GDT: Canes @ Lightning 1/7 7:00

[andyt]

The Hurricane Milton makeup game.

It’s a double edged sword. On the one hand, a 3 day break would have been useful. On the other hand, after a better performance Sunday against the Pens, getting right back to it could keep them sharp. It was radio silence from the team yesterday, so we don’t know the extent of Carrier’s injury. But Jaaska wasn’t sent back to Chicago, so it’s safe to assume he’s still out. Kochetkov should go in goal.

The Bolts come in losers of 4 straight and are 5-5 in their last 10. They’re 4th in the Atlantic with 42 points in 37 games. They’re coming off a 3 game California roadie when they only scored 1 goal in each game. But they’re still the Lightning and have enough firepower and muscle memory to explode at any minute. Nikita Kucherov is 5th in the league with 55 points and leads the team with 38 assists. Brayden Point has 23 goals, 2 more than Jake Guentzel. They have 5 players with at least 15 goals, but the next best has 9. Andrei Vasilevskiy has started 29 games in goal, we should see him tonight. He’s at 2.37/.914, both in the top 10 in the league. Backup Jonas Johansson has started 8 games, including Saturday night in Anaheim, and he’s at 3.32/.898. The Bolts lead the league with 3.70 goals per game. They’re 11th in goals against. They’re 3rd on the PP and 10th on the PK.

FanDuel for TV

 

[polarbare]

Pyotr lets in a soft goal (probably early), Canes battle back after a flat 1st period to tie it up in the 3rd. Canes win in regulation 2-1

 

[jeffbear]

Everybody in the Metro is scuffling to some degree right now. Nobody in the whole division has more than 5 wins in their last 10 games, so this would be a REALLY good time to hit a good run of form for the Canes. Tampa had a really good December, but their offense dried up up after the Holiday. In that four game losing streak, they've 5 total goals and only one of those 4 games was against a decent team. Given that Carolina's pretty comfortable in a low scoring chess match, this one should be right up their alley ... so long as they can avoid letting Tampa suck them into a bunch of nonsense. Tampa's reaction to not scoring tends to be trying to make sure there's a lot of special teams time ... which generally comes from letting their bottom 9 go sort of hog wild. That's not the Canes thing, and they would be wise to pack their patient pants.

 

[andyt]

Lines from the morning skate. Carrier is still out, Kochetkov in goal.

Jarvis - Aho - Roslovic
Robinson - Kotkaniemi - Necas
Svechnikov - Staal - Martinook
Jaaska - Drury - Blake

Slavin - Burns
Orlov - Chatfield
Smith - Walker

 

[jeffbear]

Good. Svech still with Staal and big Marty. Just a matter of time before KK gets demoted again, probably. If for no other reason than that Necas seems more comfortable with him.

 

[StormChaserBH]

I need another replay to be sure but looked like Orlov watches Hagel bang home a rebound...0-1

 

[ThinIce]

Tough loss

 

[NoMich]

Terrible outcome for such a tight game. Does Point play every single damn shift in a game?

 

[CanadaCanes]

Have to secure a point that late, period.

 

[polarbare]

Fail, huge fail.

 

[cmon3]

PK kept them in a game they had no business being in. They somehow pulled it together to tie the game late and then lost to the team that deserved to win. Gut punch? Come on - maybe for a few guys that put it all out there last night but they had no business expecting a point for that performance.

You can’t blame this recent lethargy on goal tending. They’re not getting it done. Their best players are consistently not as good as the other team’s best.

Too many guys left open in the slot. Too many guys reaching for pucks or passing to nobody.

 

[cmon3]

Terrible outcome for such a tight game. Does Point play every single damn shift in a game?

The score was tight. Other than that?

 

[dwind]

PK kept them in a game they had no business being in. They somehow pulled it together to tie the game late and then lost to the team that deserved to win. Gut punch? Come on - maybe for a few guys that put it all out there last night but they had no business expecting a point for that performance.

You can’t blame this recent lethargy on goal tending. They’re not getting it done. Their best players are consistently not as good as the other team’s best.

Too many guys left open in the slot. Too many guys reaching for pucks or passing to nobody.

Amen, exactly

 

[andyt]

Sorry I missed it, I was at DPAC enjoying the music of Neil Diamond. If you’re a fan, A Beautiful Noise is worth the price of admission.

 

[jeffbear]

PK kept them in a game they had no business being in. They somehow pulled it together to tie the game late and then lost to the team that deserved to win. Gut punch? Come on - maybe for a few guys that put it all out there last night but they had no business expecting a point for that performance.

You can’t blame this recent lethargy on goal tending. They’re not getting it done. Their best players are consistently not as good as the other team’s best.

Too many guys left open in the slot. Too many guys reaching for pucks or passing to nobody.

IMO the issues are really manifesting on road games. Overall results at home have been pretty good (15-5-0 on the season), despite a few bobbles, but on the road the Canes have been generally awful (9-10-2) for quite a while now.

 

[ThinIce]

At the start of the season, everyone was hot. Midway through the season, now they are not. We all expected a cool-down from players like Necas, but he and others have been ice cold for way too long. Let's hope the pendulum swings back again, but we all know that hope is not a strategy.

 

[cmon3]

At the start of the season, everyone was hot. Midway through the season, now they are not. We all expected a cool-down from players like Necas, but he and others have been ice cold for way too long. Let's hope the pendulum swings back again, but we all know that hope is not a strategy.

That’s true but to be fair it wasn’t everyone, it was Necas, the D and the new guys and the rookie. The horses that were expected to consistently lead the team were pretty pedestrian but that maybe more unexpected scoring overcame it. Those horses haven’t really picked up the pace much and the rest cooled. Aho, Svetch…. We have to be able to count on those guys to consistently pot goals. Other teams were focusing on Aho’s line early and 88 had time and space and made it pay. Now they’re focusing more on 88 and other buys should be the beneficiaries but they’re not making them pay enough.

It also seems like we’re struggling defensively with leaving guys open, and early in the season our passing was crisp and clean where now it’s pretty sloppy.

Maybe we need to get Slavin paired with someone he doesn’t have to carry so much.

They also seemed to play at a killing pace early and would lose steam late in games. Now they mostly play at a moderate pace.

Maybe the goalie issues sapped their will to sacrifice that much every game. Bottom line this looks like a borderline playoff team at the moment.