GDT: Canes @ Rangers 3/11 7PM...If A Canes Game Takes Place...

[DougieSmash]

Some interesting stats:

Eric Staal with just *1* goal on PP. That's dreadful for Eric standarts. No matter how pathetic our PP is... Jordan with one goal, too. Liles without PP point for almost 66 minutes PP TOI.

 

[wolfofthesteppes]

"Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man."

--Nietzsche

"Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."

- Andy Dufresne

 

[rocky7]

there's nothing to suggest that they will do anything different than what they've been doing up to now.


Ward? I'm pretty sure Rutherford could have moved Ward if he really wanted to, even if for nothing, to shed the contract. shedding Ruutu relieved that pressure. I'm not sure about his NMC but they may simply not have wanted to embarrass Ward by putting him on waivers, IDK. anyhow, if Ward is able to rebound then I don't see the problem with going with Ward and Khudobin. that's probably the best course to take.

and, in last nights game after the top two lines put on a ton of pressure in the O-zone and scored, Muller would throw out Nash and friends who immediately killed the momentum. if they decide to let Muller go I hope he takes his buddies Nash and Bowman with him. those guys just aren't NHL caliber hockey players IMO, let alone players that an NHL coach would use on a PP.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Some interesting stats:

Eric Staal with just *1* goal on PP. That's dreadful for Eric standarts. No matter how pathetic our PP is... Jordan with one goal, too. Liles without PP point for almost 66 minutes PP TOI.

Unreal. Our PP is a mystery to me. I'd like to sit down with Muller in front of a chalkboard and have him explain exactly what he envisions in this system.

 

[cptjeff]

Unreal. Our PP is a mystery to me. I'd like to sit down with Muller in front of a chalkboard and have him explain exactly what he envisions in this system.

And yet, somehow our power play isn't the worst in the league. We're at 12.7%. Florida is at 9.8%.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

I'd like to run punishment drills on both special teams.

Put the first unit PP out there against the second unit PK. Put 2 minutes on a stopwatch. If the PP doesn't score in those two minutes, they do laps around the ice. If the PP does score in those two minutes, the PK does laps around the ice. If the goal given up on the PK is mostly attributed to the goaltender ****ing up, everyone except the goaltender does laps around the ice. Turn that fear of letting down his teammates into a strength.

Repeat until they're all throwing up on the benches.

 

[RodTheBawd]

One of our biggest issues over the past few years is that we haven't had a legit #2 that can both relieve Ward of having to play 70 games, and push him for the #1 spot. The other issue was having zero defense playing in front of Ward. We get that legit #2 and a somewhat competent defense, and everyone wants to ship Ward out (after 2 injury filled seasons). If our choices are $8.5M in net or a Dobby/Peters tandem, I'm going with the former.

 

[Stickpucker]

Believe me I know what is possible. We could have beaten Columbus in December, Winnipeg in February, and Buffalo in February. If we could just assume we win games we should, we'd only be 2 points out of the playoffs right now.

I would love nothing else but to be proved wrong.

Don't forget the two Calgary games.

 

[tarheelhockey]

And yet, somehow our power play isn't the worst in the league. We're at 12.7%. Florida is at 9.8%.

Florida at least has something of an excuse.

Boyes
Huberdeau
Bergenheim
Barkov
Upshall
Fleischmann

Those are their power-play "threats" up front. They have Campbell and Kulikov on the points, but still... that's incredibly weak for an NHL power play. One would expect that group to be the worst in the league.

Skinner
Semin
Eric Staal
Jordan Staal
Gerbe
Tlusty

Not so much a group that one would expect to see in 29th place.


The scary thing is Skinner has 9 PP goals this year while the rest of the forwards have 11 combined. If Skinner isn't in the lineup for whatever reason, we have a worse unit than Florida.

 

[Ole Gil]

I'd like to run punishment drills on both special teams.

Put the first unit PP out there against the second unit PK. Put 2 minutes on a stopwatch. If the PP doesn't score in those two minutes, they do laps around the ice. If the PP does score in those two minutes, the PK does laps around the ice. If the goal given up on the PK is mostly attributed to the goaltender ****ing up, everyone except the goaltender does laps around the ice. Turn that fear of letting down his teammates into a strength.

Repeat until they're all throwing up on the benches.

It's not like the team is trying to fail. In the end, I think we just have to accept that the pieces to a strong powerplay do not exist on the roster at the moment. An elite playmaker (nope!). A big accurate shot from the point that demands respect (nope!). A lethal one-timer (nope!).

Hopefully, Lindholm might become the playmaker. He's pretty slick with his passing. But the teams best players are just skate into the pile and fire a wrister guys, which isn't going to yield good numbers.

 

[VAcaniac]

It's not like the team is trying to fail. In the end, I think we just have to accept that the pieces to a strong powerplay do not exist on the roster at the moment. An elite playmaker (nope!). A big accurate shot from the point that demands respect (nope!). A lethal one-timer (nope!).

Hopefully, Lindholm might become the playmaker. He's pretty slick with his passing. But the teams best players are just skate into the pile and fire a wrister guys, which isn't going to yield good numbers.

If Alex Semin and Jeff Skinner don't have lethal one-timers, who does?

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

"Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man."

--Nietzsche

Oh, blow it out your ass, Howard Hank.

 

[Anton Babchuk]

If Alex Semin and Jeff Skinner don't have lethal one-timers, who does?

guys who score on them? does skinner have any one-timer goals this year? i know semin had one on a 5-on-3 against washington and that's all i can remember.

 

[What the Faulk]

Pretty obvious what JR was doing at the deadline. He wanted to move Ward, but found no takers, or his price was too high. I'm betting the former. Word is there was an offer on Peters, but JR decided to hold onto all 3 guys. The only way that makes sense is if he deals Ward at the draft and re-signs Peters, who is a UFA. Peters isn't coming back here for anything less than an NHL job.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

It's not like the team is trying to fail. In the end, I think we just have to accept that the pieces to a strong powerplay do not exist on the roster at the moment. An elite playmaker (nope!). A big accurate shot from the point that demands respect (nope!). A lethal one-timer (nope!).

Hopefully, Lindholm might become the playmaker. He's pretty slick with his passing. But the teams best players are just skate into the pile and fire a wrister guys, which isn't going to yield good numbers.

I find it hard to believe that the talent on the roster can't piece together a powerplay that's better than 29th in the league. Hell, it doesn't have to be a "strong powerplay", but even an average one would have earned this team a couple more wins over the year.

 

[AD Skinner]

It's been said a few times by a few people, and I'd tend to agree- if this powerplay was even mediocre, say 17% or so, we're looking at playoff spots now.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

It's been said a few times by a few people, and I'd tend to agree- if this powerplay was even mediocre, say 17% or so, we're looking at playoff spots now.

There are a bunch of what-ifs though. If Cam Ward was even mediocre, we'd be looking at playoff spots. And if Semin and Staals were scoring at historical rates, we'd be looking at a playoff spot. And if they were even mediocre at OT/SO, we'd be lookin at a playoff spot. And if they hadn't choked away 5 or so games in the closing minutes of the 3rd, we'd be looking at a playoff spot, etc..

That's always the case when you are a marginal team like the Canes. There are lots of things that could swing things for them.

 

[What the Faulk]

A mediocre 17% powerplay is worth 10 more goals. I'm not sure that'd translate to 8+ points.

 

[rocky7]

something else to consider regarding Ward is even if he were to get his game back will he be able to stay healthy, all things considered?

 

[tarheelhockey]

An elite playmaker (nope!). A big accurate shot from the point that demands respect (nope!). A lethal one-timer (nope!).

Semin is all three of those.

What does Semin do in our PP breakout? Stands stationary at the far blue while a defenseman slowly S-curves his way up the ice. We don't just allow teams to stand us up at the blue line, we encourage it. And when they do stand up, our only option is to dump the puck in and pursue it with the guys who have been standing completely still at the blue line.

When we manage to get across the blue line with possession (maybe 25% of the time) what's our go-to play for Semin? The cross-slot pass that every video coach in the league has scouted at this point?

What's our go-to play for Skinner? Having him walk out of the corner at a sharp angle and try wristers off the goalie's toes until one deflects in?

What's our go-to play for Eric? Can we even say we have one for a guy who's only scored once? As much flak as I've given him this season, the PP is the difference between his current production and a point-per-game pace. Why is he such a prolific scorer against 5 opponents but can't buy a decent shot against 4?

Sekera has shown unbelievable playmaking skill this year. Liles is a pure puck mover. Murphy is a phenom when he has time and space.

It doesn't add up that this group should be putrid with the man advantage. Whatever Muller envisions on the PP (and it remains unclear exactly what that is), it wastes the skills that this roster offers. In no way am I convinced that this team doesn't have the talent to break 13% on the PP.

 

[Anton Babchuk]

A mediocre 17% powerplay is worth 10 more goals. I'm not sure that'd translate to 8+ points.

it's highly, highly unlikely unless somehow all of those extra goals came in clutch situations *and* the team was able to further capitalize and do something with said goal (as we've seeing twice lately, tying a game late in the third doesn't always translate to a point). what's more likely is that many of those goals have no effect on the outcome of the game, for instance coming in a game that was already blowout win or a blowout loss. everyone seems to assume that even a mediocre powerplay is going to come up with clutch goals all the time.

also, the team is one of the worst 5-on-5 and PK teams in the league. maybe if they didn't suck at *everything* they'd be in the playoffs. i don't get the totally disproportionate powerplay discussion. this is a bad team.

personally, i think the situation with the terrible powerplay is really for the best. i think it's much better for the team to suck and for real changes to be made than for a terrible 5-on-5 team, terrible possession team, terrible PK team, terrible shootout team to fluke its way to 8th place by scoring powerplay goals and convince old senile rutherford that he likes his group.

 

[RodTheBawd]

^^ But but but Muller says it's just a lack of effort and focus on the PP, not the ****** "plays" they run.

Has Muller ever taken ownership of any of the teams shortcomings? That's been one of my biggest gripes about him, but maybe I just don't listen to enough of his interviews and I'm way off base.

 

[DougieSmash]

Colorado, Tampa and Capitals with worse PK than Carolina. They are in the race.

 

[Joe McGrath]

Oh, blow it out your ass, Howard Hank.

That's what I've been trying to remember for the last 10 minutes

 

[Anton Babchuk]

Colorado, Tampa and Capitals with worse PK than Carolina. They are in the race.

tampa and colorado are 7th and 8th, respectively, in 5-on-5 goal differential. hurricanes are tied for 22nd. capitals don't merely have a good powerplay, they have a great one. and also 8 shootout wins.