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GDT: Canes @ Canucks 1/23, 10:30 Eastern

TheBigKahuna said:
JeffBear, did you watch the game? Tripp and John couldn't stop gushing over how good a puck handler Neds is.

I haven't paid attention honestly. I nodded off so much last night, I missed almost the entire 2nd period.
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I watched it this morning, but I rarely pay attention to whatever the heck Tripp is blathering about. Nino IS a good puck handler for a big guy ... always has been. Tripp has a bad habit of acting surprised when a player comes in to the club and looks EXACTLY like he's looked for his entire career. There's nothing surprising about Nino's play so far other than the fact that he got hot quick. He's always been a quality player.
 
I'm not seeing the "terrible puck-handling" either. But then I haven't watched any Checkers games this season.

From Michael Smith's game recap article was McKegg's take on his puck-handling:

"He's real solid back there," McKegg said of the goaltender he's played in front of quite a bit. "He plays the puck as good as anyone I've seen. He's almost like a third defenseman back there on breakouts. It was nice to see him get the chance and get the two points."
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My only concern with him was just how far out of the crease he chooses to play at times chasing down loose pucks. However, without mishap last night.
 
jeffbear said:
I watched it this morning, but I rarely pay attention to whatever the heck Tripp is blathering about.
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That's pretty much my sentiment with his evaluation of Ned. It sounded like Tripp was saying it because he wanted it to be true. 99.9 doesn't exactly give the visuals to back up either argument, though, and I missed both Vancouver goals. And even Tripp admitted that there were a couple of times he came close to getting penalized for his puck handling.

Just another reason that I miss Chuck. He was good at giving a realistic evaluation.
 
Elsker said:
I'm not seeing the "terrible puck-handling" either. But then I haven't watched any Checkers games this season.

From Michael Smith's game recap article was McKegg's take on his puck-handling:



My only concern with him was just how far out of the crease he chooses to play at times chasing down loose pucks. However, without mishap last night.
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It's not often a goalie will, from the wall, pass himself the puck through the crease back into the trapezoid. He looked pretty good at it, so must be reflex for him.
 
KTown11 said:
It's not often a goalie will, from the wall, pass himself the puck through the crease back into the trapezoid. He looked pretty good at it, so must be reflex for him.
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I misread that at first... Unless you meant the corner, not the crease, what I saw him doing that freaked me out was passing from above the goal line away from the goal through the forbidden-for-him corner area, to himself in the trapezoid... saw that and started stammering out loud and pointing at the screen.. 'err... ahhhhh!... errrr... ok, whew' or something like that.... what a rare sight that was. The Missus was only half watching and heard me, came running like 'what?! what?!'... that Ned's a different cat.
 
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TheBigKahuna said:
JeffBear, did you watch the game? Tripp and John couldn't stop gushing over how good a puck handler Neds is.

I haven't paid attention honestly. I nodded off so much last night, I missed almost the entire 2nd period.
Click to expand...

jeffbear said:
I watched it this morning, but I rarely pay attention to whatever the heck Tripp is blathering about. Nino IS a good puck handler for a big guy ... always has been. Tripp has a bad habit of acting surprised when a player comes in to the club and looks EXACTLY like he's looked for his entire career. There's nothing surprising about Nino's play so far other than the fact that he got hot quick. He's always been a quality player.
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OK, now how do you feel about NED'S puck handling, lol?
 
KTown11 said:
It's not often a goalie will, from the wall, pass himself the puck through the crease back into the trapezoid. He looked pretty good at it, so must be reflex for him.
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I saw that move and was impressed. He did it safely, as there was no Canuck player nearby and positioned himself to make a better pass to one of our D-men.
 
StormChaserBH said:
OK, now how do you feel about NED'S puck handling, lol?
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Dang it. Ned, not Nino. You'd think it's Monday or something.

OK ... Ned looked pretty decent last night, but I've never liked how tricky and over-confident he seems to be with the puck and I've seen it bite him in the butt repeatedly in pre season games. Plus, you don't exactly have to knock yourself out to find examples of his puck handling "exploits" in the AHL ... the highlight packages alone make me nervous.

My opinion ... and once again, I don't listen to Tripp at ALL ... the kid needs to learn that he's not Marty Broduer and just do his danged job. Leave the thing behind the net for your D, go get back in the crease. How many goals against did Cam Ward cough up in a normal year because he just couldn't stop himself from flinging the puck up the half wall into 50/50 situations? Like 5 or 6? This kind would double that, easy.
 
StormChaserBH said:
I misread that at first... Unless you meant the corner, not the crease, what I saw him doing that freaked me out was passing from above the goal line away from the goal through the forbidden-for-him corner area, to himself in the trapezoid... saw that and started stammering out loud and pointing at the screen.. 'err... ahhhhh!... errrr... ok, whew' or something like that.... what a rare sight that was. The Missus was only half watching and heard me, came running like 'what?! what?!'... that Ned's a different cat.
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Yes corner through to trapezoid. But yea, kind of fancy.
 
Yeah, I had the same reaction when I saw that pass being made. Practically came out of my seat with a "What!?! Don't do that!". But then I settled back down once I saw there was no Canuck anywhere close with a "Well...okay...got away with that".

So I can also understand jeffbear's concern about his puck handling. Not so much as to his skill level, which is high. But more so that he might have a few moves that may not translate so well to a NHL environment.

But it did look confident, not desperate. Whereas Cam's up-the-wall-and-out moves looked a bit on the desperate side sometimes.
 
Fun fact: this is the first time since the 09-10 season that four different Canes goaltenders have recorded a win for the team.

The last time it happened was with Ward, Peters, Legace, and Leighton.
Prior to that was the 97-98 season with Kidd, Burke, McLean, and Jablonski. Mike Fountain was goalie #5 that season, but went 0-3.

So... about once every ten years or so.
 
One good thing about these threads ... you end up distilling your unformed thoughts into clear positions. Here's where my concerns about Ned have landed ... I need to quite expressing my doubts about his puck handling in favor of doubts about his over-confidence. Because that, I think, is the root issue. I sat down this morning and looked a few clips from Charlotte and what I'm seeing is not a lack of technical ability. No, what I'm seeing is a guy who THINKS he can do virtually anything with the puck. He's wrong, and that causes him to barf up any number of bad turnovers ... most of which lead directly to chances against, several of which end up in his net. This is also backed up by what I've seen from Ned in person in two pre season games against mostly NHL players. This past fall he straight up tried to deke two opposing forwards while operating within 5 feet of his right post. He ended up fanning on a pass attempt and leaving the puck just sitting there asking to be shot into his net. Umm ... don't do that. At the time I chalked that up to "bad puck handling" but now I see it as an unfounded confidence that he could make a fancy play. And in his NHL debut as a starter ... again with the French pastry. Stop it.

So ... like Irbe's predisposition to go tackle a guy approaching on a breakaway, this could be a quirk that lends character to a player, or it could be a fatal flaw. I'm not sold either way, but I rather firmly do NOT like to see goalies handling the puck to the point of taking risks that have VERY little chance of paying off in good transition. I feel that a goalie's primary job is hard enough, and that almost every post-Brodeur goaltender seems to think that the fancy handling and risky passing is somehow required of them; it's not. Stop the puck and you'll earn a check. Don't and you won't. It's a simple equation.

Personally, I think Ned is probably ready to back up in the NHL next season. But in order to make that happen without hurting the team, they will need a better, more reliable No. 1 ... which is a thing the front office should be pursuing like demons anyway.
 
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Agreed, and one successful outing does not give us a good indication of what kind of an NHL goalie Ned will be. But all things considered, I'd rather have a player with an excess of confidence than a lack of it. Let's hope wisdom gained through experience takes root as he continues to develop.
 
jeffbear said:
Personally, I think Ned is probably ready to back up in the NHL next season. But in order to make that happen without hurting the team, they will need a better, more reliable No. 1 ... which is a thing the front office should be pursuing like demons anyway.
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It certainly will be interesting to see what the Canes decide to pursue in the search for that number 1 in net this summer. Bob from the Jackets is out there as a pending UFA but the price tag will be steep, pending UFA guys like Cam Talbot, Semyon Varlamov and Mike Smith look to be available. After that, maybe a team like the Caps or Preds may want to move on from Holtby or Rinne if they get bounced early in the playoffs...both of those teams have young goaltenders ready to move soon to a starters role.

If the Canes could land a true established and reliable No.1, Ned certainly would seem like a fine backup guy next year.
 
I could see Holtby getting the door this summer. This is the second year in a row that he's been less than consistent and he's at a stage of his career where that shouldn't be happening anymore. Rinne is 36 and the Preds need to make a call on his future with them. For me, he's starting to slow down. Those would be big names in the trade market. The free agents other than Bob look to be one notch above last year's list. Still mostly re-treads, but maybe with slightly more tread that last summer's crop.

And again, let's be clear ... a goalie that isn't up to the standards of a team that's been a consistent playoff team or Cup contender, is still well above the standards of the Carolina Hurricanes. Yes, you want the "right" guy, but you really juts want a better guy than what we've had. This year shows pretty clearly how much different it feels to have even competent goaltending. Move from competent to slightly above average and you're cooking with gas.
 
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Imho the canes should give up the search for a goal tender and concentrate on getting scorers. If the opposition scores 5, the canes score 6.
 
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