Pre-Game Talk: Sabres at 'Canes: The Story thus Far

[Finlandia WOAT]

Preseason is finally over, and here is what we have learned!

--Bobby Sangs is awful.

--Semin can pass the puck better than anyone on our team (I don't know if that is good or bad).

--Joe Corvo.

Now, we take on our hated rivals the Buffalo Sabres! Given the rate of descent this board has shown, only a blowout win will stave off the coming mass suicide as Caniacs throw themselves from the upper balcony of PNC Arena.

Players to watch:

Our goaltender, Cam Ward, has given up 8 goals in 38 shots for a sterling .789 Sv%. Even the most obvious trolls have to admit that Cam is playing far below what his talent and past play would indicate. Beyond the stats, Cam has surrendered goals early in the games, killing any momentum we may have had and disrupting the offense.

Game Key: Make the first couple of saves, build confidence and allow for our much more talented offense (seriously, they have an 23 18 year old as arguably their best center) to take command.

The anchors of our 1-2 offensive punch, the Staal brothers have combined for 1 PP assist and....

For our offense to get moving (thereby taking pressure off of Cam Ward and the defense to perform), they need to take this game balls to the wall.

Game Key: Jordan and Eric need to crash the net, giving Semin/Skinner room to operate. One thing I have noticed is that they hold onto the puck for far too long rather than dishing it to their skilled wingers (especially Jordan).

Justin Faulk had a monster game against the Lightning, limiting League scoring sensation Steven Stamkos to one shot all night, and generally preventing him from gaining entry to the zone through nice stick work.

Game Key: We need Faulk to have a repeat performance against Sabres wing Thomas Vanek. Vanek, who is now an HF sensation after scoring a bunch of points in a small sample size (like he does every year), is going to be the foci of the Sabres offense. Justin will have his work cut out for him. Expect him to play another 25 minutes.


Lines (as of practice):

Tlusty-E. Staal-Semin
Skinner-J. Staal-Dalpe
Bowman-Jokinen-LaRose
Dwyer-Brent-Welsh/Westgarth

Pitkanen-McBain
Faulk-Gleason
Harrison-Corvo

Ward

Opponents:

Coming soon.

Other notes: The Sabres have had since Monday off, and will likely come out of the gate raring to go. Another sloppy start will cost the 'Canes dearly.

Also, Steve Ott will be playing in this game. Since I can not type the rumor on this site, go and google the bad blood that exists between him and Tim Gleason.

Expect Ott to come out and start **** with Gleason.

Articles:

Cam Ward Seeks Improvement

Kirk Muller Wants More Grit

Cory Lavalette's Take on our Home Opener

Go 'Canes!

Click to read more...

 

[DaleCooper]

Allegedly Cam Ward smashed his stick over the crossbar during practice today, so expect him to be PISSED. Whether this means a great performance or a rapid four goals and yanked in the first period is yet to be seen, but either way he will be PISSED.

 

[HisIceness]

Well, a fire needs to be lit under this team. I guess Cam is going to start it off, fine with me.

 

[Anton Babchuk]

Our goaltender, Cam Ward, has given up 8 goals in 38 shots for a sterling .789 Sv%. Even the most obvious trolls have to admit that Cam is playing far below what his talent and past play would indicate.

You are right. Cam's absolutely atrocious play this season is far worse than his usual below-average goaltending.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Allegedly Cam Ward smashed his stick over the crossbar during practice today, so expect him to be PISSED. Whether this means a great performance or a rapid four goals and yanked in the first period is yet to be seen, but either way he will be PISSED.

Someone on Twitter, Luke Chip or Michael, said that after he let off that little bit of steam he came back and stopped everything.


5-1 loss.

 

[PaulProteus]

Allegedly Cam Ward smashed his stick over the crossbar during practice today, so expect him to be PISSED. Whether this means a great performance or a rapid four goals and yanked in the first period is yet to be seen, but either way he will be PISSED.

Oh, he smashed it all right. He was righteously pissed during a drill. Namely because he wasn't stopping shots at the moment.

And then there's this from MSmithCanes on Twitter this afternoon:

#Canes head coach Kirk Muller on tomorrow's lineup, including starting goaltender: "I told them all to come ready tomorrow.”

So maybe he'll either look more like a good Cam or a kid pulling a RAGEQUIT with his controller on NHL '13.

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

I would hope that seeing E. Staal freak out and try to pick a fight towards the end of the previous game would have a similar effect. When was the last time we saw E. Staal fight someone?

I'd rather see emotion than indifference. At least this team cares.

 

[Oenatzu]

The puck drops at 7pm. The Hurricanes are expected to join the Sabres on ice at around 9pm.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

I would hope that seeing E. Staal freak out and try to pick a fight towards the end of the previous game would have a similar effect. When was the last time we saw E. Staal fight someone?

I'd rather see emotion than indifference. At least this team cares.

IIRC, there was an incident a season or two ago where Cole was hit from behind against Dallas (or maybe Toronto?), and Staal fought (or jumped) whoever hit Cole.

 

[Anton Babchuk]

Allegedly Cam Ward smashed his stick over the crossbar during practice today, so expect him to be PISSED. Whether this means a great performance or a rapid four goals and yanked in the first period is yet to be seen, but either way he will be PISSED.

Tripp: "I spoke to Cam and he seems really fired up after two performances that didn't live up to the elite, Vezina-level standard that he has established throughout his career. Canes fans should look for Cam to bounce back and be the goalie we all know he can be."

John: "That's right. Let's look at the starting goalies for tonight. For the Hurricanes, Cam Ward's numbers are so bad that I'm not even going to read them and hope people don't notice them. And for the Buffalo Sabres, it's Ryan Miller, who as all 'Canes fans know, was defeated by Cam Ward in a performance for the ages seven years ago in the Eastern Conference Finals."

Tripp: "And I'm sure Caniacs all across the globe remember that one. That's the type of play that you can expect from Cam."

*Cam Ward lets in first shot on goal*
*Awkward silence*

Tripp: "Guys in the truck, if you can go back on the play, you can see that Cam is bumped by Joni Pitkanen about 15 seconds before the goal and that throws off Cam's rhythm. Having played the position, I can tell you that a goalie needs to establish a rhythm in net and Joni just doesn't allow Cam to do that. And isn't it odd that Joni is wearing #44 tonight? We'll have to ask the coaching staff to see why that number switch was made."

 

[PaulProteus]

Tripp: "Guys in the truck, if you can go back on the play, you can see that Cam is bumped by Joni Pitkanen about 15 seconds before the goal and that throws off Cam's rhythm. Having played the position, I can tell you that a goalie needs to establish a rhythm in net and Joni just doesn't allow Cam to do that. And isn't it odd that Joni is wearing #44 tonight? We'll have to ask the coaching staff to see why that number switch was made."

When I started reading this post I was praying that a scapegoat player would be misidentified, not on the ice, or misidentified while not being on the ice -- or some combination of all of the above.

WIN.

 

[Novacane]

Thursday is a perfect day for Grigorenko to get his first NHL point!!!

 

[Brock Anton]

Buffalo's coming to town, let's make it family night!

 

[Oenatzu]

Thursday is a perfect day for Grigorenko to get his first NHL point!!!

He's yet to score? The officials could just write his name in the goal scorers slot before the game even starts.

 

[Anton H Christ]

 

[What the Faulk]

Buffalo's coming to town, let's make it family night!

It's also college night for some reason. This has the potential to end poorly.

 

[Bongo]

You are right. Cam's absolutely atrocious play this season is far worse than his usual below-average goaltending.

If I recall correctly, the last time we played a short season, it took the goalies a couple of weeks to find their A game. We can only hope Miller is in the same boat.

 

[Mr America]

IIRC, there was an incident a season or two ago where Cole was hit from behind against Dallas (or maybe Toronto?), and Staal fought (or jumped) whoever hit Cole.

05-06 he "fought" Jeff Halpern who was on the Stars at the time. I don't remember a hit causing it though. And by fought I mean he slashed Halpern, managed to get his gloves off, then hung on for dear life.

Dough Weight later went out and roughed up Halpern a little more in another "fight".

 

[normalpsychology]

We can only hope Miller is in the same boat.

Doesn't look like it. His save percentage is .958 ranked 10 out of the 43 goalies who have played this NHL season. Cam Ward is 42nd.

Miller has faced 64 shots and let in 3. Ward has faced 38 and let in 8.

But I'm sure all of Cam's lagging can be blamed on the defense.

 

[Mr America]

Are we not allowed to talk about the Jerry Springer-like sideshow with the whole thing about Gleason stealing Ott's wife?

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

The last time we played the Stars, we were encouraged not to spread rumors.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Are we not allowed to talk about the Jerry Springer-like sideshow with the whole thing about Gleason stealing Ott's wife?

Infracted. ^


Unjustly and hilariously.

 

[OntarioFisherman*]

Kirk always talks about accountability... well make Cam accountable for his bad back to back performances and start Ellis. Can't blame everything on the defense. Yeah they are horrible but you still expect Cam to be able to make routine saves and every now and then a good save. Right now he can't even stop routine things. I remember watching Tuesdays game and everytime the team dumped a puck from outside the blueline I was half concerned Cam wouldn't even block those.

The games aren't going to be worth watching unless one of the following things happens:

1. Cam needs to play better
2. Put in Ellis over Cam
3. Clone Faulk 5 times and sub him in for everyone on defense and then some people on offense
4. start offering hot dogs for $0.50

 

[CarolinaHurricanes85]

After these two games, I decided to look at the "Vault Classic Games" for some cheering up. I recently purchase CenterIce so I can watch it via Xbox360 in HD (our cable provided doesn't have HD games. I visited the Carolina page. First game available is from December of 97 with the black drapes in Greensboro. I now feel worse.....

edit: It is nice to see Steve Chiasson out there on the ice.

 

[TheBigKahuna]

I'd start Ellis. It would be hard for him to do any worse!

A loss to the 'Louse, will kill ticket sales for a while too. Uncle Petey won't like that, he's already giving away tons of them!