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GDT: Canes v. Kings 2/13 7:00

A

andyt

Canes Moderator
Staff member
The Canes close out the homestand with the Kings.

The Canes moved back into the wild card with their win over the Avs on Saturday. Nothing happened on Sunday or Monday to change that. Everyone plays tonight though...the Devils are in Philly, Columbus are in Brooklyn and the Rangers are in Minnesota. So one of those teams will have 62 points when the night is over and both have the tiebreaker advantage should the Canes not win. By the same token, a win and Devils loss moves the Canes into the first wild card slot...rarefied air.

Some line changes at the morning skate too.

McGinn/Staal/Lindholm
Skinner/Aho/Stempniak
Teravainen/Rask/Williams
Nordstrom/Ryan/PDG

Slavin/Pesce
Hanifin/TVR
Fleury/Faulk

Michael Smith says Ward is likely in goal.

The Kings are in the 3rd game of a 7 game road trip that started in Florida. They beat the Panthers on Friday and lost to the Lightning on Saturday. They'll be without Dustin Brown, suspended for a game for kneeing Mikhail Sergachev on Saturday. The Kings sit 1 point out of the playoffs with 65 points in 55 games. Anze Kopitar leads with 22 goals and 37 assists. Brown is their 3rd leading scorer. Almost every Kings regular is a plus player too, very few minuses on that team.
Jonathan Quick has started 41 games and has a 2.46 GAA, 11th in the league and a .921 Save %, tied for 10th. They're 2nd in the league in goals against/game at 2.42, 18th in goals for/game at 2.85. They're 27th in road PP% at 13.8% but 3rd in road PK% at 84.5%.

Fox Sports Carolinas for TV.
 
JFG said:
Flip Williams and Stempniak.
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Apparently in today's reading of the tea leaves, Coach Peters believes once again that Skinner and Stempniak have chemistry.

However, why he ignores chemistry in every other forward pairing that seems to work is a mystery.

At least Francis taking Kruger away from him got him off his Ryan/Skinner forward pairing that was pretty much an automatic loss of possession at some point in the O zone from one of those two.

Honestly, the constant shuffling of forward lines is one of the most annoying aspects of the Peters era.

When it works it seems more like one of those blind squirrel things.
 
Elsker said:
Apparently in today's reading of the tea leaves, Coach Peters believes once again that Skinner and Stempniak have chemistry.

However, why he ignores chemistry in every other forward pairing that seems to work is a mystery.

At least Francis taking Kruger away from him got him off his Ryan/Skinner forward pairing that was pretty much an automatic loss of possession at some point in the O zone from one of those two.

Honestly, the constant shuffling of forward lines is one of the most annoying aspects of the Peters era.

When it works it seems more like one of those blind squirrel things.
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I think he liked what he saw with Aho-Skinner...

Wondering if he put Williams with Rask and TT in order to light a fire under their butts. Not sure we can assume that line pairings for Williams are done without input from him.

I think the lines make it pretty clear how the addition of one more top 6 forward would really help things - even if not a 1C.

It's surprising how little we are seeing from Rask, and how much Teuvo has been struggling. Rask-TT-Williams should be a solid to very solid line.
 
Gotta be honest here ... Aho fits with pretty much anybody and looks fine. We've used him in basically every role aside from 4th line grinder and he's never looked out of place for a second. If you don't have chemistry with Aho, then you might not be breathing.
 
jeffbear said:
Gotta be honest here ... Aho fits with pretty much anybody and looks fine. We've used him in basically every role aside from 4th line grinder and he's never looked out of place for a second. If you don't have chemistry with Aho, then you might not be breathing.
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Very true. And if Aho can get Skinner scoring that would be huge.
 
cmon3 said:
Very true. And if Aho can get Skinner scoring that would be huge.
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I'm also hoping that tap in he had against the Avs does the same thing. He's streaky and even a garbage goal like that can set him off.
 
Agreed and he's been more engaged defensively from after Peters Tore up the room and they got rid of Jooris and Kruger.
 
I think the whole size thing is over rated in today's NHL. Teams that have been in the Cup Finals and winning the last couple of years trend toward more speed and skill. The brutish teams (like Anaheim) just haven't made much noise in a decade. I don't see the Kings as a playoff team this year so the Canes should be able to utilize the speed advantage in this one. The Canes biggest issues isn't lack of size, it is lack of talent in finishing ability. This is a winnable game for Carolina as Quick is the only thing keeping LA in the playoff discussion.
 
CarolinaPen said:
I think the whole size thing is over rated in today's NHL. Teams that have been in the Cup Finals and winning the last couple of years trend toward more speed and skill. The brutish teams (like Anaheim) just haven't made much noise in a decade. I don't see the Kings as a playoff team this year so the Canes should be able to utilize the speed advantage in this one. The Canes biggest issues isn't lack of size, it is lack of talent in finishing ability. This is a winnable game for Carolina as Quick is the only thing keeping LA in the playoff discussion.
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I agree in general, but will say that when you rely on skill and speed over size, you better bring it on both counts. Carolina's roster has tended to be smallish but not particularly skilled or particularly fast of late, although they have trended a bit bigger under Francis than under Rutherford.

I do agree that the trend in the league is running away from the brutal, punishing rosters that LA and Anaheim won with ... but remember, all things are cyclical in this league and it ain't easy building those high skill rosters like Pittsburgh and Chicago had to win 4 of the last 5. Plenty of good, contending teams rely more on physicality than those two teams do ... Nashville and St Louis spring immediately to mind, as do the Rangers teams of the last decade before they fell off the map this season ... but it's the winners who drive the trends. Since the Ducks bashed their way to the 2007 Cup, only two of the subsequent champions have been especially physical teams. The Bruins in 2011 and the Kings in 2012 and 2014.

Bottom line ... be good at something. Legitimately, actually good. Being adequate at most things is no substitute.
 
jeffbear said:
....
Bottom line ... be good at something. Legitimately, actually good. Being adequate at most things is no substitute.
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That should be the Canes marketing slogan for next year.

"We are perfectly adequate. We like our team!"

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
 
And, of course, all the winning teams have really solid goaltending. There surely must be some blooming star tenders out there in the A or Juniors we can pick off in a trade.
 
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