Series Talk: Qualifying Round: Carolina Hurricanes vs. New York Rangers

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Regardless of where they choose to play the games, it will be a metro area. It’s not like they’re going to build an arena in Arkansas. NY’s infrastructure would probably be taxed bringing in 12 teams with 50 personnel each, refs, league officials, etc. There’s nothing wrong with not having NY as one of the hub cities.

My point was just, Arkansas is starting to peak now. All places that haven’t been hit hard face a risk of doing it at any time in the future.

Of course it must not be played in NYC, but NYC probably is the best place to be from a health perspective.
 
This qualifying round to get into the tourney business reminds me of:

Bloodsport_%28movie_poster%29.jpg
 
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Yeah I forgot about Tarmo. I think he has more natural talent than any of the other guys on the list. It will be interesting to see if they would go with someone like Reunanen who has upside but a lack of familiarity rather than someone like Raddysh who is solid across the board and has lots of NA professional experience. I could see a case for either. They could also take both.

Raddysh is a right handed D (really the only one available) and very arguably Hartford's best defenseman in 19-20 so he'll be on the taxi squad.
 
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As far as the goalie part. I think we're winning or dying with Igor. He's our best now and you go with your best in a playoff situation.

Igor is definitely the presumptive starter for the play-in series. Lundqvist or Georgiev would have to substantially outplay him in minicamp for that to change.
 
Raddysh is a right handed D (really the only one available) and very arguably Hartford's best defenseman in 19-20 so he'll be on the taxi squad.
He definitely should be. Even when Keane was doing his thing I said Raddysh was the best all-around defenseman on that team. Before the COVID stuff I was really hoping he'd get at least a cup of coffee, or more if we fell out of contention.
 
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Igor is definitely the presumptive starter for the play-in series. Lundqvist or Georgiev would have to substantially outplay him in minicamp for that to change.

I think they go with Shesterkin and he has a short leash. Lundqvist is just too good against Carolina not to consider him [even this year he dominated them]. It would be detrimental to the team to not even consider him in this situation.

I think if Shesterkin goes in and plays well / wins you start him again. If he gets bombed / plays poorly, you need to immediately go to Lundqvist because the series is too short to waste time.
 
Hurricanes are way too good to be playing in a play-in round, apparently.
The whining is ridiculous from their end. Brind'Amour talking about the regular season being meaningless - what did they grind for!? Uh, it's not meaningless Mr. Bod, it is being used to determine where you fall in the seeding of the reinvented playoff structure.

Not to mention with 12 games left to play the Canes are a whopping 2 points ahead of the Rangers. And the Rangers have the edge in Regulation Wins (31 to 27) and in ROWs (36-33). So seems like the Canes are propped up by extra shootout wins. Of all the teams to be complaining, Carolina doesn't have much of a leg to stand on.
 
Is the play-in round going to be 2-2-1 in terms of "home ice" advantage?
 
A caution...

During the 1993-94 regular season, the Rangers swept the Devils 6-0 and outscored New Jersey 24-9.

The moral of this story; don't assume the playoffs will just be an extension of the regular season

I have to think that most will look at us as more the underdogs than Carolina though. The Hurricanes have had the more recent success and there are plenty of current Rangers with little or no playoff experience.

That said I think the Hurricanes goaltending is their Achille's heel. One of Mrazek or Reimer is going to have to really hold down the fort or the Rangers attack is going to give them fits. They have a very good defensive group but Panarin and Zibanejad are going to get their chances against pretty much any team. They'll need to stay out of the penalty box. I think our chances are pretty good just because of their goaltending. I'd guess at least a dozen Eastern Conference teams have better goaltending than they do.
 
Mrazek has been bad this season. Reimer a bit better. But I'm not sure I feel confident in goaltending being a massive advantage for us because this is so unknown with the layoff. Goalies are creatures of habit. In a normal setting we would have a huge advantage there, especially in a short series. But it's hard to know how this will play out for goalie's readiness.
 
Rod Brind’Amour: “What did we grind for? The bulk of the season was completed, and they just threw that out, and I think that's how we felt.”
Well, if they're so good and playing the Rangers is so beneath them, this should be a cakewalk. A nice tuneup for the 'Canes ahead of the real playoffs.
 
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Does it matter since they're playing at neutral sites with no fans? Other than last change.

Last change, who puts their stick down first on face-offs, and who submits their lineup card first.
 
Mrazek has been bad this season. Reimer a bit better. But I'm not sure I feel confident in goaltending being a massive advantage for us because this is so unknown with the layoff. Goalies are creatures of habit. In a normal setting we would have a huge advantage there, especially in a short series. But it's hard to know how this will play out for goalie's readiness.
Their goaltending is definitely a weakness but I’m not all that impressed with their defense either. I’ve always felt Slavin is overrated, Hamilton is more of an offensive defenseman and Skeji is a turnstile. Not bad, but not great. I do like their depth up front and their ability to maintain a forecheck. The Rangers defense will need to defense against the forecheck and get pucks out of their quickly.
 
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Last change, who puts their stick down first on face-offs, and who submits their lineup card first.
It's just neutral zone faceoffs, right? Attacking team gets the advantage on in-zone faceoffs now.

I can't imagine any reason it wouldn't be 2-2-1.
 

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