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GDT: Canes v. Pens 2/21 7:00

cmaleski2

Well-known member
Ok, I'll do the deed and open this thread.

Struggling Canes get right back at it against a Pens team that is 6-1-3 in their last 10. That one loss came Sunday at home against the Wings (5-2). Pens are likely plenty ticked off after being blown out at home and I expect they will relish taking it out on the hapless Canes tonight. Doesn't really matter who the Pens play in goal tonight as they should easily be able to score 4 or 5 goals, which is more than enough against a Canes team who despite shuffling lines can't score against anyone at the moment. This game does set up though to be a MA Fleury game considering how terrible the Canes' offense has been.

I suspect Cam will draw the start. No clue if Peters will get Derek Ryan back in there (and if so who he will remove). Dahlbeck or Tennyson for 3rd pair RD? That doesn't really matter. I would give Hanifin a night off but I doubt that will happen. Heck I would put Ryan Murphy in there just for comic relief. Canes had a scheduled day off yesterday so they just have today's morning skate to work on fixing every single aspect of their play lately.

Fox Sports Carolina if you are unable or unwilling to witness the carnage in person. I feel bad for anyone who got roped into buying a 'Rally pack'. Talk about a depreciating asset. The only thing we are rallying for at this point is a higher lottery position.
 
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Stop the bleeding Stop the beating.

I expect this to be a game where the visitors are very happy. Should start Jorge.
 
Michael Smith stated the lines looked like this at the morning skate:

Aho-Rask-Lindholm
Nordstrom-Staal-McGinn
Skinner-Teravainen-Stempniak
Stalberg-Ryan-Di Giuseppe

Slavin-Faulk
Hainsey-Pesce
Hanifin-Tennyson

McClement out. Still far enough from the trade deadline that I wouldn't read too much into McClement not playing, but McClement is a definite candidate to be shipped out for 4th round (or less) pick before the deadline.

As for those lines, well, those are different. Not sure what will happen other than Jordan Staal disappearing from the 5v5 scoresheeet. That does appear to be an attempt to break Victor Rask's scoreless streak. If he can't get a point playing with Aho and Lindholm then I'm not sure what else will break that streak.
 
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My avoidance plan is in place. Some band parent duties to attend to tonight to prep for the first indoor percussion competition coming up this weekend, so I plopped my tix on StubHub in hopes to not have 2 more exchanges to make later.
 
You no longer need the 5 games post break to know your a seller now! This team has now joined Colorado and Arizona at the front of the sellers line. Francis has to be open for business and sell sell sell. Hainsey, McClement and Stahlberg all need to go. See if you can get anything at all for Ryan Murphy! Take on a bad contract to help a playoff team needing some cap space if you can get a prospect or an early round draft pick in return. Get creative and find another goaltending prospect...
 
You no longer need the 5 games post break to know your a seller now! This team has now joined Colorado and Arizona at the front of the sellers line. Francis has to be open for business and sell sell sell. Hainsey, McClement and Stahlberg all need to go. See if you can get anything at all for Ryan Murphy! Take on a bad contract to help a playoff team needing some cap space if you can get a prospect or an early round draft pick in return. Get creative and find another goaltending prospect...
What do you get for merchandise that is past its use date? We can sell, but who wants to buy? That's the basic problem as I see it. We are in the worst of all worlds, a poor draft year doesn't provide hope of picking up a franchise-type player, our UFA's and net-minders are of little value to anyone, and we have an organization that can't/doesn't want to spend the money to give us a number one center and reliable goalie that we so desperately need.

By the way, we played much better tonight, but we still can't score. I'd feel like attending a pity party, except this team has drained all the emotion right out of me!
 
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By the way, we played much better tonight, but we still can't score. I'd feel like attending a pity party, except this team has drained all the emotion right out of me!

Except for a failure to actually play D beyond getting into position on the first goal, and Rask and Hainsey getting beat badly and the puck getting past Pesce to go from behind to in front of the net on Malkin's, goal. But hey, you can't blame Hainsey (according to Tripp) because Haglen has elite speed. We didn't score on a number of PPs, and failed to score on 2 or 3 breakaways. And although we had a lot of shots, a very good number of them were into the pads on the ice, or into the crest. Other than require their G to be in the right position, we didn't demand all that much from him.

On Crosby's goal, that looked like a pretty well designed play. They had 2 guys alone on the one side of the net. Letang bumped our point defender out of the shooting lane, and Kessel shot for the post with 2 of their guys. Tripp said most teams wouldn't shoot in that situation, but I think that was exactly what they were looking for. Worst case is a rebound with 2 Pens out front.

There did seem to be a number of blatent trips against the Pens that didn't get called in the leadup to the 2 calls that lead to the 3 on 5.

So yeah the effort was there, but the execution still lacked. Aho and Lindholm might be the only players with skill and a consistent NHL attitude out of all our forwards. Jordan is big and works hard but his passes are to general areas instead of on the tape and his ability to score has been noted. Teuvo has skill, but seems to not like contact.
 
I've not had a chance to watch the Pens a lot this year but boy do they need to get healthy soon to have any chance to beat the big boys like the Caps in the East this year. I give JR and Sullivan credit for piecing together a lineup to compete game in and game out, but there were a whole bunch of AHL and bottom six replacements on that Pens team. Ruhwedel, Oleksy, Rowney, Guentzel, Wilson...it's going to be a tough road to hoe for the Pens unless they get healthy and get some reinforcements in there...
 
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