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GDT: Canes v. Slugs 1/8 7:00

A

andyt

Canes Moderator
Staff member
The slumping Slugs bring their rotten weather to Raleigh. This is the 2nd of 4 games against them.

The Slugs had put together some wins to climb above the Canes in the Eastern Conference but that's come crashing down the last few weeks. They've lost 5 in a row, 9 of their last 10 and have scored 2 or fewer in each of their last 5 while allowing 22. They're the only team in the league with a worse offense than the Canes, scoring 1.76 goals per game. Drew Stafford will be back in the lineup after missing Tuesday's game because his wife was giving birth. Unlikely all-star Zemgus Girgensons leads with 11 goals, Tyler Ennis has 15 assists and 24 points. Defensively, they're no better than offense, sitting last in goals against per game and 29th in PK $ at 75.0. Their PP is last at 9.7%.

The Canes have a 2 game winning streak at home and points in 4 of the last 5. With Jordan and Boychuk on IR, no decsion has been made as to whether Nestrasil or Liles will come off IR. With the D playing reasonably well and Murphy not looking lost, my money is on Nestrasil coming in with Terry sitting. No word on the goalie, but the morning skate is at 10:30.

Fox Sports Carolinas for TV tonight
 
is this a premium game? The race for McDavid leads me to believe it should be.
 
Should be relatively calm. Local slugs fans really only show up in numbers when they think they have something to crow about. Their last few visits have been uneventful compared to previous years ... when I have on occasion ducked this matchup just because I knew my patience wasn't up to it.

Buffalo's offense is about as futile as Carolina's. This is one for hard core fans only, IMO.
 
This is how they skated this morning:

E. Staal-J. Staal-Lindholm
Gerbe-Rask-Tlusty
Skinner-Nash-Semin
Malone-McClement-Dwyer

Sekera-Faulk
Hainsey-Liles
Gleason-Murphy

Ward in goal.
 
I'd rather see Semin with the Staal boys because:

1. They might be able to guilt him into giving a care.
2. Lindholm has kind of tailed off in effectiveness on that line and I think he might mesh better with Skinner.
3. Can't imagine having 2 defensively challenged guys on the same line like Skinner and Semin.
 
JFG said:
3. Can't imagine having 2 defensively challenged guys on the same line like Skinner and Semin.
Click to expand...

This season, Semin has been hockey-challenged. Give-a-crap-challenged too, but that's another story. Crossing my fingers for a pulse out of him, anything else is gravy.
 
That powerplay where Tlusty scored, was one or the best looking powerplays I've seen from the Canes in a LONG time.
 
Buffalo is just horrible. Its amazing we were ever behind them in the standings....that won't be the case much longer.

Semin having his best game of the year, which is not saying much.
 
Can dwind hire Jeff Gilooly to kneecap a few Canes? (aka Jeff Stone)

Nothing serious, just knock them out of action until May.
 
One of the smallest crowds I've seen at the PNC tonight. The game was incredibly boring - during the first period it looked like who was trying to out-bad who. Nice to see a flurry of goals in the 2nd, but, really - it's all because the Slugs were just terrible and they looked like they just wanted to get back to Buffalo as soon as possible.
 
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