Pre-Game Talk: nyrcar

[tarheelhockey]

The best thing about the July start date: Pesce will be back. All of a sudden, our right side shifts from a weakness to fully jacked. All that I can hope for is that the break was good for Hamilton's leg, Vatanen's finger, and Gardiner's back. A fully healthy and productive Gardiner is just about the best possible partner for Pesce, IMO.

Slavin-Hamilton
Gardiner-Pesce
Skjei-Vatanen

If Gardiner craps the bed in the first game, then put Skjei with Pesce and one of Eddy or Fleury with Vatanen.

Gardiner might be the big winner in all of this. We’ve only seen him as a shadow of himself. A few months off to rest his back might be a big deal.

Pesce’s going to be a close call. Waddell said he’d be ready in mid August. We would have to get past the Rangers for sure, and maybe another round depending on his recovery and the series timing.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

Gardiner might be the big winner in all of this. We’ve only seen him as a shadow of himself. A few months off to rest his back might be a big deal.

Pesce’s going to be a close call. Waddell said he’d be ready in mid August. We would have to get past the Rangers for sure, and maybe another round depending on his recovery and the series timing.

A fully healthy Gardiner basically makes our defense cartoonish at the exact time when we needed it the most. A late July start for the post-season gives Pesce the Erik Cole choice. I think that Pesce would love to play against the Rangers, but it'll be up to Brindy to make the final call. My guess is that TVR (or if Brindy is gonna Brindy, Eddy on the third pair and Skjei in the 2nd pair on his off-side) takes Pesce's spot for the first game, and if the results aren't that great, then Pesce will come in. IOW, these are the two setups that I think that Brindy may use in Game 1:

Slavin-Hamilton
Gardiner-Skjei
Edmundson-Vatanen

or

Slavin-Hamilton
Gardiner-TVR
Skjei-Vatanen

(My personal preference being the latter, since I prefer strong sides playing on strong sides when Panarin and Zibanejad are peak Panarin and Zibanejad)

 

[AD Skinner]

Even without a healthy pesce it's going to be hard to decide who sits. I think without him I'd do

Slavin Hamilton
Skjei Fleury
Vatanen Gardiner

But I also don't really see Brind'Amour leaving both Edmundson and TVR out. Tough calls for sure

 

[tarheelhockey]

A fully healthy Gardiner basically makes our defense cartoonish at the exact time when we needed it the most. A late July start for the post-season gives Pesce the Erik Cole choice. I think that Pesce would love to play against the Rangers, but it'll be up to Brindy to make the final call. My guess is that TVR (or if Brindy is gonna Brindy, Eddy on the third pair and Skjei in the 2nd pair on his off-side) takes Pesce's spot for the first game, and if the results aren't that great, then Pesce will come in. IOW, these are the two setups that I think that Brindy may use in Game 1:

Slavin-Hamilton
Gardiner-Skjei
Edmundson-Vatanen

or

Slavin-Hamilton
Gardiner-TVR
Skjei-Vatanen

(My personal preference being the latter, since I prefer strong sides playing on strong sides when Panarin and Zibanejad are peak Panarin and Zibanejad)

In theory, how do you think they line up with a healthy Pesce?

Slavin - Hamilton
Skjei - Pesce
Gardiner - Vatanen

TVR, Edmundson, and Fleury as healthy scratches is just... what.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

Even without a healthy pesce it's going to be hard to decide who sits. I think without him I'd do

Slavin Hamilton
Skjei Fleury
Vatanen Gardiner

But I also don't really see Brind'Amour leaving both Edmundson and TVR out. Tough calls for sure

I certainly think that TVR would be a useful piece to have on our fourth line from time to time, because we do still lack right shots even with the (IMO, very astute) Trocheck acquisition.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

In theory, how do you think they line up with a healthy Pesce?

Slavin - Hamilton
Skjei - Pesce
Gardiner - Vatanen

TVR, Edmundson, and Fleury as healthy scratches is just... what.

I think that Brindy will start with the above pairings, but I just have the feeling that Gardiner's going to be a beast this post-season. I could be horribly wrong, of course, but to me, at full health, we want Gardiner's possession-hounding mentality and offensive skill with Pesce's defensive game. It would also be a great way to get Skjei and Vatanen to endlessly feast on lesser competition.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I think that Brindy will start with the above pairings, but I just have the feeling that Gardiner's going to be a beast this post-season. I could be horribly wrong, of course, but to me, at full health, we want Gardiner's possession-hounding mentality and offensive skill with Pesce's defensive game. It would also be a great way to get Skjei and Vatanen to endlessly feast on lesser competition.

I could see that.

 

[Chrispy]

I thought Pesce was an August return at the earliest, not July?

That was Waddell's timeline as of the end of May:

 

[tarheelhockey]

I thought Pesce was an August return at the earliest, not July?

That was Waddell's timeline as of the end of May:

I think we're all speaking theoretically about Pesce, just because it's fun to see our lineup at full octane.

If they start camp July 10, presumably they will start the elimination round near the 1st of August. That means Pesce's due to consider returning for the first round of the actual playoffs. And at that point it's down to how much risk he/we want to take with re-injury.

 

[MrazeksVengeance]

I think we're all speaking theoretically about Pesce, just because it's fun to see our lineup at full octane.

If they start camp July 10, presumably they will start the elimination round near the 1st of August. That means Pesce's due to consider returning for the first round of the actual playoffs. And at that point it's down to how much risk he/we want to take with re-injury.

Pesce returns in the game 3 of ECF on home ice to a thunderous applause where he leads Canes with a 1+2 and eventually scores the GWG in game 7 of ECF against Boston, because why the hell not.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Pesce returns in the game 3 of ECF on home ice to a thunderous applause where he leads Canes with a 1+2 and eventually scores the GWG in game 7 of ECF against Boston, because why the hell not.

The craziest thing is he only skates 2 shifts.

 

[AD Skinner]

Wheres this thunderous applause going to come from

 

[2Minutes4Surging]

This would be my preferred line-ups...

With Pesce:
Slavin-Hamilton
Gardiner-Pesce
Skjei-Vatanen

Healthy scratch: Edmundson, TVR, Fleury, Bean, Keane

No Pesce:
Slavin-Hamilton
Skjei-Vatanen
Gardiner-Edmundson/TVR (both Stanley Cup winners get the nod over Fleury)

Healthy scratch: Edmundson/TVR, Fleury, Bean, Keane

I would pair one offensive-minded D-man with one defensive-minded D-man to replicated the Slavin-Hamilton pairing. I am unsure how to classify Skjei but in this scenario he would be the defensive-minded player in the pairing.

 

[MinJaBen]

Wheres this thunderous applause going to come from

Our new home.....in Las Vegas.

 

[Lempo]

Wheres this thunderous applause going to come from

We pump the sound into the arena.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Wheres this thunderous applause going to come from

Have you SEEN Rod's biceps? Now imagine him clapping.

 

[MrazeksVengeance]

Have you SEEN Rod's biceps? Now imagine him clapping.

Not to mention Marty is gonna be pretty excited. @AD Skinner

 

[emptyNedder]

Then only 1 extra forward in Bokk and 2 D very likely not to see ice in Bean and Keane.

Since Europeans are being considered, it makes some sense to have Bean and Sellgren as the extra D. Sure both are left-shots, but Sellgren had two strong playoff runs last season and was excellent in the Champions league this year. Not likely to see the ice, but Sellgren seemingly has an experience advantage on Keane.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

You know how a lot of people are straining their brains trying to remember who's even on the team right now (deadline deals, callups, etc.)? I've seen a few posts like "oh yeah, I forgot Vinny Trocheck is on the team" or whatever.

I just remembered that Lucas Wallmark isn't on the team and got really sad.

 

[AD Skinner]

I also liked wallmark a lot. He won't be any team's leading scorer but hes already a good swiss army knife player that can do a little bit of everything and is still very young. Great depth piece but you have to give to get. Hopefully trocheck pans out here, another guy who may benefit from all this break to really heal to 100%

 

[bleedgreen]

I miss him. We’d be a pretty strong team with him as the fourth line center who could move up if needed for injuries. He was already doing much of the defensive work Staal does, and showed he has some skill.

For the time being we still got the best player in the trade, at a needed position and a needed righty.

 

[DaveG]

I miss him. We’d be a pretty strong team with him as the fourth line center who could move up if needed for injuries. He was already doing much of the defensive work Staal does, and showed he has some skill.

For the time being we still got the best player in the trade, at a needed position and a needed righty.

Yep, all depends on how we do replacing him. If Trocheck bounces back even close to what he was a couple years back we win going away since the replacement for Wallmark in Gretzky Geekie looked pretty damn good in a limited sample.

 

[bleedgreen]

Yep, all depends on how we do replacing him. If Trocheck bounces back even close to what he was a couple years back we win going away since the replacement for Wallmark in Gretzky Geekie looked pretty damn good in a limited sample.

For sure, though that sample size is minuscule. He does look capable of 15 goals which from the fourth line is a huge boost.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

Yep, all depends on how we do replacing him. If Trocheck bounces back even close to what he was a couple years back we win going away since the replacement for Wallmark in Gretzky Geekie looked pretty damn good in a limited sample.

To me, the Trocheck deal was very good in terms of value, especially considering that he was right-handed AND a center. Yes, handedness is IMO quite overrated, and we were playing pretty well with a nearly all-LHed lineup, however, him and JWilly do give our offensive lines some more variation.

 

[Maximus]

Longtime Ranger fan here and yet due to this "new creation" called fantasy hockey(lol), hatred for teams is really a thing of the past. I'm serious about that shit and any of you Canes fans who do fantasy like I do know exactly what I'm talking about.

I lied tho as there is one team I do have extreme hate for forget fantasy and that is the Islanders because every stinken damn year while I was in college, they beat my beloved Rangers in the playoffs on their way to a friggen Cup which was 4 of them, and so apparently 35-40 years later I'm still not over it...lol . But other than them pukes, I really don't hate anyone and that includes your Canes who I actually like.

As I said, due to my having owned Hamilton and Teravainen the past two years and trading for Aho this past year in my big $ fantasy league, I have watched alot of Canes games over the past two years via NHL Center Ice and I kind of like your team and the way it's been built and the style of play the Canes play.

Oh and by the way, I've known about this little "secret" that all of a sudden the rest of the country is finally finding about called John Forslund for years, as I'm old enough to have actually owned Trevor friggen Kidd(how's that for a blast from the past? haha), when he was your goalie in the late 90's and so no one is better than Forslund in calling a game and I do mean "no one". Heck I've even started to kind of like Tripp Tracey or whatever his name is...lol. And yes that "storm surge" stuff or whatever it is you guys do after games is funny as shit and I think it's great for the game despite what some ass clowns might say to the contrary.

Bottom line fellas is, most of my Ranger fan bro's who know their shit, all have bigtime respect for your squad. Tho we are division rivals, if you think about it, we've never really ever had bad blood between our two teams.

So you know, your not just beating the Islanders last year, but sweeping them SOB's was so glorious and so f'n sweet, you have no idea how awesome it made us Ranger fans feel especially after them misguided cocky ass Isle fans started to get big heads after having just swept the Pens and having thoughts of grandeur. So a year later, I for one sincerely thank you guys for sending them despicable Islanders to the golf course with their tails between their legs...

So IMO, there is much more respect for your Canes than any perceived cockiness from some of my Ranger brothers who frankly should keep their traps shut if you ask me.

You have a bunch of great players and it's going to be tough as shit too pull it off and beat you guys despite our regular season dominance. Do I think my boys can beat you? Yeah I do so long as Bread and Mika continue doing there thing and if our perceived goaltending advantage shines thru.

That said, I've watched Mrazek quite a bit over the past few years and he's no slouch at all. Matter of fact like last year in the playoffs, when he gets into one of his zones, he looks like an elite goaltender out there. He was the major reason you guys swept the Isles IMO in last years playoffs.

Anyways, I think the series very likely goes the full 5 games but withought the home crowd feel, who the hell knows maybe you guys sweep us or we sweep you. It will be fun tho that's for sure to have some hockey back. One thing is for sure if you guys unfortunately beat us, I'll have no probs at all to hop on the Canes bandwagon rooting you guys on as you guys have a very likable team.

Cheers and good luck(not too much tho...lol)