Carolina Hurricanes Offensive Analysis for 2015-16

[Wild Caniac]

http://alongtheboards.com/2015/07/carolina-hurricanes-offensive-offseason-analysis/

I still write articles from time to time. This article looked at the possibilities on offense, including bringing back a familiar face to help the offense. Next week I am going to look at defense.

Click to read more...

 

[tomdundo]

Your offseason #analysis is offensive to me. It is triggering me greatly.

 

[Wild Caniac]

I like what I'm hearing

 

[tomdundo]

If you can, I would change the title. Hence my comment. Maybe something like...


Carolina Hurricanes Offseason Analysis: Offense

 

[Wild Caniac]

My editor put it that way, I think my pending title was

Carolina Hurricanes Roster Analysis Part One: Offense

 

[tomdundo]

Well that's a pretty awful move on his/her part, tbh. Removes flow from the title and can lead to a different interpretation of the "offensive" portion of it.

 

[DaveG]

Would still vastly prefer Glencross or Erat to Boyes.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Not trying to be overly critical, but Malone was brought in to be a 4th liner who get's a handful of minutes each night, but plays with some energy, size and is responsible defensively. Why would the Canes even consider Tolchinsky as a 4th line option playing with McClement? It doesn't make any sense to me.

Tolchinsky either needs to be in a scoring role in the NHL or not in the NHL. He likely needs time in the AHL anyhow to prove he is ready for the pro game.

EDIT: And I'm not sure why there is such an effort to get Malone off the roster. I'd much rather worry about improving our top 9 than that.

 

[Wild Caniac]

Boom Boom Anton, constructive criticism is always helpful. I appreciate your thoughts.

I took some ideas from the board here to add to my article. Boyes seemed to be a solid pickup. I actually like Glencross and Erat as well, but I chose to mention Tlusty as a bring up. My goal with the article was to show roster options with the young guys, because right now that's frankly the best option the team has.

I wrote that article on Malone in April because I was mad he was still here to be honest. Looking back on it, I don't mind having him on the 4th line. I just want a better option, and I think most fans do as well. Tolchinsky on the 4th line is obviously not a long-term idea.

I look at Tolchinsky as a Zach Boychuk replacement. What I mean by that, is that he may be on the 4th line a lot, but he will earn his playing time and gain more ice time over the season, unlike Boychuk when Maurice was here. He sat on the 4th line playing 6-10 minutes every night and never got opportunities to move up and it hindered his progress. Peters is a guy who believes that hard work will result in more opportunities, and that's something I think Tolchinsky can work on.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Boom Boom Anton, constructive criticism is always helpful. I appreciate your thoughts.

I took some ideas from the board here to add to my article. Boyes seemed to be a solid pickup. I actually like Glencross and Erat as well, but I chose to mention Tlusty as a bring up. My goal with the article was to show roster options with the young guys, because right now that's frankly the best option the team has.

I wrote that article on Malone in April because I was mad he was still here to be honest. Looking back on it, I don't mind having him on the 4th line. I just want a better option, and I think most fans do as well. Tolchinsky on the 4th line is obviously not a long-term idea.

I get that there was a lot of angst about Malone last year, but I honestly think most fans want a better top 9 vs. worrying about Malone, as the 4th line is the least of this teams problems IMO. Last year's 4th line was probably the first time in a long time where the Canes had a 4th line with a defined role and they did a decent job at it. Malone isn't great, but I'd rather have him in that role than force fitting someone like Tolchinsky, who I'll be very surprised if he is NHL ready early in the season. Again, we seem to be worried about a guy getting 9 min / game vs. the fact that our top 9 is pretty bad unless Skinner and Staal rebound, Jordan finds some scoring, and Lindholm and Rask take another step forward.

I look at Tolchinsky as a Zach Boychuk replacement. What I mean by that, is that he may be on the 4th line a lot, but he will earn his playing time and gain more ice time over the season, unlike Boychuk when Maurice was here. He sat on the 4th line playing 6-10 minutes every night and never got opportunities to move up and it hindered his progress. Peters is a guy who believes that hard work will result in more opportunities, and that's something I think Tolchinsky can work on.

That's where I disagree.

1) I think the reason Boychuk was on the 4th line is that he's proven since then he wasn't capable of holding down a top 9 spot. His progress wasn't hindered by Paul Maurice, his progress was hindered by not being good enough.
2) IMO it's a bad idea to start Tolchinsky off on the 4th line in his first pro season. Why give him 4th line minutes in the NHL when he can work on his game getting 15+ min a night in AHL? IMO, that wouldn't help the team, nor would it help Tolchinsky.

I'll be very surprised if Tolchinsky doesn't start the year and spend a good chuck (if not all) of it in the AHL. Would love for him to prove me wrong, but I don't see it.

EDIT: and don't get me wrong. I am not opposed to upgrading the 4th line and don't have thoughts 1 way or another about Malone, I just think that 4th line as you have it constructed isn't the way to do it.

 

[DaveG]

And by Jeff Daniels.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

And by Jeff Daniels.

Maybe, but Daniels didn't seem to hinder Brandon Sutter, Rask, Nash, Faulk, Murphy, Terry, Jordan and heck, even Bellemore (who was a 6th rounder after all), etc... I'm no fan of Daniels and am glad he's gone and I've also been a Boychuk supporter, so this isn't bashing him for the sake of bashing him, but at some point, you have to put his lack of success (to this point) where it squarely belongs.

EDIT: Well, maybe there is still hope!

http://www.airdrieecho.com/2015/07/21/boychuk-set-for-another-season

He said he is happy to be a part of the puzzle in the minds of ‘Canes head coach Bill Peters and executive vice president and general manager Ron Francis.

“I think both Ron and Bill Peters have shown times where they really liked me and brought me in and played me lots of minutes,” said Boychuk. "A lot of teams could have not qualified me or traded me or wanted me to go somewhere else,” he said. “They’re showing their belief in me that I’m a good forward. They expect me to have a really good camp and make the team.”

“I’ve had a lot of success at the AHL level and now I need to have a break out year,” he said. “It looks like there’s going to be some room [on the roster].”

 

[bleedgreen]

Malone is actually one of the better fourth line players we've had in some time. Of all the misplaced negativity that gets thrown around here, I think Malone's may take the cake. He's cheap and he does exactly what we got him to do. Like BBA said, Tolchinsky does not belong on the fourth line.

We can't get rid of Ward, we're probably about to resign our "best player" to an expensive extension and people around here care about Malone...

 

[DaveG]

Maybe, but Daniels didn't seem to hinder Brandon Sutter, Rask, Nash, Faulk, Murphy, Terry, Jordan and heck, even Bellemore (who was a 6th rounder after all), etc... I'm no fan of Daniels and am glad he's gone and I've also been a Boychuk supporter, so this isn't bashing him for the sake of bashing him, but at some point, you have to put his lack of success (to this point) where it squarely belongs.

EDIT: Well, maybe there is still hope!

http://www.airdrieecho.com/2015/07/21/boychuk-set-for-another-season

I was halfway joking on that honestly.

But yeah, while I wouldn't give Daniels credit for Sutter or Nash (both were ready day 1 IMO) he didn't really hurt our D prospects too much, and Rask looks legit. Terry's Terry, guys like that wouldn't be NHLers in most orgs but he's also not a detriment to have up here.

Still, Boychuk's stagnation was especially puzzling to me, he just never seemed to get that much better then he was the year we drafted him.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I was halfway joking on that honestly.

But yeah, while I wouldn't give Daniels credit for Sutter or Nash (both were ready day 1 IMO) he didn't really hurt our D prospects too much, and Rask looks legit. Terry's Terry, guys like that wouldn't be NHLers in most orgs but he's also not a detriment to have up here.

Still, Boychuk's stagnation was especially puzzling to me, he just never seemed to get that much better then he was the year we drafted him.

I'll give u sutter, but disagree on Nash. He spent the better part of 3 seasons in the AHL. While Terry is a fringe player, he was a 5th rounder so his development in terms of expectations is still pretty good.

But I digress. I agree Boychuk has been puzzling. He's shown flashes, just not enough consistency. Not sure if it's mental or physical.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

i agree with bleed.

malone is a decent to good 4th liner. he showed it the second half of last year, i think he'll keep showing it this year.

our 4th line is not really our issue. we've got two good forwards locked in there, with a large group of ahlers that can compete to fill the other spot. and while tolchinsky does not fit there in the slightest, i wouldnt be opposed to a guy like mcginn being there to start the year.

 

[DaveG]

Yep. our issue is our 3rd line is a hot mess, and we have no chemistry in the top 6 outside of the Staal bros.

 

[bleedgreen]

We built around the Staals, who aren't scary goal scorers and we are threatening to trade are only actual goal scorer. I was hoping we'd go into the year without signing Eric so we could move on from that and reshuffle a little further. If we trade skinner and resign staal I'll have some doubts about the future, depending on whatever skinner hypothetically brings back.

 

[RodTheBawd]

We had one of the better 4th lines in the league last year (I can't help but smile typing that) due in large part to Malone playing his role well. Not to beat a dead horse, but they were pretty much the only good thing we had going throughout the entire season.

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

kind of off topic, but all this talk of our lack of goal scoring always makes me wonder what this team would've looked like had we actually gotten Fedorov.

 

[cptjeff]

I look at Tolchinsky as a Zach Boychuk replacement. What I mean by that, is that he may be on the 4th line a lot, but he will earn his playing time and gain more ice time over the season, unlike Boychuk when Maurice was here. He sat on the 4th line playing 6-10 minutes every night and never got opportunities to move up and it hindered his progress. Peters is a guy who believes that hard work will result in more opportunities, and that's something I think Tolchinsky can work on.

That's simply not how Peters and Francis runs the 4th line. They don't use it as a place to put offense only guys who aren't producing or random prospects, they use guys who are good at playing a checking/energy role. Tochinsky is not that type of player. He will be in a scoring role, or in the AHL.

The Canes used to do what you're suggesting: Take offensive guys, put them on the 4th line, and expect them to do a completely different role than the one they were good at as a means of working their way back to the offensive role they were set up for. It was a stupendous disaster that resulted in 4th lines that couldn't chekc or provide offense, and were worse than useless. Francis brought in guys like McClement and Malone in a move to move as far away from that model as humanely possible. He brought in players that were actually good at playing a 4th line checking role, and it was one of the few elements of the team that actually worked as designed. They're not going to move away from that.

Offensive prospects trying to prove themselves start on the 3rd line on this team, or stay in the AHL.

 

[cptjeff]

kind of off topic, but all this talk of our lack of goal scoring always makes me wonder what this team would've looked like had we actually gotten Fedorov.

No Jeff Heerema, David Tanabe, Sandis Ozolinsh (who came over for the 2000 1st and stuff), Igor Knyazev, or Cam Ward.

Of course, we would might have been a much better team those years too. So who the hell knows...

 

[DaveG]

And crazy enough, with where Cam was ranked in the draft his draft year, we still might have ended up with him anyway.

 

[StormCast]

http://alongtheboards.com/2015/07/carolina-hurricanes-offensive-offseason-analysis/

I still write articles from time to time. This article looked at the possibilities on offense, including bringing back a familiar face to help the offense. Next week I am going to look at defense.

This popped up on my news feed too so I thought I'd share a couple thoughts:

Agreed that the title is awkward, even if the editor was going for tongue-in-cheek.

I've got no issues with Malone and think he's doing what's been asked or expected of him more than most.

Agree that Peverley's would fill a crying need but he hasn't gotten medical clearance yet. Also, he most recently was exclusively a wing, not a center, but his playmaking, anticipation and vision was always quite good. If he were fully healthy and mentally able to play, I'd rank him ahead of Boyes and Erat. Fehr could help but I'm not overly excited about his lack of playmaking. None of these guys get a lot of love here because their stat lines don't jump off the page but there is value to be had on a cheap contract if you dig a little deeper.

On Boychuk, I agree 100% about how Maurice used him improperly. I remember an interview with Maurice where he said Boychuk had to learn to play a 4th line role, physical, gritty, etc. before he could trust him in the top 9. The problem though is that wasn't and isn't his game. Some of it's on Boychuk but he was given mixed messages constantly about what to do and how to do it, always looking over his shoulder. There were times when Boychuk looked fine and then he'd get scratched or demoted back to the 4th line. Peters told him specifically what he wanted and needed from his in last year's camp. It's now or never for him obviously, but he could contribute on the 3rd line with some consistency.

 

[Wild Caniac]

I just want to thank everyone for their thoughts and opinions on team needs. I am still new to writing and can always find room for improvement, even with opinion-based articles. I plan to have the defensive article up later this week.