Checkers IV: Insert Witty Title Here

[Lempo]

Yeah, I know that but my browser wasn't having any of it so I lazied my way out and asked you instead.

That's also a good option, occasionally.

 

[Lucky Lindy]

Charlotte Checkers, probably the best professional team in NC right now.

 

[Wolfpuck]

Charlotte Checkers, probably the best professional team in NC right now.

Canes, Panthers, and Hornets are all mediocre.

 

[MinJaBen]

Charlotte Checkers, probably the best professional team in NC right now.

No, Duke is.

 

[SaskCanesFan]

It's time to reward Kuokkanen for his strong start. Even if he were to struggle, it would be better than watching Martinook do nothing with his Top 9 minutes.

Williams, I think you meant to say Williams.

Martinook is slotted too high, but he’d be excellent on the fourth line. Other than making up infrequent celebrations, I can’t think of where I’d want Williams in the lineup.

Honestly, I'm fine with Foegele going back down for a while. He's not playing the same buzzing game as the start of the year, and his lack of finishing talent has hurt a couple of times. Not putting up points and seems to be settling in to just being around.

 

[The Faulker 27]

The only reason I can see keeping Foegele is we really don't have a better option, and he's at least not a liability. As sad as that is. All of our prospects in Charlotte will likely come up and produce about the same, which is not much, and potentially less reliable defensively. I'd be willing to give Kouk a shot, though. I'm not sure they would do a swap with Foegele or not. As you can tell, I don't have much faith that we are growing future top 6 talent in Charlotte. They're all likely destined for bottom 6 roles. IMO.

 

[A Star is Burns]

It's hard to say what another one of those guys does with the chance until they get it. If it's supposed to be about earning your spot, Foegele hasn't been earning it as much recently, and it seems like some other guys in Charlotte have. If they don't cut it, and Foegele kills it in Charlotte, swap em back. Right now, I'd be more okay with him not producing if he was at least showing more of his disrupting capabilities from earlier in the year and preseason. Even if it isn't realistic for him to go balls to the wall all game, every game, I haven't even really seen him do it in spurts recently either. They probably just don't want to go from, "this guy is what a Hurricane should be" to demoting him to Charlotte.

 

[Unsustainable]

The only reason I can see keeping Foegele is we really don't have a better option, and he's at least not a liability. As sad as that is. All of our prospects in Charlotte will likely come up and produce about the same, which is not much, and potentially less reliable defensively. I'd be willing to give Kouk a shot, though. I'm not sure they would do a swap with Foegele or not. As you can tell, I don't have much faith that we are growing future top 6 talent in Charlotte. They're all likely destined for bottom 6 roles. IMO.

I’d like to swap Foegele with Kuokkanen

Try this:

Ferland - Aho - Svenchnikov
Kuokkanen - Wallmark - TT
Martinook - Staal - Williams
McGinn - Bishop - PDG

 

[The Faulker 27]

It's hard to say what another one of those guys does with the chance until they get it. If it's supposed to be about earning your spot, Foegele hasn't been earning it as much recently, and it seems like some other guys in Charlotte have. If they don't cut it, and Foegele kills it in Charlotte, swap em back. Right now, I'd be more okay with him not producing if he was at least showing more of his disrupting capabilities from earlier in the year and preseason. Even if it isn't realistic for him to go balls to the wall all game, every game, I haven't even really seen him do it in spurts recently either. They probably just don't want to go from, "this guy is what a Hurricane should be" to demoting him to Charlotte.

It's hard to demote Foegele too, when you have a guy like Williams with guaranteed minutes. I'm not sure how much accountability really plays into Rod's decisions at the end of the day. I think he really likes Foegele, has said as much so I don't think he's much different than Peters in that sense.

 

[The Faulker 27]

I’d like to swap Foegele with Kuokkanen

Try this:

Ferland - Aho - Svenchnikov
Kuokkanen - Wallmark - TT
Martinook - Staal - Williams
McGinn - Bishop - PDG

I'd be all for it. I'd be fine with swapping out Wallmark, and Foegele. I've been pleased with Bishop, but again he's a similar type player to Foegele. Plenty of jam, questionable finisher.

 

[A Star is Burns]

Yes, every coach will have their favorite guys. I don't think it's the end of the world to keep Foegele, or even Wallmark at this point, up to experience the growing pains. We just have so many options, I don't think it'd hurt to bring them up occasionally to see what they can do. You don't even necessarily have to do anything more than scratch a Foegele or Wallmark to do that. I guess the only other thing is maybe they told Foegele to pace himself, he's a part of the team, and that's why he's toned it down. Who knows?

 

[The Faulker 27]

It's hard to say, other than maybe we just don't have talented scorers. The first 5 games were an anomaly. Goalies/teams were rusty. We caught them off guard with our high intensity, attacking style of play. The league caught up, and all of sudden everyone except Ferland is snake bit. Including Foegele.

 

[RodTheBawd]

Foegele looks like he's playing through a LBI, he's been really slow, which kills a guy like that's effectiveness.

 

[GoldiFox]

Foegele looks like he's playing through a LBI, he's been really slow, which kills a guy like that's effectiveness.

I hope so. He was a demon in preseason and the first 5 games. Just hit a wall with winning puck battles after hustling to the puck.

 

[WreckingCrew]

Lost 5-1 to a very mediocre Belleville at home tonight. Report from my family is it was one of the worst games they've seen out of the Checkers (though not as bad as their playoff-ending game last year)...apparently we couldn't even string together 2 passes

 

[AeroFishOne]

Lost 5-1 to a very mediocre Belleville at home tonight. Report from my family is it was one of the worst games they've seen out of the Checkers (though not as bad as their playoff-ending game last year)...apparently we couldn't even string together 2 passes

Velucci went off on some of the guys to the media. Called Necas performance horrible. Shade thrown.

 

[A Star is Burns]

Not a big fan of that

 

[Negan4Coach]

How do they have such a great AHL team yet the call ups cant cut it but yet other teams call ups from lesser AHL teams are all good.? Asking for a friend

 

[AeroFishOne]

Checkers evidentially reaches out for clarification from Velucci. He meant to say the team supposedly.

 

[lakai17]

I’d like to swap Foegele with Kuokkanen

Try this:

Ferland - Aho - Svenchnikov
Kuokkanen - Wallmark - TT
Martinook - Staal - Williams
McGinn - Bishop - PDG

Yeah when will Kuokkanen get the call? He's due.

 

[QuebeCaniac]

Checkers evidentially reaches out for clarification from Velucci. He meant to say the team supposedly.

« The team » and not « Mar teen » according to Civian et al.

 

[CandyCanes]

First off look at Boj’s Coliseum rocking tonight! Looked like quite an atmosphere for a minor league hockey game.

Second off, 2 goals from Necas tonight. Heck yeah!

 

[bleedgreen]

Why send Foegele down? He’s a perfect fourth line winger. Let Phil sit.

 

[HisIceness]

Still 1st in the league!

 

[My Special Purpose]

Since Foegele seems to have lost his mojo and the Canes suck at scoring, maybe we send him down for a bit and give Kooks or Saku a shot?

foegele looks night and day different in a bad way than he did to start the season. i would be encouraged to see the team send him down to get his act together. it also wouldn't be entirely unreasonable to see them give poturalski a shot at some point.

Yeah, McLovin' has been bad lately. I would call up Kuoks

Maybe Saarela can become that third line "pain in the ass , high energy , hard to play against " - type of a player for the Canes. Irrationally , he's my favorite from all the Finns in the system.

It's time to reward Kuokkanen for his strong start. Even if he were to struggle, it would be better than watching Martinook do nothing with his Top 9 minutes.

I’d like to swap Foegele with Kuokkanen

How do they have such a great AHL team yet the call ups cant cut it but yet other teams call ups from lesser AHL teams are all good.? Asking for a friend

Anybody starting to think the problem with our young wingers (Foegele, Kuokkanen, Saarela, Svechnikov and Zykov) is that none of them play with a capable center? IMO, we can rotate all of them into all the wing slots on the team and none of them are going to look any good because we don't have a real, offensive NHL center on our roster. It's really not possible that *all* our young wingers are overrated. We have quality AHL centers (Greg McKegg, Nicolas Roy, Clark Bishop) who make our AHL wingers look good, but when they get to the NHL, they're losing the battle at center and the wingers look like crap.

To sum up, I don't think it's our young wingers who are the issue, it's our (lack of) NHL centers.