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GDT: Eastern Conference Final, Game 1 Canes v. Panthers 5/20, 8:00

A

andyt

Canes Moderator
Staff member
For the 3rd time in 7 years, the Canes are in the ECF looking to wipe the last blemish of the RBA era off their record.

The Canes come in on the back of 2 gentlemen’s sweeps over the Devils and Caps. The Caps managed to do something the Devils couldn’t; score on the PP. They scored 2, one of them a 5 on 3 that was Ovechkin’s only goal and point of the series. Beast mode Svech has shown up for the playoffs with 8 goals in 10 games, including the game 5 winner against the Caps. Jarvis has 4 goals and is tied with Aho with 10 points. Alexander Nikishin made his NHL debut and may play again tonight with Chatfield still doubtful.

The Panthers extended the Leafs to 7 games, absorbing a home shutout loss in game 6 before utterly decimating the Leafs in game 7. Marchand and Bennett had 3 goals in the series but the usual suspects…Barkov, Verhaeghe, Reinhart, Tkachuk were relatively quiet with the first 3 potting 2 goals each while Tkachuk was held goalless, with 4 assists. Marchand and Luostarinen each averaged at least a point per game in the series.

TNT has the entire series, so we should be getting their “A“ team of Albert, Olczyk and Boucher. Mike and Tripp have the radio call on The Fan, Forslund has the National radio call.
 
You guys know how I hate easy hyperbole, but I feel like Game 1 is absolutely huge in this series. Carolina badly needs to hold serve at home if humanly possible (for more than one reason) and Florida absolutely feasts on doing what they did to Tampa in Round 1 and to Carolina in 2023 ... coming into your fired up barn and stealing your early home ice Ws. Plus, no matter how much the fans want to reject the narrative, the fact remains that Brindy is 0-fer in Conference Finals as a coach so getting even the ugliest win tonight would be massive for that Canes room.

And we all know how this is gonna look. You can throw out the season series this year because it happened way back in November when the Canes were in the depths of goalie hell and forced to start Spencer Effing Martin on back to back nights because they had no other healthy goalies. Yeah, we learned nothing from that, but there's all sorts of background to inform us. These two have beef and usually play the kind of games where nobody really has any room, or at least not the kind of room you want. Mo's a absolute master of figuring out how to force your possession out wide, and Carolina's fire at will thing can play right into his hands. But Brindy has really grown in figuring out how to unlock Carolina's breakout game against all sorts of systems and this Canes team is much more likely to do some damage on the rush than past models. So that's an early indicator. Look for how often Carolina can hit center ice with speed and control. Toronto struggled to make the extra pass required to do that to the Panthers, but the Canes are much more patient and methodical than the Leafs ... and much less easy to frustrate. We also know that Mo is gonna get his boys on the body in ways both clean and not so clean, and that Carolina patience will be tested in that way as well. I think the special teams in this series will kind of even out over time, but losing your top at a bad moment can kill momentum ... which will be hard to come by in the first place. The Canes are going to have to absorb the hits and counterpunch, and that takes a LOT of discipline.

Bottom line ... hold on to your butts.
 
BTW ... I'm NOT asserting that all hope is lost if the Canes lose Game 1 tonight. But I definitely AM asserting that a Game 1 win would mean more to the Canes than to the Panthers, despite the usual flip the home ice thing. They need a W in this stage of the playoffs and against those guys like a fish needs water.
 
Lines and pairings at the skate, Andersen is presumably getting another rest day, he’s not skating. Chatfield is, but with Nikishin, so it looks like Morrow is in tonight? Or more gamesmanship from RBA?

Edit: Morrow said after practice that he doesn’t know if he's playing or not but if he said “If I’m in there, I’m going to play my ass off.”

Svechnikov - Aho - Jarvis
Hall - Roslovic - Stankoven (Jost)
Martinook - Staal - Carrier
Robinson - Kotkaniemi - Blake (Jankowski)

Slavin - Burns
Orlov - Walker
Gostisbehere - Morrow
Nikishin - Chatfield
 
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As a former visiting locker room attendant, I hope it’s on the list for MAJOR renovations. I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere in the published list of renovations…at least not one with details. It was so pitiful even 20 years ago.
 
Tonight’s officials:

Referees:
Kelly Sutherland #11, Eric Furlatt #27

Linesmen:
Matt MacPherson #83, Jonny Murray #95

Standby officials: Garrett Rank, Devin Berg

Series Supervisor: Kay Whitmore

Sutherland and Furlatt worked together in the 2nd round too. They had Florida/Toronto game 5, which had 70 PIM and 7 power plays. We had Furlatt with TJ Luxmore for Devils game 1, they also worked Florida/Tampa game 1. We had Sutherland with Jake Brenk for Devils game 3. During the regular season, the Canes were 4-2 with Sutherland and 0-3-1 with Furlatt. The Panthers were 5-2 and 3-1, respectively. Jonny Murray is also working his 3rd straight Panthers game.
 
andyt said:
Lines and pairings at the skate, Andersen is presumably getting another rest day, he’s not skating. Chatfield is, but with Nikishin, so it looks like Morrow is in tonight? Or more gamesmanship from RBA?

Edit: Morrow said after practice that he doesn’t know if he's playing or not but if he said “If I’m in there, I’m going to play my ass off.”

Svechnikov - Aho - Jarvis
Hall - Roslovic - Stankoven (Jost)
Martinook - Staal - Carrier
Robinson - Kotkaniemi - Blake (Jankowski)

Slavin - Burns
Orlov - Walker
Gostisbehere - Morrow
Nikishin - Chatfield
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'd bet we see Morrow tonight. No way you want Nikishin in there barfing up soft turnovers in the D zone. He's just not ready for the speed and Florida's going to pressure the defense a LOT quicker than Washington was capable of doing. And if Chatfield is hurting even a little, they're just gonna concentrate on dirt-balling him out of the game anyway.
 
Fayettenamcanesfan said:
As a former visiting locker room attendant, I hope it’s on the list for MAJOR renovations. I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere in the published list of renovations…at least not one with details. It was so pitiful even 20 years ago.
Click to expand...
The visiting locker room? It was scheduled to be renovated out of the normal building upkeep fund, which is why you haven't seen it in the special project scope. Not sure what the timing is, but players will bitch about it even if it's the Taj Malocker room. Who gives a crap? The league was apparently fine with teams dressing in a tent in the parking lot in the heat in Phoenix. So long as it's better than that, then I vote Tkachuk shuts it and plays hockey.
 
jeffbear said:
The visiting locker room? It was scheduled to be renovated out of the normal building upkeep fund, which is why you haven't seen it in the special project scope. Not sure what the timing is, but players will bitch about it even if it's the Taj Malocker room. Who gives a crap? The league was apparently fine with teams dressing in a tent in the parking lot in the heat in Phoenix. So long as it's better than that, then I vote Tkachuk shuts it and plays hockey.
Click to expand...
I'd rather he complain than play hockey
 
Either Nikishin or Morrow are only going to play 12 mostly sheltered minutes unless either team gets out to a very big lead.

Nikishin would be fun just to see what happens if Sam Bennett tries to run him...I suspect that hitting Nikishin is like running into a brick wall. But I agree with you JB, if we have to go with one of the 2 kids in these games, Morrow should have more confidence and is better (for now) at moving the puck quickly, which you absolutely need to do against Florida.
 
Plus, Morrow has at least had a little bit of time on the PP with the big squad. It's good to have a Plan B (C?) just in case. And this is no shade on Nikishin. Given training camp and a pre season schedule to work out the kinks, he'll be more than fine.
 
The 0-12 ECF slide the Canes are in I’m sure will be talked about so why not just put that little shit stain to rest tonight…speaking of shit stains…Bennett and Marchand are playing…keep an eye on those two! 😉
 
OK huge Caniacs, time to lock in! I Want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it and stick your head out and yell LET'S GO CANES! LET'S GO CANES!
 
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