I'm generally of the position that the Canes are a good not great team that perform and execute their system and game plan well.
Aho is their best offensive player and he is a 30+ G / PPG or slightly above kind of guy. Great in all situations. Truly a Barkov light type player. Not as gifted or big.
Svech I guess you could say is like a Matty T extra light type player. When healthy and on his game he is a PPG power forward but the consistency isn't there so far in his career. This playoffs he has been a game changer.
Jarvis is a great all-round 35-35 type player who is great in all situations and plays with edge. Still quite young and improving every year but is more in the Aho mould and doubt he becomes much more than PPG type player.
That's really it for 'high end' offensive talent on the team. Great depth with guys like Blake, Stankoven, Hall, Staal, Martinook, Kotkaniemi and all the way down to Roslovic, Robinson, Carrier, etc. but these guys aren't going to put you over the top. Maybe Blake and Stankoven one day can be top line caliber players but not right now.
The defence is steady but unspectacular. Slavin is elite at what he does. Everyone else has flaws and is probably overslotted in an ideal situation. Nikishin will hopefully be another elite piece here and I see no reason why Rod doesn't let him loose in game 3. Nothing to lose now.
Goaltending is swiss cheese and very jekyll and hyde. Andersen can play amazing for stretches but injuries always come into play and he seems to be a goalie that can only get you so far. Pyotr has shown great progression in his young career but this year was very inconsistent and feels like a step back.
In Rod's entire tenure, he has never had a true 1A goalie. The most games played for Freddie was 52, and that was 4 years ago.
18/19 - Mrazek + McElhinney
19/20 - Mrazek + Reimer
20/21 - Mrazek + Reimer + Nedeljkovic
21/22 - Andersen + Raanta
22/23 - Andersen + Raanta + Kochetkov
23/24 - Andersen + Raanta + Kochetkov
24/25 - Andersen + Kochetkov
Canes try to play a hard nosed, forechecking, defensively strong game and it works against most of the league. When you are facing elite competition it's less effective and when you don't have McDavid, Drai, MacKinnon, etc. type players who can take over games and score at will, you're not going to get the results that you want.
Maybe Rod needs to figure out how to change things up against these tougher teams. Clearly whatever they are doing in the ECF isn't working but if you don't have the horses you don't have the horses.
2009 Penguins were beastly and that was not a strong Canes team. They got hot and upset 2 good teams in the Devils and Bruins. Malkin went nuts. Ward was overplayed and injured in net (story of his career).
2019 Bruins were a way better team and the Canes were a plucky 8 seed who had missed the playoffs for a decade. Everything was new and they were outmatched.
2023 against the Panthers was razor thin margins. All 1 goal losses. 2 OT games. Panthers won game 4 with a last second goal. Against any other team the Canes probably roll to the finals but that's not how life works.
2025... Panthers are a juggernaught and the Canes aren't as good as they were 2 years ago. Florida is built to grind you to dust and win the playoffs. What the Canes do well and works against the rest of the league doesn't work on these guys and probably wouldn't work on the Stars either. Oilers maybe because that team HAS holes and can be exposed at times.
It sucks and the Canes absolutely need to show fight to make this a series but winning against Florida was always going to be a longshot.
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. I’ve never seen more obnoxiously confident incorrect takes in one place than I have on HF, Jesus Christ. This place is like the capital of the internet for that lmao.
