Skinner-Aho-Stempniak? Peters was juggling lines all night, but really whatever line Aho is on looks dangerous. The kid is a superstar in the making....you could argue he is already at that status.
They will get the AC turned waaaaaayyyyyy down....its been noticeably colder down in the lower bowl the 2nd half of the season, I expect it to be really really cold come game time, at least we can hope it is....
The current conference standings have the three playoff bound Atlantic Division teams at the top, the entire Metropolitan Division in the middle, and the rest of the Atlantic at the bottom.
Not to be too optimistic, but five wins separate the Canes and Capitals right now. That's how close this entire division is.
Yeah ... our division is a zoo. Personally, I think Pittsburgh and Washington are going to float above the fray and that everybody else is in play unless they decide that their lineup is just too flawed. The Rangers appear to be making that decision, but it could just be the media trying to make it for them. Carolina, in my opinion, has the opposite problem. Their roster is significantly flawed but nobody seems to have noticed aside from Luke DeCock playing the role of lone voice crying in the wilderness.
I mean ... you can chuck a medium sized hat over Philly, NJ, Carolina, Columbus, NYI and NYR and on any given day they all pretty much look the same in terms of their odds. This is absolutely a race that could be tipped by a good acquisition at the deadline. The NYR, NJ and NYI all badly need help on defense, while Carolina and Columbus need offense. Philly's biggest issue is getting their crap together on the kill. I'm just not sure that Carolina's offensive issues are of the sort that a deadline deal can fix. They really need a quality center and there just aren't that many floating around.
Good points... given that there are so many flawed teams fighting for those spots though and one or more may bow out, it seems we don't need to fix the 1C hole to make the playoffs. We probably do have to make a move or two to add a solid top 6 forward and I'd be a lot more comfortable not having to depend on Darling figuring out his issues.
The Lindholm to center move doesn't address the 1C issue, but at least we're less overslotted there. Adding another good forward to the mix would greatly improve the options on line combinations for all 4 lines, and it should be something we can do with a view to both the short term and long term.
One of the better games I 've seen the Canes play lately. They have ro play a more physical game every night. Poke checks don't win games. McGinn is really turning it up a notch.
I think the weakest link in the current mix is Rask. Not so much weakest really; more like most unreliable. If you could find a decent center who could hold down a third line while Lindy and Staal handle the other two and Ryan wins key draws and fills in the gaps ... you might could make it work. Of course, Ward needs to hold up ... less than given, as history veritably screams ... and the D needs to continue to clean up their season long habit of barfing up 2-3 odd man rushes per period.
Easier to hit 'em when you can catch 'em. Colorado is one of the slowest teams in the league ... or at least they were the other night.
Did you go to the game Saturday? Did you wear a Shanahan Whalers green sweater?