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GDT: Canes @ Canucks 12/9 10:00

I wasn't going to watch this late game, but my 6-week-old grandson was staying with us last night (giving my son & DIL a break) and decided he wanted to stay up and watch the Canes.

More fight last night, but way too many passengers when we needed players (top lines, looking at you). Raanta was good until he wasn't, and he's the best we've got right now.
 
I think the Hurricanes should see what they could get for Necas. Seems to be a weak link to me. His offensive production doesn't seem to overcome his defensive breakdowns.

Meanwhile, 0 for 4 has caused Carolina to slip back to 6th(!) in the metro division. Not a trend worth continuing.

Jim
 
Pucking Lamplighter said:
I think the Hurricanes should see what they could get for Necas. Seems to be a weak link to me. His offensive production doesn't seem to overcome his defensive breakdowns.

Meanwhile, 0 for 4 has caused Carolina to slip back to 6th(!) in the metro division. Not a trend worth continuing.

Jim
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But you're OK paying Aho about $8m? This is not the kind of guy you build a franchise around. He's been massive disappointment to me.
 
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Waddell made this bed himself…he did next to nothing in the summer when it came to addressing the lack of a pure sniper, goal scorer and he had enough assets like Pesce and picks etc. This team has struggled to score goals by relying too much on guys like Aho and Necas types believing them to be those pure goal scoring guys when in reality they are not. Same as the goaltending… he should have addressed changes instead of running everything back, he knew the two old guys were injury prone and known to get hurt often yet here we are.
 
I'm not gonna start ripping on everyone because of a bad season. Most every needs to play better but guys like Aho are still phenomenal players.
Aho is still nearly a PPG player even with the team playing like (myword) around him - he's having an off year but at .92PPG, is still above his career avg. Need to see more from him, but let's not treat him like a bust.
Necas is different - he gets into his own head and gets too cute with the puck and/or forgets what defense is - he is 100% standing around with his thumb in his butt when he's covering the back door most of the time or doing drop passes to nowhere (AGAIN!!)
Svech probably isn't 100% - the biggest knock I see there isn't goal scoring, it's that he's not hitting, and that's a big part of his game.
Slavin even looks off this year - Chatfield/Orlov is our best pair.

Bunting needs more defensive work, Orlov needs to get the puck in the net, Lemieux has been fine for what he is, TA sucks and should never have been brought back.
I don't know what the issue is, but this team hates shaking things up. I think Bunting wasn't the perfect guy but it was an honest effort to upgrade the offense, especially net front. I think Skjei /Pesce should be packaged for a tendie if you can do it, and Necas should go somewhere where he doesn't have to play defense.
 
I fear that the changes this summer geared towards generating more offense simply don't mesh with how Brind'Amour is willing/able to use his personnel. In fact, I have feared this all along ... that we'd get to the point where the next step was only going to happen if the system got tweaked outside of Brindy's comfort level. Not blaming him, not blaming the GM ... just verbalizing what I think is the root issue, aside from crap goaltending. He has always struggled to get much out of one dimensional offensive players, and probably always will.
 
My issue with Aho is not about production it’s about his role. I think he’s a reasonable 1c if your 2c is a bigger physical offensive threat. Or at least he has some wingers that fit that description.
 
In terms of Aho, I think the team missed an opportunity this summer to change up the mix at center. They opted to keep Staal in a top 9 role when he really doesn't contribute enough offense to merit that usage ... in the context of the other 2 centermen. They had a chance to go with a bigger offensive threat, while sliding Kotkaniemi into the Staal role, but just couldn't (or didn't) pull the trigger. Instead they spent on adding offense in other places ... on D and on the wing. And look, maybe they'll figure something out eventually, but it's obvious that the mix up front is all messed up right now. Some of that is because Svech has been out or limited, for sure ... but not all of it.
 
Basically we have one center with even a little offensive focus and the offensive skills to go along with it. The rest are defense first guys without stellar offensive capabilities.

But that is part of the issue with Brindy. If you don’t default to defense first are you ever going to get ice time?

I suspect part of Necas issue is he’s trying to do what he’s supposed to do instead of what got him here. RB insists on defensive responsibility. Marty’s game isn’t built on thinking but on following his offensive instincts. If he hesitates to think about if he should go for it that goes away. He doesn’t see the risk at all because he thinks he’s going to make the play. Very hard for kids like that to be able to change their approach. That’s why kids like Jordo are featured in Roddie’s teams. I’d bet Jordo has always factored the risk into his offensive game. Seems like there are relatively few defense first players that are truly elite offensively.
 
I think the off-season personnel changes were made to tweak the power play. That was where GM DW focused his efforts. He was comfortable with The Fragile Brothers in net. He stockpiled on defense and brought in Bunting like he was Tom Wilson, except he forgot to bring Matthew’s and Marner with him. Necas? He skates like the wind and makes me think he’s somewhere between Jeff Skinner and Sergei Samsonov…
 
Which begs the question ... why aren't the new guys actually featuring on the PP then? Bunting started on PP1 but quickly got shunted out, despite some decent early results. His 6 PP points is still tied for the team lead, despite mostly toiling on the second unit ... unless Svech is out, of course. Which is whole other can of worms. Orlov has barely seen PP time all season, even as a replacement, even in favor of noted PP duds like Slavin. Instead, PP1 has mostly been the same group that faltered last season, especially once DeAngelo got benched. And look, I'm not here to bag on Brind'Amour but I feel like questioning his management of the power play units is fair game at this point. It's been a consistent issue during his tenure.
 
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