GDT: Game 2: Carolina vs Columbus, 7pm

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Could be wrong but i think lindholm was kicked out of every faceoff he tried taking last game except maybe 1 or 2.

Or so it seemed at least.

Lindholm took 14 faceoffs last night, 2nd to only Staal who took 15.

As FW posted, I think he's being told be aggressive.

 

[GoldiFox]

They were kicking people out of face offs all night for things I've never seen. Reminded me of an offensive lineman being called for a False Start. If a guy breathed wrong he got thrown out.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

and on attendance. They continue to out price people. I understand I can get tickets on ticket master for 13 bucks but then a "service fee" jumps up my price to 40 per ticket. Not to mention it's going to cost over 10 dollars to eat, let a lone get a beer which prices jumped from 11 to 12 bucks this year. Furthermore, they want 20 dollars for parking.

People can't afford to go.

Not sure why your "service fees" are so much. I bought two tickets off of TM which were $13/ticket before fees and $18/ticket after fees. I parked for free at the fairground lot. Price really isn't an inhibitor to people going to games. I got 1 beer for $11 and one ticket for $18 (total) so I saw an NHL game with a beer for $29.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Speaking of that, I don't really understand the purpose of what they are doing on face-offs. It slows the game down more than anything and I don't really see it accomplishing much. I didn't read up on it much, so what was the rationale for the NHL calling face-offs like they are this year?

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

A bit off topic, but this is why high draft picks are so important for struggling teams. The Hurricanes made moves that put them in a good position to make the playoffs, but nothing that will move the meter for the casual fan/ general citizen of the area. We (ie the hardcore base) know that Williams, TVR, Kruger, Fleury and Darling are big (pun intended) upgrades to this team, but to any non-hardcore fan those won't move the dial an iota. That was bottom of the barrel last night. No promotions, no hype, just a Tuesday game against a non-consequential (media wise) team.

One of the few things that will do that is a lotto pick, a stud, talented 18 year old joining the club. It's a joke that Colorado can have one of the worst modern era seasons of a non-expansion team ever and end up picking 4th overall, the teams ahead including one that finished 20 points in front of them.

 

[JCLA]

Not sure why your "service fees" are so much. I bought two tickets off of TM which were $13/ticket before fees and $18/ticket after fees. I parked for free at the fairground lot. Price really isn't an inhibitor to people going to games. I got 1 beer for $11 and one ticket for $18 (total) so I saw an NHL game with a beer for $29.

exaggerated to get a point across

 

[JCLA]

Not sure why your "service fees" are so much. I bought two tickets off of TM which were $13/ticket before fees and $18/ticket after fees. I parked for free at the fairground lot. Price really isn't an inhibitor to people going to games. I got 1 beer for $11 and one ticket for $18 (total) so I saw an NHL game with a beer for $29.

29 dollars a person, now envision a family of 4 who doesn't know about parking at fair grounds lot because they don't go to a lot of games. also, you didn't eat.

Price is in fact, very much an inhibitor, which is why I didn't go last night.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

29 dollars a person, now envision a family of 4.

$116 for a family of four to attend an NHL hockey game and each have a drink is still ridiculously cheap. I don't see how that is pricing out people.

 

[JCLA]

$116 for a family of four to attend an NHL hockey game and each have a drink is still ridiculously cheap. I don't see how that is pricing out people.

That's just the base price. You're ignoring 10 dollars minimum a person to eat if they want to eat (they will likely have to get fast food if they don't eat at stadium which will cost money), 20 dollars to park. That's another 60 dollars minimum. Now what if mom and pop want a beer during the game, lets tack on another 11-12 dollars. They are charging concert prices for a beer, it's ridiculous.

Yeah you can park at the fairgrounds but it's hard to ask a child to walk that far.

 

[the halleJOKEL]

thats why you dont ask the child

 

[The Faulker 27]

A bit off topic, but this is why high draft picks are so important for struggling teams. .

There in lies the problem. We're not a "struggling" team. Can't make the playoffs, but also can't draft high enough to land a grade A badass.

 

[the halleJOKEL]

raise your hand if you are still pissed off about the lottery last year

good god what a complete nightmare for this team that ended up being

 

[LostInaLostWorld]

and on attendance. They continue to out price people. I understand I can get tickets on ticket master for 13 bucks but then a "service fee" jumps up my price to 40 per ticket. Not to mention it's going to cost over 10 dollars to eat, let a lone get a beer which prices jumped from 11 to 12 bucks this year. Furthermore, they want 20 dollars for parking.

People can't afford to go.

I used to go to around 12-15 games a season. Not as an STH because I traveled for work and never could schedule around games. I have been retired for a couple years but have found that I despise the ever increasing prices for everything. I can sit at home in front of a large screen TV and eat a good dinner and drink beers for the price of parking alone.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

Concessions management told all employees last night:

"If the customer doesn't have a STM swipe card with money loaded on it or a CC attached to it - no Discount"

I have verified it because I couldn't believe it. That is their official policy now. No lanyard visual verification, no typing of PID numbers, no "I've seen you here for the past decade". Guilty until proven STM.

Every single Food Menu in the arena is advertising the great deals you get by becoming a STM. Every STM I talked to last night was complaining about being refused their discount. It's so poorly run it's a miracle anything gets done at all.

That's...bizarre. We didn't go last night but on Saturday we went. My wife went to get a bottle of water and a beer. She had the lanyard and came back to say they wouldn't accept the lanyard for the STM discount. When I went later to get some food, they took my STM card and gave me the discount and I paid with my debit card as usual - nothing about having to have money put on my card or linked to it. They did ask if I wanted to pay with my STM card and I took that to mean did I want them to use some of my food and beverage credits from renewal on there. I need to talk to my rep this afternoon anyway so I might ask him about this and what's going on. I suspect it's a case of one hand not knowing what the other's doing and making things needlessly complicated in the process.

 

[The Faulker 27]

I used to go to around 12-15 games a season. Not as an STH because I traveled for work and never could schedule around games. I have been retired for a couple years but have found that I despise the ever increasing prices for everything. I can sit at home in front of a large screen TV and eat a good dinner and drink beers for the price of parking alone.

So you're saying we can't blame the attendance problem on millennials?

/s

 

[vorbis]

So we have Sheriff Bart and Hedley Lamarr on our board. We really need a Waco Kid, a Mongo, and a Gabby Johnson. Maybe even a Taggart.

unfortunately I don't think there's enough space for me to have my dream username of Bingo Gas Station Motel Cheeseburger With A Side Of Aircraft Noise And You'll Be Gary Indiana

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

That's just the base price. You're ignoring 10 dollars minimum a person to eat if they want to eat (they will likely have to get fast food if they don't eat at stadium which will cost money), 20 dollars to park. That's another 60 dollars minimum. Now what if mom and pop want a beer during the game, lets tack on another 11-12 dollars. They are charging concert prices for a beer, it's ridiculous.

Yeah, I understand. Kind of like going to the fair, I realize it can be part of the experience, but I rarely ever let my kids eat at the rink when I took them when they were younger, even if that meant packing sandwiches to eat in the parking lot. If are you expecting to spend $100 on a family of 4 to go to an NHL game, park, eat, and have a few beers, I think your expectations are unreasonable, even for a bad NHL team.

Yeah you can park at the fairgrounds but it's hard to ask a child to walk that far.

True, but you still could have gotten 4 tickets for the game last night, 4 drinks, and parked for $136. Again, that isn't ridiculous at all for a professional sporting event. Don't get me wrong, I know prices have increased over the years at a time when team hasn't been good which has put some people off, not disagreeing with that. Just that, right now, you can go to most Canes games very, very cheaply so don't really see price as an inhibitor. Maybe as an inhibitor for season ticket sales. When the team eventually does get good and the building starts filling up, the opportunity to go to a game for at such a low cost will be completely gone.

 

[Ole Gil]

It's only 5 dollars a ticket extra just to buy a ticket. And you can just walk half a mile instead of paying 20 dollars. And you just need to sign up for some new account, and use your phone for a ticket now. And it's just a couple bucks extra for food/drink.

In the end, it's probably still a reasonable price. But the competition for going to the game is watching the game at home on the big screen tv in your comfortable living room with better food.

That's where they lose the battle. But I do think the optics for a person going to the game by themselves seeing a 16 dollar ticket somehow turn into 41 dollars to get in the door doesn't help.

Re tickets: Do they charge a convenience fee if you buy them at the box office?

 

[tarheelhockey]

When the team eventually does get good and the building starts filling up, the opportunity to go to a game for at such a low cost will be completely gone.

All I can say is this organization needs to be really, REALLY careful about how they handle the STM base when we finally get to that point.

 

[Lempo]

We should. Look, Blazing Saddles is up there on the Mount Rushmore of movies. Gone With The Wind, The Ten Commandments, Godfather II, and Blazing Saddles.

I have said it before, but Mel Brooks is the Orson Welles of this board.

So if we wanna hedge some bets there should be a Dr. Frankonstiin, nurse Diesel and... well, Franz Liebkind would be very up-to-date, but, idk.

 

[Svechhammer]

I can understand excuses about attendance when we're talking about only 12k or 13k people being there

official attendance last night was 7,892, or 42% capacity.

There is no excusing numbers this poor. Tuesday night or not, having less than 8k people in the arena is an embarrassment, and should raise a lot of red flags about the long term ramifications of the potential sale. Yeah, they say they're going to keep the team in Raleigh, but if you can't outdraw the Durham Bulls, you won't be there long.

 

[Viqsi]

If this is representative of how the Canes will be playing regularly, y'all ought to be a playoff lock. We couldn't get a damn thing going in front of the net the whole evening; it seemed like every time we tried the entire high slot turned into a forest of more Canes sticks than should actually be possible on the ice. Darling struck me as occasionally shaky with the puck, but he did the job.

I've known in my head for a while that the Canes are pretty good, but this is the first time it's really internalized for me. We had ourselves an Epic Blueline Battle Royale, and it was fun - if occasionally frustrating.

Looking forward to the next matchup!

 

[tarheelhockey]

I can understand excuses about attendance when we're talking about only 12k or 13k people being there

official attendance last night was 7,892, or 42% capacity.

There is no excusing numbers this poor. Tuesday night or not, having less than 8k people in the arena is an embarrassment, and should raise a lot of red flags about the long term ramifications of the potential sale. Yeah, they say they're going to keep the team in Raleigh, but if you can't outdraw the Durham Bulls, you won't be there long.

Again, I ask why anyone would expect this specific game to draw 13K, which would be a larger crowd than the average of the past THREE seasons (individually or combined).

Is there even one good reason to believe this game, of all games, would have drawn an above average crowd?

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

I can understand excuses about attendance when we're talking about only 12k or 13k people being there

official attendance last night was 7,892, or 42% capacity.

There is no excusing numbers this poor. Tuesday night or not, having less than 8k people in the arena is an embarrassment, and should raise a lot of red flags about the long term ramifications of the potential sale. Yeah, they say they're going to keep the team in Raleigh, but if you can't outdraw the Durham Bulls, you won't be there long.

I mean, if anything it vindicates PK and JR's plan of trying year after year to make our core of E. Staal and Cam Ward work with bargain bin scraps. The period from 2013 (14?) or whenever they internally resolved to fully rebuild to that streak mid-late last year has wrecked the fanbase. The 'Canes have been a bottom feeder since 2010, one decent offseason and the first time in years they have a good chance to be competitive isn't going to change that without W's, lots of W's.

And if Slavin, Pesce and Aho hadn't come out of the wood work and played at an elite level, we'd be in for 1-2 more years of this. "Hanifin needs to hurry up and be the guy we drafted him to be", we'd say, giving that 20 year old 1st pairing minutes because there is no one else.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

There are only 6-7k STM last I heard. Leads me to believe the non-STM related attendance was close to zero.

The Canes are really trying their damndest to piss off the existing STH as well. They raised all food prices about 20+% from last year, but now have a 15% "STM Discount". A discount is supposed to be for STM, however The implementation of this system has been a nightmare. At this point they require you to place a credit card on your Canes STM card to receive any discount. No cash or credit cards at the point of purchase. Only one credit card can be placed on an entire account, so if you bring friends or family to the game and they want a discount then they have to pay with your linked credit card. Just a mind bogglingly stupid system.

I don't know what you're talking about. I show my STH card and then pay any way I want.