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GDT: Canes @ Oilers 10/17 9:00

A

andyt

Canes Moderator
Staff member
The Canes make their 2nd trip to Edmonton in 3 weeks.

The Canes and Oilers played 2 exhibition games in the last week of September with the Canes winning 6-2 in Edmonton and losing 4-0 in Saskatoon. Teravainen and Staal each had 2, Wallmark and Kuokkanen scored for the Canes. The Canes iced a near starting lineup that night, with Bean in for Fleury on D but the other 5 were starters. Darling had his first action in goal, saving 19 of 21 shots. Since then, goal scoring has been hard to come by, despite a 4 goal explosion against the Wild on opening night. Peters said yesterday that Necas and Jooris will draw into the lineup tonight. Carrick was recalled from Charlotte and TVR was summoned to Edmonton but is still on IR and probably won't play. If he does play, the Canes will have to make a move since they have 23 on the roster already. The skate is coming up momentarily, so we'll see who's playing with whom.

The Oilers put both Leon Draisaitl and Drake Caggiula on IR. Brad Malone was called up to replace Caggiula, so Faulk beware.

Fox Sports Carolinas for TV.
 
The lineup. Necas, Jooris and Carrick are in, McGinn, Kuokkanen and Dahlbeck are out.

Teravainen/Staal/Williams
Skinner/Rask/Ryan
Aho/Necas/Lindholm
Nordstrom/Kruger/Jooris

Slavin/Pesce
Faulk/Hanifin
Fleury/Carrick

Ward in goal.
 
Shake it up, shake it up, shake it up .... sorry. Got lost there for a second

I don’t much like most of these changes, which feel a lot like change for its own sake. But putting Cam in goal gives you a ready made scapegoat or hero depending on the outcome.
 
That lineup is either going to score 5+ goals or get shut out. I'm not sure which yet.

Cam with the token start near his childhood home. I'm sure he is happy that our 3rd pair has 2 NHL rookies on it, with one on his off side.
 
cmaleski2 said:
That lineup is either going to score 5+ goals or get shut out. I'm not sure which yet.

Cam with the token start near his childhood home. I'm sure he is happy that our 3rd pair has 2 NHL rookies on it, with one on his off side.
Click to expand...

So far so good.
 
One dirty goal for them and 3 for us I won't complain too much but that late penalty against us made me hold my breath.
 
cmaleski2 said:
That lineup is either going to score 5+ goals or get shut out. I'm not sure which yet.
Click to expand...

Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner!

Nice to pull out a win to start the road trip. Ward was very good tonight - hard to argue with one softy when you stop 48 shots, some of which were quite difficult. Also nice to see Jordan wake up and make a difference - 4 points! But my favorite tonight was Slavin. He hounded McDavid all night long, got an assist and scored a real beautiful goal.

What a difference from early last season - when we blew a big lead in Edmonton. I thought we were on our heels for big chunks of the game and bent, but we didn't break. Good sign.
 
Agreed - and lets keep ragging Jordan. Buddy decided to show up and pots 4 points.

Early considerations - Slavin - for Norris 2017-18 - and not because Tripp says so.

Personally, the biggest surprise from yesterday's contest was infact the play of Jordan Staal, Teuvo Terravainen and Cam Ward. Who'd have thunk?

Necas - from what I observed of the game (watched 1st period - tuned into 2nd and 3rd from web radio stream) he seems to have done alright. One game doesn't mean much - and he probably needs to go back to the Czech league...still - he did seem alright slotted between Aho and Lindholm early on.
 
11 games played last night.

7 of them won by a team that scored 5 goals.

And 5 of those winning 5-goal teams were Metro teams.

Tough division.
 
Funny you mention this Elsker - but I seem to be noticing that a lot of games are having one team score 5 goals. Is it just me?
 
All I can say is that Jordan and Bill must be reading this board. Nice win. Oh and thanks for playing your backup goalie, Edmonton. That guy was sooooo shaky.
 
JFG said:
... Nice win. Oh and thanks for playing your backup goalie, Edmonton. That guy was sooooo shaky.
Click to expand...

Cam Talbot has been just as recently-- not sure one would have been better than the other. Talbot got the shut out against TO, but has been a leaky sieve since then.

I am completely gobsmacked that Cam Ward faced 50+ shots last night. I don't care who's in goal or what's going on, that's just too many shots for any goalie to handle. Good for us getting the win, but this team needs to protect their goalie better.
 
Absolutely, SS, our D is very weak defending our end. Except for Pesce/Slavin the other guys are way too soft. Maybe that's too much youth and inexperience back there, but even Faulk had that deer in the headlights look about him most of the night. So good on Ward to stop as much as he did.
 
Faulk has moments when he's defensively sound and can be a real weapon, but there are too many times he's out of position, does not effectively anticipate or plays too soft. Peters and Smith are better able to protect him at home, but on the road, he's exposed all too often.
 
As usual, on nights when Jordan Staal shows up offensively this team is a handful. On nights when he doesn’t it’s hit and miss at best. Get a good offensive game out of Staal AND Turbo and we’re going to score four or five regularly.

Expecting the above on the regular is absolute folly, however. It just is.

And yeah, the D can be an issue especially on the road. We’re still just so young back there and Faulk is nobody's idea of a shut down defender. We get by though, and overall our group is solid. There are a BUNCH of teams that would swap Ds with Carolina.
 
Yeah - I'll give ther d a passing grade for yesterday's effort all things considered. Ward was definitely worked but the vast majority of the shots he faces seemed without screen and from at least the top of the circles. Positionally they were ok but occasionally out of position. Of our defensive group, personally the one I notice make the most misqueues - hands down - is Hanifin. Not to jump on his back. I'm still pleased with his progress. Very young and learning his pro game in the NHL.
Otherwise, I prefer Carrick in the line-up for two reasons - his shot and he's probably the closest we have to anything near a BIG physical style playing player in all the ORG. McGinn's fiesty, but at his size, it remains at just that.

I will say - Cam played well. Particularly where he made that save on Lucic to keep it 4-3. I mean, how many times has that been a tying goal in the past vs Ward making the save? No doubt about it - Cam was dialed in 100% into this game.

So far - our goaltending hasn't been all that bad. Our D has been good except for a couple of 'loosely played' defensive games - on the overall (team wise - the first game and last night's). And as it is only 4 games in, I try to find optimism against what I fear is the reality.

Maybe its just the way it goes in the NHL, its down to line matchups definitely and you'll rarely get all pistons firing offense wise. Still, it would be nice to see the team have a couple of more options in the Jeff Skinner style, also streaky in his own right! but who can definitely push the play and make a difference to the game pretty much on a whim. Even if it is just to kill the oppositions momentum. I think Aho has that intensity with a little more calm and vision. Outside of that... it would be nice if 1 or 2 other players could be more consistent producers... like Staal, Turbo and say Rask. I mean - that's supposed to be 3 very important parts to this team. Can't one of them get hot, say for the whole season or up their intensity levels like Skinner does?

I call that the x gene in hockey players. Guys who are just so dynamic with the puck that the play instantly develops when they have it.

Forgot to say - Slavin and Pesce were monsters on McDavid.
 
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