GDT: 1/31 - Canes vs Blues - You Never Can Tell

[DaveG]

A tribute to one of rock's (and St Louis's) legends, and one of the best movies of all time in the GDT title? Yes, yes I did.


St Louis is rolling this season, and they've won 3 in a row. The Canes played them tough in St Louis, narrowly losing 4-2, while going off the ****ing chain while shorthanded. We'll see what the return leg of this matchup brings, St Louis typically fares well against the Canes but the Canes usually have done alright against them at home since the 05 lockout going 4-1 at the PNRBC CenterArena.

Lines TBA:
Blues rolled this last game: (solid blue because yellow looks like total ass and is borderline unreadable)
Steen - Backes - Schwartz
Sobotka - Roy - Tarasenko
Paajarvi - Berglund - Oshie
Morrow - Lapierre - Stewart

Pietrangelo - Bouwmeester
Jackman - Shattenkirk
Cole - Polak

Halak
Elliott

Canes lines as listed on site depth chart:
Tlusty - E Staal - Semin
Skinner - J Staal - Lindholm
Gerbe - Malhotra - Dwyer
Bowman - Nash - Ruutu

Sekera - Faulk
Hainsey - Liles
Komisarek - Harrison

Khudobin
Peters

"C'est la vie", say the old folks,
it goes to show you never can tell

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[SteelFish87*]

which Dmen play on the PP, Sekera and Faulk?

 

[What the Faulk]

Look for Semin to exact revenge on Alex Pietrangelo with a vicious first period fight. Or score or you know, not show up or something something narrative.

 

[PaulProteus]

That 3rd pairing of ours is sort of like a Martin and Lewis.

 

[What the Faulk]

which Dmen play on the PP, Sekera and Faulk?

They're both on the 2nd unit, though I'm not sure I ever notice Faulk doing anything really.

Lindholm // Eric // Skinnner
Semin // Liles

Gerbe // Jordan // Ruutu
Sekera // Faulk

Something like that, but obviously Semin isn't at the point. Tlusty sometimes gets time too.

 

[ncsu1]

Live morning skate coverage will start here soon: http://video.hurricanes.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=616&id=551391&lang=en

 

[rocky7]

if Alex Semin "wants to" he'll help the team win tonight. if he really, really "wants to" he'll score a hattrick and they'll coast to an easy win over the Blues. it really all depends on Semin.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Speaking of the power play, over the past five games the Hurricanes are 1-14 in 27:06 of PP time.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I really don't like Skinner on the half-wall on the PP. He fumbles the puck a lot, doesn't make great passes and the other team knows that and pressures them.

Not sure who is a better option though.

 

[Joe McGrath]

I really don't like Skinner on the half-wall on the PP. He fumbles the puck a lot, doesn't make great passes and the other team knows that and pressures them.

Not sure who is a better option though.

Wouldn't it be easier to flip the side of the ice and have Semin and/or Lindholm run things from the half-wall.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Wouldn't it be easier to flip the side of the ice and have Semin and/or Lindholm run things from the half-wall.

I thought about that and maybe that would work, but I like Lindholm down where he is as he can make nice passes from there. I'd use Semin like Wash. uses Ovechkin. Get him in the prime shooting area and move the puck to try and quickly get it to him. Have Staal park his ass in front. The problem is that Wash. has Backstrom in the spot where Canes have Skinner. Not only is he a better playmaker, he's very strong so can protect the puck well (Lindholm and Skinner really can't yet)

 

[PaulProteus]

Michael Smith @MSmithCanes
Komisarek and Dvorak getting extra work after the skate. Based on this, would say Bellemore will return to the #Canes lineup tonight.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Wonder which Bellemore we'll get?

Belle-score or Belle-No More Ice Time For Him, Please for the love of God.

 

[Ole Gil]

I really don't like Skinner on the half-wall on the PP. He fumbles the puck a lot, doesn't make great passes and the other team knows that and pressures them.

Not sure who is a better option though.

The thing with Skinner, is he can stick handle into the middle and score from over there. It's why he's 4th in the league in PP goals. I think teams are onto it, and are pressuring him, trying to make him make a pass and make other people do something.

In the end, that should be a good thing, as it'll create odd man chances elsewhere, just need him to be able to make that first pass. But if it continues to fail, I imagine we'll see something else soon.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

That is a stupid good lineup for the Blues. Look at that 4th line. That's nuts.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

The thing with Skinner, is he can stick handle into the middle and score from over there. It's why he's 4th in the league in PP goals. I think teams are onto it, and are pressuring him, trying to make him make a pass and make other people do something.

Correct, he had success on that for a while, but now you can see team just go at him as soon as the puck heads his way as they don't want to give him space.

In the end, that should be a good thing, as it'll create odd man chances elsewhere, just need him to be able to make that first pass. But if it continues to fail, I imagine we'll see something else soon.

Agree

 

[Stormie]

Home wins include Colorado, Anaheim, and Sharks. Why not Blues?

 

[TheOllieC]

Hainsey hasn't scored a hatty in a while. I see that happening tonight.

 

[DaveG]

Hainsey hasn't scored a hatty in a while. I see that happening tonight.

I'm thinking 6 goals.

5-1 loss

 

[Lucky Lindy]

Just to be different.

4-1 loss.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Just to be different.

4-1 loss.

Our defense is improving by the minute

 

[Unsustainable]

I'm at the game tonight with the gf, wearing my Beiga race night jersey. If you see me, say hey.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Although I'm not counting on it, because STL is a very good team, a win tonight would go a long way in having me believe in this team. Not the end of the world if they don't, but would be nice.

Canes have a tough road right after the olympics. After the make-up game in Buffalo, they have Stars, Kings, Sharks and Ducks...all on the road so would be nice to rack up a few more wins before the break.

 

[cymmot]

5-1 win.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Although I'm not counting on it, because STL is a very good team, a win tonight would go a long way in having me believe in this team. Not the end of the world if they don't, but would be nice.

Canes have a tough road right after the olympics. After the make-up game in Buffalo, they have Stars, Kings, Sharks and Ducks...all on the road so would be nice to rack up a few more wins before the break.

Yeah, I think 3 out of the 4 remaining games before the break need to result in points. Wins would obviously be preferable, but OTs at least. Because I didn't realize it until I read it in the paper today, but the remaining months in the season are almost entirely road games.

Out of the 25 games after the Olympic break, only 9 are at home:

Rangers x 2
Islanders
Blue Jackets
Devils
Capitals
Stars
Oilers
Sabres

Needless to say, wins in those games (and especially the first 4-5) would go a long way toward this team's goal.