How will the Canes do this season?

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Now that training season is over and the line-up is "mostly" set, it's time to once again predict how the season will unfold. How will the Canes do this year in the regular season?

1) Win the division?
2) Comfortably in the playoffs?
3) Playoff bubble team (sneak in or just miss)
4) Out of the playoffs?
5) In the running for a top 5 draft pick?

For reference, here is how the Canes ended up the past 5 years:

2012: Top 5 pick (13th in the east)
2011: Out of the playoffs (12th in the east)
2010: Bubble team (9th in the east)
2009: Out of the playoffs (11th in the east)
2008: Comfortably in the playoffs (6th in the east).

Click to read more...

 

[QuitStaaling]

I say win the division. My confidence, no matter how we look on paper for game 1, is at an all time high. Might as well go all in while we can.

 

[Unsustainable]

We are a top 5 pick team till they prove otherwise.

 

[What the Faulk]

It all depends on how serious these injuries are.

 

[rocky7]

it does depend........on a lot of things but, if everything comes together this team should easily make the playoffs. I'll go with the positive ......................................................for now..

 

[Novacane]

I said bubble about a month ago before all these injuries decided to pop up. Can only think things are going to get worse again.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I was on the playoff bandwagon until the preseason reminded me that we're going to be decimated by injuries and out of the race by Christmas. As usual.

 

[rocky7]

most every other team is dealing with injuries, has a crappy power play, etc................

 

[A Star is Burns]

The two seemingly most serious injuries appear to be Ruutu and Gleason. From an injury standpoint, neither of those worries me too much. Canes are used to playing without Ruutu and were doing pretty well without him last year. The only thing that sucks is obviously he's one of the few forwards capable of providing much physicality. Gleason, I think we have serviceable replacements in Bellemore and Komisarek, especially given how Gleason has been playing recently.

I still maintain as I have been for months that I could see us anywhere from 2-8 in the new division, same with pretty much every other team. The cap coming down has leveled the playing field a lot, and there will be a lot of tight races. So I just went with bubble, because I think most teams will be barely in or out, regardless of where they end up finishing.

 

[Anton Babchuk]

Corrente-Sutter-Westgarth fourth line

Bowman, Nash, Dwyer, Dvorak, and Gerbe in the top nine

Only Semin will be back soon (Skinner is already back)

Not to mention the defense, which cannot move the puck and isn't very good defensively either.

This lineup is not NHL caliber and will lose a lot of games. Once again we have about ten players who should be on a 4th line or bottom D pairing.

What a ****ing disaster

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Corrente-Sutter-Westgarth fourth line

Bowman, Nash, Dwyer, Dvorak, and Gerbe in the top nine

Only Semin will be back soon (Skinner is already back)

Not to mention the defense, which cannot move the puck and isn't very good defensively either.

This lineup is not NHL caliber and will lose a lot of games. Once again we have about ten players who should be on a 4th line or bottom D pairing.

What a ****ing disaster

The real question is: Which of those players will be the next LaRose? Which one will inexplicably find himself in the Top 6 time after time for reasons only apparent to the coaching staff?

 

[bleedgreen]

I think we're a cut below our usual bubble team, but better than the top 5 pick of last season. Comfortably out of the hunt but not the worst. I think the new division will be a bigger issue than some think it will be. I think almost every team in our division is above us, maybe all of them. We have to play at our very best for the majority of the season to contend for a spot. We've only been that good once during my time of watching this team.

We cut some dead weight, and added players that aren't offensive to the eye but we didn't add any difference makers to a team that finished bad enough to get lindholm. We were hurt, but we will likely be this year as well. Gerbe and Dvorak were cast offs and walked into our top 9, possibly six. That's some depth issues there. We're pumped about sekera who was arguably a top 4 guy for a team almost as bad as us, and we're using him in our "top pair" with Faulk who becomes our defacto number one despite still being a developing player who makes mistakes every night.

I'm glad corvo is gone. I'm glad we have new hope at the backup position. Our d is better but still below average, and our goalie has a lot to prove he still has it. The staals carry a huge weight with this team.

 

[Drivebytrucker]

Top 5 Pick.


Chip is reporting the lines today as

Tlusty Estaal Dvorak
Gerbe JStaal Dwyer
Skinner Nash Bowman
Westgarth Sutter Corrente


That's pretty bad folks.


We need to pick up Emmerton off waivers from Detroit.

 

[Anton Babchuk]

Ryan Bayda would be an upgrade on that entire 4th line.

 

[Wolfpuck]

Same as every season; bubble team on paper that tanks when injuries expose lack of depth

Top 5 Pick.


Chip is reporting the lines today as

Tlusty Estaal Dvorak
Gerbe JStaal Dwyer
Skinner Nash Bowman
Westgarth Sutter Corrente


That's pretty bad folks.


We need to pick up Emmerton off waivers from Detroit.

Ewww

How bad is Semin's injury? Is he still out as just a precaution?

 

[What the Faulk]

No one knows. Everyone is listed as day to day.

If Semin is healthy, they're far from a top 5 pick. The reason for their top 5 pick last year was Peters and Ellis starting as many as games as they did, and a poor defense. Forwards were never and still aren't the problem.

 

[rocky7]

seeing that line-up and the stubborn persistence by JR and Muller to maintain that AHL players are NHL players (and playing Skinner, an offensive talent with them), has hope/optimism fading some already.

pisses ya off after a while.....

 

[Anton Babchuk]

They were 14th in goals for last year and they significantly weakened the defense's ability to move the puck. The bottom six somehow only got worse with Jokinen replaced by magic beans. This lineup (even with Semin) is league average at best in terms of goal scoring. Even if the defense was average it probably wouldn't be enough to make the playoffs. Most playoff teams have positive goal differentials.

Maybe we can fluke our way to winning a billion one goal games and losing in overtime 20 times like Florida a few years ago, but I'm not seeing it.

 

[What the Faulk]

I was referring to being top 5 pick bad. The injuries put them squarely on the bubble, but I don't see them as a lottery team.

 

[tarheelhockey]

most every other team is dealing with injuries, has a crappy power play, etc................

We were fourth-worst in the league last season. Our big changes were to subtract Pitkanen, Corvo, Bergeron, McBain and Jokinen and add Hainsey, Murphy and Gerbe.

I fully expect another bottom-5 PP finish and quite possibly a last-place ranking. For whatever reason, Muller has shown absolutely no ability to get results out of a pretty good collection of offensive talent.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

seeing that line-up and the stubborn persistence by JR and Muller to maintain that AHL players are NHL players

Where is this stubborn persistence you speak of? In the last two years, JR has gone off and signed Semin, Gerbe, Dvorak (assumed), Komisarik, Khudobin, and Hainsey and traded for J. Staal and Sekera.

If anything, the moves he's made in acquiring some of these guys as well as getting rid of McBain, Dalpe, Welsh and waiving guys like Boychuk tells me they don't have confidence that AHL guys will be NHL guys.

The only reason we are seeing the likes of Corrente and Sutter are because of injuries to Ruutu, Semin, and Lindholm. If healthy, I suspect Nash and Bowman would be the only ones on the roster and they'd be playing 4th line.

 

[rocky7]

idk, but there is just no depth here. the moment inevitable injuries occur these guys creep into the top nine and..., *the top six*. better planning seems prudent. there is cap space and like I said, there is no panic and I'll "wait and see" but optimism is waning some.

 

[rocky7]

We were fourth-worst in the league last season. Our big changes were to subtract Pitkanen, Corvo, Bergeron, McBain and Jokinen and add Hainsey, Murphy and Gerbe.

I fully expect another bottom-5 PP finish and quite possibly a last-place ranking. For whatever reason, Muller has shown absolutely no ability to get results out of a pretty good collection of offensive talent.

it's your last sentence that concerns me. those guys are capable of better results and have been playing Muller's "systems" to a tee. again, it's wait and see but there has been no overt change from Muller that I've detected so far.

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

They run one and only one play on the powerplay, as AJJ pointed out in his article.

Hopefully, with a training camp under his belt, Muller has added more plays to the mix.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Problem is no true QB to run a PP. Look how MTL improved with Markov coming back. The were bottom of the league at 15.5% and jumped up to 22.4% when Markov returned.

None of the Canes defenseman could really run an effective PP from the point and I dont' see that changing this year.