GDT: Carolina Hurricanes VS Washington Capitals

[Joe McGrath]

Yeah. I do agree with Kev though that at some point a defenseman for forward trade will/should happen. The issue is timing for me. Is now the right time? or next year?

Now isn't the right time. Trading Hanifin makes Fluery a top 4 which Hanifin himself wasn't ready for at the beginning of last year. Then your 6 is Dahlbeck or Carrick who have proven nothing at this level either. So you add maybe 15 goals from a Duchene and give up 15 more because your D isn't as deep anymore. Doesn't make you a better team at all.

If they could package Fleury or Bean and something else to get a top 6 forward, great. Don't know that move exists though. Any of the top 4 D being moved for anything other than a superstar doesn't make a damn but of sense.

 

[the halleJOKEL]

team win game

 

[the halleJOKEL]

Now isn't the right time. Trading Hanifin makes Fluery a top 4 which Hanifin himself wasn't ready for at the beginning of last year. Then your 6 is Dahlbeck or Carrick who have proven nothing at this level either. So you add maybe 15 goals from a Duchene and give up 15 more because your D isn't as deep anymore. Doesn't make you a better team at all.

If they could package Fleury or Bean and something else to get a top 6 forward, great. Don't know that move exists though. Any of the top 4 D being moved for anything other than a superstar doesn't make a damn but of sense.

i dont think trading hanifin is going to be the move...

might have to go the bean/fleury trade route or something idk

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Damn, Darling looks intimidating in net, the darker red suits him

Can I just say how delighted I am to see someone from another fan base with "fire Maurice" in their tag line?

Though we vets know the better line is "Mo must go"...

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

Some team will think Fleury is a top 4 defensemen (esp with his pedigree) stuck behind Slavin and Hanifin. Good defenders > good forwards

 

[the halleJOKEL]

Some team will think Fleury is a top 4 defensemen (esp with his pedigree) stuck behind Slavin and Hanifin. Good defenders > good forwards

he may legitimately be a top 4 defenseman stuck behind slavin and hanifin. same with bean.

 

[Unsustainable]

he may legitimately be a top 4 defenseman stuck behind slavin and hanifin. same with bean.

Hanifin might be stuck behind Slavin as a #1

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Now isn't the right time. Trading Hanifin makes Fluery a top 4 which Hanifin himself wasn't ready for at the beginning of last year. Then your 6 is Dahlbeck or Carrick who have proven nothing at this level either. So you add maybe 15 goals from a Duchene and give up 15 more because your D isn't as deep anymore. Doesn't make you a better team at all.

If they could package Fleury or Bean and something else to get a top 6 forward, great. Don't know that move exists though. Any of the top 4 D being moved for anything other than a superstar doesn't make a damn but of sense.

Yep, I'm with you Joe. I also think Hanifin is going to be a stud.

 

[the halleJOKEL]

Hanifin might be stuck behind Slavin as a #1

slavin might be stuck behind hanifin as a #1 too

i like these hypothetical problems

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Hanifin might be stuck behind Slavin as a #1

He also may surpass Slavin. It's not out of the realm of possibilities.

 

[Uncle Scrooge]

Can I just say how delighted I am to see someone from another fan base with "fire Maurice" in their tag line?

Though we vets know the better line is "Mo must go"...

Noted !

 

[My Special Purpose]

They played 2 games with their normal set of forwards in the preaseason and has 9 total goals. Thats 4.5 per game. That's good.

Yeah Joe, but that doesn't fit his narrative.

I get that you guys don't like my style, but you're wrong. This was the first game with almost our entire group. They did not play 2 games with their "normal set of forwards" and score 9 goals. Here was our "normal" group for the 6-2 win in Edmonton.

Teravainen-Staal-Williams
Aho-Rask-Lindholm
Saarela-Necas-Kuokkanen
Nordstrom-Wallmark-Jooris

Yep. Normal. I fully expect Skinner, Ryan, Kruger and McGinn to be healthy scratches opening night.

We had our entire starting lineup tonight except Kuokkanen in place of TT and Necas in place of Stempniak (which is very likely an upgrade). Other than that, the rest of our starting 20 was on the ice. And the forwards sucked. Against an AHL lineup.

I don't mind that you don't like how I say things. I get it. But changing the facts to fit your narrative because you don't like mine is disingenuous.

How about this, how did you think our starting NHL forwards looked tonight against a mostly AHL defense?

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I get that you guys don't like my style, but you're wrong. This was the first game with almost our entire group. They did not play 2 games with their "normal set of forwards" and score 9 goals. Here was our "normal" group for the 6-2 win in Edmonton.

Teravainen-Staal-Williams
Aho-Rask-Lindholm
Saarela-Necas-Kuokkanen
Nordstrom-Wallmark-Jooris

Yep. Normal.

We had our entire starting lineup tonight except Kuokkanen in place of TT and Necas in place of Stempniak (which is very likely an upgrade). Other than that, the rest of our starting 20 was on the ice. And the forwards sucked. Against an AHL lineup.

I don't mind that you don't like how I say things. I get it. But changing the facts because you don't like my narrative is disingenuous.

Talk about disingenous...the ONLY differences in the line-up you posted against EDM above and the line-up tonight was 3 players. Skinner, Ryan and Kruger vs. TT, Saarela and Wallmark (Mcinn and jooris are a wash). Are you really trying to say that line-up wasn't pretty much the NHL line-up and thus the goals they scored don't count? Really? The only significant difference is that Skinner was in the line-up tonight and we know, if healthy, he's going to get 30+ .

So yes, even Peters and folks said it was an NHL heavy line-up against Edmonton. The fact that you ignore the results from that game is a case of "not fitting your narrative."

 

[CandyCanes]

Yep. Normal. I fully expect Skinner, Ryan, Kruger and McGinn to be healthy scratches opening night

Lolol what? You might of gotten 25% of that right though with McGinn

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

nvm...

 

[Joe McGrath]

I get that you guys don't like my style, but you're wrong. This was the first game with almost our entire group. They did not play 2 games with their "normal set of forwards" and score 9 goals. Here was our "normal" group for the 6-2 win in Edmonton.

Teravainen-Staal-Williams
Aho-Rask-Lindholm
Saarela-Necas-Kuokkanen
Nordstrom-Wallmark-Jooris

Yep. Normal. I fully expect Skinner, Ryan, Kruger and McGinn to be healthy scratches opening night.

We had our entire starting lineup tonight except Kuokkanen in place of TT and Necas in place of Stempniak (which is very likely an upgrade). Other than that, the rest of our starting 20 was on the ice. And the forwards sucked. Against an AHL lineup.

I don't mind that you don't like how I say things. I get it. But changing the facts to fit your narrative because you don't like mine is disingenuous.

How about this, how did you think our starting NHL forwards looked tonight against a mostly AHL defense?

I didn't think they looked great. They were also missing two of the top 9. They also won. Krueger made a great play to set up Faulk's goal and Staal made a great feed in front on Hanifin's. The forward group isn't ideal. But trading a top 4 d-Man is opening a hole to fill another, which makes no sense.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Noted !

There you go!

Next step is to fill the arena with that chant.

Step after that is to win the Stanley Cup with your next coach.

Step after that is to fire that coach and then, inexplicably, hire Mo back.

 

[Surrounded By Ahos]

these Caps announcers just talking about Caps, meh

I really like Beninati, but Laughlin is like nails on a chalkboard to me.

It's kind of like Forslund and Tripp, but Tripp is endearing and headbutts cakes on live television and Laughlin just makes me want to claw my ears out. I swear he never calls players by their names, just nicknames. It's always 'Ovie this' and 'Mojo that' or 'nice save by Gruby!'

I don't know why it bothers me as much as it does.



As far as the game, I'll echo what I've seen other people say. Hanifin seems like he's on another level compared to last year, Faulk is just so absurdly good at getting the puck on net, Skinner amazes me with his skating every time I see him, and Necas is gonna be really good next year after a season of seasoning in Charlotte or Brno.

 

[DaveG]

So, thoughts from the game:

Darling got more comfortable as it went along. Though I get the feeling cross-ice 5 hole will be the new glove high.

Hanifin... I'm tellin ya man, he has it, this could be his breakout year. Anyone that thought a "meh" level 1C with 2 years left on their contract could get him last year was nuts, now they'd be absolutely insane. A TON of people are going to be in for a rude awakening about the kid.

It's nice to have a 3rd pairing that's not a dumpster fire.

It's even nicer to have enough forward depth to the point that we'll have a full line in Charlotte that would be in the show for us most years... And frankly could be in the show for quite a few teams in the league in Kuokkanen, PDG, and Wallmark.

Call me crazy but I think the Caps may be in trouble this year. Their lack of depth showed in both pre-season games in a big way and their defense is meh at best. OV, Backstrom, and Holtby might keep them in the playoff hunt, but I also wouldn't be shocked to see a Dallas style crash and burn either.

Someone really needs Red Rocket for a screen name

Uhhhhh.... no.


edit: I didn't even see Kev's post before posting my thoughts. Just have to say while I can see where he's coming from, I disagree. Only thing about our forwards that's concerned me so far is that Stempy got zero game time and Skinner wasn't super productive, and we all know what Skinner is capable of when he's on and that's he's streaky so I can easily write that one off. Unless someone would jump at Fleury for Duchene type deal, I don't think a move on D is necessary at all. We'll win by depth ala Nashville last season.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Only way around our D problem is to play with 3 D instead of two. Slavin is top line D center, Peesh and Hanifin are D wings.

Revolutionize the game yo.

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

Laughlin's is a cacaphony of drunk college kids singing Whitney Houston, but he, along with Tripp, is very quick to praise to the other team, and so I give him a pass. Unlike some other CC's who go into damage control mode without mentioning the other team.

 

[Lempo]

There you go!

Next step is to fill the arena with that chant.

Step after that is to win the Stanley Cup with your next coach.

Step after that is to fire that coach and then, inexplicably, hire Mo back.

It's the Jets arena, it chants already. Some bumhurt Leafs fans still complain about the "Laine's better!" from a year back.

Coach&cup it is then.

Also, butter is not off-limits, but 'hurting is right out.

 

[Surrounded By Ahos]

Man, I remember jets fans chanting 'Jordan's better' at eric their first season, and being super disappointed that they didn't do it again the next season when Eric and Jordan were on the same the same team. That would have been some next level trolling.

 

[AD Skinner]

I only saw the highlights so maybe I'm way off base, but I kind of think the offense running through the Dmen is the idea. We know Skinner and Aho can get hot and make magic happen almost by themselves, Williams has never had an unproductive season... I am optimistic.

 

[the halleJOKEL]

The guys guaranteed to start also aren't going to kill themselves to make plays in the preseason. Nothing to prove in pointless games.