GDT: Carolina Mudcats at Miami Marlins - 7:30 EST 1/19/13

[Lazyking]

I love Ward and I'll give him a week to get in the flow of things cause that's all we can afford but even if he's bad this year, that means we have to look for a goalie. I don't really want to think about that.

 

[La Huracanista]

What's wrong with admiring an attractive woman?

Also, I don't think she did bad for her first game.

It creates a double standard. No one is saying anything about Tripp and John's looks and how they may or may not relate to their jobs (and I wouldn't expect them to, because the content of what they say matters more).

It's disgusting in every way, basically. *shrugs*

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

It creates a double standard. No one is saying anything about Tripp and John's looks and how they may or may not relate to their jobs (and I wouldn't expect them to, because the content of what they say matters more).

It's disgusting in every way, basically. *shrugs*

But then, how many women do we have on this board? 2?

And you can't help but think that Chantel's looks had SOME reason to do with her hiring?

 

[DaleCooper]

But then, how many women do we have on this board? 2?

Chicken... egg....

Had the same thoughts as La Huracanista during this one.

 

[nobuddy]

I'm not saying Ward sucks, but I think I'm starting to see what some of these guys have been saying over the past several years.

Any bonus points that Ward had built up because of the Conn Smythe have gone, in my opinion. He's at a score of 0 right now, complete clean slate. He better have a good year this year, because the rose-colored glasses are off. I'm not saying I'm going to judge him unfairly or harshly, but I'm not going to be foolish enough to just hide starts like these under the rug and say everything's OK.

My opinion of Ward is going to be EXACTLY what he shows me this year. Anything he's done in the past is gone.

Agreed.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

I don't think it's wrong to acknowledge that she's absolutely gorgeous, in fact I think it'd be a shame not to. But I agree with Huricanista, it went a little overboard. Certainly past "acknowledgement," definitely past "flattery."

She wasn't polished. But she's young, it's her first real on-air job at a somewhat large scale network, and apparently all that crap happened to her before the game with the equipment catching on fire and whatnot. Give her a break, give her a season at least...

I feel like after a 5-1 debacle like that, the conversation topic order should NOT be Corvo then Chantel. She was fine if not a little nervous and a little new at this, and that's that.

Now can we please talk about which one of us is going to take out Corvo? We could pool our funds and just get a third-party to do it...

 

[La Huracanista]

Jonathan Quick also sucked tonight, you guys. Conn Smythe trophies are won in a really small sample size of games.

But one game is an even smaller sample size. If you look at Cam Ward's career numbers, he was bad enough that he probably cost us trips to the playoffs in the two years after the Stanley Cup. He's been better since then.

Now he's an average/above-average starter being paid star money.

 

[Lazyking]

Alot of teams fans have right to overreact after tonight but if the Canes play like this the rest of the season, it won't matter who's back there. Too many penalties, too many turnovers and not exactly lighting things up on the offensive end..

I'm not even saying that Ward is as good as he's been but he's the guy in net for this season.

That said, I don't think he'll play alot of back to backs.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

On another note, Ellis played quite respectably today...

 

[Ole Gil]

Almost looked like this was the first preseason game instead of the opener.

This lockout business looks like its going to be a tough hurdle to clear for the Raleigh practice squad.

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

That's the thing. Tonight, Ellis looked like the starter while Ward looked like the shellshocked backup.

As Anton Dubinchuk correctly pointed out, Bowman, Boychuk, Dalpe, Semin, Pitkanen and Ellis were all our best players today.

They were also (with the exception of Pitkanen) the only ones on the team who played during the lockout.

We shouldn't read too much into this thrashing. I say give it a week before we make any critical judgement.

 

[BabchukCanon]

We did lose the first game of the year 5-2 the year we won the Cup, so maybe we're good to go?

 

[Anton Babchuk]

This is by far the most active GDT in HF 'Canes history by a margin of 165 posts.

Bettman is a genius.

 

[TheBigKahuna]

That's the thing. Tonight, Ellis looked like the starter while Ward looked like the shellshocked backup.

As Anton Dubinchuk correctly pointed out, Bowman, Boychuk, Dalpe, Semin, Pitkanen and Ellis were all our best players today.

They were also (with the exception of Pitkanen) the only ones on the team who played during the lockout.

We shouldn't read too much into this thrashing. I say give it a week before we make any critical judgement.

I thought Tlusty looked solid, and he and Semin have been playing as well. I don't think it's any coincidence that a lot of the vets looked like crap.

 

[CanesAvs16]

Chantel, to me, sounded like a teenager reporting at a high school game. She is very pretty, but I don't think she sounds professional.

agree.

 

[CanesAvs16]

The biggest disappointments were E. Staal/Ward. Eric looked lost and confused. He cannot go through the slump he did last year if we expect to win. I'll give them a few* games to become more in sync with each other, but if they don't get it together soon, we are in for a long short season.

On another note, I hope Muller decides to move Bowman to the 1st line with Staal and Semin, I feel like he would do much better than Boychuk.

I liked the second line, they seem as though they may have some chemistry, however, they don't have much time to figure it out.

Last night was one of the my disappointing nights as a hurricanes fan...

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

The guys who have been playing hockey during the lockout looked decent and the guys who were doing informal skates at RCI looked rusty. Plus, the chemistry is obviously not there yet. They looked like the keystone cops out there a number of times with players running into each other, passes in the skates, poor coverage etc. Honestly, with the significant number of changes to the line-up and the short training camp, that's not too surprising.

The good news, is that is that both of those are easily correctable with more time playing together. The bad new, is that with a shortened season, they don't have much time to get it sorted out.

The defense playing terrible also isn't a surprise to me as I've been beating that drum back during free agency before the season. I know it won't happen, but I'd love for Muller to park Corvo in the press box. If we are going to be terrible at defense anyhow, at least let Sanguinetti and McBain have a chance to dry and develop some at the NHL level.

 

[PaulProteus]

This is by far the most active GDT in HF 'Canes history by a margin of 165 posts.

Low bars: cleared.

Carolina blue skies ahead; nowhere to go but up.

 

[Unsustainable]

Ever since seeing Boychuk on the first line made me go WTF, I thought Bowman should have been there.

Once Ruutu comes back, we can move Dalpes down a line.

 

[normalpsychology]

I'm not saying Ward sucks, but I think I'm starting to see what some of these guys have been saying over the past several years.

Any bonus points that Ward had built up because of the Conn Smythe have gone, in my opinion. He's at a score of 0 right now, complete clean slate. He better have a good year this year, because the rose-colored glasses are off. I'm not saying I'm going to judge him unfairly or harshly, but I'm not going to be foolish enough to just hide starts like these under the rug and say everything's OK.

My opinion of Ward is going to be EXACTLY what he shows me this year. Anything he's done in the past is gone.

that's the right attitude to have, albeit a little late. I know he was a minor hero during the stanley cup playoffs in 2006 and that causes people to have warm feelings in their heart towards him, but people are so out of touch with reality towards cam ward it's ridiculous. Pair that with the fact that usually after letting in a couple of weak goals he will make a really beautiful save to help people forget about all the ones he has let in. Then you hear "he's better when he faces a lot of shots" "he needs to play more games" "no no now he's facing too many shots" "he's playing too many games." The excuses I have heard. Make no mistake, his stats give a much clearer picture.

" you're only as good as your weakest player"

his career save % is .910. well sub par. and what has this team been for the past several years? sub par. look at his save % for any given year and it is well below par compared to other teams. usually right around 20 out of 30. and where do the hurricanes usually average out to be? you're only as good as your weakest player...

 

[Mr Whipple]

The lockout really screwed over this team. As others have pointed out, basically no training camp and no pre-season when we have two new key players added in J Staal and Semin, leaving no time for any chemistry to be formed and lots of players rusty. I saw right away that the ones who played in Charlotte were the best players on the ice for the Canes. I was calling for Ellis to be put in goal knowing he'd at least been playing lights out in Charlotte, though figured it wouldn't be until after the period ended.

We basically have two options - play the Checkers on the same lines to hopefully have them keep the team competitive in the standings until the others get the rust out, or keep plugging along until things click. The latter is really the best, though it's going to be rough to watch.

Let's not forget we had some horrible games in 05-06. Atlanta comes to mind with the likes of a 9-1 loss. And they weren't anywhere as good as Florida is this year. Hopefully this team uses the loss like they did that year to light a fire under them. So I'm anxiously waiting to see how they respond Tuesday. If I don't see any improvement against Tampa then I'll start to be worried.

 

[tarheelhockey]

This is by far the most active GDT in HF 'Canes history by a margin of 165 posts.

That's kind of sad, actually. We need to get some bigger crowds up in hurr.

 

[What the Faulk]

Bigger crowds mean more people with ridiculous ideas. Sign Jamie Benn for 7 million. Start Ellis on Tuesday. Brandon Sutter would have prevented two and scored two last night. I liked not having to wade through as much absurdity.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Bigger crowds mean more people with ridiculous ideas. Sign Jamie Benn for 7 million. Start Ellis on Tuesday. Brandon Sutter would have prevented two and scored two last night. I liked not having to wade through as much absurdity.

You know, you have a pretty good point there. I find the O6 and Atlantic Division boards to be really off-putting with all the nonsense.

It's like 40 active Facebook pages.