If you did not already see it, please take a look at the Canes and Coffee summer event that started mid-day Monday. You can find it by clicking on the ‘Community’ tab on the top menu.
With the news-less dog days of August upon us and ambitious plans to get a bit more sleep tonight, Tuesday’s Daily Cup of Joe offers 5 quick thoughts on 5 different players:
Sebastian Aho: His stock seems to be rising. All reports are that he played well in the tourney in Lake Placid that week on Finland’s top line, and his coach was also happy with his play.
Brock McGinn: I am anxious to see how he looks in the first scrimmage. With a bunch of open slots last training camp, I figured maybe he could make the jump ahead of schedule – until I saw him play. He did not look bad, just like a player who needed time to adapt his game. He was not quite able to cover enough ice to play his running and hitting game, and it is not clear that he is big enough to just run and hit anyway. I would like to see him after a full season in the AHL before passing judgment, but I almost think that he might need to morph into a bit more of a Gerbe style of playing aggressive on the puck and only opportunistically picking his spots to blow people up.
Andrej Nestrasil: If Francis does not make a late push for Jiri Tlusty, could Nestrasil be the next Tlusty? His game is a bit similar in that he is not phenomenal at anything specific, but he just brings a pretty good all-around game with enough mobility and skill to maybe be a complementary player on a higher line if not a leader of it.
Elias Lindholm: Could the next phase of his development be even more playmaking? With Eric Staal more of a shoot-first type of center, his greatest success has always come with a playmaker on the wing. In his breakout 2005-06 season, it was Cory Stillman. After that it was Ray Whitney. And for one magical season it was Alexander Semin. Could Elias Lindholm be ready to fill that role? On a related note, I think Jeff Skinner could also use more setup help to assure he gets a few chances even on slow nights.
Chris Terry: Could this finally be his year? He seemed to finally make the adjustment to the NHL last season after a couple failed or quickly aborted tries. But his 28-30 point pace seems low for a player with his ability especially when he gets a decent helping of power play time. After settling in a bit in 2014-15, could he have another gear offensively?
Go Canes!
