GDT: Canes @ Panthers 4/2 7:30 pm

Oh yeah ... three more games to play, suckers. You can't escape just because the playoffs are officially off the table and everybody's writing post mortems. Florida's not out of it yet, either ... so the Canes have the chance to either play spoiler or play roadkill. Personally, I don't have strong feelings one way or the other.

The Canes recalled Roland McKeown, which I guess means that Faulk or somebody else in the D group is either too banged up to play or close to it. Otherwise it would be pointless to distract from Charlotte's playoff push like that. Wait a minute. Pointless IS what we do best around here, so forget that comment. After effectively benching Val Zykov in the last game, it will be "interesting" to see what Peters does with his first line for this one. Aho, Terravainen and Zykov had been on a pretty good role before Peters decided ... whatever the heck he decided. I might tune in to the start just to see ... who am I kidding? You couldn't pay me to watch anything more time consuming than a highlight package at this point.

Personal stuff on the table for the Canes: Aho is 2 short of 30 goals. Terravainen and Skinner are within reach of 25 goals. Stall is 3 short of a 20 goal season. Skinner and Williams are a few points away from 50 point seasons. If Ward plays all three and wins them, he could finish with 25 wins. And if Justin Faulk can manage to go -4 in the last 3 games he can reach the epic milestone of finishing the season -30! Aim high, Captain. Aim high.

So ... keep on keeping on Canes fans. I'm just in it for the board at this point.

GDT: Canes @ Panthers 4/2 7:30

The Canes make their only trip to South Florida.

After the Panthers ended the Canes playoff hopes in at least 1 season, the Canes have a chance to get the knife out of the drawer. The Panthers trail the Devils by 7 points with 5 games to play. They're coming off a 1-2-1 road trip, losing their last 3. Tonight kicks off a 4 game homestand and 5 nights in 7 days for them, with only Wednesday and Friday off before they finish in Boston on Sunday. The Devils have 3 games left. Vincient Trocheck leads with 30 goals, Aleksandr Barkov has 49 assists and 70 points. Huberdeau and Dadonov also have more than 20 goals, Trocheck, Huberdeau and Yandle have over 40 assists. They're not particularly good on special teams, the PP is 27th at home at 16.7%, the home PK is 16th at 81.7%. James Reimer has started 40 games in goal and carries a 3.00/.911 stat line. Luongo has started 30 and is 2.56/.926. Reimer started 3 of 4 on the roadie but was pulled on Saturday after giving up 5 goals on 24 shots to the Bruins.

The Canes recalled Roland McKeown yesterday. No word on if he'll play but we'll see at the morning skate.

Fox Sports Carolinas for TV.

Twice the games tonight neither will be worth watching.

Threads merged. Hard to believe that THIS game managed two game threads.

jeffbear said:

Threads merged. Hard to believe that THIS game managed two game threads.

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I didn't see yours when i started mine.

Lines from the skate, per Michael Smith. Looks like Faulk is injured again.

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

Slavin/Dahlbeck
Hanifin/TVR
Fleury/McKeown

Darling in goal

Faulk's not the only one who is injured. Nordstrom was barely keeping it together against the Rangers. The lightest of love taps sent him to the bench for 10-15 minutes the other night. Nobody's released any info, but I'll go ahead and guess that neither one of them have any business playing right now and that our "GM by committee" can't figure out what to do about it.

Can we call up guys from the Everblades?

JFG said:

Can we call up guys from the Everblades?

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If they're signed to contracts with the Canes, absolutely.

Stormy can skate, Shane can skate, what’s the problem?

There are plenty of guys the Canes could call up that wouldn't impact the Checkers at all. Tolchinsky. Lorenz. Smallman (11 points in 11 games in Florida)....

Pay the kitty Kats back and end their season for them. We owe them one.

Well as expected we fold and let them win.

Canes incapable of being spoilers of anything. Win a game that might matter? Ha!!! Not this crew and their sorry coaching staff. Getting close to nailing down that 11th spot in the draft lottery though. We can't do 'better' than 10th. Unless there is draft lottery miracle we will once again get a middle 1st round pick.

I switched to the basketball games. At least one of my teams didn't suck last night.

No shock that the Canes are locked into the 10th or 11th pick. That was this team's destiny from the start ... a middling first round draft pick as a fitting reward for a middling season. I watched the compressed game on the app, which was 8 minutes and change, and clearly all the attention this game deserved. Darling being Darling was note one. Their 2nd goal found a five hole gap as big as the Grand Canyon ... shockingly familiar ... and he never saw the game winner, which neatly tucked into a space he probably wouldn't have bothered to cover had he actually seen the shot. Otherwise I guess the most noteworthy thing was McKeown going off on MacKenzie Weegar after Weegar boarded McGinn. He got an instigator penalty and a game misconduct for his trouble, but at least he stood up for his mate. Way too little of that this season ... or the past decade, if I'm honest.

andyt said:

I switched to the basketball games. At least one of my teams didn't suck last night.

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Congrats to your Wildcats. They capped a magical season with a well deserved championship. That's one of the best teams of the last two decades.