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Post-Game Talk: Mika May

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Machinehead said:
We present a major problem to the way Carolina likes to kill penalties.

They're extremely aggressive and collapse on puck carrier. They basically play 4v4, leave the guy in front of the net by himself, and just take the chance that you won't find him.

It usually works for them but here's what's different: the guy they're leaving alone is Chris Kreider. He's the best powerplay big man in the NHL and extremely skilled for a guy who plays that role. He also wins a f***ing ton of puck battles like he did on Trocheck's goal.

If you leave him alone, he's going to find Zibanejad and Trocheck with passes. If we kind of half get it towards him, he's going to possess it.
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I agree, but throughout our season we've struggled when facing higher pressure PKs. He's been great so far, but Mika especially struggled when facing pressure with the puck on the PK throughout the season. If they force the puck to him under pressure on the perimeter (easier said than done) we might have more difficulties.
 
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romba said:
I agree, but throughout our season we've struggled when facing higher pressure PKs. He's been great so far, but Mika especially struggled when facing pressure with the puck on the PK throughout the season. If they force the puck to him under pressure on the perimeter (easier said than done) we might have more difficulties.
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Mika just goes through cycles of being Gretzky and then being Glass.

If he's going to be Gretzky now, he's doing it at the right time.
 
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duhmetreE said:
Fox showed some rust. He should be better
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The Canes' third goal never happens if he didn't have a brain fart and iced the puck. And, it had nothing to do with his knee or anything. It was just a mental error. He had teammates moving up ice and he just launched the puck to the Canes' end.
 
romba said:
I agree, but throughout our season we've struggled when facing higher pressure PKs. He's been great so far, but Mika especially struggled when facing pressure with the puck on the PK throughout the season. If they force the puck to him under pressure on the perimeter (easier said than done) we might have more difficulties.
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Only if they can't really get set up and to that end its more about not allowing the Rangers to get started rather than high pressure. I find that they have less success against teams that force them to move around and open up space/rely on shooting the puck through them and rely on Kreider tips/screens. They're more likely to pass themselves to death and/or take low percentage shots when thats what they're confronted with.

Carolina's elite PK struggling in the post season isn't new, it happens to Carolina every year in the playoffs. Rangers killed them on the PP from game 3 onwards in 2022 and every team that has eliminated them over the last half decade operated at 25% or above (Including Tampa and Boston who had series where they operated at nearly 50%!)

Nothing has changed on that end for them. They still kill penalties the same as they always have, find great success with it in the regular season and then the playoffs roll around and they face a team that can really whip it around and get lit up. Hell even the Isles had success against them despite limited opportunities.
 
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Machinehead said:
We present a major problem to the way Carolina likes to kill penalties.

They're extremely aggressive and collapse on puck carrier. They basically play 4v4, leave the guy in front of the net by himself, and just take the chance that you won't find him.

It usually works for them but here's what's different: the guy they're leaving alone is Chris Kreider. He's the best powerplay big man in the NHL and extremely skilled for a guy who plays that role. He also wins a f***ing ton of puck battles like he did on Trocheck's goal.

If you leave him alone, he's going to find Zibanejad and Trocheck with passes. If we kind of half get it towards him, he's going to possess it.
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We’ll see, i think the second PP goal was more of what CAR wants to happen which is blitz Fox/Panarin and force Kreider to come way out wide to support them where he’s just not great at doing anything

They’re daring NYR to execute a 3 on 2 down low which they will do successfully if it’s Trocheck or Mika making the initial read/pass but it stalls out most of the time when it’s Kreider
 
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romba said:
I feel like even 15 years ago, it was all about bar down and roofing the puck by the NHLs best snipers. But goalies are so big and positionally sound that above the pad below blocker/glove is now aimed for almost as much.

I remember one national broadcast game (maybe playoffs against Boston, in the one game we won that series) Nash beat the goalie through the arm pit which the broadcast indicated was lucky. In his post game interview Nash said he aimed there a number of times that game but kept missing it and finally found the mark on the goal.
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Good post.

I’m old enough to remember that only a handful of players who could go top shelf constantly. There was a minor league player named Murray Kuntz who was the first I saw do it all the time. Unfortunately, he couldn’t skate.
 
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if Rempe is gonna get called regardless of what he's actually doing, imo he should actually earn the calls.

show Carolina what a Rempe charging or Rempe roughing actually looks like. Maybe the refs will stop calling the ticky tack stuff after they see what a penalty really is.
 
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noncents said:
if Rempe is gonna get called regardless of what he's actually doing, imo he should actually earn the calls.

show Carolina what a Rempe charging or Rempe roughing actually looks like. Maybe the refs will stop calling the ticky tack stuff after they see what a penalty really is.
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Get your money's worth? Agreed. Sky flip into corner and Rempe go boom on Slavin.
 
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Machinehead said:
We present a major problem to the way Carolina likes to kill penalties.

They're extremely aggressive and collapse on puck carrier. They basically play 4v4, leave the guy in front of the net by himself, and just take the chance that you won't find him.

It usually works for them but here's what's different: the guy they're leaving alone is Chris Kreider. He's the best powerplay big man in the NHL and extremely skilled for a guy who plays that role. He also wins a f***ing ton of puck battles like he did on Trocheck's goal.

If you leave him alone, he's going to find Zibanejad and Trocheck with passes. If we kind of half get it towards him, he's going to possess it.
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Completely agree with everything you said here. Also, Kreider was a monster yesterday. I swear, it was like this team was just bored with the regular season and round one and was saving their next level for when the games actually mattered.
 
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Machinehead said:
Mika just goes through cycles of being Gretzky and then being Glass.

If he's going to be Gretzky now, he's doing it at the right time.
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I really, really do not believe that it's a coincidence that he's all of a sudden much better once the playoffs started.
will1066 said:
I'm just saying he hasn't not done anything.
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I think the real value proposition of Rempe is that he's throwing hits and hard on the forecheck over the course of a four game series. I'm sure that getting hit by him is never fun, but when you're already bruised and he comes barrelling down again, do you flinch? Playoff series are grinds. It's a lot like getting to the bullpen early in a baseball series. Compounding effects.
 
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Greg02 said:
I really, really do not believe that it's a coincidence that he's all of a sudden much better once the playoffs started.

I think the real value proposition of Rempe is that he's throwing hits and hard on the forecheck over the course of a four game series. I'm sure that getting hit by him is never fun, but when you're already bruised and he comes barrelling down again, do you flinch? Playoff series are grinds. It's a lot like getting to the bullpen early in a baseball series. Compounding effects.
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Some of his penalties were warranted. A couple were just reputation calls and unfair. Between penalties and between sitting long periods of time, he's been generally effective. You're right; his job is to wear the opponent down and make them relinquish the puck a little bit faster as the series goes on.
 
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NickyFotiu said:
Did it say he was playing? All I saw was he was skating in a non contact jersey. Never hurts to have some guys ready to go if needed.
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He didn't say he's playing; It was more me asking everybody here how this guy is going to get in the lineup. To me, he's behind Roslovic, Chytil, Rempe and Brodzinski.
 
Gardner McKay said:
Completely agree with everything you said here. Also, Kreider was a monster yesterday. I swear, it was like this team was just bored with the regular season and round one and was saving their next level for when the games actually mattered.
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I honestly believe some of the players were pacing themselves and saving up juice for when it really matters. Look at Mika, he started picking up his pace last 5-6 games of the regular season.
 
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