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GDT: Canes v. Caps 1/2 7:00

The only shot we have at a legit #1 center is if Necas develops into one. Can't realistically trade for one and never suck bad enough to draft one.

Stud Goalie is even trickier.
 
Home winning streak had to come to an end at some point. Got a point out of it, at least.

Rask scoring twice in a loss reminded me of Nelson Emerson.
 
The only reason we show up ahead of them in the standings is because we have the same number of points but one less game played. By my standards we are still behind the Islanders since they have more ROWs.

But yeah, the typical response here from the Canes is to go into the crapper. If they manage to string together 3 or 4 wins again instead of treading water then we can start to talk about 3rd place in the division rather than the wild card spots. We really caught up quite a bit in the standings with our current 'hot' streak.
 
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Can't say I'm optimistic about our chance over the next series of games. We're facing some tough opponents, with lots of Metropolitan implications and I don't think we're up to the task. Faulk has been an abomination by enabling a breakout nearly every game. He should be sitting. Skinner has temporarily lost his shooting touch and is playing terribly defensively. Our goalie situation is...well you know. While our special team play may be improving (especially the PK), twice on the PP (which actually looked pretty good last night) we had a blind pass along the boards with no one there to receive it. I hope we can bounce back with some wins. I'm also hoping for warmer weather.
 
So, Ovechkin only has 2.5x as many goals as Ryan. Shouldn't he only be making 2.5x as much money? Just wondering.....
 
Glad to take a point on this one. Personally, I didn't think Cam gave up anything ultra soft. That rebound off the back wall was close but somebody should have cleaned that up. Faulk is getting blown by like a Smart Car out on I-40. Either he's injured or has lost a major step or two and he's a real liability right now against top talent.
Ovi isn't going to win the award for 60 minutes of hustle but it's really amazing to watch what that guy can do with a puck when he is moving in on net. Damn deadly.
 
ThinIce said:
Can't say I'm optimistic about our chance over the next series of games. We're facing some tough opponents, with lots of Metropolitan implications and I don't think we're up to the task. Faulk has been an abomination by enabling a breakout nearly every game. He should be sitting. Skinner has temporarily lost his shooting touch and is playing terribly defensively. Our goalie situation is...well you know. While our special team play may be improving (especially the PK), twice on the PP (which actually looked pretty good last night) we had a blind pass along the boards with no one there to receive it. I hope we can bounce back with some wins. I'm also hoping for warmer weather.
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Faulk is a mess...never thought I would say this but Dahlbeck actually makes him look better...as sad as that sounds. Fleury needs to sit if it means Dahlbeck plays with Faulk! Skinner is as streaky as they come sometimes, and right now he looks to be squeezing those sticks a bit too hard to find offense. Hope Wallmark is ok after getting nicked, he actually appears to enhance the Canes lines up front and creates chances. This game should have been won on that late third period power play...I have to question why Wild Bill would throw out Ryan and company to start and have his best skilled player in Aho riding the pine for the first 1:20 of that crucial PP...that power play situation is a perfect example of how games are won or lost, another golden opportunity squandered.
 
Yeah, there's a reason guys like Ovi score so much. Slavin maybe could have done something better, or Ward maybe could have made the save, but he's amazing and he does this to everyone.

On the other hand, on the one breakaway, it looked like Faulk was playing the puck carrier and then let him go and angled back to the center, which actually put him in Fleury's way in terms of preventing the pass and gave the Caps guy driving up the wing time and space to make a good pass. No clue why Faulk let him go and kind of seemed to give up on the play... Glad he makes up for it with all those blocked or high over the net shots from the point!

Aho's knock him down, steal the puck and almost score and then Orprick knocking it in was awesome. That kid is amazing.

And although Ward didn't let in any super softies, you still gotta come up with at least one more save. It wasn't like they were all unstoppable.
 
CanadaCanes said:
Faulk is a mess...never thought I would say this but Dahlbeck actually makes him look better...as sad as that sounds. Fleury needs to sit if it means Dahlbeck plays with Faulk! Skinner is as streaky as they come sometimes, and right now he looks to be squeezing those sticks a bit too hard to find offense. Hope Wallmark is ok after getting nicked, he actually appears to enhance the Canes lines up front and creates chances. This game should have been won on that late third period power play...I have to question why Wild Bill would throw out Ryan and company to start and have his best skilled player in Aho riding the pine for the first 1:20 of that crucial PP...that power play situation is a perfect example of how games are won or lost, another golden opportunity squandered.
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I agree on Faulk, but I have to say Ryan is doing as good or better than any other center out there in terms of puck retrieval etc. It would be nice to say he's not one of our top 4 centers, but many nights he's the best center we put out there in spite of his lack of size and elite puck skills. Not sure why you'd sit Fleury. I'd sit Faulk for Dahlbeck and play Fleury. It seems to me that Skinner gets mesmerized by having the puck on his stick and completely loses awareness of what else is happening on the ice. He had ALL KINDS of open space to carry that puck in last night and make for a more dangerous scoring chance but instead blaster it off the goalie from the top of the circle. At other times, when he has no space he'll try to skate it through the whole world. He could be really special if he was able to fix that.
 
cmon3 said:
I agree on Faulk, but I have to say Ryan is doing as good or better than any other center out there in terms of puck retrieval etc. It would be nice to say he's not one of our top 4 centers, but many nights he's the best center we put out there in spite of his lack of size and elite puck skills. Not sure why you'd sit Fleury. I'd sit Faulk for Dahlbeck and play Fleury. It seems to me that Skinner gets mesmerized by having the puck on his stick and completely loses awareness of what else is happening on the ice. He had ALL KINDS of open space to carry that puck in last night and make for a more dangerous scoring chance but instead blaster it off the goalie from the top of the circle. At other times, when he has no space he'll try to skate it through the whole world. He could be really special if he was able to fix that.
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Let's be real, neither Peters nor Francis will be sitting Faulk down anytime soon...
 
Thoughts:

Canes actually played pretty well, I thought. Washington is a tough matchup and they held their own. Fighting back like that is good to see.

Faulk/Fluery ... somebody PLEASE make it stop. They bring out the worst in each other for whatever reason. I'd REALLY like to see some other options with Faulk aside from Fluery and Dalbeck. McKeown maybe? Heck, maybe even give Slavin a game or two and hope Pesce doesn't go immediately to hot garbage mode like he normally does when removed from his partner. ANYthing other than the same old, same old. Acknowledging that you have a problem is the first step towards fixing it.

Williams and Skinner ... two offensive minded guys stuck on lines with grinders and tweeners all year and we get frustrated that they're "trying too much stuff." Yeah ... whatever. Neither guy is perfect but they both score high on my Give-a-Crap meter. And Carolina's coaching staff clearly can't figure out what to do with either of them. God help us.

Result ... Ovechkin just decided he'd go win the darned thing and had the goods to deliver. Superstars, even erratic ones, make a HUGE difference.

As noted above ... a playmaking first line center and decent goaltending and we'd be in business.
 
jeffbear said:
Faulk/Fluery ... somebody PLEASE make it stop. They bring out the worst in each other for whatever reason. I'd REALLY like to see some other options with Faulk aside from Fluery and Dalbeck. McKeown maybe? Heck, maybe even give Slavin a game or two and hope Pesce doesn't go immediately to hot garbage mode like he normally does when removed from his partner. ANYthing other than the same old, same old. Acknowledging that you have a problem is the first step towards fixing it.
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Watching what Faulk is doing out there I'm not sure how you put someone with him and expect it to work. I've got no idea what his issue is, but it's not like the other D can possibly cover for it. He's consistently pinching/getting caught/not getting back, and making bad decisions in the D zone - passing to the other team, passing to forwards in the high slot or at the point that are covered. I don't know how you fix that with a different D partner. You don't see our other D getting caught in the neutral zone over and over and over leading to odd man rushes - you do see it happen on a bad pinch here and there, but not the same thing multiple times per game. If anyone can shed any light on what is possibly going on with him I'd love to hear it - that can't be the way he's supposed to be playing.


jeffbear said:
Williams and Skinner ... two offensive minded guys stuck on lines with grinders and tweeners all year and we get frustrated that they're "trying too much stuff." Yeah ... whatever. Neither guy is perfect but they both score high on my Give-a-Crap meter. And Carolina's coaching staff clearly can't figure out what to do with either of them. God help us.
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Nobody said they don't give a crap... They're clearly trying very hard.
 
cmon3 said:
Nobody said they don't give a crap... They're clearly trying very hard.
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I clearly value that more than the coaching staff does. Williams getting a forth line assignment on THIS team? That's an aggressive condemnation of a player who has busted his aging butt for us all season. Because he tried a couple of fancy passes? Seriously? Have a talk with the guy.
 
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But Williams didn't play 4th line minutes though. He played 17.23. The guys playing 4th line minutes were Wallmark, Di Giuseppe and Nordström.
 
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