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GDT: Canes @ Islanders 4/14 7:00

A

andyt

Canes Moderator
Staff member
The Canes close out the season on Long Island.

With the top seed in the east secured, the Canes need 2 points tonight or for Dallas to drop a point in Buffalo tomorrow to secure the 2nd overall seed in the league. An OT or SO loss tonight gets them to 112 points. Dallas has 110 and if they win in Buffalo tomorrow in regulation or OT to tie the Canes on points, they will own the RW tiebreaker. The Canes have the ROW tiebreaker. So just win, baby. Kochetkov and Unger Sorum were recalled last night. They’re not skating today, so we’ll have to wait until RBAs presser at 4:45 to see who’s in. Does Freddie get a last warmup game or do they treat it like a preseason game and split time in goal? But I do expect FUS to get his rookie lap tonight.

The Islanders were buyers at the deadline, bringing in Brayden Schenn and Carson Soucy after adding Ondrej Palat in January. They changed coaches with 4 games left all to no avail. After hanging around the playoffs all season, they’re slumping home, 1-6 in their last 7, dropping all the way to 6th in the division. Bo Horvat leads with 30 goals, Mathew Barzal has 52 assists. Rookie sensation Matthew Schaefer has 23 goals, which ties the NHL record for most goals by a rookie defenseman. Ilya Sorokin has started 54 games in goal, he’s at 2.68/.906. He’s backed up by David Rittich at 2.78/.894 in 29 games, 27 starts. The Isles are 24th in goals per game, 6th in goals against. Their PP is bad, 30th, but the Canes allowed a PP goal to the worst PP in the league last night. They’re 9th on the PK.

And for the last time, it’s FanDuel for TV. They have the first round of the playoffs, but so do ABC/ESPN/TNT, so this is the last time you’re forced to watch them.
 
Fayettenamcanesfan said:
I don’t know. Our crew, believe it or not, is better than a lot of the national crews. I can not stand espn’s coverage. It’s like they are doing play by play for a local circus
Click to expand...
Bob Wichusen, Mike Monaco and Brendan Burke are all OK. The rest? Whether it’s ESPN or TNT, they’re clowns.

The upside is that, with Seattle out, we could see John Forslund on TNT.
 
I would expect the first line to draw back in along with Jordan Staal and the 2nd line to get another night off. Ehlers is due for a rest, but it seems like he must have asked to stay in the lineup?

I can throw some lines together:

Svech-Aho-Jarvis
Nadeau-KK-Unger Sorum
Robinson-Staal-Ehlers
Deslauriers-Brind'Amour-Carrier

Who knows though.

The blueline is going to look something like:

Nikishin-Walker
Reilly-Legault
Seeley-Nystrom

The sorry Islanders still might manage to lose this game. NHL debuts for Seeley and Unger Sorum
 
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Nadeau is in a tough spot. I'm sure he is frustrated he is not getting more NHL opportunity sooner, but the Canes have developed themselves a logjam at the winger position.

Barring a trade of Svech, Jarvis, or Blake, really the only spot that remains potentially open for Nadeau in the top 6 would be Taylor Hall's. Hall has 2 more seasons on his contract. He could move down to a 4th line role and wouldn't utter any type of protest. Nadeau doesn't belong playing with Martinook and Staal. If you are going to leave Hall where he is, then the remaining forwards under contract are Robinson, Carrier and KK. Nadeau as far as I know really cannot play center.

This being the Canes, anything really can happen trade wise in the offseason so it is a possibility we open up a spot for Nadeau or trade him. I would be nervous trading him away without really seeing how he looks in a full time NHL regular season role.
 
Hall started the season on the 4th line before they settled on the current setup. That could 100% happen again next season, and the Canes cannot afford to waste Nadeau’s development by stagnating him now. Yeah, he’s not the forechecker that Blake and Stankoven are, but that freaking shot man … get him in the lineup. Play him or trade him.
 
And also FWIW I don’t think the Canes really care about No. 2 overall. I’m expecting scrub city tonight. Either way, let me know how it goes … I’ve got tickets to something else
 
Nadeau and one of those first round picks along with something else seems like great trade bait for that elusive 2C come summer…a package that starts with that is nothing to sneeze at.
 
I'm waiting to hear the specifics about what happened here. The CBA basically says there is no roster size limit after trade deadline, but the salary cap is still applicable if course. No issues there.

Kochetkov was activated from IR prior to his conditioning stint (he had to be), so that shouldn't have had anything to do with it. Not sure if there is something in the new MOU that tripped us up, I'm checking that now.
 
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