Well if anything, Boychuk missed penalty shot Saturday, so he should fit in really well with the rest of the team.

2/27/2012 5:34:40 PM

Too bad Smith got that early goal - the Canes are definitely energized so far tonight and playing well. Boychuk is being especially aggressive and Staal continues to work his ass off to create the opportunities.

[Edited on February 28, 2012 at 7:43 PM. Reason : .]

2/28/2012 7:43:12 PM

well it looks like the passing Florida ship has sailed.

Now we're 8 points behind Washington for the #8 seed with 19 games remaining. Not only is that nearly impossible but we've got about 5 teams to pass if Washington falters haha.

We're going to absolutely kill our draft spot with this late season surge. Such a stupid franchise.

We should've dumped our players for picks and youth, taken the draft pick and tried to rebuild. We are going to waste Skinner by filling out the roster with a bunch of marginal players.

2/29/2012 8:20:02 AM

seriously dude, youre gonna bring your bullshit to the Canes thread? go back to shitting on the basketball and NC State threads and stay out of here

2/29/2012 8:22:37 AM

nothing wrong with being objective.

This was one of the worst type of seasons. We were out of the playoff race from the very beginning. The bright side is that we get a top 3 pick and maybe add an NHL ready winger to the squad that we get to watch for the next decade.

Instead, once the playoffs were clearly out of reach we started re-signing guys to long term deals instead of trading them for picks/players. Then we started winning just enough games to screw up our draft pick while carefully never winning in OT/shootouts so that we never even entered the playoff race.

That's the worst of all three worlds right there. Now we have to live with almost the exact same team next season which means we'll be scraping by just trying to make the playoffs again. Terrible track.

2/29/2012 8:40:08 AM

It kind of feels like you are thinking in terms of not having Ruutu and Gleason next year because of UFA. Ruutu was having a solid year. Gleason has turned his game around for the most part, and I think Muller and having a long term contract are a part of that. I also think you are

JR publicly said he is going to go after a top tier winger to play with Staal next year. I kind of think that Staal is playing lights out because JR and Muller made a commitment to him to get a top tier winger to play with him.

If Tlusty can be consistent with point streaks, our second line is going to be bonkers.

I don't know that we will get a top 3 pick, we might. We might not. I actually wouldn't mind using a top 5 or 10 pick to trade to someone who will send us that winger JR is talking about. I think the culture is changing, and they want to win now. They don't want to rebuild.

Finally, the two obvious candidates to go missing this summer are Allen and Spacek. I kind of think we will get it done with those guys. They both want to be here.

2/29/2012 8:59:43 AM

It is very clear they aren't looking to rebuild from next to nothing any time soon. Last season was the rebuilding year, it just turned out better than expected. Then, with talent that overperformed, we added marginal talent and lost an important piece on RW (Cole). Then, Mo was Mo, and the start of the season was awful. The record since January isn't bad at all - carry that over a full season and you're not fighting for 8th, you're fighting for the division.

Thinking that it's time to totally blow up and start over is retarded. Add some pieces, continue to get better, and then if it all fails again next season, you blow it up and start over.

2/29/2012 12:38:50 PM

True, we could compete for the division next year. Which is basically the same as competing for 8th haha.

I didn't say we had to completely blow the whole thing. I wasn't suggesting get rid of Staal or anything for picks/players. More like get rid of guys who are marginal and replaceable in FA and accumulate picks/players for them this season when we're out of the race and have the opportunity to dump enough games to land a top 3 pick.

Now we're stuck in that 5-10 range where you typically get a guy who takes a few years to become productive at the NHL level if he even pans out.


But yes, we have been significantly better and less excrutiating to watch under Muller. We'll probably make the playoffs next year but we still won't be likely to contend for the cup in the next several years without adding some major talent... which is all the more reason to play for high picks and young talent.

2/29/2012 1:13:36 PM

face, I think we would agree with you if those 4 or 5 year projects were consistently working out.

Boychuck - drafted '08
Bowman - drafted '07
Dalpe - drafted '07

One of those 3 should at least be a 3rd liner for the full season. Before Skinner and Faulk were drafted, 2 players have been in the NHL full time. Sutter and McBain. Then there's a slew of kids who won't ever make it.

Simply put, JR needs to make a splash and get a top tier winger. It'd be nice to draft a winger, also, who is ready for the show right now.

2/29/2012 1:53:04 PM

I think with Dumoulin and Ryan Murphy coming in on defense, we could potentially have a really good set of young defenders, and the way Victor Rask has been playing, he could be coming up soon too. That's why we need to pick top 5 i think, there just aren't many good forwards in the draft outside the top 5 picks. Some good defenseman but we don't really need that. I think Radek Faksa will be around top 10, and it wouldnt be bad to have a center from Kitchener again.

Does anyone know if they'll be able to come from the CHL to play in the AHL playoffs or for the canes at the end of the season? I know Faulk did that last year, but he was NCAA.

2/29/2012 2:02:06 PM

Oh it's on now!

Tickets acquired for March 31st, Devils vs. Hurricanes! Section 120, Row F

2/29/2012 2:33:08 PM

You also need to remember they are in business to make money. It's one thing to dump a few games at the end of the season if you wanna keep your draft spot. It's another to start tanking a season before the all star game just because its obvious you aren't making the playoffs. People wont show up to games if they have zero faith in us winning and while we have had a bad year the guys are at least still out there putting in some good effort and it's still fun to watch.

3/1/2012 9:57:28 AM

guys, dont provoke or acknowledge face, learn from the mistakes made in the basketball and football threads

3/1/2012 10:04:35 AM

^THIS!

3/1/2012 4:22:02 PM

Goddamn timewarner only has this game in standard def tonight

3/1/2012 7:17:04 PM

I can't find the game on directv...

3/1/2012 7:25:33 PM

Think we're only on MSG tonight... give Kaiton the call.

3/1/2012 7:53:23 PM

meh

3/1/2012 10:25:07 PM

anyone have extra tix to the game tonight?

[Edited on March 3, 2012 at 12:10 PM. Reason : .]

3/3/2012 12:10:23 PM

Boychuk is on Staal's line tonight

3/3/2012 1:05:18 PM

Attaboy stewie!

3/3/2012 8:08:10 PM

What a horshit call

3/3/2012 9:33:33 PM

Sigh

3/3/2012 9:34:30 PM

bullshit game, same ref from that bullshit anaheim loss too, but im not sure he made the call. either way, i hate losing like that.

nice job by sutter and jussi calling out the refs though

[Edited on March 3, 2012 at 9:50 PM. Reason : s]

3/3/2012 9:44:07 PM

[Edited on March 3, 2012 at 10:04 PM. Reason : Stupid phone.]

3/3/2012 10:02:17 PM

Confirmation that Stamkos pushed Sutter comes from Stamkos himself; another Tampa player goes after Sutter after the whistle, but Stamkos shields him, essentially accepting guilt for the collision with Garon. How can a ref see that and not draw a logical conclusion?

3/3/2012 10:03:46 PM

God fucking dammit.

3/3/2012 10:14:16 PM

fuck that shit

3/3/2012 11:28:06 PM

Don't know if they showed it during the broadcast, but Staal went after either Stamkos or one of the refs right after the horn when the Lightning players were huddled around Garon. Love seeing fire outta Staal like that

Also, for a stadium that was only 60-70% full, the "ref you suck" chant was pretty epic

3/4/2012 10:40:41 AM

I think Staal was going after someone in the Tampa pile, then a ref pulled him away and he about went after the ref. Looked like he was about to deck the ref and changed his mind.

Also good to see Sutter making the officials have to practically push him into the penalty box.

Good call or bad call though, still gotta kill the penalties. Oh well

3/4/2012 11:30:13 AM

It was more than 60-70%, the official attendance usually isn't far off from what it usually is, it was 17,112. First time in a long time I've seen the upper level completely full when the lower level isn't. Guess people took advantage of that family night offer

anyway, my point is the building is FAR louder when the upper deck is completely full. Everything just echoes all the way down.

[Edited on March 4, 2012 at 12:43 PM. Reason : ]

3/4/2012 12:43:04 PM

There were a lot of empty seats in the lower bowl. And the lower bowl accounts for more than half of the entire arena. No way in hell they were 1,500 short of capacity bodies-wise.

Staal and Sutter were both going after the refs after the game, and the idiot linesman backed Staal directly into the Tampa pile. Staal wasn't going too hard to avoid getting suspended, I'm sure, but part of me wishes he'd blown off the linesman and chirped St. Laurent all the way to the door.

3/4/2012 7:33:21 PM

Bryan Allen Breakaway shirts

http://Cat5.bigcartel.com/product/5-breakaway

3/5/2012 8:37:46 PM

[Edited on March 6, 2012 at 6:22 PM. Reason : .]

3/6/2012 6:21:07 PM

wat

3/6/2012 7:09:06 PM

ahahah

3/6/2012 8:00:30 PM

Eric Staal 12 game point streak EXPOSED??????

3/6/2012 8:15:07 PM

LOLCAPS

3/6/2012 8:27:14 PM

3/6/2012 9:31:33 PM

cheap pizza

3/6/2012 9:46:40 PM

What a goal

3/6/2012 9:48:29 PM

so yeah, i really hope pitkanen gets healthy soon

need to get a healthy audition out of him before our season is over

poor JR -- searching for his holy grail for so long, with so many previous misses, only to find himself flush with PMD all at once. Hopefully he can make an objective decision on their futures, cause we can't keep them all.

But it's also likely he's just all

3/6/2012 9:49:41 PM

PMD?

3/7/2012 12:43:10 PM

puck moving defensemen

Pitkanen
McBain
Faulk
------
Murphy
Sanguinetti
Dumoulin (supposedly)

3/7/2012 12:57:15 PM

gotcha

3/7/2012 1:00:40 PM

JR might want to keep them all. Who knows. But I think we've seen that a d corps made up of offensive dmen has some flaws that must be overcome.

3/7/2012 1:05:26 PM

I just don't understand the hype surrounding Pitkanen. He's expensive, commits really stupid penalties, and we've been better defensively over the last 2 months without him.

3/7/2012 1:19:07 PM

pros: he's a great skater, logs huge minutes, doesn't take that many penalties for how much he plays, makes a good outlet pass, good vision, can QB a powerplay quite well.

cons: doesn't shoot enough, isn't physical enough for a 1st pairing d-man

3/7/2012 1:37:28 PM

i understand where you are coming from on pitkanen, volcom -- but,

Quote :

"we've been better defensively over the last 2 months without him."

I think this is a correlation, rather than causation. Lewis has been giving out plenty of little nuggets.

3/7/2012 1:39:31 PM

can the Sabers go 3 for 3 ringing the post.

3/7/2012 8:25:00 PM