GDT: OPENING NIGHT IN SMASHVILLE: 2015-10-08 Canes v. Preds

[wadesworld]

I finally saw/see what you mean re: Smith. Lottsa empty rush there.

Smith is what he is. A player who works his tail off. On the negative side, when he gets to the puck, his less-than-elite skills may lead to a turnover, or more often than not, a frustrating lack of finish. His passes are too hard and he has a frustrating propensity to hit the goalie's chest. On the positive side, he gets to pucks nobody can and scores goals on pure effort alone.

Despite what his haters say, none of his supporters think he's the second coming of Gretzky. We think he is what he is. A player that works hard and makes the best of the skills he has. While his haters think he's trash and should not even be in the NHL, his supporters understand that 2nd-line 20+ goal scorers are extremely valuable and apparently the Preds agree, signing him long-term.

He is no Filip Forsberg or James Neal and never will be. To expect the same level of skill is simply unfair. That said, he's been in the top 3 of our scoring for the past two years, so he's certainly deserving of recognition for what he does accomplish.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

Forgot to add this in the observations, but our centers SUCKED at face-offs. Unacceptable performance.

 

[Montross]

I agree for the most part. The Canes are not a very good team, but they do have a lot of offensive talent. Taking the pressure off a team like that plays into their hands big time.

I really liked Eric Staal's game last night. If the Preds are in the thick of things come trade deadline time, I hope Poile considers a run at him.

 

[tampa pred]

Nice to have hockey back and nice to start off with a win! I'll take an ugly win for Game 1. Lots of guys looked rusty, which is to be expected. Here are my thoughts on the game and the team makeup:

1st Line- Forsberg still looks like a stud = best forward on the ice. Neal looks dangerous shooting. Didn't notice Ribs.

2nd Line- Fisher is the heart of this team. A number of times last night, he tried to provide a spark by playing physical when the team needed it (in the 2nd and 3rd periods).

3rd Line- Eehhh- Not terrible. Scored a junk goal. I'll take it. Got stuck on defense too often.

4th Line- This line takes a lot of flak, but they played how you want a 4th line to play last night. They were the only line to consistently play in the offensive zone during the 2nd and 3rd periods. Each guy also played well on the PK.

Defense- This is the best defense that we have ever iced! When Seth Jones is the weak link, that is saying something. I loved Jackman's game last night (physical, blocking shots, PK, etc). If he plays like that every game, this is easily the best defense in the NHL.

Pekka- Looked good. Should of had a shut out.

 

[NSH615]

I really liked Eric Staal's game last night. If the Preds are in the thick of things come trade deadline time, I hope Poile considers a run at him.

Not at the cost. 2 Months for a UFA to be. Carolina will be wanting a 1st + Forsberg like return. On top of that Staal is wanting 9M next year. I will pass.

 

[Viqsi]

Smith is what he is. A player who works his tail off. On the negative side, when he gets to the puck, his less-than-elite skills may lead to a turnover, or more often than not, a frustrating lack of finish. His passes are too hard and he has a frustrating propensity to hit the goalie's chest. On the positive side, he gets to pucks nobody can and scores goals on pure effort alone.

Despite what his haters say, none of his supporters think he's the second coming of Gretzky. We think he is what he is. A player that works hard and makes the best of the skills he has. While his haters think he's trash and should not even be in the NHL, his supporters understand that 2nd-line 20+ goal scorers are extremely valuable and apparently the Preds agree, signing him long-term.

He is no Filip Forsberg or James Neal and never will be. To expect the same level of skill is simply unfair. That said, he's been in the top 3 of our scoring for the past two years, so he's certainly deserving of recognition for what he does accomplish.

Perhaps it would be fair to say that if we had a shortage of other scorers and had to lean on him, we'd be in trouble. I certainly wouldn't want to have to rely on him as a major scoring source.

But he's above-average as supporting cast, and that's more than just good enough - it's damned useful to have.

 

[wadesworld]

And the winner for the funniest post in the 'Canes GDT thread:

What would it take to acquire Filip Forsberg

Martin Erat

 

[Roman Yoshi]

Not at the cost. 2 Months for a UFA to be. Carolina will be wanting a 1st + Forsberg like return. On top of that Staal is wanting 9M next year. I will pass.

Baseless assumptions there. They aren't going to ask for Forsberg in return (realistically at least) for a UFA Staal.

I want 9M a year next year too, that doesn't mean that I is what I am going to get. No GM is going to sign him for that amount, especially with current unease about the Canadian dollar.

 

[Drake744]

I see Staal getting something between 6 and 7 million in his next contract. No way he'll get another one at 9 mil/year.

 

[Filip Forceberg]

I'll take the win. I wasn't thrilled with how we looked in the 2nd & 3rd, but I'm not worried one bit at this point. I expect it will take 5 - 7 games for everyone to start clicking.

 

[triggrman]

Nice to have hockey back and nice to start off with a win! I'll take an ugly win for Game 1. Lots of guys looked rusty, which is to be expected. Here are my thoughts on the game and the team makeup:

1st Line- Forsberg still looks like a stud = best forward on the ice. Neal looks dangerous shooting. Didn't notice Ribs.

2nd Line- Fisher is the heart of this team. A number of times last night, he tried to provide a spark by playing physical when the team needed it (in the 2nd and 3rd periods).

3rd Line- Eehhh- Not terrible. Scored a junk goal. I'll take it. Got stuck on defense too often.

4th Line- This line takes a lot of flak, but they played how you want a 4th line to play last night. They were the only line to consistently play in the offensive zone during the 2nd and 3rd periods. Each guy also played well on the PK.

Defense- This is the best defense that we have ever iced! When Seth Jones is the weak link, that is saying something. I loved Jackman's game last night (physical, blocking shots, PK, etc). If he plays like that every game, this is easily the best defense in the NHL.

Pekka- Looked good. Should of had a shut out.

Jones was our best defender last night, he isn't even close to the weak link.

 

[Drake744]

Jones was our best defender last night, he isn't even close to the weak link.

On Arvidsson's goal - When Hodgson threw that pass to....wherever the hell it was going...and Jones stopped it on the blueline with his backhand before shooting it on net, am I the only one who was expecting the puck to bounce over his stick? In the past he's been pretty poor at keeping pucks in at the point. I'm sure it's just one instance and I'm looking too much into it, but maybe that's something he's improved on.

 

[kypredsfan]

On Arvidsson's goal - When Hodgson threw that pass to....wherever the hell it was going...and Jones stopped it on the blueline with his backhand before shooting it on net, am I the only one who was expecting the puck to bounce over his stick? In the past he's been pretty poor at keeping pucks in at the point. I'm sure it's just one instance and I'm looking too much into it, but maybe that's something he's improved on.

You have a point. Every time a puck goes to Jones on the blue line I expect it to bounce over his stick as well.

And at the beginning of this thread there were comments about the bad attendance. I was there on time but we had to reroute. Wrecks a plenty on the interstates and lately people have begun showing up late anyways. By the 2nd period it was a full house and I heard that they sold over 100 standing room only tickets also.

 

[drwpreds]

Baseless assumptions there. They aren't going to ask for Forsberg in return (realistically at least) for a UFA Staal.

I want 9M a year next year too, that doesn't mean that I is what I am going to get. No GM is going to sign him for that amount, especially with current unease about the Canadian dollar.

Yep- and there is no way in the world we will have to give up Forsberg to get him.

 

[Drake744]

You have a point. Every time a puck goes to Jones on the blue line I expect it to bounce over his stick as well.

And at the beginning of this thread there were comments about the bad attendance. I was there on time but we had to reroute. Wrecks a plenty on the interstates and lately people have begun showing up late anyways. By the 2nd period it was a full house and I heard that they sold over 100 standing room only tickets also.

The official attendance was listed at 17,204 which is technically 100.5% capacity, so yeah I guess there were standing room tickets sold. There were some empties and quite a few early on but whatever. It was a Thursday night so a lot of people going to the game are people going as a social event. Plus there's always a lot of people lingering on Broadway for a few extra minutes before going into the building and that's not taking into account the people already inside but in a concession line/pro shop/whatever. Plenty of arenas have a fair amount of empty seats at the beginning of the game.

 

[triggrman]

For me the vest thing I noticed from Jones was he didn't try to do too much and that he actually played physical.

 

[tampa pred]

Jones was our best defender last night, he isn't even close to the weak link.

Didn't mean to imply that he was bad last night; that is kind of the point of my comment. We have an incredible defense! I think that there are a lot of teams that would be happy to have either of our 2nd or 3rd pairings as their first.

 

[Marty Party]

 

[Flgatorguy87]

The official attendance was listed at 17,204 which is technically 100.5% capacity, so yeah I guess there were standing room tickets sold. There were some empties and quite a few early on but whatever. It was a Thursday night so a lot of people going to the game are people going as a social event. Plus there's always a lot of people lingering on Broadway for a few extra minutes before going into the building and that's not taking into account the people already inside but in a concession line/pro shop/whatever. Plenty of arenas have a fair amount of empty seats at the beginning of the game.

It was really slow getting in with the new metal detector.