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Training Camp Thread

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CarolinaPen said:
I hope the Canes sit him for awhile as he is too valuable to try and rush back to the roster. Gotta feel for the kid that he keeps getting knocked in head this much. Averaging a concussion a year for the last 3 now is a troubling sign. Would be great to see him stay healthy remainder of year once coming back both for the Canes and his own sanity. Get well Jeff.
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Francis may want to see if Skinner has any trade value once he's back to full strength. He's probably one more concussion away from end of career.
 
TheBigKahuna said:
Isn't Penner still an unsigned UFA? Played for $2m last year. Couldn't be any worse than Boychuk, LaRose, Brown, etc.

Yeah? Nay?
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For most of Penner's career he's been exactly as useless as the guys you mention. He's the ultimate "don't really care tonight" player. When he decides to show up, he's darned effective. When he doesn't and that's like 80% of the time ... he's just an oversized traffic cone.
 
JFG said:
Exactly. Once Niskanen dropped Skinner, someone should have done the same to Backstrom over and over and over again.....
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That thinking doesn't really get the Canes anywhere other than known as cheapshot artists and in the penalty box. The one thing I have come to hate about the NHL is the need to answer clean hits or non-malicious hits. While this hit wasn't entirely clean, I don't think the Niskanen hit was a dirty hit. Feel free to nail him legally every chance you get the rest of the year, but I am not rooting for cheap retaliation for THAT hit. There may be some dirty plays that justify the response but that wasn't one of them. Save it.

Where I do agree with you is the Canes need to be a much more physical and aggressive team that is hitting a lot more often. When the other guys are getting knocked on their butts they are far less likely to injure one of the Canes. I am tired of watching the Canes chase the puck, get knocked down and fall down a bunch. Sign me up for a roster and system that value physical play and puck possession.
 
TheBigKahuna said:
Even if Francis decides NOT to try to move, or simply can't move anyone with a big contract, he at least HAS to go find some muscle. This team has absolutely ZERO team toughness, and if he's going to try to build around guys like Skinner, Lindholm, Murphy, etc, they need to be protected. I'm not a fan of goonism, but the Canes get eaten alive out there night after night by cheap shots, etc. The league isn't going to police it, so the Canes have to! They need at LEAST two big guys who can fight when needed, or guys who can at least go knock someone's teeth through the glass, AND can skate a regular shift. There's absolutely NO ONE on this roster right now who can or is willing to hit hard enough to intimidate even the smallest NHL players.

I'd love to see one be a d-man, and one be a forward. Bryan Allen would even be an improvement over the likes of Gleason and Harrison.
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told a guy at breakfast today the same thing. You can expect a lot more of these "shoulders to the head" if we don't.
 
And this is one area that Peters had laid out in his list of things the Canes needed to do better. When he said we needed to be a 'tough team to play at home', I didn't take that as simply we needed to win more games. Part of this should be making the lives of opposing players miserable every time they take the PNC arena ice. The problem is that other than the couple of 4th line additions we made, we don't have the personnel to knock around any team in this league. As folks in previous posts have already correctly noted, we are easily still the softest and least physical team in the league. That just got worse with Jordan Staal's injury.

This has to be fixed. This isn't about cheap shots or fighting, its about having players who are willing to throw their weight around in a disciplined way so that opposition players think twice about going after the puck in the corners, or skating across the ice with their heads down, or camping out in front of our goaltenders, or laying a heavy hit on our lightweight offensive stars.

Unfortunately if Ronnie cannot acquire players to help in this area via trades or free agency this year, I expect that we will have to rush players like Brock McGinn who at least seem willing to go out there and hit someone. That or you are going to end up seeing Chad LaRose, who while undersized, at least is willing to go out there and try to hit folks.
 
CarolinaPen said:
That thinking doesn't really get the Canes anywhere other than known as cheapshot artists and in the penalty box. The one thing I have come to hate about the NHL is the need to answer clean hits or non-malicious hits. While this hit wasn't entirely clean, I don't think the Niskanen hit was a dirty hit. Feel free to nail him legally every chance you get the rest of the year, but I am not rooting for cheap retaliation for THAT hit. There may be some dirty plays that justify the response but that wasn't one of them. Save it.

Where I do agree with you is the Canes need to be a much more physical and aggressive team that is hitting a lot more often. When the other guys are getting knocked on their butts they are far less likely to injure one of the Canes. I am tired of watching the Canes chase the puck, get knocked down and fall down a bunch. Sign me up for a roster and system that value physical play and puck possession.
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I didn't mean taking cheap shots at Backstrom. What I meant was the Canes should have make a point of finishing every check involving Washington's skilled players.
 
Is it too late for me to adjust my 44-31-7..... 95 points, 3rd in the Metro prediction now that Skinner is on the shelf indefinitely? :knife:

I still don't see the worst team in the league being our fate this year. 90 minutes until we hear if Boychuk cleared waivers or not.
 
cmaleski2 said:
90 minutes until we hear if Boychuk cleared waivers or not.
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At this point I kind of hope he doesn't clear. It's past time to move on past this guy. He's clearly not capable of making this team out of camp and this team sucks ... so ....
 
I watched boy a little in a couple pre season games.
His offensive zone defense wasn't the best as he allowed them to escape from deep in the corners. His defense was to wave his stick at the puck instead of closing the man off into the boards. I think he learned this from staal the elder.
He also just skated around in his defensive zone, kinda like he was lost and didn't know where to go.
He did have a few shining moments and a few shots on net, but I expected more from him.
 
I haven't watched the other teams all play yet, but I find it hard to believe that many teams will be able to compete with the Canes for "worst team in the league". Buffalo was expected to be bad, and they look better than the Canes.

It's sad that the Canes two or three most aggressive/physical players are either the smallest guy in the NHL, or just really undersized!
 
re: Boychuk. I give up.
I have always been behind him, saying he hasn't ever gotten a fair chance. Sure, maybe in the beginning. Now? Yeah, it's obvious the issue isn't talent or skill. It's between the ears.
Then again, IS he really that different from any other of our enigmatic players, starting as stated with Staal the Elder? pfft. indeed.
 
TheBigKahuna said:
Even if Francis decides NOT to try to move, or simply can't move anyone with a big contract, he at least HAS to go find some muscle. This team has absolutely ZERO team toughness, and if he's going to try to build around guys like Skinner, Lindholm, Murphy, etc, they need to be protected. I'm not a fan of goonism, but the Canes get eaten alive out there night after night by cheap shots, etc. The league isn't going to police it, so the Canes have to! They need at LEAST two big guys who can fight when needed, or guys who can at least go knock someone's teeth through the glass, AND can skate a regular shift. There's absolutely NO ONE on this roster right now who can or is willing to hit hard enough to intimidate even the smallest NHL players.

I'd love to see one be a d-man, and one be a forward. Bryan Allen would even be an improvement over the likes of Gleason and Harrison.
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Interesting comment BK considering yesterday was being hailed as the end of the goon era when the Leafs waived Colton Orr and Frazer McLaren, the Flames dumped Westgarth and the Devils waived Cam Janssen.

The league has gotten too fast for the slow, cement head types that make a living dropping the mitts.
 
cmaleski2 said:
And this is one area that Peters had laid out in his list of things the Canes needed to do better. When he said we needed to be a 'tough team to play at home', I didn't take that as simply we needed to win more games. Part of this should be making the lives of opposing players miserable every time they take the PNC arena ice. The problem is that other than the couple of 4th line additions we made, we don't have the personnel to knock around any team in this league. As folks in previous posts have already correctly noted, we are easily still the softest and least physical team in the league. That just got worse with Jordan Staal's injury.

This has to be fixed. This isn't about cheap shots or fighting, its about having players who are willing to throw their weight around in a disciplined way so that opposition players think twice about going after the puck in the corners, or skating across the ice with their heads down, or camping out in front of our goaltenders, or laying a heavy hit on our lightweight offensive stars.

Unfortunately if Ronnie cannot acquire players to help in this area via trades or free agency this year, I expect that we will have to rush players like Brock McGinn who at least seem willing to go out there and hit someone. That or you are going to end up seeing Chad LaRose, who while undersized, at least is willing to go out there and try to hit folks.
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This really makes me question the root of the problem. There's no way a group of guys that large would all be pusses. Statistically impossible I would think. Either they don't care about their teammate's or they get disciplined when they come to their teammate's aid. Either way, there is more than meets the eye here.

Personally, I'm ready to see what this team would be like without Eric Staal on the roster. My gut feeling tells me he is the source of our problem in this regard. I just dont see him as being a good guy/friend/bro at all.
 
The only way for the canes to get better is if the captain plays to what he's capable of.
That means a no nonsense take no prisoners attitude and style of play. The players will know he has their backs.
I don't care if he hits everything that moves but I want everything he hits to know they've been hit.
I want the other team to be wary of him and avoid him in the ice. I want him to crash the net and make their defense pay the price for trying to keep him out. I never want him to wave his stick at the puck.
I never want him turning his back or stopping to avoid a check to him. I want him driving through the checks.
He does that the team will follow and they will have a chance.
 
CanadaCanes said:
Interesting comment BK considering yesterday was being hailed as the end of the goon era when the Leafs waived Colton Orr and Frazer McLaren, the Flames dumped Westgarth and the Devils waived Cam Janssen.

The league has gotten too fast for the slow, cement head types that make a living dropping the mitts.
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I don't think it's the "end of the goon era" or anything like that. It's more like changing of the guard. Lots of goons who we have come to know and recognize in the recent years (Orr, Parros, Janssen, Shelley, Hordichuk, etc..) have gotten old and washed up, and there are new guys coming to take their place. The shelf life of an average NHL enforcer is pretty short (for obvious reasons), and the system needs new blood (pun intended). Then again, I may be wrong. We'll be able to see when the season starts, all one has to do is check the stats for fighting majors.
 
Tlusty-E. Staal-Semin
Gerbe-Rask-Lindholm
Terry-Nash-Murphy
Brown-McClement-Malone

I ASSUME this is just because Dwyer is still not ready to go and the Canes are expecting him to be ready to play by Friday. If not and Skinner and Dwyer are still out, certainly we wouldn't be playing Ryan Murphy as our 3rd line RW (just a fill in today as we are short a forward) :eek6: We would need yet another callup if Dwyer and Skinner are unable to play Friday.

That lineup above includes 2 guys who will be playing their first NHL games (Rask and Brown). Brown actually hasn't played a pro game yet that counts. You wonder who would be called up if we need yet another forward and if it will be someone who also could be playing their first NHL game (ie McGinn, Di Guiseppe, etc.)
 
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cmaleski2 said:
Tlusty-E. Staal-Semin
Gerbe-Rask-Lindholm
Terry-Nash-Murphy
Brown-McClement-Malone

I ASSUME this is just because Dwyer is still not ready to go and the Canes are expecting him to be ready to play by Friday. If not and Skinner and Dwyer are still out, certainly we wouldn't be playing Ryan Murphy as our 3rd line RW (just a fill in today as we are short a forward) :eek6: We would need yet another callup if Dwyer and Skinner are unable to play Friday.

That lineup above includes 2 guys who will be playing their first NHL games (Rask and Brown). Brown actually hasn't played a pro game yet that counts. You wonder who would be called up if we need yet another forward and if it will be someone who also could be playing their first NHL game (ie McGinn, Di Guiseppe, etc.)
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I still smell a minor trade or waiver wire addition between now and Friday for the forward ranks.

The length of Jordan's absence along with the unknown of Skinner's latest concussion screams of some sort of Plan B for Francis in my opinion.
 
There were a few vets released yesterday, so I assume Carolina's pro scouts are pouring through options today. They could REALLY use a RW if nothing else.
 
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