GDT: Canes at Bolts

[Unsustainable]

No Turbo, No Mrazek.

I think Turbo would have counted for maybe 2 more goals scored and could have maybe split the series in Tampa with Mrazek.

We should explore adding a top 9 forward and a goalie I think. We should use one of Bean, Fluery, Gardiner or Skjei, and anyone not named Jarvis or Rees.

 

[CanesFanBudMan]

Dougie is coming off a broken leg and has looked slow as crap which makes since as he was not fast to begin with.

I think he will bounce back, but not this year especially considering the Canes only 4 more 2 day breaks this season and nothing longer. This is not a season for rehab/ recovery.

 

[To Be Determined]

These are the games we need Aho, Svech, Necas, Staal, etc. to score some goals.

It is what it is, but the season isn't getting any easier.

while i absolutely agree we need more from those guys, i disagree that the season isn't getting any easier.

the central is starting to split into two tiers - florida, tampa, chicago, us up top; columbus, dallas, detroit, and nashville below.

chicago is 1-4-2 against the top half, 10-2-2 against the bottom, 21 GP, remaining: 17 top, 18 bottom
florida is 5-1-0 against the top half, 8-3-2 against the bottom, 19GP, remaining 18 top, 19 bottom
tampa is 6-3-1 against the top, 7-1-0 against the bottom, 18GP, remaining 14 top, 24 bottom
canes are 4-4-1 against the top, 8-2-0 against the bottom, 19 GP, remaining 14 top, 23 bottom

we have chicago 5 more times, tampa 3, florida 6

this series has been tough, but we have still taken 2 of 5 from tampa so far. with this 4 game series in the rearview, the rest of the schedule sets up nicely for both teams. with the caveat that in the weird-ass covid season, anything can go wacky at any time.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I get that it is Tampa and it sucks going up against their forward group every night for 4 games in a row but I don't think I have ever been so disenchanted with Slavin's play. Similar to the Boston Playoff series, the effort and energy is just sad to watch. The Canes simply aren't going to be able to compete unless Slavin is 100% engaged.

A big part of it is that he has quietly become our main puck-rushing defenseman, which would have been unthinkable just a couple of years ago. He has some OK puck skills, but he’s not a Skjei or Gardiner who should be handling the puck at every opportunity. Having him in that role is part of the matchup game, I get that, but it’s asking him to play over his head.

The main question from that ENG isn’t “why did Slavin make such a sloppy turnover” but “why are we going to Slavin in that situation when we have 4 defensemen whose primary trait is their offensive skill”.

 

[Sens1Canes2]

A big part of it is that he has quietly become our main puck-rushing defenseman, which would have been unthinkable just a couple of years ago. He has some OK puck skills, but he’s not a Skjei or Gardiner who should be handling the puck at every opportunity. Having him in that role is part of the matchup game, I get that, but it’s asking him to play over his head.

The main question from that ENG isn’t “why did Slavin make such a sloppy turnover” but “why are we going to Slavin in that situation when we have 4 defensemen whose primary trait is their offensive skill”.

Thank you!!!

 

[GoldiFox]

A big part of it is that he has quietly become our main puck-rushing defenseman, which would have been unthinkable just a couple of years ago. He has some OK puck skills, but he’s not a Skjei or Gardiner who should be handling the puck at every opportunity. Having him in that role is part of the matchup game, I get that, but it’s asking him to play over his head.

The main question from that ENG isn’t “why did Slavin make such a sloppy turnover” but “why are we going to Slavin in that situation when we have 4 defensemen whose primary trait is their offensive skill”.

My guess as to that answer would be that if Rod could have 3 Jordan Staals and 2 Slavins on the ice for 60 minutes a game he would. That is his happy place so that is what we see on the ice.

 

[emptyNedder]

A big part of it is that he has quietly become our main puck-rushing defenseman, which would have been unthinkable just a couple of years ago.

Slavin has always had pretty good skills (mainly his skating and IQ) as a PMD. Remember that hat-trick against the Islanders. Slavin doesn't have the best shot among the D, so I would agree that he was miscast on the PP last season, but he is as competent as Skjei/Gardiner in zone exits/entries.

I think the likeliest explanation for his play this season is that the personal is very hard (nigh impossible) to separate from the professional. My guess is that the COVID requirements and the nature of the road trips are impacting him more than other players because he is a new father—in a unique situation at that. Something as simple as sleeping 1/2 hour less a night has been shown to have a huge impact on athletic performance. He will figure it out.

 

[Drivebytrucker]

Dougie is coming off a broken leg and has looked slow as crap which makes since as he was not fast to begin with.

I think he will bounce back, but not this year especially considering the Canes only 4 more 2 day breaks this season and nothing longer. This is not a season for rehab/ recovery.

He may bounce back

Or he may end up like Erik Karlsson. I would want to be sure before I spend 7-9 million at 6-7 years to find out personally

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

Dougie is coming off a broken leg and has looked slow as crap which makes since as he was not fast to begin with.

I think he will bounce back, but not this year especially considering the Canes only 4 more 2 day breaks this season and nothing longer. This is not a season for rehab/ recovery.

We should give Dougie some rest days against the lesser teams. The goal should just be to comfortably make the playoffs, don't care too much about the seeding so if resting Dougie costs us a handful of wins this year I think it'd be worth it.

 

[geehaad]

Hey, to those who are excusing Hamilton's dog-slow skating as recovery from his broken leg, can someone explain why it wasn't this bad in the playoffs?

I'll hang up and listen.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Slavin has always had pretty good skills (mainly his skating and IQ) as a PMD. Remember that hat-trick against the Islanders. Slavin doesn't have the best shot among the D, so I would agree that he was miscast on the PP last season, but he is as competent as Skjei/Gardiner in zone exits/entries.

I'd disagree that Slavin's as elusive and aggressive as Skjei/Gardiner, but let's take that equivalency for granted.

Slavin's skating almost 23.5 minutes a game so far this season. Those are Shea Weber, Miro Heiskanen minutes. And that gets even more impressive when you realize he's doing it without being on a PP unit, meaning those are nothing but hard minutes. At even strength he's tied for 6th in the league in TOI... funny enough, tied with Justin Faulk.

He does this in such a lowkey way that we maybe have kind of missed that it's happening. This guy is absolutely devouring difficult shifts night after night, while skating against the hardest competition of any of our D.

So this is where we arrive at the final minute of the game, and we've got Slavin hitting 23 minutes of play while getting his teeth knocked in by a Jamie Benn, while Gardiner is at more like 16 minutes against some guy who won't be in the league next year. If we assume that these two players actually are equal offensively, then there's no reason that the guy who's 50% fresher shouldn't be leading that last-gasp rush.

 

[spockBokk]

Could Hamilton heading into UFA be weighing on him?

 

[The Stranger]

Maybe I'm not picking up on something here, but...Gardiner didn't play last night and Pesce and Skjei were shifted prior to the shift Slavin and Dougie had where the EN turnover occurred.

I'm guessing Fleury and Bean weren't going on the ice at that point in the game and it was just alternating the top two pairs.

On this topic, is there zone exit and entry data available on a particular website? If so, please share a link. I'm curious now as to who is tops for the team?

Also, didn't get to see much of the game last night. Is there a good explanation for why Fleury saw so little ice?

 

[CanesFanBudMan]

Hey, to those who are excusing Hamilton's dog-slow skating as recovery from his broken leg, can someone explain why it wasn't this bad in the playoffs?

I'll hang up and listen.

He had a goal and assist in 5 playoff games and was out for 3 games. I don’t remember how he looked though

 

[AD Skinner]

I remember him as being kinda invisible against boston, although his one goal was enormous

 

[Ole Gil]

Could just be the pandemic. It's mentally taxing. If you're following the guidelines, and you're not some super focused self-motivator, you're probably not operating at full capacity.

 

[WreckingCrew]

He had a goal and assist in 5 playoff games and was out for 3 games. I don’t remember how he looked though

4 of those were against Boston where legitimately the whole team looked like garbage...nobody was memorable in a good way, so hard to read much from that.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Maybe I'm not picking up on something here, but...Gardiner didn't play last night and Pesce and Skjei were shifted prior to the shift Slavin and Dougie had where the EN turnover occurred.

I'm guessing Fleury and Bean weren't going on the ice at that point in the game and it was just alternating the top two pairs.

Yes, I'm talking more broadly than just last night (hence Jamie Benn making a cameo in that post). The topic was, more broadly, Slavin suddenly looking much more mistake-prone than he has in the past.

I'm saying this is the natural consequence of taking a guy who was playing with Pesce as a minute-munching shutdown pair, and now asking him to skate near-league-leading ES minutes against top-line competition while covering for Dougie Hamilton and also being arguably the team's primary PMD. This is the step forward we wanted to see from Slavin, but we also (should) expect to see an increase in errors. If he were doing all this while looking like his 2017 self, the guy would be a Norris finalist with ease.

I don't necessarily object to Rod using him this way, but I do question why we would even have guys like Skjei and Gardiner and Bean on the roster if we're just going to stick an exhausted Slavin out there at the moment when we really need a smooth skating PMD on the ice. We don't even have Slavin on the PP... it really doesn't make sense to have him out there doing double-shifts leading in the minutes leading to an EN situation where he's going to be asked to QB the critical rush and, if it comes to it, QB the game-deciding offensive possession.

 

[bleedgreen]

Trocheck needed over a year to come back. Faulk disappeared for a long time after his bad injury. I do think Dougie is hampered and I don’t think he was that great in the playoffs. There’s an adrenaline difference between a playoff series and a long season as well. He might’ve pushed through issues for a brief period that he isn’t able to now.

Or maybe he’s just slumping. Both options are obviously on the table, and it’s probably a bit of both.

 

[The Stranger]

Yes, I'm talking more broadly than just last night (hence Jamie Benn making a cameo in that post). The topic was, more broadly, Slavin suddenly looking much more mistake-prone than he has in the past.

I'm saying this is the natural consequence of taking a guy who was playing with Pesce as a minute-munching shutdown pair, and now asking him to skate near-league-leading ES minutes against top-line competition while covering for Dougie Hamilton and also being arguably the team's primary PMD. This is the step forward we wanted to see from Slavin, but we also (should) expect to see an increase in errors. If he were doing all this while looking like his 2017 self, the guy would be a Norris finalist with ease.

I don't necessarily object to Rod using him this way, but I do question why we would even have guys like Skjei and Gardiner and Bean on the roster if we're just going to stick an exhausted Slavin out there at the moment when we really need a smooth skating PMD on the ice. We don't even have Slavin on the PP... it really doesn't make sense to have him out there doing double-shifts leading in the minutes leading to an EN situation where he's going to be asked to QB the critical rush and, if it comes to it, QB the game-deciding offensive possession.

OK, I had a vague memory of this article on the Athletic ranking the league's top 10 PMD from last summer. Slavin was in their top 10 and was top of the list in "General Exit Efficiency".

Interestingly, not a single other Canes D-man even made the "Other Excellent Puck Movers" list...I do see two former Canes on there though.

Not sure if/where this data is publicly available, but I'd be very curious to see how they look based on games this year.

 

[Canes]

Even a well rested Skjei, Fleury and Gardiner are just as likely, if not more so, to turn the puck over than tired Slavin and aren't any more of a threat to score or create a scoring chance than him either, at least IMO. Bean is the wild card but you can't fault most coaches for not putting him out there in that situation yet as a rookie. Skjei and Gardiner having very little offense to give at this point in their careers is a problem.

 

[tarheelhockey]

OK, I had a vague memory of this article on the Athletic ranking the league's top 10 PMD from last summer. Slavin was in their top 10 and was top of the list in "General Exit Efficiency".

Interestingly, not a single other Canes D-man even made the "Other Excellent Puck Movers" list...I do see two former Canes on there though.

Not sure if/where this data is publicly available, but I'd be very curious to see how they look based on games this year.

Slavin really is a good PMD. I've been pumping his tires for that for a little while now.. he has butter-soft hands and good hockey sense. I wouldn't call him a top-10 PMD overall, but in terms of specific situational skills like "General Exit Efficiency" he's pretty underrated. This is why I don't object to Rod using him in that role. I'd rather the puck be on Slavin's stick than Gardiner's or Skjei's, all other things equal.

It's just that things get unequal in a hurry when TOI starts getting factored in. If we're going to have him skating close to double the minutes of the bottom-pair, and all of those minutes are going to be ES and PK against intense competition, it's going to lead to mistakes that we're not used to seeing.

 

[Lempo]

Even a well rested Skjei, Fleury and Gardiner are just as likely, if not more so, to turn the puck over than tired Slavin and aren't any more of a threat to score or create a scoring chance than him either, at least IMO.

Somehow this assessment reminds me of a local truck driver who is told to be the best driver in the company and when drunk he's still the second best.

 

[Stickpucker]

Somehow this assessment reminds me of a local truck driver who is told to be the best driver in the company and when drunk he's still the second best.

This is oddly specific.

...also do you have drunk driving competitions over there?

 

[Lempo]

This is oddly specific.

...also do you have drunk driving competitions over there?

Apparently the situation was such that the ranking had been established over a longer period by the on-job performance.