GDT: Wild vs Canes: Will it be a Wild birthday for MinJaBen, or will he be Caned for bad puns?

[Svechhammer]

Counterpoint: It does not suck that the 2nd overall pick signed for 8 years is that influential on the power play. That’s exactly what he’s needed to do to live up to what he’s supposed to be.

100% you want that kind of production from your top picks. However, I think its exposing that we have an organizational issue that him not being at 100% causes the entire thing to fall apart. We need someone else to help take that pressure off him, because if we are that much of a SPOF threat, then it paints a pretty big target on his back for teams and players who like to hit with intent to injure to take him out, especially in the playoffs. And Svech isn't protected enough by the refs in this league to be a SPOF for us.

 

[WreckingCrew]

Aho needs to get the defense more vigilant re: his shot.

What have I noticed over last few games is that teams are allowing Aho more space at the point because they don’t respect his shot and worry more about his passing. That defensive shift is causing our PP to cool off.

And whether it is Burns or someone else but the team needs a player to get the puck on net with power during the PP.

Burns PP accuracy is similar to my golf tee shots, awful.

To continue the golf metaphor, the Canes never got the ball onto the green yesterday, they were constantly trying to chip shots from the rough and praying they didn't hit the 3 trees right in front of them...and of course it either hit every f***ing tree or just went from rough to rough. PP possession means jack-shit if you're not actively moving yourself and/or the puck around, pass & hold is incredibly ineffective.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

No doubt we're better with Svech on the power play, but I think we may be over-reacting to 1 game where the PP is 0 for. The best PP's in the league have games where they fail to convert. How many times has the Canes PK shut down a good power play unit (regular season). With or without Svech, we will have games where the PP doesn't convert. It happens.

 

[AD Skinner]

To continue the golf metaphor, the Canes never got the ball onto the green yesterday, they were constantly trying to chip shots from the rough and praying they didn't hit the 3 trees right in front of them...and of course it either hit every f***ing tree or just went from rough to rough. PP possession means jack-shit if you're not actively moving yourself and/or the puck around, pass & hold is incredibly ineffective.

I’m not a golfer but I have to imagine a part of that is knowing that if you don’t convert that shot you need to start hustling the other way because your goalie isn’t stopping jack.

 

[The Jerk Store]

I hated that we QO'd bear. Bear was worth league minim

I hated that we QO'd bear. Bear was worth league minimum.

Pre-Covid, Bear was quite promising. Post-Covid, Bear looked like he wasn't going to be able to stay in the NHL. I'm glad he's been able to come back.

 

[Joe McGrath]

100% you want that kind of production from your top picks. However, I think it’s exposing that we have an organizational issue that him not being at 100% causes the entire thing to fall apart. We need someone else to help take that pressure off him, because if we are that much of a SPOF threat, then it paints a pretty big target on his back for teams and players who like to hit with intent to injure to take him out, especially in the playoffs. And Svech isn't protected enough by the refs in this league to be a SPOF for us.

They’ve won more playoff series with him injured than they have with him healthy, so no the whole thing doesn’t fall apart without him.

 

[MinJaBen]

They’ve won more playoff series with him injured than they have with him healthy, so no the whole thing doesn’t fall apart without him.

Wait, are you saying we need to injure him so he’s unavailable the first two rounds, but is back for the conference championship?

 

[Joe McGrath]

Wait, are you saying we need to injure him so he’s unavailable the first two rounds, but is back for the conference championship?

View attachment 808052

I wasn’t saying that, but now that you mention it…….

 

[Blueline Bomber]

No doubt we're better with Svech on the power play, but I think we may be over-reacting to 1 game where the PP is 0 for. The best PP's in the league have games where they fail to convert. How many times has the Canes PK shut down a good power play unit (regular season). With or without Svech, we will have games where the PP doesn't convert. It happens.

Okay, but we went 0/3 against Pittsburgh, 0/5 against LA, 1/1 against Detroit and 0/4 last night. That's more than just occasionally going 0 for...

 

[The Faulker 27]

The power play was bound to cool off. Nothing in a trend (up or down) ever goes in a straight line up, or down. Let's just hope the trend for being top of the league continues.

 

[bleedgreen]

If Burns could hit the net it would’ve been fine. As much as I think Svech influences the resurgence of the unit as a whole, getting Aho out of the bumper position and using him as more of a QB is also an obvious upgrade. Even yesterday it looked the part of a good power play, there was just no finish. Before they switched to this group they couldn’t even keep the zone for more than 15 seconds at a time.

I agree with that, but I would add Svech and his shot allowed them to try moving Aho to that spot and reinforced it with that success which is of course a good thing. I agree the pp looks great but just lacked finish, which kind of goes along with my point that the pp suffers when the finisher is out.

Burns hitting the net this season of course would’ve improved things the whole time.

And as BBA says it’s also just one game so only reason to think it’s going backwards without Svech is the fact it was so bad before when in reality it may be better even without Svech if we give it more time. All theoretical though. It would very much seem that things improved when a good shooter started finishing the nice plays our skill guys can create.

 

[chaz4hockey]

Okay, but we went 0/3 against Pittsburgh, 0/5 against LA, 1/1 against Detroit and 0/4 last night. That's more than just occasionally going 0 for...

Since teams have adjusted, I believe we need a second one-timer guy opposite of Svetch (btw: anyone know how long he is ded this time?), ie Tampa’s two barrels on theirs plus a point guy who can hit the net with power.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Okay, but we went 0/3 against Pittsburgh, 0/5 against LA, 1/1 against Detroit and 0/4 last night. That's more than just occasionally going 0 for...

Okay, but
1. one of the sentiments I was responding to was we were hosed without Svech, who was here for 3 of those.
2. I said this back when you started the thread about why the pp was so good. They weren’t as good as the PP was back then, and aren’t as bad as they are now. There will be ebbs and flows. This isn't a team with a McDavid and Drai who can seemingly score at will.

Here was what I said in that thread:

Guys get some success and gain confidence, which then breeds further success. When guys struggle, it can lead to squeezing the stick too tight and can make things worse. Also, as with anything, there will be ebbs and flows throughout the season. Canes have been at 39% on the PP since December 1st. That won't last.

 

[Lempo]

Wait, are you saying we need to injure him so he’s unavailable the first two rounds, but is back for the conference championship?

Why do you think we have been building up plausible deniability for Orlov.

 

[Derailed75]

They’ve won more playoff series with him injured than they have with him healthy, so no the whole thing doesn’t fall apart without him.

Combination of shaky Raanta, injured Freddy/Koochie, and injured Svech.

 

[Negan4Coach]

Oh, they lost a game they were unable to score 5-6 goals in. Checks out.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Oh, they lost a game they were unable to score 5-6 goals in. Checks out.

LOL. two goals against were Empty Net Goals. You're smarter than that Negan, unless I'm giving you too much credit.

 

[Daeavorn]

Lets not pretend that we are comfortable winning games 2-1 nowadays. If we cant score we are gonna lose. Koch can't play forever and you never know how long hell be out.

Forwards need to step it up.

 

[MinJaBen]

Lets not pretend that we are comfortable winning games 2-1 nowadays. If we cant score we are gonna lose. Koch can't play forever and you never know how long hell be out.

Forwards need to step it up.

GM and owner and statistics guru need to step it up. The team is stuck in the same pattern now for several years. Not substantially worse and not better either. At this point, it is clear that some strategy or idea put in place by upper management is limiting the personnel decisions which results in never quite fixing the holes in the team.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Lets not pretend that we are comfortable winning games 2-1 nowadays. If we cant score we are gonna lose. Koch can't play forever and you never know how long hell be out.

Forwards need to step it up.

The Canes are the 9th best team in the NHL for Goals per game played at 3.40 Goals/GP. The talent level we have on this team isn't going to do much better than that. The prior 3 season's combined they were 11th best in the NHL for Goals per game played at 3.25.

With the roster as we have it today, expecting better output from our skaters is rather optimistic.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

This team's current philosophy is to be elite defensively while being better than average offensively. The coach, the players, the system, and the results all make that obvious.

The team is what it is. The current status is "solid playoff team". Considering the rough start, and considering the fact that our current "#1 goalie" has an .866 save percentage, I don't know how anyone can reasonably expect more.

This team has everything it takes to get hot in the postseason, even by just waiting out the current goaltending situation. If they make a deal, fine. If not, they still have a shot.

At the beginning of the season, many Smart Hockey Knowers picked this team to win it all. The fundamental pieces are still the same, minus the very obvious problem in goal.

 

[chaz4hockey]

This team's current philosophy is to be elite defensively while being better than average offensively. The coach, the players, the system, and the results all make that obvious.

The team is what it is. The current status is "solid playoff team". Considering the rough start, and considering the fact that our current "#1 goalie" has an .866 save percentage, I don't know how anyone can reasonably expect more.

This team has everything it takes to get hot in the postseason, even by just waiting out the current goaltending situation. If they make a deal, fine. If not, they still have a shot.

At the beginning of the season, many Smart Hockey Knowers picked this team to win it all. The fundamental pieces are still the same, minus the very obvious problem in goal.

Agree with your points save that the experts picking is didn’t think our goal tending would be a problem.

Sure we could use another Sniper/Top C but above anything else we need a goalie that can make stops. If this gets fixed I believe the team will open up a bit and create more offense beyond what we have seen lately.

 

[Negan4Coach]

LOL. two goals against were Empty Net Goals. You're smarter than that Negan, unless I'm giving you too much credit.

IDK I just saw the box score. Forgot that Rod doesn’t mind absorbing multiple empty nettas