GDT: Canes vs. Flyers, NEW YEAR's EVE, 6:00 Easter

Happy New Year ????

Carolina returns to the NYE slate hoping to recapture some past excitement. Philly comes to town hoping for some stability following a coaching and management shakeup that at one point may or may not have left Gritty the Fluorescent Mascot/Mop in charge. I'm kidding ... but ...

Flyers ... Scott Gordon is the bench boss on an interim basis, and the Flyers have turned to young Carter Hart in net. He's the SIXTH goaltender to man the Flyers' crease this season. And you think Carolina has shaky goaltending. Pfft. Philly has lost 3 of 4 coming into this one and have managed 35 points this season, good for a tie for 6th in the Metro.

Hurricanes ... guess who else has 35 points and is tied for 6th in the Metro. You got it. These two even have matching 15-17-5 records. Whoo freaking hoo ... it's like the BitCoin Bowl on ice, baby. The Canes have lost a scintillating 4 out of their last five and I think the Wake County Medical Examiner finally declared their power play legally dead. Legal challenges pending.

Bottom line ... this is Aho versus Giroux. I bloody hate when they pimp games that way in the media, but that's what this boils down to. Two bad teams playing badly, each with one reliably entertaining and productive player. Fun.

Does Hart have a shutout yet?

This is shaping up to be the "Dual of the Duds" and while I'll be there, my faith in this is long gone.

TheBigKahuna said:

Does Hart have a shutout yet?

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No. He started off with a couple of wins and Philly fans immediately starting calling him the second coming of Jaques Plante or whatever. Then he lost two, they put Nuevie in and he looked like crap, and then ... back to the kid.

On the "upside" ... nobody makes a goaltender look better than the Hurricanes. I'm sure he'll have 40 saves tonight

Anyone seen Dundon recently at a home game? He shouldn't be allowed to hide from the crap he is putting out there and asking fans to support.

cmaleski2 said:

Anyone seen Dundon recently at a home game? He shouldn't be allowed to hide from the crap he is putting out there and asking fans to support.

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He was around a couple of weeks ago lobbying the GA for those booze exemptions they needed to even propose a game at Carter Finley. Since then, not so much.

And no. He shouldn't be allowed to just piss off to Texas and avoid scrutiny. But that would require somebody around here bothering to pick up a phone and call him. We know how THAT goes.

cmaleski2 said:

Anyone seen Dundon recently at a home game? He shouldn't be allowed to hide from the crap he is putting out there and asking fans to support.

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I saw him walking out of his suite with his wife and toddler for the Boston game at intermission. I also saw Rick Dudley as well on the second floor outside of a different suite during the same intermission. They were not together.

Yeah ... one would safely assume that he was here for the big Whalers Night promotion seeing as how that was his brainstorm.

how often was Karmanos in town? maybe 2x a year? And Karmanos never showed up at a single meeting of the Centennial Authority. Karmanos was certainly hiding a lot too.

When Dundon showed up at a CA meeting they said he had set a new record for attendance for the Canes owner.

I've seen more vitriol sent to Dundon in 1 year than I saw towards Karmanos in the last 10 years combined. Not sure the reason behind that. Is the idea Karmanos was broke and so he could not do anything?

Look, Karmamos was a shitty owner for the most part. Especially the last several years.

I was elated when he sold the team to a younger, seemingly more aggressive owner. Finally!!! But I'll admit, so far I'm nothing more than skeptical about Dundon. His handling of the GM and coach hiring? Cheapest available. Sent Skinner packing for zero return. Hinting at demanding a downtown arena? Never happening. I appreciate the in arena things to increase fan entertainment, but to be honest..all of that can go away. Put a decent team on the ice with a real coach behind the bench, and I don't care if you play the anthem on a kazoo and blow fart bubbles for intermission entertainment. I want a competitive NHL team. I'm sick of the losing.

Dundon could have kept Ron "what's a trade?" Francis on as GM. Just 1 of the many bad things Karmanos did . and there was the constant recycling of players. and the really small scouting staff. and so on and on. and I never recall anything about how Karmanos was hiding out.

Paulie Walnuts said:

how often was Karmanos in town? maybe 2x a year? And Karmanos never showed up at a single meeting of the Centennial Authority. Karmanos was certainly hiding a lot too.

When Dundon showed up at a CA meeting they said he had set a new record for attendance for the Canes owner.

I've seen more vitriol sent to Dundon in 1 year than I saw towards Karmanos in the last 10 years combined. Not sure the reason behind that. Is the idea Karmanos was broke and so he could not do anything?

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I hardly classify anything I wrote as "vitriol." I'd like to see Dundon forced to answer publicly for his decisions and the direction of the franchise same as any other owner in any other market. Sorry if that offends anyone's gentle sensibilities. Karmanos was certainly taken to task on this board for his disinterest and overall lack of funds for YEARS, so the veiled accusation that he was somehow given a pass is ridiculous (that statement had just a smidge of vitriol, for the record). And yes, Karmanos was broke from 2011 onward and it hamstrung the Hurricanes ability to compete. This is not new news.

McElhinney in goal per Mike Smith. No word on the rest of the lineup yet.

Paulie Walnuts said:

Dundon could have kept Ron "what's a trade?" Francis on as GM. Just 1 of the many bad things Karmanos did . and there was the constant recycling of players. and the really small scouting staff. and so on and on. and I never recall anything about how Karmanos was hiding out.

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Dang it. I gave you one post, but now you're officially threadjacking again. Take it to the official futility thread that was so thoughtfully set up to avoid this. This thread is for THE GAME ... thus the title "Game Day Thread."

Canes up 3-0 early in 2nd. Flyers go to the bullpen.

McEleheny is solid so far.

Good way to end the year. Happy New Year, folks!

Two fairly bad, very top heavy teams slugging it out last night. Hart was horrible and very much deserved the hook after letting in two Darling level soft goals. He actually got it after letting in a bullet from Svech, but whatever. Neuvie settled them and played really well to hold the fort from that point on. It's weird seeing a Flyers team get beaten like that without really bowing their backs and at least taking some cheap runs at guys, right? The best they could muster was Giroux getting royally ticked off at a ref for not letting him get away with throwing Turbo's stick to the ice late and JVR literally throwing himself to the ice repeatedly while trying to gin up a power play that they were never going to get. That kind of cheap and chippy is NOT the Flyers' way. That team has lost their edge and their identity and most Flyers fans I talked to last night know it.

Carolina had a fairly workmanlike night. They played OK 5 on 5, and actually created some looks on the power play ... once ... kinda/sorta. God, but their power play is hard to watch right now. One real positive thing has stared to settle in ... the D looks solid. Yeah, Hamilton is still erratic, but the pairings we've been running for the past 3 weeks or so have gelled nicely. Cal deHaan's game has really come around, which has settled that "2nd" pairing, while Pesce is starting to look less banged up which has restored a bit of the shutdown swagger to his pairing with Slavin. Even TVR is pitching in solid outings on the regular these days. Combine that with the routinely not horrible goaltending they've been getting from Mrazek and Mac and that part of the Canes identity has settled in nicely. Now ... if we could only score.

I hardly noticed JVR or Couturier all night. They Flyers looked like a team looking for the bus for large stretches of the game. At one point, Gudas lost his stick right in front of the bench and no one was there to offer him a new one. He banged his hands on the boards a couple of times and then got on the bench. Hart was bad, Gordon was smart to give him the hook; Darling-esque is a pretty good description of his play.

I’m really liking de Haan’s game. If Faulk would stop shooting at the goalie’s belly button or 5 feet over the goal, that pair would be dangerous on both ends. Good to see Wallmark snipe one but then he misses an empty net by a couple of feet? And Aho/Turbo on the PK were dangerous again, creating at least 1 good chance.

Yeah ... going forward, I'd like to see more of Aho and Turbo on the kill and less of McGinn on their line 5 on 5. He boofed about 4 scoring chances last night that those two handed him on a silver platter. Ferland is working out fine on the line with Svech and Wallmark (who really does have hands of feet, it turns out) so it would be nice to audition other options.

By my count Couturier had one slick little play in the 3rd and otherwise did nothing in the offensive zone. JVR should be embarrassed of his performance above and beyond the shameful diving he was doing late ... and that's saying something, because that was frankly disgusting to watch from such a solid pro. The Flyers are a rudderless mess.