GDT: Canes @ Vegas 11/3 10:00

Another late night, Caniacs. Are you up for it?

Coach RBA finally engaged the line blend-o-matic for the 2nd period last night and the Canes clawed back from a 3-0 hole to earn a point before losing in OT. The “Free Svechnikov” movement worked as he moved to the top line in place of Teravainen and responded by scoring the 2nd goal. After the game, new linemate Micheal Ferland said he was just as good as Gadreau, his linemate in Calgary last season. Will the line combos stick? Who knows, we may see the usual to start or we may see the lines as they finished. All we know for sure is that Darling gets the start in goal.

Vegas is scuffling in their sophomore season, their 11 points in 13 games leave them tied for 13th in the Western Conference. They’re coming off a 5-3 loss to St. Louis on Thursday night. They’ve allowed 39 goals in 13 games, only 1 worse than the Canes but have only scored 30. Jonathan Marchessault leads with 6 goals and 13 points and is tied with William Karlsson with 7 assists. Marchessault is the only player with more than 3 goals. Marc-Andre Fleury has played 11 games in goal. He and backup Malcolm Subban have similar numbers, about 2.80 GAA and sub-.890 Save %. Their PP is almost as bad as the Canes, 27th at 13.8%. They are 10th on the PK at 80.5%.

Fox Sports Carolinas for TV.

Well Vegas.... Is that an omen or a highway to disaster?

Referees:
Ghislain Hebert #22, Kevin Pollock #33

Linesmen:
Trent Knorr #63, Jonny Murray #95

Canes were 4-2 with Hebert and 2-2 with Pollock last year. Hebert called 41% of his penalties in the 2nd period last year, only 28% in the 3rd. Pollock only called 27% in the 1st, the balance were evenly spread in the 2nd and 3rd.

Tripp thinks Hands of Feet II is good for 15-20 goals.

TheBigKahuna said:

Tripp thinks Hands of Feet II is good for 15-20 goals.

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If he meant career, I agree. In a season? Not in the NHL.

And we’re down 2-0. Hamilton lost a battle in the corner on the first, Pesce lost a battle in the slot on the 2nd.

Well tonight we have all the jam and grit of Teflon..

Don't like our chances to overcome another 3rd period 2 goal deficit.

Make it 3.

Can’t win if you don’t score. Not sure I’m impressed with our defense and by extension, Chynoweth.

Brind'amour is in over his head, and Waddell doesn't have the skills to save him.

I was not pleased when Roddy was hired— experience as a head coach has to be a pre-requisite. But I started buying into the hype. I just have to wonder about his ability to be a tactician especially when there are 5 rookies in the line up each night and lines are unbalanced. He is on a steep learning curve and I hope Daniels is a good support system. If special teams could get going, I’d feel a heck of a lot better.

I think the pre season and the first 5 games of regular season had a lot of Canes fans looking through rose colored glasses. That mirage has faded. The real team is here now. Lead by a coach who has absolutely no experience, and learned from really crummy coaches.

TheBigKahuna said:

I think the pre season and the first 5 games of regular season had a lot of Canes fans looking through rose colored glasses. That mirage has faded. The real team is here now. Lead by a coach who has absolutely no experience, and learned from really crummy coaches.

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Coaching aside, this team and it's management and ownership never really addressed it's two biggest issues that continue to plague them nightly...terrible goal tending and the continued need for a solid top 6 center to balance out the lines. They need to quit trying to sugarcoat a turd...all 3 goalies currently on the roster are not cut out to be starters in this league and none of them can put up the kind of numbers you need to win consistently in the NHL on a nightly basis. Save % all under .900, goals against averages consistently around 3.00 and above, that just stinks at the NHL level.

And a defense that had many people thought might be the most solid in the NHL, is floundering.

Canes, meet the wall.

Canes Need Center and answer for Mr 5 hole

I probably should back off a little but it is so frustrating to watch this franchise putting so much into an unproven guy who is supposed to be an anchor on the team. Hopefully, after last year they will not let half the season go by without making a move. Darling plays on his knees most of the time, so when has to move left or right, the five hole is HUGE. I don't see THIS fundamental part of his game ever changing. That is why there is so much frustration here. How much would it cost to buy him out. Are we still paying what's his name? See it's been so long I forgot his name. Oh yea, Alexander Semin. Maybe, hopefully Darling will prove me wrong.

We are not going to win most of these back-to-backs on the road anyway. We're just to young and weak at most facets of the game. We can squeak by most nights on hustle and physical play if we decide to bring it on. Forget Vegas, the Blues game tomorrow and the Black Hawks on Thursday will tell the tale.

SlapShots said:

I was not pleased when Roddy was hired— experience as a head coach has to be a pre-requisite. But I started buying into the hype. I just have to wonder about his ability to be a tactician especially when there are 5 rookies in the line up each night and lines are unbalanced. He is on a steep learning curve and I hope Daniels is a good support system. If special teams could get going, I’d feel a heck of a lot better.

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Yeah ... I'd feel a lot worse about the lines if there were any other real options, but sadly ... no such luck. EVERY single thing fans are bitching about when it comes to moving this guy up and moving this guy over is absolutely nothing more than changing stuff so that it looks like you're doing something. I'm with Brindy on that. Unless a change makes sense, I think you're better off coaching them up and seeing if they can't work through the issues. Even with the number of children in the lineup, these are still professionals being paid to play here. Some of this is a problem with the roster, but some of it is on them too. Sometimes "go ... do better" is an actual thing that works. Especially when you're big shakeup involves moving around the couch and the arm chair but keeping the same furniture in the same room.

JFG said:

We are not going to win most of these back-to-backs on the road anyway. We're just to young and weak at most facets of the game. We can squeak by most nights on hustle and physical play if we decide to bring it on. Forget Vegas, the Blues game tomorrow and the Black Hawks on Thursday will tell the tale.

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And the tale will be ... we're OK, but nothing more than that. Win 'em both, lose 'em both, whatever. Until we get the forward lines even remotely fixed, that's the ceiling. OK. They'll have hot runs and cold runs but at the end of the day, with the centers we've got available, they're never going to be better than OK for any real stretch of the schedule.