Teach me

[Ricky Spanish]

The panthers are a lost cause this year so I'm actively trying to get into hockey this season. The hurricanes are the local team, I was at the stanley cup parade back in '06 but didn't really follow what was happening. I know next to nothing about this team other than they used to be the whalers, we won the cup one time, Brind'Amour was a player for us and is now our coach and doing well. 

Can I get a rundown of important history, team culture, players, etc. for the team? 

[Harbingers]

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. 

[Panthers Fan 69]

Best you can do is just watch the game and enjoy. After which, just ask us questions. We have a great small group on here of regulars that will help. 82 games plus playoffs, you will pick up on the basics like icing, line changes, the penalties, offsides, and other things.  You will LOVE our head coach in Rod Brindamour. He was a former player that just kicks and brings it each night. 
 

I personally think hockey is THE best sport.

 

Stick with us this year my guy, you will love it.  

[lightsout]

Also, most importantly, we used to have a thing called the Storm Squad and that is no more.

 

But seriously, this team is amazing. Well ran (Dundon is the kind of owner Tepper wishes he was) and well coached (Brindy is the coach half the league would kill for). Players are all team-first guys who don't make excuses. If we can just get the breaks to fall our way come playoff time, we will have a Cup. Roster is too good not to.

[USDepartmentOfSavagery]

The team is also set up to be good for a very long time. On paper, I don’t know if they’ll have a better roster than they will have this year but they will be a centerpiece in the playoffs for close to the next decade. 

[Harbingers]

12 minutes ago, USDepartmentOfSavagery said:

The team is also set up to be good for a very long time. On paper, I don’t know if they’ll have a better roster than they will have this year but they will be a centerpiece in the playoffs for close to the next decade. 

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. 

Edited October 11, 2023 by Harbingers

[Ricky Spanish]

Ah yes, hockey has line changes.

How often does this happen?

Do you spread your best players across multiple lines or do the best stay on one line together?

Is it common practice to mix and match lines throughout a game?

[lightsout]

3 hours ago, Ricky Spanish said:

Ah yes, hockey has line changes.

How often does this happen?

Do you spread your best players across multiple lines or do the best stay on one line together?

Is it common practice to mix and match lines throughout a game?

 

So the short answer is that you want your talent spread but not so spread that they're having to single handedly carry their line.

So your top line is generally where you want you star power. The most deadly guy you have paired with two great support pieces that work well together and play off of each other. A lot of free styling is common with first liners, less set up and more flow.

Your second line is your first line but how it changes will depend on your personnel. Maybe these are grindy guys, maybe this is a mix and match of some physicality and some great individual stick skills. Still some freedom here, but will play the role of maintaining the puck in the other teams end for as long as possible.

3rd liners are your savvy tweeners. They're good defensively but can score too. They're there to fill and not screw up. You're not depending on them to be goal scorers, but you expect them to be good +/- guys. 

4th liners are grinders/new guys/don't fit in the other three lines neatly. Usually just get ice time so everybody can rest, but there can be some heroes here.

 

None of the above is hard line truth, but it's a decent starting point of understanding. Teams generally want will start with first or second line, or even a combination of the two depending on the team they're playing and matchups. But as the game progresses, you want to time your changes where your top 6 is out there with their bottom 6. Your strongest talent vs their weakest.

 

D pairings (as each team will have two defensemen on the ice at a time) run 3 each team. So a top pair, mid pair and bottom pair. 

 

+/-  as I mentioned above is basically a measure of contribution. Your team score while you're on the ice? You get one point in the +. Your team gives up a goal while you're on the ice? You get one point in the -. Guys with crazy low +/- tend to be bottom 6 players so if you got a top 6 guy with like -15, you have problems as a team.

[Harbingers]

16 minutes ago, lightsout said:

D pairings (as each team will have two defensemen on the ice at a time) run 3 each team. So a top pair, mid pair and bottom pair.

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).

 

Edited October 11, 2023 by Harbingers

[lightsout]

And I forgot to add, you have 60 minutes of regulation time. Your line minutes will be something like this

 

1st line: 15-22 min

2nd line: 15-18 min

3rd line: 14-17 min

4th line: 13-17 min

 

Usually anyway. I mean changes happen every 45 ish seconds, depending on stoppages and the other teams change and whether you're filling a top guy on a bottom line for more minutes out of him or not. It's an art for sure to get it right. You want your top 6 guys on those first two lines to get as much time on ice as possible but you have a long season and don't need to wear them out.

Edited October 11, 2023 by lightsout