Why did the Canes miss the playoffs in 2007?

[Jdes91]

They had a fantastic record the year before and won the cup... Did they suffer a hangover or were they never that good to begin with?

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[A Star is Burns]

They had a fantastic record the year before and won the cup... Did they suffer a hangover or were they never that good to begin with?

They were the first champ of the cap era and they had to lose a few somewhat important guys to budget/cap considerations in Aaron Ward, Matt Cullen, and Martin Gerber. They tried to fill those holes by trading Jack Johnson, who wouldn't sign at the time, for Eric Belanger, who didn't want to be here, and Tim Gleason, who just wasn't good enough yet. Gerber got replaced with Cam Ward, who in spite of his Conn Smythe, wasn't fully ready, and John Grahame, who was ****ing awful. Kaberle and Stillman, both big pieces of the Cup win, were out for a while to start the year with shoulder injuries and weren't the same that year when they came back. Finally, Eric Staal, who was a force that Cup year the entire way through, had his "sophomore" slump (really his third year, but same effect). Throw all that together, and they were probably better than they should have been to be a bit over NHL .500.

 

[DaveG]

Simply put just about every single replacement for the guys that left wasn't adequate.

Out:
Matt Cullen and Doug Weight
In:
Eric Belanger and Trevor Letowski

Out:
Mark Recchi and Josef Vasicek
In:
Scott Walker (the one good move)

Out:
Aaron Ward, Oleg Tverdovsky, and Frank Kaberle (missed most of the season with shoulder surgery)
In:
Tim Gleason, David Tanabe

Out:
Martin Gerber
In:
John Grahame

so basically 2 top 4 dmen, the #7 dman, 4 of the top 9 forwards, and the starting goalie when Cam wasn't quite ready to take the reigns as the #1 full time just yet. The replacement of Gerber with Grahame is the one that really stings as there were some much better options on the market in Legace and Hedberg.

The only good move they made was the trade of Vasicek to get Walker to replace Recchi, and then trading Belanger to get Vasicek back.

But basically the Canes depth was absolutely decimated to an extent that no other Cup champ in the cap era has seen, at least for the first Cup of any other champ in the era. In large part that's because the Canes were a veteran team and after winning a few guys either returned to teams they had been with for years (Weight, Recchi) or took the pay day from the Rangers (Cullen, Ward). Trying to remember which one it was but one of Cullen and Ward said that the biggest mistake they made in their career was taking more money to go to the Rangers instead of staying in Carolina shortly after we re-acquired them.

The real question is how they missed in 08 since Cam had started to enter his prime in that season, Cullen was back on the team having a strong season, and Seidenberg who had been picked up at the previous deadline was starting to come in to his own. The answer there is part the game 82 curse, part Kaberle not bouncing back, and part not having a good offensive dman as a result until trading for Corvo since Babchuk had gone back to the KHL for a year.

 

[Svechhammer]

They were the first champ of the cap era and they had to lose a few somewhat important guys to budget/cap considerations in Aaron Ward, Matt Cullen, and Martin Gerber. They tried to fill those holes by trading Jack Johnson, who wouldn't sign at the time, for Eric Belanger, who didn't want to be here, and Tim Gleason, who just wasn't good enough yet. Gerber got replaced with Cam Ward, who in spite of his Conn Smythe, wasn't fully ready, and John Grahame, who was ****ing awful. Kaberle and Stillman, both big pieces of the Cup win, were out for a while to start the year with shoulder injuries and weren't the same that year when they came back. Finally, Eric Staal, who was a force that Cup year the entire way through, had his "sophomore" slump (really his third year, but same effect). Throw all that together, and they were probably better than they should have been to be a bit over NHL .500.

Yeah I mean its worth mentioning that most of the guys were signed to signed to contracts in the pre-cap mindset that had baked in bonuses from that mindset that would easily blow up the cap of a champ. Even if it didn't blow you up right away, winning in those early years with the bonuses that needed to be paid out wrecked teams in the long run. Teams eventually learned how to deal, but even then its hard to keep things together even now with everyone having adjusted. Which is probably one of the most overlooked reasons why some of those early cap era dominant teams crumbled quickly.

Carolina, Edmonton, Ottawa, Buffalo, Anaheim. They all got wrecked by having success in a time where contracts were not aligned with being able to sustain success under a salary cap.

 

[Joe McGrath]

Stillman missed half the year too.

 

[A Star is Burns]

Simply put just about every single replacement for the guys that left wasn't adequate.

Out:
Matt Cullen and Doug Weight
In:
Eric Belanger and Trevor Letowski

Out:
Mark Recchi and Josef Vasicek
In:
Scott Walker (the one good move)

Out:
Aaron Ward, Oleg Tverdovsky, and Frank Kaberle (missed most of the season with shoulder surgery)
In:
Tim Gleason, David Tanabe

Out:
Martin Gerber
In:
John Grahame

so basically 2 top 4 dmen, the #7 dman, 4 of the top 9 forwards, and the starting goalie when Cam wasn't quite ready to take the reigns as the #1 full time just yet. The replacement of Gerber with Grahame is the one that really stings as there were some much better options on the market in Legace and Hedberg.

The only good move they made was the trade of Vasicek to get Walker to replace Recchi, and then trading Belanger to get Vasicek back.

But basically the Canes depth was absolutely decimated to an extent that no other Cup champ in the cap era has seen, at least for the first Cup of any other champ in the era. In large part that's because the Canes were a veteran team and after winning a few guys either returned to teams they had been with for years (Weight, Recchi) or took the pay day from the Rangers (Cullen, Ward). Trying to remember which one it was but one of Cullen and Ward said that the biggest mistake they made in their career was taking more money to go to the Rangers instead of staying in Carolina shortly after we re-acquired them.

The real question is how they missed in 08 since Cam had started to enter his prime in that season, Cullen was back on the team having a strong season, and Seidenberg who had been picked up at the previous deadline was starting to come in to his own. The answer there is part the game 82 curse, part Kaberle not bouncing back, and part not having a good offensive dman as a result until trading for Corvo since Babchuk had gone back to the KHL for a year.

As I recall 07-08 was also decimated by injuries. And they still managed to play pretty well even with that. It took an other worldly run by Washington and us choking against Florida to not make it. Think we had a third line (or second?) of Aucoin, Bayda, and Walker heading down the stretch that year because of the injuries and were still playing pretty well. Not to mention appearances by scrubs like Conboy, Mormina, Brandon Nolan, Pukin Joe Jensen, and so forth. I seem to recall it was actually inserting a couple of guys returning from injury the last few games that may have killed some of our momentum. I recall a lot of talk that Lavi would have been one of the favorites for Adams if we made it given the injuries.

 

[AD Skinner]

Yup and had Craig Anderson not made like 50 saves for Florida in the very last game of the season we would have made it and kept the Caps out. I'll never forget that game

 

[A Star is Burns]

Yup and had Craig Anderson not made like 50 saves for Florida in the very last game of the season we would have made it and kept the Caps out. I'll never forget that game

I am pretty certain Caps would have been #8 seed and we would have won the division had we won and the Caps won their last game, as they ultimately did.

 

[AD Skinner]

Ugh I looked it up and it was more frustrating than I even remembered.

Panthers vs. Hurricanes - Game Recap - April 4, 2008 - ESPN

Vokoun started the game but was having back spasms and got pulled... Canes had 9 power plays... florida hadn't won in Raleigh since 2002. Oh man was it frustrating. They were doing like a jersey off the players' back promotion after the game and you could see on tv how shell shocked the players were at what had just happened

 

[wolfofthesteppes]

Yup and had Craig Anderson not made like 50 saves for Florida in the very last game of the season we would have made it and kept the Caps out. I'll never forget that game

I've never been more pissed off leaving a game, and that includes every playoff games we've ever lost in that building.

 

[A Star is Burns]

Ugh I looked it up and it was more frustrating than I even remember.

Panthers vs. Hurricanes - Game Recap - April 4, 2008 - ESPN

Vokoun started the game but was having back spasms and got pulled... Canes had 9 power plays... florida hadn't won in Raleigh since 2002. Oh man was it frustrating. They were doing like a jersey off the players' back promotion after the game and you could see on tv how she'll shocked the players were at what had just happened

Someone on this board (Kev maybe?) has told a story about receiving a jersey after that game.

 

[Surrounded By Ahos]

That Florida game sucked. My girlfriend at the time had never been to a hockey game in her life, and bought us tickets for my birthday.

Worst birthday gift I’ve ever received.

 

[tarheelhockey]

They were a bad team that lucked into a Cup even though they deserved to miss the playoffs. Biggest fluke in NHL history.

 

[A Star is Burns]

They were a bad team that lucked into a Cup even though they deserved to miss the playoffs. Biggest fluke in NHL history.

I heard tell we should be contracted.

 

[HisIceness]

The 2006-07 team got off to a shit start. They were something like 0-4-1 before finally winning in Atlanta on Ray Whitneys buzzer-beating heroics. The cohesion and team-bonding they had the year before wasn't really there either, Kevyn Adams and Bret Hedican got into a fist fight in practice and Peter Laviolette was reportedly barking at his team a lot more. Unfortunately it just one of those disappointing seasons that we grew accustomed to around here. There may have been some cup hangover but losing Gerber, Cullen, Ward etc. hurt as those guys were big glue pieces to the puzzle.

Looking back at it, that season and the 2009-10 season kind of mirror one another. High expectations going in, shit start, they make a run but it's not enough.

Trying to remember which one it was but one of Cullen and Ward said that the biggest mistake they made in their career was taking more money to go to the Rangers instead of staying in Carolina shortly after we re-acquired them

I'm pretty sure that was Cullen. When Aaron Ward came back all anyone wanted to talk about was his relationship w/ Scott Walker.

The real question is how they missed in 08 since Cam had started to enter his prime in that season, Cullen was back on the team having a strong season, and Seidenberg who had been picked up at the previous deadline was starting to come in to his own. The answer there is part the game 82 curse, part Kaberle not bouncing back, and part not having a good offensive dman as a result until trading for Corvo since Babchuk had gone back to the KHL for a year

I'd add losing Brind'Amour with something like 30 games to go also hurt. Rod was still very serviceable up until that injury (knee?) that took him out for the rest of the season, and unfortunately he wasn't the same after that. They still won (they actually had a fantastic March) but they also missed his leadership and timely goals that would have come in handy when the calendar turned to April.

Ugh I looked it up and it was more frustrating than I even remembered.

Panthers vs. Hurricanes - Game Recap - April 4, 2008 - ESPN

Vokoun started the game but was having back spasms and got pulled... Canes had 9 power plays... florida hadn't won in Raleigh since 2002. Oh man was it frustrating. They were doing like a jersey off the players' back promotion after the game and you could see on tv how shell shocked the players were at what had just happened

Fun fact, April 4th is both a good and bad day in franchise history. The bad was this night, the good was the very next year and 10 years later when they clinched playoff spots. Like Meatloaf says, two outta 3 aint bad.

Someone on this board (Kev maybe?) has told a story about receiving a jersey after that game.

Someone else mentioned that PNC stopped playing In The Air Tonight because of that game. Not sure if true but apparently that song was being played all pre-game and they ditched it after what happened.

I've told this story before too but I'll tell it again.

I purchased the playoff package that the Canes website was offering that week. I also came close to purchasing airline tickets to Philly since that was going to be their opponent had they clinched a spot but my mom advised me to wait (my friends brother worked at Wachovia Center and would hook us up with game tickets, we just had to purchase plane tickets).

That weekend was my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary, so Friday night (the night of the Florida game) I'm driving up from Charlotte to Raleigh. I get a text right before leaving that Trevor Letowski has scored and it's 1-0 Canes. So I'm thinking good, this will be an easy victory. Well, I get no more updates the rest of the trip so I'm in the dark. Whatever station the Canes were on back then (were they still on that soft rock station? Y102.9 or whatever?) went to normal programming when I got close enough to get a signal so I still have no clue but I'm figuring no news is good news.

I get to my grandparents, fire up the laptop, go to NHL.com and am expecting to read "Canes SE Division Champs". I get "Panthers play spoiler, or something like that. I'm pissed. I know thats it and I'm going to have to go get a refund for this playoff package I purchased.

Except, the Caps still played the next night so I had to wait until Sunday Morning to get my refund. I quietly walked in and out, yelled my frustrations as I was driving away, and vowed not to take sports seriously again. 6 months later I'm at the season opener cheering my heart out for the Canes against the very same Panthers that ruined everything, this time with a happier result and a season finish that would lead to an appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals.

 

[A Star is Burns]

The 2006-07 team got off to a shit start. They were something like 0-4-1 before finally winning in Atlanta on Ray Whitneys buzzer-beating heroics. The cohesion and team-bonding they had the year before wasn't really there either, Kevyn Adams and Bret Hedican got into a fist fight in practice and Peter Laviolette was reportedly barking at his team a lot more. Unfortunately it just one of those disappointing seasons that we grew accustomed to around here. There may have been some cup hangover but losing Gerber, Cullen, Ward etc. hurt as those guys were big glue pieces to the puzzle.

Looking back at it, that season and the 2009-10 season kind of mirror one another. High expectations going in, shit start, they make a run but it's not enough.



I'm pretty sure that was Cullen. When Aaron Ward came back all anyone wanted to talk about was his relationship w/ Scott Walker.



I'd add losing Brind'Amour with something like 30 games to go also hurt. Rod was still very serviceable up until that injury (knee?) that took him out for the rest of the season, and unfortunately he wasn't the same after that. They still won (they actually had a fantastic March) but they also missed his leadership and timely goals that would have come in handy when the calendar turned to April.



Fun fact, April 4th is both a good and bad day in franchise history. The bad was this night, the good was the very next year and 10 years later when they clinched playoff spots. Like Meatloaf says, two outta 3 aint bad.



Someone else mentioned that PNC stopped playing In The Air Tonight because of that game. Not sure if true but apparently that song was being played all pre-game and they ditched it after what happened.

I've told this story before too but I'll tell it again.

I purchased the playoff package that the Canes website was offering that week. I also came close to purchasing airline tickets to Philly since that was going to be their opponent had they clinched a spot but my mom advised me to wait (my friends brother worked at Wachovia Center and would hook us up with game tickets, we just had to purchase plane tickets).

That weekend was my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary, so Friday night (the night of the Florida game) I'm driving up from Charlotte to Raleigh. I get a text right before leaving that Trevor Letowski has scored and it's 1-0 Canes. So I'm thinking good, this will be an easy victory. Well, I get no more updates the rest of the trip so I'm in the dark. Whatever station the Canes were on back then (were they still on that soft rock station? Y102.9 or whatever?) went to normal programming when I got close enough to get a signal so I still have no clue but I'm figuring no news is good news.

I get to my grandparents, fire up the laptop, go to NHL.com and am expecting to read "Canes SE Division Champs". I get "Panthers play spoiler, or something like that. I'm pissed. I know thats it and I'm going to have to go get a refund for this playoff package I purchased.

Except, the Caps still played the next night so I had to wait until Sunday Morning to get my refund. I quietly walked in and out, yelled my frustrations as I was driving away, and vowed not to take sports seriously again. 6 months later I'm at the season opener cheering my heart out for the Canes against the very same Panthers that ruined everything, this time with a happier result and a season finish that would lead to an appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals.

The low key worst part is that the Panthers played the Caps that following night. If they beat them, we still would have made it in. My wife (the Caps fan) and I had bought tickets to that game well in advance when it seemed like the Caps wouldn't make it. We usually went to the last Caps game in those days cause they wouldn't make the playoffs. I got to watch in person as the Panthers dogged it and the Caps played well trying not to let on how incredibly bitter I was about that whole thing. I mean, at the time, it was cool to see her team get in. She became a fan during the 03-04 season and hadn't seen the Caps make it yet, but you could just tell they had good times coming. Not fun.

 

[bleedgreen]

They were a bad team that lucked into a Cup even though they deserved to miss the playoffs. Biggest fluke in NHL history.

Worst 52 win 112 pt regular season ever. Classless. Two points better than Buffalo? Third best in the NHL? Lies.

 

[Surrounded By Ahos]

They were a bad team that lucked into a Cup even though they deserved to miss the playoffs. Biggest fluke in NHL history.

Their record wa so lucky that good because they beat up on the southleast division smh

 

[CandyCanes]

That game against the the Panthers was the freaking worst. I remember being there, it was freaking awful.

Canes had won 13 in a row on home ice coming into that game.

They outshot the Panthers 46-17.

Canes had 9 powerplays, the Panthers had 0.

How do the Canes lose? I have no freaking clue. Other than the hockey gods were not happy.

 

[cptjeff]

How do the Canes lose? I have no freaking clue. Other than the hockey gods were not happy.

Also Craig Anderson. I can't believe it took as long as it did for a team to make him a starter.