What's wrong with this team

[tarheelhockey]

McBain is super soft, and mistake prone. He's borderline useless, and might easily be the weakest player on the roster.

That's pretty harsh. Take away the past week and McBain has quietly been fairly solid defensively. Compared to a couple of years ago, you can see a clear progression in his game from being almost a Sanguinetti-type wild card to being more of a QB who generally knows where and when to be on the ice. I'd love it if he were stronger and more physical more physical, but that's not the player he is, and JR knew that when he went out and nabbed Joe Corvo as the big addition to our defense last summer. Instead of building around his young defensemen, he made them redundant with a veteran.

I'm still not sure what JR expected to happen with this defensive group. It would have all made a lot more sense if he was planning to trade for a physical LHD to compliment the group. But no, he just stocked up on soft offensive-minded RHD and left it at that.

 

[Unsustainable]

I'm going to repeat what I had said before skinner got that contract.

Skinner should have been trader after his rookie season when his value was high.

No one is biting on his dancing on the ice. He kills the play every drive. He needs to do something different or demote him.

 

[What the Faulk]

So trade an 18 year old who scored 30 goals and excited a bored fanbase just because he "dances on the ice"?

And we still make fun of Facebook around here?

 

[Sasha Cares]

he's 20

 

[Clark Gillies]

I'm going to repeat what I had said before skinner got that contract.

Skinner should have been trader after his rookie season when his value was high.

No one is biting on his dancing on the ice. He kills the play every drive. He needs to do something different or demote him.

Sorry but Skinner is far from the problem with this team. No one was complaining before his concussion when the team had two lines rolling as a real scoring threat. Then when he returned the carousel of the third player on the line began. They really should have just stuck with Dwyer. I'd say give Ruutu another 3-4 games with J Staal and Skinner and that line will get rolling.

It is tiresome to hear the Skinner hate over and over. Yes, he makes some boneheaded plays and has some defensive lacks.
But he does not kill every possession, as some suggests, he still creates multiple scoring chances EVERY game, and to deny that is being just plain ignorant. Since he has been here is primary assists are almost equal to his goals scored.

I am neither a Skinner "homer" or "hater" but I realize that he has a value to this team (beyond the ice) and is not going anywhere - so you might as well get used to it.

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

I heard a rumor somewhere about Jokinen for Komisarek. Some Calgary fans seemed to like McBain + a mid pick for Giordano.

Gleason//Giordano
Pitkänen//Faulk
Harrison//Komisarek

thoughts? I think our forwards are okay and once Ward comes back we'll be gold in net.

 

[caniac315]

I agree, the proper response to doldrums losing is turning up the flame, raising the level of agression, and going for blood in a controlled way. But this team is playing like they've lost the taste for it completely, that their agression has been capped. They need to go back to step 1.. to tap into that and forget about the "controlled" part....you can't channel something if it's not even there in the first place. They need to taste blood again and like it...

So yeah, let them rampage a bit and learn to like in-your-face hockey again. Use the frustration to tap into and fuel agressiveness instead of letting it be channeled right away into sulkiness and rolling over. Worry about controlling the agression later.

And it seems to be something they keep doing year after year after year. I could deal with one season where they act like this, but this appears to be the trend for several years now. It got old years ago.

 

[NorthStar4Canes]

It's a comparison in the TYPE of defender. McBain is super soft, and mistake prone. He's borderline useless, and might easily be the weakest player on the roster. Allen had size, and was able to play physical, and drop the gloves if needed. Rutherford gutted the blueline of size and toughness, and thinks adding one "fleet footed PMD" after another is the answer, when clearly it's not.

Well, just to make it seem even worse, McBain isn't 170 lbs...he's 6'2" and 200 lbs so he's okay size, he just plays small. But hey he's got the bona fides, he's from Edina, where Cake-eaters hail from so that should explain the softness.

 

[Drivebytrucker]

We're soft and too easy to play against.

We don't win enough battles for pucks

We don't have a really solid PP QB.

We don't have a starting goalie right now.

 

[StormCast]

So trade an 18 year old who scored 30 goals and excited a bored fanbase just because he "dances on the ice"?

And we still make fun of Facebook around here?

Ain't that the truth!

It's mind-boggling how some will jump on silly comments like that and post them over and over.

Everything Skinner does wrong is teachable. Nothing he does right is teachable. Then again, he's 20.

 

[Jussijuice]

I heard a rumor somewhere about Jokinen for Komisarek. Some Calgary fans seemed to like McBain + a mid pick for Giordano.

Gleason//Giordano
Pitkänen//Faulk
Harrison//Komisarek

thoughts? I think our forwards are okay and once Ward comes back we'll be gold in net.

I'd take that deal all day. I'm sick of watching McFail's terrible pinches. He's good for at least one opposing goal every single game.

Giordano is a model of consistency and reliability.

 

[TheBigKahuna]

Some of you are taking the "170 pound Captain Poke Check" too literally. Any of you old enough to heave heard the term "90 pound weakling"? 170 pound Captain Poke Check carries the same meaning to me.

McBain currently sits ranked 6th among Canes d-men in points, ahead of ONLY Sanguinetti. If you're not going to block shots, move bodies, be a relaible defender, you've GOT to provide offense. McBain does NONE of that. How often do we hear that the +/- stat is useless or overrated, and yet people are using it to try and prove that McBain is good at something. He's not. Yes, I'm being harsh, but this guy has played almost 2.5 full seasons and hasn't gotten even slightly better. Those 14 games he played in 2009, really had some of us thinking JR had stumbled upon a diamond in the rough. Sadly, those 14 games were nothing more than an illusion.

The Canes blueline is soft. Harrison and Gleason CAN bring the pain, but have been pushed more to a simply stop the opponent role, or "cover your partner's ass" role. Corvo can, hit. On occasion he surprises everyone and lays a big one. But part of you has to wonder if he just didn't see the guy coming! McBain avoids contact like Ray Whitney! And when push comes to shove he often ends up laying on the ice.

 

[GoCanes2013]

Skinner actually seems to be stepping it up a little bit more lately. Maybe he's feeling better, maybe he's getting frustrated. I think he had 10 shots last game or game before? AND he's hitting a little more and going into some tougher spots.

I think like has been said already, it's Defense we need. Badly.

And, I'm really starting to think our conditioning is awful. Even IF the boys wanted to play HARD for 60 minutes, it looks like they just can't push as a squad for that long, together, and still stay in control.

 

[geehaad]

I've kind of liked what Bellemore's brought. Seems to me to be about as useful as Allen was.

(where's that "ducking" emoticon?)

 

[tarheelhockey]

Yes, I'm being harsh, but this guy has played almost 2.5 full seasons and hasn't gotten even slightly better.

You really don't think he's even "slightly" better over that time period? Just my opinion, but I think he's quietly become a much better positional defender than he used to be. Yes, he has made his fair share of bad pinches, fair enough. But he's not out there getting torched defensively the way he used to. His mental game has improved.

To me, going forward the defensive group could be adequate if it looked like this:

Pitkanen - Faulk
Gleason - [somebody useful]
Harrison/[Allen replacement] - McBain

That would be a solid, veteran group which has a variety of skill sets and would be viable in both special teams situations. There's clearly a hole in the lineup right now, but it's not on the third pair where McBain belongs.

Half of the problem is that we've been asking McBain to play over his head, which can be said about almost all of our defensemen.

 

[nobuddy]

Skinner was by far our best player against Winnipeg. He had a bad game last night. **** happens. If Faulk and Ellis come back tomorrow and we can win we'll be fine. Lose tomorrow and we can likely throw in the towel.

 

[WalkerBabe]

Chip Alexander tweeted that Muller said, last night after we lost, "We didn't get the saves when we needed them." Isn't he throwing Peters under the bus when he comments like that? I'm a little surprised he said that!

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Chip Alexander tweeted that Muller said, last night after we lost, "We didn't get the saves when we needed them." Isn't he throwing Peters under the bus when he comments like that? I'm a little surprised he said that!

He's not incorrect. That Phaneuf tying goal was...interesting. And the first goal against was weak as well.

 

[WalkerBabe]

So far, Muller has resisted pointing fingers, and it surprised me that he did last night. I really consider Justin to be an AHL-level goalie, not truly NHL, so ... geez, that should do a lot for Justin's confidence ... NOT. I hope Ellis is back tomorrow night.

 

[normalpsychology]

McBain is an elite level defensemen. Did you all forget that he was selected for the all-star game just a few years ago?

 

[caniac247]

So far, Muller has resisted pointing fingers, and it surprised me that he did last night. I really consider Justin to be an AHL-level goalie, not truly NHL, so ... geez, that should do a lot for Justin's confidence ... NOT. I hope Ellis is back tomorrow night.

Justin needs to step it up. He's supposed to be Cam's back up, but he hasn't proven to be an NHL goalie.

Call him out and see what he does. Does he have the game of his life Saturday or crumble like a cookie?

 

[TheBigKahuna]

I bet you'd never hear Muller throw Cam under the bus like that, no matter how bad a game Cam had.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

I bet you'd never hear Muller throw Cam under the bus like that, no matter how bad a game Cam had.

Clearly we just need to trade off Cam and fire Muller.

I hear Rick DiPietro is available, perhaps you'd like him better? Anybody know what Glen Hanlon's up to these days?

Hell while we're at it, let's literally trade off everyone for draft picks, fire Rutherford, have Karmanos sell the team, and forfeit the rest of the season (can't ice a team when everybody's traded, after all!) THEN would this fanbase be happy?

 

[Chukcha]

We don't have a really solid PP QB.

caps fan here. Let's trade "a locker room cancer" back to caps for a really solid PP QB in Mike Green, also we add some grit in Jason Chimera.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

When did everybody and their uncle from other fanbases start coming here? Don't you people have your own boards to go to?