GDT: Game 3: Hurricanes @ Islanders, 7pm

[Anton Dubinchuk]

I think grit is a problem but not for purposes of winning hockey games.

I think it’s a problem because if we keep losing player after player (unscathed from Game 3 as far as we know but between Skjei, Necas, etc., could’ve been worse), we eventually will peter out.

I think if anything maybe it makes us better in the micro (opponents taking that extra 2 seconds to finish the check taking themselves out of position, we take advantage, etc.), but in the macro, if we don’t have any good players left we are limited in how far we can go.

It’s a tough issue because it plays into the very identity of the team, and it’s an identity that’s made us very successful. It’d be great if we could just strengthen all the tendons and bones of all of our players and keep doing what we’re doing. But unfortunately it’s gonna catch up to us, especially playing a team like the Islanders that at times seems more interested in taking a chunk out of us and preventing us from winning a Cup in later rounds than actually winning the series themselves (like a Voltorb using self-destruct).

 

[Joe McGrath]

I don't think #grit is the problem. I think not scoring an ES goal in 2 out of 3 games is the problem. Makes sense, the Canes forwards are an above average but not great offense at best bunch, and they're down Svechnikov and Teravainen- and we can add Patches in there too, since he was brought in specifically to amend this problem.

I hate to be a pessimist, but even if the Canes get past the Islanders it's hard to see something other than them getting bulldozed by the Rags. The Canes don't have the scoring, and they don't have the goaltending to win a defensive duel.

Not scoring at even strength can be a #grit issue, Especially in the playoffs if you are t willing to get to the front of the net. If you play a style that is entirely predicated on retrieving pucks, shoot from all angles, and getting tips and rebounds you need players who are a built for that

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Why would it be worse for a more physical 4th liner than Stasny and Stepan who are slow as molasses?

Oh in hindsight Sturm was the better sign than Stas although a risky signing. I don’t think anyone saw Stas’ scoring fall off the proverbial cliff. He was supposed to be a lot more than a 4C to this team.

Stephan is C / FO depth as the 13th forward. More value in that than having a big bodied hitter sit in the press box most nights

 

[Joe McGrath]

Oh in hindsight Sturm was the better sign than Stas although a risky signing. I don’t think anyone saw Stas’ scoring fall off the proverbial cliff. He was supposed to be a lot more than a 4C to this team.

Stephan is C / FO depth as the 13th forward. More value in that than having a big bodied hitter sit in the press box most nights

I’m not advocating signing 3 Matt Martins, I’m saying they need to have a 4th line of young guys ready to make an impact with maybe one grinder veteran (possibly just Martinook).

Martinook-Drury-Rees seems a lot more difficult to play against than Stepan/Stasny/etc.

 

[moses malone 12]

I don't think #grit is the problem. I think not scoring an ES goal in 2 out of 3 games is the problem. Makes sense, the Canes forwards are an above average but not great offense at best bunch, and they're down Svechnikov and Teravainen- and we can add Patches in there too, since he was brought in specifically to amend this problem.

I hate to be a pessimist, but even if the Canes get past the Islanders it's hard to see something other than them getting bulldozed by the Rags. The Canes don't have the scoring, and they don't have the goaltending to win a defensive duel.

yup. the Isles have revealed the blueprint on how to beat us. they are winning puck battles and creating chances on their dump ins. this pressure, and the hitting, have disrupted our puck possession and zone exits. This is the value of pressure and hitting. It causes players to react differently. Opponents also know our PP is garbage so they don't mind playing aggressively and perhaps over the line but hey tough guys and hitting don't win playoff games.

BTW, get Jarvis off the first line and 1st PP unit. He's a complete non factor right now.

 

[chaz4hockey]

I think grit is a problem but not for purposes of winning hockey games.

I think it’s a problem because if we keep losing player after player (unscathed from Game 3 as far as we know but between Skjei, Necas, etc., could’ve been worse), we eventually will peter out.

I think if anything maybe it makes us better in the micro (opponents taking that extra 2 seconds to finish the check taking themselves out of position, we take advantage, etc.), but in the macro, if we don’t have any good players left we are limited in how far we can go.

It’s a tough issue because it plays into the very identity of the team, and it’s an identity that’s made us very successful. It’d be great if we could just strengthen all the tendons and bones of all of our players and keep doing what we’re doing. But unfortunately it’s gonna catch up to us, especially playing a team like the Islanders that at times seems more interested in taking a chunk out of us and preventing us from winning a Cup in later rounds than actually winning the series themselves (like a Voltorb using self-destruct).

Agree with your post.

There is a reason why Bolts, Leafs, Rangers, Boston & even the skilled Avs from last year added toughness and grit to their roster over last few years. SC contenders this year, Minny, Dallas also have big/rougher teams.

Unfortunately, you need that to win playoff hockey games when intensity ramps up, rough play is significantly elevated & often tolerated by the refs, etc. and the tough guys will help protect the skill guys ie Necas, Aho, Jarvis, TT.

I don't know if it's the Waddell, Borg or Rod that's not in alignment on what's needed but this roster will never win a SC as presently constituted.

btw: Devils are the up and coming team but in addition to better goal tending they will need some toughness too.

btw2: LOTS of Game 5 tickets available this morning......

 

[Rick Davis]

After watching this team in the playoffs the last several years it’s hard to reach any conclusion other than this is a “regular season” team and not one built for the playoffs. I wonder if this is by design? I know Dundon in public professes to be all in on winning the SC but perhaps privately realizes that Raleigh may not be a desirable destination for difference making free agents like Tkachuk or Tarasenko so he’s cool with stocking the team with grinders like Stastny and Stepan who at least contribute to winning and entertaining regular season success. Most home games are sellouts, the team is profitable and billionaire businessman Tom and company are all smiles!

 

[Sigurd]

yup. the Isles have revealed the blueprint on how to beat us. they are winning puck battles and creating chances on their dump ins. this pressure, and the hitting, have disrupted our puck possession and zone exits. This is the value of pressure and hitting. It causes players to react differently. Opponents also know our PP is garbage so they don't mind playing aggressively and perhaps over the line but hey tough guys and hitting don't win playoff games.

BTW, get Jarvis off the first line and 1st PP unit. He's a complete non factor right now.

More and more after Jarvis really fell off a cliff point wise after the outdoor game and largely hasn't done much offensively since, I think we should've traded him for Meier (FWIW, I was in the keep Jarvis camp during the trade deadline; also because the Sharks seemed so greedy). Going for a known, high quality commodity that we needed (a highly offensive, physically bigger, 30+ goal scoring top 6 forward who also makes a lot of hits with Meier) versus a still developing kid in his 2nd year with a sophomore slump, it looks like that would've been the right decision to me. By the deadline, we already had plenty of games from TT not doing much point wise in our top 6. Having him and Jarvis underperform as top 6 forwards in the same season heading into the playoffs with or without injuries? Brutal.

Our window won't last forever; despite Dundon not believing in the window concept. Might as well go for the Meiers, Matt Tkachuks, or now after those aforementioned players were traded, the Kyle Connors, Kellers, Elias Pettersons (obviously the elite forward not the other one), etc. of the world that you know WILL help you now versus an unknown.

I'm sure some people will want to react to this post with, "well, we didn't know that Jarvis would struggle this much," or, "it's easy to say that with hindsight", or finally (and my favorite), "having only Meier added to our roster wouldn't do much/be enough with all of our injuries." For all we know, Svech wouldn't have been on the ice and hurt himself when he did if we had Meier. Butterfly effect. Not to mention we'd have Meier at least for next season since his QO wouldn't be an issue for our cap; that's assuming we didn't re-sign him for a cheaper amount than his QO.

Anyway, all the roster management stuff aside, I really hope we win game 4. I assumed we were gonna lose game 3, but Carolina needs to go up 3-1 and have the Islanders on the ropes. Not only to get the monkey off their backs with winning a road game since they didn't win any last year as we've been reminded several times in the media, but also to have a shorter series so they can rest more after getting banged up.

Game 4 is a must win for Carolina IMO for those reasons and more.

 

[Lempo]

After watching this team in the playoffs the last several years it’s hard to reach any conclusion other than this is a “regular season” team and not one built for the playoffs. I wonder if this is by design? I know Dundon in public professes to be all in on winning the SC but perhaps privately realizes that Raleigh may not be a desirable destination for difference making free agents like Tkachuk or Tarasenko so he’s cool with stocking the team with grinders like Stastny and Stepan who at least contribute to winning and entertaining regular season success. Most home games are sellouts, the team is profitable and billionaire businessman Tom and company are all smiles!

I don't know, owning a sports team doesn't exactly sound like a particularly profitable business. I know at least in Formula One it is said that the only way to come up with a small fortune by running a team is to start with a big one.

 

[Sigurd]

Oh yeah, and there were more entertaining comments from Islander fans in the game day thread for last night's game on the main board.

In addition to Long Island's geography being an issue for several of them in relation to a Hurricane making landfall (per the Canes Tweet of that image), MikeyMike01 comes to mind because despite living in North Carolina, he's now moved his repeated bashing of the state (and calling it hell) to... *gasps* our food by saying NC's barbecue is awful!

It finally occurred to me that he's like one of the celebrities you hear about during election time crying about how awful this country is, and that they want to leave the country for good, but never do.

Maybe we should show that southern hospitality and start a GoFundMe for these northern transplants that hate NC so much, and want out of the state but never leave. Give them tickets for the first flight out of RDU. The traffic congestion will decrease a little bit, and maybe housing prices too.

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

just got tickets to the game tomorrow, hopefully I'll be good luck and can bring us our first road playoff win in decades.

 

[Big Daddy Cane]

I don't understand what's going on with Isles fans, on this site at least. The hostility is very odd. The two teams are not rivals. The Isles have not been victimized by dirty play. There's been no public trash talking either.

 

[Joe McGrath]

I don't understand what's going on with Isles fans, on this site at least. The hostility is very odd. The two teams are not rivals. The Isles have not been victimized by dirty play. There's been no public trash talking either.

The majority are Islanders, Jets, and Mets fans. I would be a miserable piece of shit too.

 

[StorminSnvechnAho]

Team grit must've lost a lot in training camp because we have no one on it.

The guys are literally refusing to hit. If you don't have a McDavid or Kucherov you need to show a lot more sandpaper than the Canes have this series.

In an ideal world where the NHL protects its players or as a team with an elite pp I'd be happy with Rods play between the whistles. This is not that world and our pp is not that pp which means you need to get tough....that's just being pragmatic.

As a team this small we generate no offense off the rush. Watching other teams I'm surprised how different that is from us. I think there is a disconnect between the borg and Rod where if you want to play a cycle and forecheck game that can't score on the pp the personnel are just wrong. Need bigger guys to play that game and not get kept to the perimeter.

Rod won't change his philosophy so the team needs less Seth Jarvis and more Tom Wilson.

The team averaged 16 hits a game during the regular season... We Have 39 Hits game 1 30 game 2 and 29 in game three...

Averaging 32.6 hits per game in the playoffs which is double our season average.

 

[StorminSnvechnAho]

yup. the Isles have revealed the blueprint on how to beat us. they are winning puck battles and creating chances on their dump ins. this pressure, and the hitting, have disrupted our puck possession and zone exits. This is the value of pressure and hitting. It causes players to react differently. Opponents also know our PP is garbage so they don't mind playing aggressively and perhaps over the line but hey tough guys and hitting don't win playoff games.

BTW, get Jarvis off the first line and 1st PP unit. He's a complete non factor right now.

It's not exactly a blueprint this team is missing half of its top 6.... That was an unfortunate goal allowed at the end of the power play followed by team that has issues scoring going to panic mode.... The game was over after they went up 2-1 none of the rest mattered.

 

[Cardiac Jerks]

I don't understand what's going on with Isles fans, on this site at least. The hostility is very odd. The two teams are not rivals. The Isles have not been victimized by dirty play. There's been no public trash talking either.

I visited the main board gdt for game one and there were a couple of isles fans just being really gross. My only thought was “this isn’t somewhere I need to be” and I haven’t visited any of those threads since

 

[Blueline Bomber]

The game was nothing new. We still can't produce on the PP and our top 6 still can't generate anything at even-strength. Until one of those two factors change (and it'd take a drastic flip of the switch for either to do so), we're going to struggle, especially on the road.

I'm just annoyed they wasted a very good performance from Raanta.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

I don't understand what's going on with Isles fans, on this site at least. The hostility is very odd. The two teams are not rivals. The Isles have not been victimized by dirty play. There's been no public trash talking either.

Just unpleasant people. Might not be representative of Isles fans might just be the few folks that happen to be on HFBoards.

 

[chaz4hockey]

As Rod stated in post game: need more from key players:

 

[LostInaLostWorld]

I don't know, owning a sports team doesn't exactly sound like a particularly profitable business. I know at least in Formula One it is said that the only way to come up with a small fortune by running a team is to start with a big one.

The payoff is when you sell. The talk now of new franchise fees being $1B. TD paid 500M. In the meantime there are all kinds of perks plus any tax losses he can write off.

 

[Sigurd]

The game was nothing new. We still can't produce on the PP and our top 6 still can't generate anything at even-strength. Until one of those two factors change (and it'd take a drastic flip of the switch for either to do so), we're going to struggle, especially on the road.

I'm just annoyed they wasted a very good performance from Raanta.

Indeed.

They could only rely on Rantaa carrying the team for so long. If they had actually scored a goal, it would've been a very different game; probably a win if they scored before the Islander's PP goal late in the 3rd.

I just hope Rantaa isn't rattled after the guys in front of him let him down tremendously. He can't blame himself much for game 3.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Indeed.

They could only rely on Rantaa carrying the team for so long. If they had actually scored a goal, it would've been a very different game; probably a win if they scored before the Islander's PP goal late in the 3rd.

I just hope Rantaa isn't rattled after the guys in front of him let him down tremendously. He can't blame himself much for game 3.

The thing is, we’ll probably go with Freddie on Sunday. Not that it was Raanta‘s fault, but a change will probably be made, if only to give Raanta a rest. And if Freddie doesn’t hold up, we can always go back to Raanta in Game 5.

 

[Joe McGrath]

Indeed.

They could only rely on Rantaa carrying the team for so long. If they had actually scored a goal, it would've been a very different game; probably a win if they scored before the Islander's PP goal late in the 3rd.

I just hope Rantaa isn't rattled after the guys in front of him let him down tremendously. He can't blame himself much for game 3.

I’m not worried about Raanta mentally. Physically you can only ask so much from him and it’s why I wanted someone else to start yesterday. If you lose you come back with a fresh Raanta. Now they have a tired starter and are on the brink of pissing away the series lead.

 

[CanesUltimate11]

I’m not worried about Raanta mentally. Physically you can only ask so much from him and it’s why I wanted someone else to start yesterday. If you lose you come back with a fresh Raanta. Now they have a tired starter and are on the brink of pissing away the series lead.

Even if they go back 2-2 they're still in the drivers seat for a best of 3. So I think you start one of the other two Sunday on the "short" turn around and if they win and look good stick with them. If they lose and look good you've got options and if they lose and look like shit you go back to a rested Raanta.

 

[chaz4hockey]

I don't understand what's going on with Isles fans, on this site at least. The hostility is very odd. The two teams are not rivals. The Isles have not been victimized by dirty play. There's been no public trash talking either.

They're just pissed that their friends and family have moved to Brunswick County, Wake County and Charlotte counties and left them behind.

The payoff is when you sell. The talk now of new franchise fees being $1B. TD paid 500M. In the meantime there are all kinds of perks plus any tax losses he can write off.

yes plus often cash flow is positive despite showing P&L losses. But with gambling around the corner and valuations skyrocketing still a good time to buy a franchise.