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

GDT: Canes v. Islanders 4/20 5:00

A

andyt

Canes Moderator
Staff member
Round 1, Game 1

The Canes closed the season with a disappointing loss in Columbus. With the chance for a 3rd straight division title gone, RBA rested 8 regulars and handed NHL debuts to Bradly Nadeau and Jackson Blake. Jesper Fast was injured in the game, later diagnosed as a next strain and he’s out for tonight. The lines at practice were pretty consistent with what we saw down the stretch but with Fast out, KK stepped back into the lineup. On Thursdsy he was on Kuzy’s wing. On Friday he and Drury flipped with Drury on that wing and KK centering Teravainen and Necas. So that bears watching. Andersen is 10-4-1 lifetime against the Islanders but only 3-2 with the Canes. He's 1-0 against them in the playoffs, closing out last year’s first round with a 33 save performance.

The Islanders finished the season on a 10-2-1 bender as they climbed into 3rd in the division. The had a series of streaks under Patrick Roy. They only won 4 of his first 12 games, then won 6 in a row. That was followed up with a 6 game losing streak before closing out the season winning 10 of their last 13. Over that stretch, Kyle Palmieri led with 8 goals and 13 points. Brock Nelson and Mathew Barzal each had 10 points. Semyon Varlamov started 8 games in goal and was 2.00/.936. Ilya Sorokin was almost as good at 2.39/.926. Their special teams weren’t good in those last 13 games, both the PP and PK were in the bottom 5. Their PK was worst in the league for the season.

Black jerseys at home for the playoffs. Bally Sports South and TBS/TruTV (With Forslund, Pang and Botterill) for TV.
 
andyt said:
Round 1, Game 1

The Canes closed the season with a disappointing an irrelevant loss in Columbus. With the chance for a 3rd straight division title gone, RBA rested 8 regulars and handed NHL debuts to Bradly Nadeau and Jackson Blake. Jesper Fast was injured in the game, later diagnosed as a next strain and he’s out for tonight. The lines at practice were pretty consistent with what we saw down the stretch but with Fast out, KK stepped back into the lineup. On Thursdsy he was on Kuzy’s wing. On Friday he and Drury flipped with Drury on that wing and KK centering Teravainen and Necas. So that bears watching. Andersen is 10-4-1 lifetime against the Islanders but only 3-2 with the Canes. He's 1-0 against them in the playoffs, closing out last year’s first round with a 33 save performance.

The Islanders finished the season on a 10-2-1 bender as they climbed into 3rd in the division. The had a series of streaks under Patrick Roy. They only won 4 of his first 12 games, then won 6 in a row. That was followed up with a 6 game losing streak before closing out the season winning 10 of their last 13. Over that stretch, Kyle Palmieri led with 8 goals and 13 points. Brock Nelson and Mathew Barzal each had 10 points. Semyon Varlamov started 8 games in goal and was 2.00/.936. Ilya Sorokin was almost as good at 2.39/.926. Their special teams weren’t good in those last 13 games, both the PP and PK were in the bottom 5. Their PK was worst in the league for the season.

Black jerseys at home for the playoffs. Bally Sports South and TBS/TruTV (With Forslund, Pang and Botterill) for TV.
Click to expand...

FIFY, just because it was a novel situation.
 
Today’s officials:

Referees:
Garrett Rank #7, Jean Hebert #15

Linesmen:
Jonny Murray #95, Andrew Smith #51

Backup officials: Francois St. Laurent, Julien Fornier
Series supervisor: Dan O’Halloran

Rank will be working his 13th playoff game, Hebert his 85th, Murray his 177th and Smith his 36th.
 
Roy only made a couple of tweaks when he took over the Isles. Most notable was top loading his lines and giving Barzal and Horvat more and more favorable shifts. That worked early, then he went away from it, and after that messed things up he returned to the top heavy rotation. On a team built by Uncle Lou and who's DNA comes from Barry Trotz, you can see why there was some leadership pushback on the primadonna treatment but when you've only got three players with a net rating above +10 (Dobson, Barzal, Horvat) then you really need to get them as many cracks as you can.

Another shift was equally out of character for the Isles. Roy introduced hybrid defending where they mix man to man principles into the zone marking that Trotz drilled into their skulls so deep that it altered the Earth's tilt. They don't do it all the time, but the Isles will spring a heavy fore check on you from time to time and press the outlet pass similar to the Canes, and they'll man mark a hot hand. It's weird to see from a team that was so very dedicated to watching paint dry and trapping center ice. Roy also made the net a meritocracy, which means that the Canes will be squaring up against Semyon Varlamov rather than old friend and recent Vezina finalist Ilya Sorokin. So hey, not everything is the same.

I do get the sense that while these teams don't like it each other, you wouldn't get an actual rivaly out of this mix even if they played every year in the playoffs forever.
 
In warmups, it looks like it’s the lines from yesterday’s practice with KK centering Turbo and Necas and Drury on Kuzy’s wing.
 
ThinIce said:
Terrible 2nd period possession-wise. Lucky to be tied.
Click to expand...
That second period put me to sleep in the building…that was ugly hockey all around. Glad the boys pulled it out but it was not their finest effort. Nice to see Captain Lou dusted off the old New Jersey Devils neutral zone trap and gum things up playbook from the mid nineties and keep that boring hockey alive!!!
 
Last edited:
Huge faceoff win by Jack Drury to get possession for Necas's empty netter. The color commentator,Jennifer Botterill, credits Rod for "bumping him up in a key situation". Too bad it was after an icing call and he HAD to be out there. Fantastic grit from Jack with both nostrils plugged.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top