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Round 2 Game 5 GDT: Canes v. Lightning 6/8 6:30

OK, here's my plan for the team next season: keep whomever, pay them whatever, just keep it under the cap. Then, go back in time and sign 1985-era Wayne Gretzky to a $100 million dollar contract, but put him on injured reserve all year so he doesn't count against the cap. Get him on the ice for the playoffs.
 
On the bright side. Was worried about who we’d protect/lose to the Crackers but we can easily protect 4 guys and beyond that who cares.
 
Some team will overpay Dougie in the neighborhood of $7.5 to $8.5 million per on a new, long term deal and I’m glad that team won’t be the one that resides in Raleigh. The Canes have an albatross known as Gardiner to deal with and I also fully expect Mrazek and Reimer to be gone.
 
Just got home from the PNC. I didn't even watch the handshakes, which is a classy part of the NHL, but I was so frurstrated with tonight's performance - and in fact this entire playoff performance - that I had to get out of there. I should cool off before posting anything, but right now I can't express how disappointed I am in this team. We may not compare with the talent of Tampa Bay (few can), but our best players never showed up tonight or for that matter, after the regular season. Tonight's game was simply awful. We got outhustled and outplayed in every phase of the game. Except for Ned, this game was almost impossible to watch. We looked scared and timid in our own zone and the Bolts ate us alive. Now I'm gonna have a drink and try not to think about hockey for awhile.
 
Given the talent disadvantage, the Canes needed everyone to step up to have a chance to win this series. No one really did except for our rookie goaltender.

This will be an interesting off-season with our RFAs and UFAs and the expansion draft.
 
Just got back from the arena... so cool to have been back in there for 6 playoff games after the year+ we've been through.

I'm not as down as most appear to be in here. Xanax may be out of stock in local pharms tomorrow, just sayin'. Tampa's a machine that has all cylinders firing right now, and they can also just go pound sand for their cap circumvention bullshit.

We've definitely got some holes to fill if we want to get farther than we did with this core.

I'm #TeamNYI or #TeamMTL for the remainder, I guess. I love how COL plays, but the ol' Red Wings fan in me just can't root for those b*stards.
 
Like Bill said, it was great to be back in person enjoying the games, the tailgate and the atmosphere again! A day later and having some time to marinate, I liked the regular season effort with so many enjoyable games to savor from this team, the emergence of Ned as the starter is also encouraging! What I didn’t like down the stretch was the regression from the likes of Svech, Bean, Teuvo...too many players on this team just failed miserably to elevate their game in the playoffs and that simply can’t happen if you want to go far. Tampa had contributions from just about everyone and that was also the case when we were eliminated by the Bruins two years straight. You need a full team all making contributions and sacrifices this time of year and you cannot afford to have large numbers of players be invisible, it’s a grind to win a Cup and that grind means you need a full roster playing an elevated game. This team is still missing some key ingredients to be a serious Cup contender and you can find that in the off-season with some creativity and some smart moves via trades or free agency.
 
I think it will be interesting to see the post season injury list as I believe it will be long and that that was a contributing factor in not being able to get past a more seasoned team.
 
After letting last night's debacle (and my emotions) marinate a bit, I have to agree with CanadaCanes - I should celebrate our regular season performance and hope we can become more of a playoff-ready team in the future. Part of my disappointment is the increased expectations that come from a team that is good enough to be a contender and is built to go far in the playoffs. I thought we could go farther, but our overall play in the past few weeks just wasn't what it was earlier in the season and our top players didn't rise to the challenge. Not sure how we fix that.
 
Yeah, it was like winning the division was it for these guys. After that, they weren't the same team. My guess is half the team will be gone. And that's probably a good thing. At least we found our #1 goalie. Thanks for stepping up Ned. The rest, meh.
 
Another takeaway from last night was the hunger and foul taste Aho had of losing...give me more of that hunger from quite a few more guys and this team may get over the hump eventually, I love that guys make up and his will to win!
 
OK ... maybe too much short term bitterness here to get too serious about the future. I'm fine with how things ended, and if you had told me going into the season that they would win their Division and lose to Tampa in the 2nd round, I'd have taken it. So, I'm not going to be a hypocrite and over-react to that exact thing happening. Would I have liked Carolina to have done better? Sure. Were they realistically beating a full Tampa roster with Tampa playing their best hockey of the season? Umm ... not bloody likely. So yeah. Parse it however you want, but I'm having a hard time being too upset with a team for doing exactly what I expected or a little bit more.
 
jeffbear said:
In fact, we should have shortened the bench even more, since a disastrous 4s on 4s shift led to Tampa's second goal, which was the dagger.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I think Roddy tried to get away with one 4th line shift before making a big push. Desperate times, etc...Bad giveaway by Geekie at the red line.
 
brassbonanza said:
Yeah, I think Roddy tried to get away with one 4th line shift before making a big push. Desperate times, etc...Bad giveaway by Geekie at the red line.
Click to expand...
Yeah ... it was a mistake. That line was over-matched all night. I can see what he was thinking, but sometimes you get bit by those kinds of gambles. Maybe letting them take their next shift on an offensive zone start would have been safer.
 
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