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Playoff GDT: Round 1, Game 4 Canes @ Ottawa 4/25 3:00

A

andyt

Canes Moderator
Staff member
The Canes look to be the first team to advance and they look to sweep their first series win the 2019 2nd round.

Stankoven is on a serious heater and his line is the only one producing. They’ve accounted for 5 of the 7 goals the Canes have scored and Hall and Blake are the top assisters. Andersen has found the Fountain of 2023 when he went 1.83/.927 in his first season with the Canes. Expect him to get the chance to close it out.

The Sens blue line was further depleted with do everything Jake Sanderson was diagnosed with a concussion. They got Tyler Kleven back on Thursday but Artem Zub has yet to play and will miss again today. Linus Ullmark has been almost as good as Andersen and might have to steal this one as the Sens have been held to 3 goals, with Drake Batherson having 2 of them.

FanDuel and TBS for TV.
 
So, the real question of the day is how much energy will Ottawa expend chasing Taylor Hall all over the ice? If they’re smart, it’ll be none, but … yeah. Nobody’s ever accused that team of being particularly smart. So, we’ll see. A bigger concern for the Sens is figuring out a D rotation, but that’s something they’ve been fiddling with all season due to injuries. Asking them to set up yet another set of D pairings is kind of like asking Carolina to finish a game with 5 D … been there, done that way too many times already. They’ll miss Sanderson badly on special teams though. Maybe they go with young Yakemchuk, but that’s 4 NHL games less of a stretch than what Carolina did with Nikishin last year. He posted 2 points in those 4 NHL games but got caved in 5v5 which makes it a huge risk. I think experience will win that argument for Gilbert despite his limitations.

I don’t expect Carolina to change much if anything. Apparently there was some chatter about letting Freddie make the call as to whether he’s fresh enough to be be at his best and that’s fine. If not, then Bussi is right there and the stakes are pretty low. Honestly? Carolina has gotten to their possession game in all three games and have held Ottawa to 3 total goals .. all scored on weird or broken plays. They have to be absolutely thrilled with where they are, even with the power play issues in games 1 and 3 and putting WAY too much pressure on their own PK units. Pretty sure Rod will just roll ‘em out and see what happens.
 
TheBigKahuna said:
But you can't blame the hand injury on the opponent, as a bargaining chip for more power plays, or an excuse to go head hunting.
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Not my argument, at all. Of course they’re talking up the head injury, but I suspect he also hurt his hand when they let him keep playing through the brain fog.
 
Fayettenamcanesfan said:
I didn’t realize Ottawa fans and writers were such crybabies. I’ve seen worse hits in rec leagues and they’re acting like Taylor Hall took out a gun and shot his dog in the face. They’re captain. Does worse than that on almost every shift. Give me a break.
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Exactly. I had no idea Sens fans were the shittiest dirt bags of all Canadian team fans. They're just setting the table of 60m minutes of goonery today, knowing full well the series is over.
 
Ottawa’s fans convinced themselves and a lot of their media that this year’s team is better than it actually is. It happens and now they’re going to have to climb back out of that hole they dug for themselves. For the short term, it’s easier to blame Taylor Hall I guess, but dig around a little and you can see them blaming Tkachuk and Stutzle too. There’s a freaking reason Ullmark struggled in that market after coming from Boston where they lionize their players.
 
Today’s officials:

Referees:
Eric Furlatt #27, Kendrick Nicholson #30

Linesman:
Jesse Marquis #86, Andrew Smith #51

Standby officials: Peter MacDougall #38, Shandor Alphonso #52

Series supervisor: Rob Schick

Furlatt and Nicholson worked Kings/Avs game 1 and Bruins/Slugs game 2
 
Tkachuck has been leading with emotion rather than skill. If he sets the tone and comes out like a cornered mutt, Ottawa is not going to get the traction they’ll need.
 
What does Staal do if dumby head wants to start the game with a flight again? Point at the scoreboard and tell him to fire up his team in his own?
 
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