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Playoff GDT: Round 2, Game 3 Canes @ Flyers 5/7 8:00

A

andyt

Canes Moderator
Staff member
Note the late start time.

As in the first round,the Canws look to put a stranglehold on the series in the first road game. Taylor Hall remained red hot, netting the game winner with less than 2 minutes to go in thr first OT on Monday. His 9 points in the playoffs is 2 off the NHL lead. Andersen leads all goalies in goals against and Save %. And Alexander Nikishin might be back today. The Canes are skating at 11:30 so we’ll see.

The Flyers lost center Noah Cates for the rest of the series, leaving a gaping hole at center. On the plus side, Owen Tippett skated at practice yesterday, we’ll see what their morning skate holds.

TNT for TV tonight. Alex Faust and Jennifer Botterill and Colby Armstrong are on the call. We’ll have the same crew on Saturday.
 
Kind of a perilous game all around. Game 3s are tricky when the higher seed has won the first two games. Normally you get both a home ice boost and the desperation of not going down 0-3 to fire up the underdog, but Philly’s injuries and roster shuffling are potentially taking a bit of an edge off the normal advantages. For Carolina, they’re once again facing the first road game of a series having won the home games, but having been a bit humbled in Game 2. The Canes responded well to these circumstances in the last round, and look to build off of that confidence. It helps the cause that they look to be getting healthier instead of losing key players. So, we’ll see. Should be interesting.

Philly … Tippett is a firm maybe. Probably. God knows. Cates is out, for sure. They called up Jett Luchanko, who plays center but spent the season in major junior after a 4 game stint out of camp that weirdly included a game against Carolina. Presumably he’s up for the experience, but you also wouldn’t have assumed that Tocchet would turn to rookie Denver Barkey at center after he played the entire season on the wing, and yet that’s a thing. They also will need to make a call at the 6th D spot where they’ve played both Emil Andre and Noah Juulsen. Andre took a dumb penalty in Game 2, but looked better in general than Juulsen, but they also have another rookie available in the form of Oliver Bonk who offers both size and mobility if not experience. Tocchet’s been rolling dice all over the place, so we’ll see if he risks another kid in the mix for a crucial game. No reason for them to change in net, especially with all the other moving parts. I would guess that the changes up front will mean that the Flyers keep it roughly the same on the back end.

Carolina … we’ll see after the morning skate, but they’d love to get Nikishin in for Reilly after Philly correctly identified him as a weak point in Game 2 and pressed the life out of the poor guy. Niki’s ability to pass out of pressure and handle physicality makes that third pair a weapon instead of a liability. Otherwise it looks like business as usual for the Canes, who went back to their normal lines in practice yesterday. They’d love to get Svech dialed back in after a rough Game 2, and to get Aho some open ice in which to operate. Jarvis should help on both counts, as he got his own mess together in Game 2 and looks like he’s found a nice level of health and confidence. On the road, the Canes tend to turn up the chip and check stuff a bit more to try and control territory. A less special teams driven would help with that, but you can’t count on that at this point. You get what you get from the zebras. No reason to even think about a change in net with the extra day of rest. It’s Freddie’s crease for now.

Should be fun?
 
OK, if Tippett and Cates are out then they’ll need to bring in another forward. Hathaway got benched after Game 1 in favor of Grundstrom, who it must be said, played much better. Presumably they draft him back in even though that tilts their group very much more towards the checking side of things. I’m inclined to think that Tocchet will try to button down the defensive side of things and try to slow the game down, but that center group he’s got isn’t really equipped for that. Couturier will almost certainly have to play a bigger role, and while that sounds good since he’s playing well for them, it hasn’t been a recipe for success the last couple of years. He’s been a lot better in smaller doses this season, thus his 4th line assignment.
 
I just don't see the Canes losing both away games. I'd prefer a sweep, but coming home to win a game 5 isn't terrible. I'd just prefer the zebras to keep the cheapshots and stick work to a minimum.
It would be lovely if the Canes could find offense outside of Blake/Stankoven/Hall. The Aho line is really stuck in neutral. I would have already put Ehlers up there. Or Hall. Or anyone.
 
Meh. Depends on the flow of the game for me. You want to give that first line a chance to get it together without resorting to jump-starts. If they at least control possession and chances and continue to play solid defense, I’d leave them to it.
 
Game #2 was a real claw fest and the Flyers kept the Canes on their heels all game. I think a game like that did more for the Canes in this post-season than a clean or dominant win. A game like that, when Philly was dominant, does gas the psyche of the losing team when they’ve done everything possible to win and couldn’t.

Tonight’s game will be interesting to see if the home ice and crowds will help the Flyers or do the Canes come in a better space.
 
Tonight’s officials:

Referees:
Garrett Rank #7, Kyle Rehman #10

Linesmen:
Bevan Mills #53, Kiel Murchison #79

Standby official: Francis Charron
Series supervisor: Rob Schick
 
andyt said:
Tonight’s officials:

Referees:
Garrett Rank #7, Kyle Rehman #10

Linesmen:
Bevan Mills #53, Kiel Murchison #79

Standby official: Francis Charron
Series supervisor: Rob Schick
Click to expand...
Hopefully nobody gets hurt, because … Charron lurks. Rank and Rehman are meh. Rank sometimes loses his mind, but Rehman is generally pretty level headed. It’s a pretty weak group for the 2nd round, but it’s the modern NHL so I don’t know what to tell ya.
 
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