 

Hurricanes 1 - Penguins 7 

 

We have an early Saturday night game with the Blue Jackets.Time to right the ship.  

[RealBitsOfPanther]

Gameday 46 

Carolina Hurricanes (21-17-7) vs Columbus Blue Jackets (30-10-4) 

Back to backs are always tricky in the NHL. You never really know what team is going to show up and how that team is going to respond. Last night was bad. Scratch that. This week has not been very kind to the Hurricanes. After getting blown out by Columbus earlier this week and then Pittsburgh last night, the Canes find themselves back in Columbus looking for some answers. This Canes team has struggled on the road this season but has been very solid at home, until last night. Thanks Obama. Anyway, even dropping the last two games, the Canes are still in decent shape for a playoff birth. We are 1 point out of tying for a playoff spot with both Toronto and Philly in action tonight. 

Projected Starting Lineups: 

Carolina: 

Skinner - Rask - Ryan 

McGinn - Staal - Linds 

Aho - Teravainen - Stemp 

Nordstrom - McClement - Stalberg 

Hainsey - Faulk 

Slavin - Pesce 

Hanifin - Tennyson 

Ward (Hasn't been confirmed. I would not be surprised to see Leighton in net tonight)

Columbus: 

Saad - Wennberg - Foligno 

Jenner - Dubinsky - Atkinson 

Hannikainen - Karlsson - Anderson 

Hartnell - Sediak - Gagner 

Werenski - Jones 

Johnson - Prout 

Murray - Harrington 

Bobrovsky 

Players to Watch: 

Justin Faulk 

The young defense has been struggling as of late. Faulk needs to have a solid two way game tonight to help the younger guys settle down. There is no doubt that Faulk is the best defensemen on this team, and we need our best players to lead the way tonight 

 

Sergi Bobrovsky 

He played very well against us earlier this week and is having a very solid season this year. The Canes are going to have to get bodies in front of him tonight and get some dirty goals going. We cannot get down early again and let Bob play with a lead. 

Let's do this

LET'S GO CANES! 

[lightsout]

Game 46 - Well...damn.


Alright, that sucked. The Hurricanes went to Columbus looking for redemption. And while that was not had, we showed a lot more bite to our game and didn't look nearly as flat. However, a wise man once said that moral victories are for children and Hilary Clinton.





So the first period goes OK enough. Leighton chained together some big saves early. He was on his posts a lot, which prevented several chances. Leighton keeps proving his worth as a very viable backup for us.

 

Columbus eventually squeaks one by Leighton. It was hard fought by Leighton, but just too many chances within a 4 second window. A little later, Hartnell rips a bomb from the blue line coming in and Leighton just couldn't do anything with it. Perfect shot. We didn't look as tough on D at times because Ryan Murphy and Dhalback left their spines in Charlotte and refuse to be physical unless they accidentally come in with too much speed. What exactly does Ryan Murphy do again? I feel like we can put a bantam league kid out there and get at least the same play.

Can we address Tripp Tracy for a second? This game, he talked about being tired. A lot. Not tired as you may think. No no, not physically tired. Mentally tired. As if Slavin is taking a standardized test, he comments at one point that Slavin's body was tired, but not his mind......ok, Tripp. Sure. Then he says something in the intermission to Slavin about how baseball helps him in hockey and blah blah blah. Tripp Tracy is bad at his job and he should feel bad.

I found the following on Change.org in a petition to fire Tripp Tracy from 5 years ago. It's fitting.

 

Quote

Firing Tripp Tracy is important because he makes watching Carolina Hurricanes games painful. Between his terrible analogies, absolutely cringe-worthy television voice, constant need to over-analyze things, and atrocious word choice, he is an incurable disease on the game of hockey and he's just gotta go. Tripp Tracy talks about himself constantly, often forcing totally unrelated personal stories about his relationships with Hurricanes players (who in reality surely must hate him) into his commentating. His comments distract from great hockey games, and make bad hockey games even worse. He is a complete homer who is unable to see reason or think clearly. He is a detriment to an otherwise great broadcast team; John Forslund is undoubtedly dragged down by Tripp's incompetence. Please, from all true, passionate Carolina Hurricanes fans: remove Tripp Tracy from the broadcast booth so that he cannot rape and ravage the sport we love any more.

                                               If only this included Tripp's stupid hair being a detriment to mankind

So, down 2-0 going into the 2nd. What happens? Aho happens. Sebastian Aho gets a power play goal, in fact. That's right, our power play did something for a change. It looked much like the last game against the Jackets. Aho gets the puck on the right side of the net and throws it in, this time off a rebound. Faulk then nets one and we're tied. All the momentum and this feels like it's going to be a win.


                                   And luckily, nobody was called the N-word

And then the third period happens. You know that feeling in your stomach when you get told "you may want to get tested?" No? Just me? OK, well, imagine how that feels then. That is the feeling the third period had. We looked fine. The problem was all the power play opportunities with no shots.


                                      Live look-in to my living room

 

Then we decide, screw playing D about halfway through the third and Hartnell makes everybody in a red and white sweater look very, very bad at hockey (but very, very good at standing and flailing sticks). 


So that's the way this ends. We do nothing the back-half of the third, but were playing hard. Sure, we're not going to make the wildcard race if we keep falling short in these, but Bobrovsky is arguably the hottest goalie in the league right now. If the power play doesn't get fixed and become something more than a 2 minute sprint to go back and retrieve the puck after it's thrown from their blue line, then it doesn't matter. Luckily, our PK units are keeping us in these games lately.

We have the Washington Capitals tomorrow because fug us, right? They've not lost a game in regulation in something like a month and on a two game win streak after a tough OT loss last week. We're 5-5 in our last 10 and on a 3 game skid going into Washington. 

[lightsout]

Gameday 47

Carolina Hurricanes (21-18-7) vs Washington Capitals (31-9-6)

 

We are in the back half of the hardest 2 week stretch on our schedule. After showing signs of life in the first 2 weeks of the new year, the Hurricanes are on a 3 game losing streak after playing Columbus twice as well as Pittsburgh. One would think the hockey gods would put Colorado on this day in the schedule for us. Hell, even Minnesota. Nope. We get to stay in the conference, in the metro, and in our own personal hell for another game as we desperately try to squeak out at least 1 point somewhere in this stretch. So where are the Canes at this point in the standings? 3 points back of the Flyers who sit in the 8th spot, and 2 points back of Toronto. Barring the Rangers imploding, they're looking like a lock for at least one wildcard spot, so if the Canes don't get hungry now, they may see the window close rapidly. This is especially big over the next 3 games, as the Canes will play Philadelphia in just one week. With a chance to have a point swing, keeping pace is important.

Projected Starting Lineups:
 

Canes

Skinner-Rask-Rattie
Aho-Staal-Lindholm
McGinn-Ryan-Stempniak 
Nordstrom-Teravainen-Stalberg

Slavin-Pesce
Hainsey-Faulk
Hanifin-Tennyson (because Ryan Murphy can't make it to the rink due to losing his purse)

Ward (this will be his 21st start in 23 games, so it'll be interesting to see how he rebounds from that last outing against Columbus)

Capitals

Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie
Johansson-Kuznetsov-Williams
Connolly-Eller-Burakovsky
Winnik-Beagle-Wilson

Alzner-Niskanen
Orpik-Orlov
Chorney-Schmidt

Holtby

Players to watch:


Sebastian Aho

Sebastian Aho has been nothing short of solid the past several games. It appears he will move up to the 2nd line alongside Staal and Lindholm, which relegates McGinn (who has 4 goals in 7 games) to the third line. Aho's ability to move the puck well in the zone and his knack for scoring will be key, as well as his speed in transition against the Capitals.

Alexander Ovechkin

Ovechkin has done nothing but terrorize the Canes since he has been in the league. He has 77 career points (32g, 45a)  against Carolina, and ranks 3rd in the NHL for points against the Canes. If AO can get the offense rolling against our young defensemen, the Canes could be in trouble. Back checking from the forwards against this top 6 of Washington will be key to stopping the quick transition game that AO loves to play with to get space for creativity.

Statement time!
 

LET'S GO CANES!

[iamcline]

On 1/21/2017 at 10:27 AM, lightsout said:

He has been a top 10 goalie this season, and I'm sorry but that isn't just dumb luck. The guy has also started a ton of games and I don't think starting him was the right call last night anyway. Cam had a few saves that were tremendous last night.

Top 10 goalie? No freakin' way. His save percentage is 34th in the league. That is terrible for someone who sees the type of shots he sees thanks to this defense.  27th in GAA, again...bad. Second in goals against only to Cam Talbot (by one).

Now you can make the argument that due to the number of starts his stats are skewed but save percentage doesn't lie. Now no one expected Cam to be a winning goalie (and I still don't think he is) but he can't be depended on like someone would hope. Time to move on from him. Even if that means keeping Eddie Lack around.

As for Alex, he's still two or three years away. His quickness is undeniable but he lets in the same soft goals that Cam does.

[MillionDollarCam]

Pretty special moment there for Bicks!

Final game of his NHL Career and he snaps home a wicked shootout goal then gets mobbed by the team.

He always seemed like a classy guy, I'm sure he'll go on to do great things in his fight against MS.

#BickellBrave

[KillerKat]

On 1/24/2017 at 7:22 PM, iamcline said:

Top 10 goalie? No freakin' way. His save percentage is 34th in the league. That is terrible for someone who sees the type of shots he sees thanks to this defense.  27th in GAA, again...bad. Second in goals against only to Cam Talbot (by one).

Now you can make the argument that due to the number of starts his stats are skewed but save percentage doesn't lie. Now no one expected Cam to be a winning goalie (and I still don't think he is) but he can't be depended on like someone would hope. Time to move on from him. Even if that means keeping Eddie Lack around.

As for Alex, he's still two or three years away. His quickness is undeniable but he lets in the same soft goals that Cam does.

Should've moved on from him years ago. Top 10? lmao. Yeah save percentage doesn't lie. Glad we have Darling now and hopefully sometime soon we can send Cam packing. Watching Lavy take his 3rd team to the Final right now is bittersweet. I've been pulling for the Preds, but also thinking about how our team has been a joke for the past decade since our Cup win when Lavy was here.

[iamcline]

57 minutes ago, KillerKat said:

Should've moved on from him years ago. Top 10? lmao. Yeah save percentage doesn't lie. Glad we have Darling now and hopefully sometime soon we can send Cam packing. Watching Lavy take his 3rd team to the Final right now is bittersweet. I've been pulling for the Preds, but also thinking about how our team has been a joke for the past decade since our Cup win when Lavy was here.

The issue Lavs ran into was Rutherford. Rutherford doesn't know how to build an organization or develop the prospects. Thus far it looks like GMRF has a clear vision and plan on how to do that. The Predators were just a player or two away from being a serious contender so they get Subban (who IMO is more dynamic than Weber but not as dependable, big gamble but y'know...).

The teams Lavs had after the Cup win were Top heavy but nothing after the first layer and there was no money or youth to put into what we really needed.

I'm happy for the Perds though, I'm hoping to make a trip out next weekend to take in the atmosphere.

[SOJA]

Have finally started getting into hockey, really enjoyed watching the Leafs-Capitals series. 

Anyone want to give me a quick low down on young up and comers the canes have?

[MillionDollarCam]

Teravainen gets an extension, 2 years, $2.86M, great bridge deal.

Canes, have about $48M committed to 17 players.

Lines

Aho - Staal - Lindholm

???- Rask - Teravainen

Skinner - ??? - Stempniak

Nordström - ??? - ???

Slavin - Pesce

Hanifin - Faulk

??? - ???

Dahlbeck - Murphy

Darling

Ward

Lack

RFA's: McGinn, PDG

UFA's: Ryan, Bickell, McClement

It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. After seeing the Serg pulled Drouin it appears that d prospects hold a little more weight than perceived. Maybe the Canes can revisit a potential Duchene trade with Fleury and a 1st being the nucleus with a small add like Stempniak (assuming he's not selected by Vegas) or something.

 

[RealBitsOfPanther]

On 5/25/2017 at 8:17 PM, SOJA said:

Have finally started getting into hockey, really enjoyed watching the Leafs-Capitals series. 

Anyone want to give me a quick low down on young up and comers the canes have?

Welcome aboard man! NHL seasons are crazy fun. I know @lightsout and myself loved doing the blog and hopefully will do it again next year the views are there. As far as canes prospects/young talent go, it starts with Jeff Skinner, Sebastian Aho and Noah Hanifin. 

 

Skinner went off the last quarter of the season and ended up with 36 goals and 26 assists. Prob the purest goal scorer the Canes have and is still a young guy (only 25) 

Aho just finished his rookie season with 24 goals and 25 assists and at 19 years old. Just a smart player. He will be good for years to come. 

Skinns and Aho stand out but there is a bunch of young guys already on the team, or in the system. Rask is a solid two way center that can net 20 and can lead in +/-. Teuvo as well. Lindholm has shown flashes of brilliance (his passing game improved greatly this season). There is also some guys in the pipeline like Gauthier, Kuokkanen Fillpe that we can get excited about, although they are years away. 

Hanifin is going to be solid. It takes a little longer for two way defensemen to adapt. He's only 20 years old as well. Really strong breakout pass 

The rest of the defense is crazy young and has tremendous upside as well. Slavin and Pesce especially. Look for Haydn Fleury to push for a roster spot this year. Jake Bean will be a name to remember as well. 

 

@lightsout did I forget anyone?