GDT: Canes v. Canucks 1/16 7:00

Crap game....good result as far as I am concerned.

Good news...or bad news depending on your view is the Canes have dug a pretty nice hole to start the season. Even with Buffalo reeling off 9 losses in a row the Canes are only 2 points better than them right now. I am assuming that Edmonton remains a lost cause, Buffalo continues to stink and Arizona has entered tank mode. If the Canes play .500 hockey the rest of the way (and that is a HUGE reach) they will have a hard time passing by anyone but those 3 teams. The only way they climb higher is if Jersey or Philly enter full rebuild mode and become sellers..... which theoretically should not happen as the Canes SHOULD be able to match them in rebuild moves if they start.

Finishing the year strong sounds good in theory but it does nothing to help them next year and moving forward. There is 0% chance of playoffs this year, ending a year strong has zero carry over in play to the next year and it is not going to help drive season ticket sales for next year. This team is just in a horrible position right now and they have to find a way to be in at least the bottom 3 or 4 of the league to guarantee an impact prospect in the draft with the added bonus of a lucky shot at #1 with the lottery.

Result = fine. Whatever

How we got it = ugh.

They actually played fairly well through the first period and large parts of the second. It was a possession kind of game and Carolina did a good job getting the puck and keeping it in the offensive zone, but never really generated a lot of real scoring chances. Vancouver was limp and blah, but looking for some long bombs ... and somehow managed to split the D twice out of seemingly nowhere for one on ones with Ward ... who did what he usually does in one on one battles. He folded like a cheap suit. Never been his strength as a keeper. And yeah, Faulk was victimized on those, but his partner shares some blame. They just went to sleep a couple of times. Not good.

So, what you'd like to see is some offensive tenacity and some level of finishing so you don't lose that game in a runaway. Again, they played fairly well until they got down 3-0, but you've got to notch a goal or two out of all that possession time to make it interesting.