GDT: RAGNARÖKR CLAN SKOGVAKTARE @ CLAN STORMNING AKA GAME 7 NEW YORK RANGERS @ CAROLINA HURRICANES

[Stickpucker]

it has occurred to me today that this year is quite literally the first time in carolina hurricanes history that they have been "upset" in the playoffs.

caveats:
- yeah, we haven't been the favorite all that often.
- also yeah, we were the higher seed than tampa last year, but they were just treading water until kucherov returned. i don't think we were actually "favored"

still, this is something that good teams have to deal with. we've never really been consistently good to the point that we have had many chances to be disappointed, like tampa vs columbus (or any wild card chaos squad victims), or the caps nearly every year. good teams get upset in the playoffs every year.

hell, you could argue the canes are only the fourth most "disappointing" team just this year: toronto also lost a gave seven on home ice and they're toronto, florida was THE team until they learned what a real playoff team looks like, and calgary was sure they were going to unseat the avs out west...

yep, i'm in the copium den

brother it's puff puff pass....not puff puff puff. Share some of dat copium wit da rest of us.

The scapegoating has begun.


This ain’t on TDA. One of the few guys with backbone on the team and his “antics” affected nothing other than showing he’s about the only one with passion which probably was a sad realization for him.

 

[raynman]

so exit interviews are today/tomorrow, right? will be curious to see which injuries the team was playing through. a couple guys seemed like they were nursing something... or at least playing like they were nursing something

First round of interviews starts soon

 

[Stickpucker]

I'm talking about who I'll root for. Show me some emotion.

Aho is a better player no doubt.

Man the anti TDA crowd is harsh. If he had one this series with a game 7 goal, nobody cares about his antics just like noboody gets mad discussing Scotty Walker suckered punching Aaron Ward because he was the series hero.


TDA is a player. He's fun to watch and he's a huge part of this team. You should get used to him being here ..

We are a team with no heroes.

Man who wouldn't give their left nut for a Scotty Walker special on Trouba eh?

TDA is a mouthy, hot headed, less smart version of JML. He reminds me of Cam Newton, all the God given talent in the world but dumb as a sack of hammers. Because he made it all the way through lower leagues and dominated on that natural talent, either no one ever taught him or he's incapable of using the muscle between his ears. It's why he gets caught chasing the puck so much.

Everybody likes to talk about Slavins highlight reel defensive plays, his ability to break up the two on one and stuff like that. But he wouldn't have to be making those types of plays every game if his partner wasn't caught deep in the zone every third or fourth shift. TDA would make a great bottom pair PP specialist on a true contender, or a decent second pair option with a stud defensive partner. And as much as I dislike the guy, he's not the reason we lost this series, he didn't help but ultimately he's not the core reason. I put a lot of that blame with the coaching staff. There are lots of things I think should have been done differently, Stepan should have drawn in, Bear should have at least gotten a game or two on the road if nothing else but to rest Smith or Cole, Pyotr should have gotten at least one away start.

Slavin spent the last 3 years covering up for Douglas the artist formerly known as Dougie....and no one complained...just said they were a good compliment.

 

[CanesUltimate11]

That and our penalty kill was uncharacteristically and genuinely poo poo tier against the Rangers. No team can last long if they suck on both special teams. Full stop. I said before on the main board, and I'll say it again, I was more concerned with our penalty kill being bad against the Rangers. I think over the years as fans, we've become kind of numb to bad power plays, but we've had a long history of having a good PK. Some people will say, "the Rangers are so good on the power play that's why." However, I don't think that fully explains it. I hope it was just a fluke, but it will be interesting moving forward, and especially if we make the playoffs next season, to see how the PK will be.

4 years of crap PK (eventually) in the playoffs. I don't think it can be a fluke anymore. Maybe the other teams are out scheming and we're not adjusting (likely) or maybe they're just getting tired being such an aggressive kill but something needs to be figured out before next years playoffs.

 

[Svechhammer]

4 years of crap PK (eventually) in the playoffs. I don't think it can be a fluke anymore. Maybe the other teams are out scheming and we're not adjusting (likely) or maybe they're just getting tired being such an aggressive kill but something needs to be figured out before next years playoffs.

You said it before I could.

When we've gone out in the playoffs, the PK is the reason. When we've been humiliated on the road (and this happens way more than we'd like to admit in the playoffs) its because the PK wasn't good enough.

And for a team that takes as many awful penalties as we do, having a PK that completely falls apart annually in the playoffs is a death sentence.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

It really does come down to not adjusting. You play a team 5/6/7 games in a row, and your PK is a big reason why you've got the wins that you do have, it's something the opposing team is going to focus on in their videos.

I mean, every single player on both teams knew the special teams were the deciding factor in the series, even as the series was going on. And ultimately, the Rangers found a way to succeed on their PP before Carolina could figure out how to...do literally anything productive on theirs.

And that's an organizational failure. The coach gets some blame for not adjusting, but ultimately it comes down to the players putting the puck in the net. RBA could make all the adjustments in the world, but if the end result is still a goose egg in the PPG column, it falls on the players as well.

 

[DaveG]

Even JR realized years ago that you can't let your team get pushed around.

I'm personally more annoyed at the boys lack of spine and pushback than I am execution. Execution can come and go but show some heart!!

This team should've been in on Evander Kane. Exactly what they needed....shoot first power forward with warts that make em' come cheap.



2 words:

Philly

flu.

We were. He chose to go to Edmonton to rebuild his value playing with McDrai. Probably the best decision he's made in his entire career.

 

[Ole Gil]

A lot of the goals the Canes gave up on the Penalty Kill weren't exactly unstoppable. Raanta stole a game against Boston. Then didn't hurt the team for a while. Then started giving up softies. He played like a good backup should. But it felt like it was a matter of time.

But you look at some of those goals, especially the last 5 games of the NYR series, I think Anderson could stop a lot of them. It's easy to forget that starting goaltending was a strength this year, and Anderson was in the Vezina chase before the injury. And not as a product of the defense/system, he was turning in a lot of dominant game stealing performances.

 

[Svechhammer]

A lot of the goals the Canes gave up on the Penalty Kill weren't exactly unstoppable. Raanta stole a game against Boston. Then didn't hurt the team for a while. Then started giving up softies. He played like a good backup should. But it felt like it was a matter of time.

But you look at some of those goals, especially the last 5 games of the NYR series, I think Anderson could stop a lot of them. It's easy to forget that starting goaltending was a strength this year, and Anderson was in the Vezina chase before the injury. And not as a product of the defense/system, he was turning in a lot of dominant game stealing performances.

Lets also not forget that Freddie's last game was a 7 goals against shitbomb against Colorado, so its definitely not a sure thing that he would have stopped those.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Think about it this way: You'd be feeling a lot worse this morning if that had been a 3OT game ended by a soft goal that actually should have been called offside but was ruled legal upon review because of a loophole.

 

[DaveG]

Think about it this way: You'd be feeling a lot worse this morning if that had been a 3OT game ended by a soft goal that actually should have been called offside but was ruled legal upon review because of a loophole.

I'm not sure I would. Though my anger would be far more directed to the league than it would be the team as it is right now.

 

[Svechhammer]

Think about it this way: You'd be feeling a lot worse this morning if that had been a 3OT game ended by a soft goal that actually should have been called offside but was ruled legal upon review because of a loophole.

I'd have at least been satisfied they went out fighting. The fact we went into the fetal position in Game 7 after doing the same in basically every road game of the playoffs is going to linger for a while. Endings like this year lead you to questioning leadership and heart inside the locker room, and that's not a good last impression before the summer.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Y’all stop lying. If that game had been a close heartbreaker, we’d still be drinking straight gin in bed with the lights off.

 

[LakeLivin]

Some of the more extreme agitation here seems to come from the fact that the Canes were heavy favorites but still lost to the Rangers. I wonder how much the Rags might have been generally underrated going into the playoffs? They're a young team, seemingly blossoming ahead of schedule, so expectations seemed pretty low for them going into this season, which can carry over. But take a look at some of their regular season stats:

110 pts, tied for 7th best in the league (Canes 116, 3rd)
44 regulation wins, tied for 4th best (Canes 47, 1st)
204 goals against, 2nd (Canes 200, 1st)
PP% 25.2, 4th (Canes 22.0, 13th)
PK% 82.3, 7th (Canes 88.0, 1st)
And if you look at team records over the last part of the season, Rags slightly out performed the Canes (over the last 2 months Rags won at a 110 pt pace, Canes at a 103 pt pace).
Throw in the fact that Canes #1 goalie was out while the Rags were icing the 2022 Vezina winning goalie.
Canes won the regular season series 3-1, but we've seen in the past how little that can mean.

Don't get me wrong, the Canes still looked better on paper, just not by as much as I might have expected given most of the pre-series predictions. It's not like the Canes lost to the 2020-21 Canadiens.

All of which leads me to a couple questions (not statements):

• how realistic were the assumptions (not just from Canes fans) that the Canes should rather easily win this series?
• let's say the Canes had similarly gone out in the 2nd round against the Panthers or Bolts instead of the Rangers. Would we be seeing the same degree of angst from some of our members as we are now?

I'm also extremely frustrated with how the season ended. But some of the reactions here seen to border on "blow it up". Adjustments definitely need to be made, but I sure hope they're carefully thought out by The Borg instead of knee-jerk reactions to a disappointing and emotional playoff series loss. Canes are positioned much better than they've been in a long, long, time; need to make sure that changes going forward actually improve the team rather than send it backwards.

 

[Stickpucker]

Honestly if the borg were more aggressive and got even another Nino type winger I think we're in the ecf.

 

[The Faulker 27]

Y’all stop lying. If that game had been a close heartbreaker, we’d still be drinking straight gin in bed with the lights off.

You're not still drinking gin in bed with the lights off?

 

[Ole Gil]

We can all keep saying XYZ happenedblah blah blah. It’s really simple. The power play was very good for 2/3rds of the year. Then it was awful. That’s why they lost. There aren’t any other underlying factors. I said this when the end of the year things weren’t going very smoothly it was because the PP dried up. Then it continued in the playoffs.

I don’t know what the solution is to that but there it is.

That one timer from the left dot everyone else uses is non existant with Svech spraying it all over the rink when he manages to even hit it. Him and Necas nose diving really murders the PP, because they're supposed to be 2 of the guys who can finish from range.

 

[The Faulker 27]

That one timer from the left dot everyone else uses is non existant with Svech spraying it all over the rink when he manages to even hit it. Him and Necas nose diving really murders the PP, because they're supposed to be 2 of the guys who can finish from range.

I saw several videos throughout the season of Svech staying on the ice after a game to work on his shot yet he seemed to get progressively worse heading into the playoffs. Maybe he was over practicing, and over thinking. Who knows if that's what happened with him, but I just found it interesting that despite all the practice he wasn't improving.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Some of the more extreme agitation here seems to come from the fact that the Canes were heavy favorites but still lost to the Rangers. I wonder how much the Rags might have been generally underrated going into the playoffs? They're a young team, seemingly blossoming ahead of schedule, so expectations seemed pretty low for them going into this season, which can carry over. But take a look at some of their regular season stats:

110 pts, tied for 7th best in the league (Canes 116, 3rd)
44 regulation wins, tied for 4th best (Canes 47, 1st)
204 goals against, 2nd (Canes 200, 1st)
PP% 25.2, 4th (Canes 22.0, 13th)
PK% 82.3, 7th (Canes 88.0, 1st)
And if you look at team records over the last part of the season, Rags slightly out performed the Canes (over the last 2 months Rags won at a 110 pt pace, Canes at a 103 pt pace).
Throw in the fact that Canes #1 goalie was out while the Rags were icing the 2022 Vezina winning goalie.
Canes won the regular season series 3-1, but we've seen in the past how little that can mean.

Don't get me wrong, the Canes still looked better on paper, just not by as much as I might have expected given most of the pre-series predictions. It's not like the Canes lost to the 2020-21 Canadiens.

All of which leads me to a couple questions (not statements):

• how realistic were the assumptions (not just from Canes fans) that the Canes should rather easily win this series?
• let's say the Canes had similarly gone out in the 2nd round against the Panthers or Bolts instead of the Rangers. Would we be seeing the same degree of angst from some of our members as we are now?

I'm also extremely frustrated with how the season ended. But some of the reactions here seen to border on "blow it up". Adjustments definitely need to be made, but I sure hope they're carefully thought out by The Borg instead of knee-jerk reactions to a disappointing and emotional playoff series loss. Canes are positioned much better than they've been in a long, long, time; need to make sure that changes going forward actually improve the team rather than send it backwards.

I said before Rangers/Pens game 7 that I would far rather Pittsburgh be the one to advance. Rangers were a really bad matchup for the Canes, and for pretty much any team. A Hart-level goalie and a nasty power play can win a playoff series for you even if the rest of the team is outmatched.

Again, we faced a 110-point team in the second ****ing round. That juggernaut Sabres team in 2006, the one that Buffalo fans moan about us having stolen their slam-dunk Stanley Cup… yeah, that was a 110-point team. The division-winning Caps team we upset in 2019 only had 104. There’s nothing ugly or un-respectable about going 7 games with a team of this caliber.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Honestly if the borg were more aggressive and got even another Nino type winger I think we're in the ecf.

Who you got in mind?

 

[tarheelhockey]

Who you got in mind?

McDavid

 

[Tawnos]

Some of the more extreme agitation here seems to come from the fact that the Canes were heavy favorites but still lost to the Rangers. I wonder how much the Rags might have been generally underrated going into the playoffs? They're a young team, seemingly blossoming ahead of schedule, so expectations seemed pretty low for them going into this season, which can carry over. But take a look at some of their regular season stats:

110 pts, tied for 7th best in the league (Canes 116, 3rd)
44 regulation wins, tied for 4th best (Canes 47, 1st)
204 goals against, 2nd (Canes 200, 1st)
PP% 25.2, 4th (Canes 22.0, 13th)
PK% 82.3, 7th (Canes 88.0, 1st)
And if you look at team records over the last part of the season, Rags slightly out performed the Canes (over the last 2 months Rags won at a 110 pt pace, Canes at a 103 pt pace).
Throw in the fact that Canes #1 goalie was out while the Rags were icing the 2022 Vezina winning goalie.
Canes won the regular season series 3-1, but we've seen in the past how little that can mean.

Don't get me wrong, the Canes still looked better on paper, just not by as much as I might have expected given most of the pre-series predictions. It's not like the Canes lost to the 2020-21 Canadiens.

All of which leads me to a couple questions (not statements):

• how realistic were the assumptions (not just from Canes fans) that the Canes should rather easily win this series?
• let's say the Canes had similarly gone out in the 2nd round against the Panthers or Bolts instead of the Rangers. Would we be seeing the same degree of angst from some of our members as we are now?

I'm also extremely frustrated with how the season ended. But some of the reactions here seen to border on "blow it up". Adjustments definitely need to be made, but I sure hope they're carefully thought out by The Borg instead of knee-jerk reactions to a disappointing and emotional playoff series loss. Canes are positioned much better than they've been in a long, long, time; need to make sure that changes going forward actually improve the team rather than send it backwards.

Rangers fan here, and forgive me for intruding. I always lurk in the post-mortem threads after teams lose to the Rangers because I'm genuinely curious to see what the fans of those teams say about the series and what happened. Rangers fans are obviously going to be biased in one direction and opponents fans in the other. I'm responding here because I want to mention something that rarely seemed to come up on the national broadcasts, and might provide some perspective that dovetails with your post here.

The Rangers were really a different team after the trade deadline. Before the trade acquisitions, and also due partially to a long-term injury to Kakko, we were playing Dryden Hunt as 2RW and your old friend Julien Gauthier as 3RW. Those guys were staples in our lineup pretty much all season long, and neither is much better than a 13F. Neither saw the ice against your team. I'm not saying that they didn't mention the fact of Copp, Vatrano, and Motte being deadline additions, but they never really discussed the degree to which it transformed the team. A large, large part of that transformation is how much more responsible the forward group became in the defensive zone. (Don't ask me what happened to our defensive structure in the Pittsburgh series. Most of us are still mystified by it.) Those guys came in and fit seamlessly, which is something I've rarely seen with deadline guys, and they improved the team markedly.

The series was more even than most expected, even by me, but a lot of that expectation was built on what was fundamentally a different Rangers team for 3/4 of the season.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Rangers fan here, and forgive me for intruding. I always lurk in the post-mortem threads after teams lose to the Rangers because I'm genuinely curious to see what the fans of those teams say about the series and what happened. Rangers fans are obviously going to be biased in one direction and opponents fans in the other. I'm responding here because I want to mention something that rarely seemed to come up on the national broadcasts, and might provide some perspective that dovetails with your post here.

The Rangers were really a different team after the trade deadline. Before the trade acquisitions, and also due partially to a long-term injury to Kakko, we were playing Dryden Hunt as 2RW and your old friend Julien Gauthier as 3RW. Those guys were staples in our lineup pretty much all season long, and neither is much better than a 13F. Neither saw the ice against your team. I'm not saying that they didn't mention the fact of Copp, Vatrano, and Motte being deadline additions, but they never really discussed the degree to which it transformed the team. A large, large part of that transformation is how much more responsible the forward group became in the defensive zone. Those guys came in and fit seamlessly, which is something I've rarely seen with deadline guys, and they improved the team markedly.

The series was more even than most expected, even by me, but a lot of that expectation was built on what was fundamentally a different Rangers team for 3/4 of the season.

Welcome in and thanks for this post. A really interesting point, considering the Canes' approach to the deadline this year seemed to be "this isn't the peak of our window, let's let everyone else go all in at the same time, pick at the remains of the market, and see what happens." Obviously hindsight being what it is the Canes would've liked a little extra firepower, but we didn't sell the farm to go all in the way Tampa and Florida did (I was going to put you guys into that mix as well, but looking at what you gave up for those 3 guys you did really well value-wise). Looking forward, the Canes core is another year more mature and theoretically on the upswing, and we didn't go all in during a year where everyone else seemed to. That should pay dividends at trade deadlines moving forward.

I have a funny feeling we will be meeting in the 2nd round a couple more times over the next few years... you guys will be the ones we're measuring to when we are talking about gearing up for the playoffs and (hopefully) vice versa. Our windows are too similar for this to not happen IMO.

 

[Lempo]

Looking forward, the Canes core is another year more mature and theoretically on the upswing

Plus, now we really really hate the losing.

 

[Tawnos]

Welcome in and thanks for this post. A really interesting point, considering the Canes' approach to the deadline this year seemed to be "this isn't the peak of our window, let's let everyone else go all in at the same time, pick at the remains of the market, and see what happens." Obviously hindsight being what it is the Canes would've liked a little extra firepower, but we didn't sell the farm to go all in the way Tampa and Florida did (I was going to put you guys into that mix as well, but looking at what you gave up for those 3 guys you did really well value-wise). Looking forward, the Canes core is another year more mature and theoretically on the upswing, and we didn't go all in during a year where everyone else seemed to. That should pay dividends at trade deadlines moving forward.

I have a funny feeling we will be meeting in the 2nd round a couple more times over the next few years... you guys will be the ones we're measuring to when we are talking about gearing up for the playoffs and (hopefully) vice versa. Our windows are too similar for this to not happen IMO.

Appreciate the kind words.

The Rangers won't be able to do this at the deadline often. We had a huge amount of cap space this year, but next year we've got Fox and Zibanejad with big contracts kicking in and are struggling to figure out how we're going to fit a 2C type in. Drury seemed to look at the situation and some obvious holes, and said "screw it, I won't have the chance to have this kind of deadline again." Plus, one part of the reason Gorton and JD got fired was their lack of aggressiveness at the deadline last year, when there were apparently deals on the table that might have gotten the team into the playoffs (most of us scoff at that, but you know all about strange demands from ownership).

I agree, I think it's the Rangers and Canes division for the next little while. I said to a friend here in Charlotte (Canes fan) after the bubble that, regardless of the outcome, our two teams were the future of the Metro. That future is now.