GDT: 17 o'clock, Janauary 13th, Colorado @ Carolina: Natural Disasters Edition

[Joe McGrath]

The thing that's most been on display the last 2 games, other than the offensive surge is that they still haven't the slightest clue how to hold on to a lead. That's helping me keep the faith of a bottom 4 finish. I do think Edmonton and Buffalo are long gone though. They are ****ing horrible.

Semin had his best game of the season I thought. HIs shot still isn't quite right, but he looked to be skating better and was more assertive carrying the puck. He had a couple of chances to shoot where he waited too long, but im not too worried about that. The pass he threw cross ice to Skinner for a fanned one-timer was a thing of beauty. For a goal scorer Skinner has zero ability on one timers. It's odd to me because that seems like something you could practice repeatedly and at least be able to get it on net. Maybe head out on the ice early every day and have a coach or Gerbe (who I'm 99% sure is on the ice first everyday) feed you one timers for 5 minutes.

 

[What the Faulk]

I think this is the type of stuff fans miss when questioning why a guy gets sent down or when they state things like "He can't learn anything more in the AHL" (general comment, not necessarily said of Murphy this time). I know a lot of posters were questioning why he got sent down as they thought he wasn't any worse than others on the roster and the Canes needed him for offense.

I was always of the opinion that he wasn't ready and needed more time down there. He looked completely lost in the defensive zone and wasn't efficiently utilizing his team-mates to be effective enough offensively.

I have no idea how Peters and Francis will do long term, but I can say I do like the approach they are taking with the young players on the team and in the system.

I'm definitely guilty of this, but I think it has more to do with my lack of faith in Daniels than anything. Though I guess they are starting to get a few more home grown players lately, even if they're fringe.

 

[DougieSmash]

It's really nice to see contribution from cheap contracts, like Rask, Lindholm and Nash. Rask could be good player for years to come. Nash suddenly becomes above average two-way player.

 

[andy500]

Think we may need a lottery win from 4th-8th to get a sniff at McDavid now to be honest.

With Jordan Staal back we are far more balanced offensively, we have guys like Nash/Rask playing far better than we penciled them in for, the defense is playing a system well and we have a pretty nice 1/2 tandem in goals.

Despite all that, we still manage to throw away leads amazingly easily. So there's hope.

I don't think, even playing to their full potential every night, this team gets close to the play-offs from so far behind.

So now we are just winning for the sake of pride, and a worse pick in the draft.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Think we may need a lottery win from 4th-8th to get a sniff at McDavid now to be honest.

There's only a 5% lottery difference between 4th and 9th, so we may as well play for pride and have some fun.

(Or you could look at it as a 50% difference, but either way it's only 5 extra balls out of 100)

 

[Joe McGrath]

I strongly believe they will finish in the 4 slot and miss out on the big 3 by one pick. Just like they did with Jones. Very confident in this.

 

[Ole Gil]

The thing that's most been on display the last 2 games, other than the offensive surge is that they still haven't the slightest clue how to hold on to a lead. That's helping me keep the faith of a bottom 4 finish. I do think Edmonton and Buffalo are long gone though. They are ****ing horrible.

I think the problem with holding the lead, is that they can't build on the lead. With so little offensive threats, the other team is free to pressure as much as they want with little risk of getting scored on.

The bottom 6 is basically a free pass to do whatever you want for the other team. And really, the top 6 isn't much better.

 

[bleedgreen]

The development of a quasi first line is very disconcerting. There's enough going on that if jr was still charge he would likely blame injuries for missing the playoffs and not change a thing.

I think we need a flu run.

 

[What the Faulk]

Maybe if it plays well enough through the deadline there's no need to make major moves. Change for the sake of change isn't necessarily a good thing. And you're probably looking at lateral moves at best.

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

even if we finish 4th, Dylan Strome is a nice consolation prize.

 

[BlitzSnipe]

I apologize. I must've missed when Astana was part of the Russian Federation

He was born in Kazakhstan but he is of Russian descent. That's what I meant. Being born in another country does not change the descent of your parents.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

The development of a quasi first line is very disconcerting. There's enough going on that if jr was still charge he would likely blame injuries for missing the playoffs and not change a thing.

I think we need a flu run.

Or better yet...

 

[Stickpucker]

Yes comrades mumps = tank fuel. Comrade Semin team player will get fuel.

 

[nobuddy]

If we have a top five pick and take Lawson Crouse

I'M GONNA LOSE

MY FREAKIN MIND

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

but size and getting bigger up front...

 

[TheOllieC]

Lawson Crouse would fit right in with this fanbase's hard on for players with size.

 

[Neighbor Lee]

Really random, but did anyone else notice some weird sound effect played a couple times during the 1st period on the TV broadcast? It sounded like something straight out of the Flintstones; a car braking and then glass shattering.

Glad to see this posted! In fact, it is a relief. I heard the car crash and wondered if I was hearing things.

 

[cptjeff]

No idea why some people got so attached to a top 3 pick when this team was decimated by injuries and hadn't even played half the season yet. For awhile it was looking like they'd ride this **** luck to the bottom, but when healthy, they're not a bad team. They're just not deep. Trading Tlusty isn't going to make much of a difference. I've hardly noticed him with the new re-arranged lines. Moving Sekera makes them worse but I doubt it's be enough, and you can't even count on it to happen. Personally I'm preparing for them to pick in the latter half of the top 10. Anything else including a lottery win would just be extra.

It's a mystery to me. We were never an awful team on paper, we just had serious injuries to key players. That was never gonna last. I was harping on it when everyone was freaking out at the beginning of the season, but after a while I just got tired of the argument. Now Jordan is back, we're actually playing with the roster that we more or less expected to in the offseason, and oh, hey look, we're actually a decent team.

Jordan being injured cost us half the season, but now that everyone's back and reasonably healthy (is there some voodoo we can do on Semin's wrist?), we have a balanced attack with lots of threats for teams to try and match up against, a defense that's not awful, and we're winning games. Once you see it all together, I think it's clear that if we had had Jordan and others healthy early we'd likely be looking at a playoff spot. That's not gonna happen at this point, the hole is way too deep. And we're not gonna get the top pick. But even with the roster we have, we should be in a position to compete next year. That's a good thing. It means guys like Sekera are more likely to re-sign. And it means we're more likely to be able to sign free agents that can make the team better. We're really not in that bad a place next season, and winning now can help put us improve.

 

[Sens1Canes2]

It's a mystery to me. We were never an awful team on paper, we just had serious injuries to key players. That was never gonna last. I was harping on it when everyone was freaking out at the beginning of the season, but after a while I just got tired of the argument. Now Jordan is back, we're actually playing with the roster that we more or less expected to in the offseason, and oh, hey look, we're actually a decent team.

Jordan being injured cost us half the season, but now that everyone's back and reasonably healthy (is there some voodoo we can do on Semin's wrist?), we have a balanced attack with lots of threats for teams to try and match up against, a defense that's not awful, and we're winning games. Once you see it all together, I think it's clear that if we had had Jordan and others healthy early we'd likely be looking at a playoff spot. That's not gonna happen at this point, the hole is way too deep. And we're not gonna get the top pick. But even with the roster we have, we should be in a position to compete next year. That's a good thing. It means guys like Sekera are more likely to re-sign. And it means we're more likely to be able to sign free agents that can make the team better. We're really not in that bad a place next season, and winning now can help put us improve.

I absolutely love it when a fellow such as yourself presents the perfect opportunity for Kev to go bonkers.

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

I strongly believe they will finish in the 4 slot and miss out on the big 3 by one pick. Just like they did with Jones. Very confident in this.

Jones went fourth

 

[cptjeff]

I absolutely love it when a fellow such as yourself presents the perfect opportunity for Kev to go bonkers.

This board is way too panicky and fatalistic, I try to provide some balance. With all the people crying to completely blow up the team, I figured a sanity check was due. We're not in that awful a position, and blowing up a team doesn't always work out. You still have to build your way back up afterwards. Making a team better is very difficult regardless of where you draft, and it's much easier to go from mediocre to good than it is to go from bad to good. Lots more teams do it, but the ones that go from bad to good overnight get all the press. Precisely because it's so rare. The Penguins happened, yes. But that's rare. More often, you get sustained stretches of crap. See: Panthers, Florida; Oilers, Edmonton; Thrashers, Atlanta; Jets 1.0 & Jets 2.0, both of Winnipeg; Sabres, Buffalo... the list goes on. Rebuilding from scratch sounds great in theory, but in practice it's amazingly difficult to do well. Most teams who go from bad to good go gradually, and have to work their way up through being mediocre before they're good. We need to get better, not worse.

The goal is to become a better team and win the cup, the goal is not to become an awful team in the hopes that maybe one player might magically make you as good of a team as you were before you dumped every good player you had to get him.

 

[bleedgreen]

i agree with you jeff on all of it. we're not good, but we're really not bad enough to get a top pick. its the internal middle space that used to get me so frustrated.

now i just accept it.

beginning of the year i figured we were two dmen and two forwards at least from competing. my guess was we would pick within two spots of where we picked last year. i'll stand behind that now still. if we get a higher pick than 4 its obviously just because of the injuries. i didnt think we were good enough to pick in the 10-15 range though. it's up to RF to change that pattern.

my honest opinion is that mceichelfin wont make us a better team. wouldnt shock me if the top 2 end up over rated. we need three or four of those guys to really change things via star power. we're nashville, cbus, or arizona. go for depth and team concepts over stars you cant afford. if you overpay someone it should be defense or goaltending.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

We like our group.

 

[My Special Purpose]

It's a mystery to me. We were never an awful team on paper, we just had serious injuries to key players. That was never gonna last. I was harping on it when everyone was freaking out at the beginning of the season, but after a while I just got tired of the argument. Now Jordan is back, we're actually playing with the roster that we more or less expected to in the offseason, and oh, hey look, we're actually a decent team.

Jordan being injured cost us half the season, but now that everyone's back and reasonably healthy (is there some voodoo we can do on Semin's wrist?), we have a balanced attack with lots of threats for teams to try and match up against, a defense that's not awful, and we're winning games. Once you see it all together, I think it's clear that if we had had Jordan and others healthy early we'd likely be looking at a playoff spot. That's not gonna happen at this point, the hole is way too deep. And we're not gonna get the top pick. But even with the roster we have, we should be in a position to compete next year. That's a good thing. It means guys like Sekera are more likely to re-sign. And it means we're more likely to be able to sign free agents that can make the team better. We're really not in that bad a place next season, and winning now can help put us improve.

Thanks for visiting, JR, but don't you have a team to run?

 

[Blueline Bomber]

I thought I was JR?