• Moderators, please send me a PM if you are unable to access mod permissions. Thanks, Habsy.

2025-26 NHL Miscellaneous Thread

bagopux said:
Not exactly. What seems to happen is that the team rolls through an opponent or two, looking like world beaters, just to get steamrolled in the 2d round or conf finals. That’s been the pattern nearly every year under RBA except 2022 when we won in 7 and then lost in 7. In all of RBA’s years, in the round we got bounced, we’ve won more than 1 game only twice in 7 tries, and one of those years was winning 2 games after going down 3-0. And every year we think, “But this year will be different because….” And then it’s not. I think the fan base just fears that that shoe will inevitably drop and drop hard. Past is prologue, so it is said.

With that said, this year is definitely even more different!!!!
Click to expand...
No offense, but this argument is exactly what I’m talking about. You ain’t wrong, but at this stage who are we trying to convince? This team won the East and fans should 100% expect them to make the Finals this year. I’m suggesting that we run with that without worrying about the past.
 
The Canes this post-season are not the Canes of previous post-season runs. They play with more confidence, there’s good depth and we run four balanced lines. This team has gotten out of their heads and they made OTT look like chumps. I’m good going against PHI. Both teams have their strengths and weaknesses, but the regular season is not the post-season. Besides, I’ll take RBA any day over Tocchet.
 
Last edited:
cmon3 said:
It’s the media and the way they see the Canes. Puts the fans on the defensive. Sows the seeds of doubt.
Click to expand...
Which is one reason I keep banging the drum of ignoring those idiots. They don’t watch the Hurricanes play unless they’re covering a game anyway.

Case in point … as much as people seem to dislike AJ Mleczko, I’ll give her credit for being literally the only national broadcaster to have done any homework on how the Canes actually play THIS season … like at all. She is the only national broadcaster to notice that Carolina really doesn’t do the dump to forecheck thing at all anymore other than when they’re changing on the fly. Yeah, you get forced into chipping it deep sometimes but it’s nothing like the early Brind’Amour era at all anymore. Even Staal’s line is out there making controlled entries thanks to Ehlers. They even skated it in a bunch in Game 4 the other night when Carrier was on that wing. Carolina has radically changed their game and aside from AJ, nobody employed by a television network has noticed. That’s beyond telling.
 
Tryamw said:
Wait you want the talking heads to watch more than 1 Canes game in a lifetime??
(Joke)
Click to expand...
More like even look at the stats. Some of them were saying the canes lack of scoring would be a problem in the playoffs. Never mind us being at the top of the league in goals. They ought to pay some attention. It’s their freakin job.
 
And the fact that, for the most part, Carolina is generating offense in exactly the same way the rest of the so-called top teams are. Remember that noise last season about how Rantanen was so much more comfortable in Dallas because they played on the rush so much more than Carolina? They generated virtually the same amount of xGs off the rush this past season. The whole thing is insulting, frankly. Screw ‘em. Go win games, score goals and have fun.
 
jeffbear said:
…as much as people seem to dislike AJ Mleczko, I’ll give her credit for being literally the only national broadcaster to have done any homework on how the Canes actually play THIS season … like at all. She is the only national broadcaster to notice that Carolina really doesn’t do the dump to forecheck thing at all anymore other than when they’re changing on the fly…Carolina has radically changed their game and aside from AJ, nobody employed by a television network has noticed.
Click to expand...
THIS! She is a very good analyst and has done her homework. There are too many announcers and color guys who have not expended the effort to get beyond the surface and are willing keep to generalizations. Not AJ and like many women, she’s worked to prove herself in a male dominated business.

You know who also surprised me recently with his discussion of the Canes? Bruce Boudreaux. He spoke at length about the Hurricanes play— pressure all the time, never standing stout on the blue line and running a grinding cycle game. It really is the way RBA was as a player— it was a thing of beauty watching Brind’Amour cycling down low— a master!
 
I saw Bruce Boudreaux in the analyst role as a cohost of NHL Now on the NHL Network the other day admiring what Brind’Amour had accomplished as a coach. Noted that he had the entire team playing the way that he used to play.

“They are all bought in.” He was very complimentary.
 
Complimentary isn’t what we’re looking for here, or not me at least. I’m looking for informed. I’ve heard Boudreaux’s takes and I’m pretty sure he still thinks this is the 2019 Canes. This team doesn’t do that grind or die stuff all that much, although they can still play that way if they need to. Over the last two seasons they really changed their approach and are looking to dictate regardless of opponent.
 
Can I just say how much I am hating the broadcast schedule now that is and Philly are over? Tonight is Wild/Stars which looks to be starting at a time not favorable to their fans, while tomorrow night replicates last night with two big games starting 30 minutes apart
 
Hopefully we can wrap these series up so we can get going with round 2. I'm calling Wild over Dallas big tonight to take that series and Anaheim winning a close one to wrap up that series.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top