Post-Game Talk: [GM28] Canucks defeat Hurricanes | 4-3 (Pettersson, Miller, Mikheyev, & Lafferty) | Skin of Their Teeth

[biturbo19]

Aho is a PPG guy. Svech, also typically in the 70's. That's their best offensive guys. Very good players, but not superstars. More Star level.

Does beg the question, does Carolina push hard this season if they are losing Pesce/Skjei this summer? Are they going to fix their goaltending and add a scorer? They did let both Hamilton/Ferland walk when they hit UFA. Dundon's philosophy is to not pay guys more than he feels they are worth. They did sign Aho, but he was due to hit UFA at 27 so he has plenty of good years ahead of him. Pesce is 29 and turns 30 this time next year. Do they want to lock themselves into a 7-8 year contract with him?

These last couple of seasons, really was the time for the Hurricanes to push. Going for KK versus pony up for someone who was an immediate help was an odd decision. More based on revenge vs. trying to win with their core.

Yeah. They're certainly in a bit of a weird spot. It really does seem strange or stubborn, that they haven't been willing to go "all in" the last few years. Trying to pick up "bargains" and "under the radar" help, rather than just ponying up for some impact scoring forwards, or a real #2C that they haven't had since they let Trochek walk.

They're a team that's kind of constructed for a window right now, but they've got all that UFA mess that Dundon has shown he doesn't like to pay with term, and they don't really seem to have the "all in" pieces you'd expect to go with that. And they're fine with overpaying Kotkaniemi based on a stupid revenge ploy that basically just backfired on them.

It really just feels like Dundon has some heavy heavy influence in how that team is built, and he seems to be trying to run it like a different sort of business venture. Always trying to "buy low, sell high" pumping up distressed assets, etc. Trying to "win the game" of teambuilding value, rather than trying to build a team to actually "win games" or specifically, "win the Cup".

 

[StreetHawk]

And Kotkaniemi was just spite.

And the crazy thing is that they had a lot of draft capital and prospects that are now rotting on the vine as they don't even have an AHL team.

Even last year when things were going well for them they were 15th in the NHL offensively and one of the lowest-scoring teams to make the playoffs ... and then scored 6 goals in 4 games (all 1-goal losses) as they were swept by Florida.

Yeah, weird situation in the A as the A would not expand, yet have an indy team in Chicago.

 

[andora]

And Kotkaniemi was just spite.

And the crazy thing is that they had a lot of draft capital and prospects that are now rotting on the vine as they don't even have an AHL team.

Even last year when things were going well for them they were 15th in the NHL offensively and one of the lowest-scoring teams to make the playoffs ... and then scored 6 goals in 4 games (all 1-goal losses) as they were swept by Florida.

Where they are now reminds me a bit of the 07-08 Canucks. We'd had a great year in 06-07 carried by Luongo but didn't score enough and it became really obvious in the playoffs that the team needed some extra guns offensively if we wanted to take the next step. And Nonis did nothing except Brad Isbister and you could just feel the energy around the team sag because they knew they weren't good enough the previous year and nothing had changed. If you're a Carolina player and you've now had all these playoff losses where you can't score goals and then the team's big acquisition is .... Michael Bunting? Not going to lead to a lot of belief.

Buntin was such a dumb signing.. stupid dollars and term

He looks invisible and neutered

 

[pitseleh]

The Hurricanes are basically an even goal differential team despite their goalies posting a collective .867 SV%. That’s the entire story of their season.

If they had average-ish goaltending instead they’d have given up ~20-25 fewer GA and would be in the 5-8 range in the league in goal differential.

They may have made bad decisions with their goaltending but that’s a more specific issue.

 

[mossey3535]

I think the real issue is that Brindamour gets a great buy-in and effort in their overall defensive system but their offensive philosophy is hopelessly antiquated.

This is why Sutter didn't last in Calgary - shot volume doesn't work anymore if you're not matching it with shot quality. Carolina got killed just letting the Panthers block a huge volume of low danger point shots. Other than that, they were very very close in the series despite getting worse (but not poor like this season IIRC) goaltending.

 

[arttk]

Yup, they've basically just sat on their hands and watched the world go by.

Imagine that team with JT Miller on it.

Them not trying to trade for Miller 2 years ago was like just short sighted. They could’ve gotten Miller at the like 2 playoffs runs at 5.X M contract with like a 1st, prospect + player and that would’ve been a bargain.

 

[Quinntessential]

Lafferty was absolute larceny by Allvin

He's no Markus Granlund