GDT: STORM FOLK @ KEEP OF THE ROYAL BASTARDS

[Chrispy]

Went to bed at 4-1.

Wake up this morning and check the box score:

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Orlov playing the least of all defensemen is a sight. Gotta give Pesce his 23 mins and be on the ice for every late tying goal though.

In fairness the guy still has to learn the system and we aren’t playing him with his partner in crunch times

Maybe when he turns the corner around January 1st, he can take some of Skjei’s tough defensive assignments

 

[Stickpucker]

Not sure why you are tagging me, but you seem like a smart fella, so what did you see? How did they do it? What strategies did the employ? What caused them to score 2 goals last night, and also give up 2 shorties?

Elite talent definitely helps a PP, as we've seen over the years. There's no question about that, but as I've mentioned in the past, teams like STL have succeeded without having elite talent. As I said back then, I didn't watch STL enough to know what were the keys to their success, nor have I watched enough of LA. What did you see last night that made LA's PP so good? And what changes would you want the Canes to employ in terms of their PP strategy? No question the PP has been a sore spot that needs improvement.

If I had watched LA enough (or STL in prior years), I'd be glad to give my view of what makes them successful, but I haven't.

I thought you may be a student of the art of the pp. I'm sorry if I was an ass.

I didn't notice anything anyone else wouldnt....the Canes like to stand around on the pp a lot and pass on the perimeter.

They occasionally look for that cross seam pass but it's rarely there when stagnant.

The Kings did a better job of movement off the puck as well as puck carriers moving with the puck to draw a pker out of position.

I also think that bumper play to Aho is a little suspect as he's a bit small to post up in there.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Orlov playing the least of all defensemen is a sight. Gotta give Pesce his 23 mins and be on the ice for every late tying goal though.

I suspect that once Orlov gets used to our system, his TOI will grow. He still looks a bit lost out there to me which is normal for a new guy to our systems.

The other factor is he's not used on the PK right now so Slavin/Burns/Skjei/Pesce each got ~5 min. TOI. on the PK due to all the penalties. I suspect Orlov will start getting more PK time over the season, again as he learns the system.

 

[CanesUltimate11]

Did Kotka get injured?

I’d assume benched for his dumb late penalty.

 

[Stickpucker]

I think Orlov is not realizing Tony is going to jump on every play and expecting him to cover 2 on 1s like he's Slavin.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Not sure why you are tagging me, but you seem like a smart fella, so what did you see? How did they do it? What strategies did the employ? What caused them to score 2 goals last night, and also give up 2 shorties?

Elite talent definitely helps a PP, as we've seen over the years. There's no question about that, but as I've mentioned in the past, teams like STL have succeeded without having elite talent. As I said back then, I didn't watch STL enough to know what were the keys to their success, nor have I watched enough of LA. What did you see last night that made LA's PP so good? And what changes would you want the Canes to employ in terms of their PP strategy? No question the PP has been a sore spot that needs improvement.

If I had watched LA enough (or STL in prior years), I'd be glad to give my view of what makes them successful, but I haven't.

Also… Doughty, Byfield, PLD, all top 3 picks…

 

[Stickpucker]

Did anyone notice Rods tone postgame when asked about Turbo?

In the past whenever asked about him he'd talk about him being a gamer....this time it was different and how he's one of our good players and needs to be scoring.

Before it was...he's that weird guy I don't really get but I'm cool with him. Last night it sounded more like he's tired of Turbos....what do we call them? They're not antics.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Did anyone notice Rods tone postgame when asked about Turbo?

In the past whenever asked about him he'd talk about him being a gamer....this time it was different and how he's one of our good players and needs to be scoring.

Before it was...he's that weird guy I don't really get but I'm cool with him. Last night it sounded more like he's tired of Turbos....what do we call them? They're not antics.

I think rod was so frustrated with the game, our play, and the refs he was more ornery than usual as far as discussing players and such

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Orlov playing the least of all defensemen is a sight. Gotta give Pesce his 23 mins and be on the ice for every late tying goal though.

It was mentioned earlier, but that Orlov/TonyD pairing was getting burned a lot last night. Not surprised that pairing didn't see much time.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I thought you may be a student of the art of the pp. I'm sorry if I was an ass.

No worries.

I didn't notice anything anyone else wouldnt....the Canes like to stand around on the pp a lot and pass on the perimeter.

They occasionally look for that cross seam pass but it's rarely there when stagnant.

The Kings did a better job of movement off the puck as well as puck carriers moving with the puck to draw a pker out of position.

I also think that bumper play to Aho is a little suspect as he's a bit small to post up in there.

I can't say what other teams do, particularly ones that don't have elite talent as I don't watch them enough, but there are a few things that I see the Canes struggle with. I don't have a solution, but here's my $0.02 on what I see:

HIGH LEVEL: It seems like we do a bunch of things average or below average on the PP other than puck pursuit. With a team's ability to just ice the puck on the PK, and not using our best puck pursuers on the PP, it really neutralizes our strength. (to be clear, I'm not advocating for using Staal, Fast or Martinook on the PP).

1) Aho isn't good enough at face-offs. Seems like every PP starts with 15-20s wasted while we go gather the puck in our zone and try to gain entry.

EDIT: further analysis shows this not to be the case so it's recency bias.

2) Our entries suck. Mike and Tripp call Necas the "one man entry", but other teams just collapse on him and force a turn-over often. Our best entry is to dump it deep and try to outwork the other team for the puck. Our best players for outworking the opponents (Staal, Fast, Martinook, etc..) aren't PP guys and as I said above, the ability to ice the puck by the PK team really neutralizes that.

3) We don't have anyone that scares another team to cause them to back off so they press us more than other top teams leaving us little time and space. Theoretically, we should be able to take advantage of an aggressive pursuit from a PK team, but we haven't figured that out. We don't have that 1 timer/shot like Ovechkin, Stamkos, Matthews or even Draisaitl have that demand respect. We don't have an elite puck skill guy that teams back off from like a Marner, Nylander, MacKinnon, McDavid, etc... Even our PP QB isn't ideal. Tony is much better at passing/moving the puck, but isn't a shooting threat. Burns is a shooting threat, but he bobbles the puck too much and isn't a smooth passer.

4) As you said, we seem to be too stationary and so we are left with hoping to get a shot from the point and again, outworking the other team for a screen/rebound. Those are lower percentage chances. Would be interesting to see if this is just my own bias, or if the data from last year shows that we take more long range shots vs. other top PP teams.

No idea how to change it up and fix it, but those are things I see that hinder the PP.

 

[bleedgreen]

Not that this is our worst over reaction by any stretch but I think we’re caught up in this a little too much and too early. Should really wait ten games before you’re identifying patterns or issues that even at that point aren’t really there.

We did win the game.

 

[DaveG]

well that game was a shit show that we escaped with the 2 points. So I'll take it.

 

[Ole Gil]

Rough west coast road game against playoff team. Team looks rusty. Still 2 points.

 

[Stickpucker]

As bad as last night was I can guarantee it is more competent than the Panthers will look today.

 

[VAcaniac]

Honestly, I think that was the most I’ve ever seen a hockey team “falling over.”

I thought maybe the ice but the Hurricanes werent falling over on the same ice.

It seemed like literally every other play, someone on the Kings was on the ice on their knees.

 

[Sigurd]

well that game was a shit show that we escaped with the 2 points. So I'll take it.

Agreed 100%.

I had a sense of relief when the game ended. That was an unusually stressful shootout with how long it went.

Oh yeah, and there were some BS calls by the refs. They're in playoff form already.

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

Tripp shittalked Necas after Necas scored to extend the shootout, which tells me he is 100% getting traded next summer

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

As bad as last night was I can guarantee it is more competent than the Panthers will look today.

Not so fast…

Honestly, I think that was the most I’ve ever seen a hockey team “falling over.”

I thought maybe the ice but the Hurricanes werent falling over on the same ice.

It seemed like literally every other play, someone on the Kings was on the ice on their knees.

Especially Byfield, I’ve never really watched much of him before last night but Jesus he was out there flopping and falling multiple times every shift it seemed. Was surprising to me considering his size and I thought he was supposed to be a good skater

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Not that this is our worst over reaction by any stretch but I think we’re caught up in this a little too much and too early. Should really wait ten games before you’re identifying patterns or issues that even at that point aren’t really there.

We did win the game.

I mean, even Brindamour said postgame that that was probably the worst game he's coached for the Canes. Which definitely isn't true, since there have been some REAL stinkers that didn't come away with 2 points, but it does tell you that reacting in an attempt to not have last night happen ever again is probably reacting appropriately.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I think rod was so frustrated with the game, our play, and the refs he was more ornery than usual as far as discussing players and such

Agree, I just went and listened to it. He admitted he was so frustrated with how they played in general that it was hard to comment on anything.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

I mean, even Brindamour said postgame that that was probably the worst game he's coached for the Canes. Which definitely isn't true, since there have been some REAL stinkers that didn't come away with 2 points, but it does tell you that reacting in an attempt to not have last night happen ever again is probably reacting appropriately.

As a coach, sure. As a fan, though, I wouldn't worry as much.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

As a coach, sure. As a fan, though, I wouldn't worry as much.

Oh, as a fan, it always comes back to this:

 

[Tryamw]

Not so fast…

You were saying...

 

[hockeynjune]

You were saying...

They always find the way.