On Tuesday, it was announced that Dougie Hamilton would represent the Carolina Hurricanes at the 2020 NHL All-Star Game.
No other Hurricanes were named to the team, but Teuvo Teravainen is the Hurricanes’ option for the one player voted in for each division.
First and foremost, congratulations to Dougie Hamilton
Congratulations to Dougie Hamilton. In my opinion, he is the most deserving on the Carolina Hurricanes through 39 games of the 2019-20 season. Possibly lost in simply looking at the scoring table for the Hurricanes is the fact that Hamilton is a defenseman. His 76-point, 27-goal pace is impressive…for a forward. Those numbers are astronomical for a defenseman. In addition, he has been pretty steady defensively and sports a massive plus 28 which means the Canes are winning by a wide margin with him on the ice. I have Hamilton as the team’s best offensive player and also most valuable player thus far, so putting him in the All-Star game makes sense. Consider also that the game is free wheeling with an emphasis on scoring, and Hamilton is exactly the type of defenseman that the game needs.
What about Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, Teuvo Teravainen, Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce?
Some may grumble that the Hurricanes deserved to have more than one player represented. With Sebastian Aho on target for 44 goals, Svechnikov a rising start just barely shy of a point per game and Teravainen matching Svechnikov for points at the same time he has matured as an all-around player, all three of those players are also all-star worthy. And so are Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce despite being a bit more defense-leaning. So I think the Hurricanes have six players who could legitimately be an all-star. That number shows just how far this team has come from only a couple years ago when even the down season version of Justin Faulk was probably the only option.
So did the Canes get shafted?
In a word, no. The rules require that each team get at least one player, so the intent from the outset is not to select the best players. Rather, the game is designed so that every fan base has someone to watch/root for, and I am okay with that. Those rules make the game a spectacle for all hockey fans to watch.
When I look at the roster and consider the players from the Metropolitan Division teams that had more than one player, I am mostly okay with the selections. The Capitals have John Carlson and Braden Holtby. Carlson has a good claim to being the NHL most valuable player for the first half of the year and Braden Holtby fairly gets a nod based on his history. The Blue Jackets have Joonas Korpisalo and Seth Jones. Obviously, one of the Canes forwards cannot replace a goalie, and Jones is pretty deserving as well.
So at least as the roster selection is set up now, I am fine with the Hurricanes only getting one player this year. The team is still rising.
Teuvo Teravainen in the vote for ‘Last Man In’
In addition to the players already named, fans will have the chance to vote in one more player for each division. In that vote, each team is represented with the Hurricanes option being Teuvo Teravainen. Teravainen is an interesting selection over Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov, and I actually think that makes it even more right for the Canes fans to rally and push Teuvo up into the All-Star game. First, he is deserving based on his point per game pace and stalwart two-way play. Second, with Aho in the mix and Svechnikov a rising young star, this might be the only chance Teravainen gets.
How about #VoteTeuvoToday ?
What say you Canes fans?
1) Would Dougie Hamilton have been your selection?
2) If given the chance to get another Hurricanes player into the game, who would you bump out of the Metro roster, and which Hurricanes player would you add?
3) What are our chances or voting Teuvo Teravainen in, and what are you going to do to play your part?
Go Canes!
I’m a bit of a grump when it comes to the Allstar game, I just can’t see anything interesting or exciting about it.
I think it is mostly a celebration for the players, and if so, that’s great for them, I just can’t be bothered to watch it.
Dougie is a great guy, and he seems really taken with Carolina, or at least with the PNC Arena crowd.
Raleigh is a bit of a hidden secret, especially in the hockey world, so I think most of us feel a bit of a special connection to guys who come here and realize how fantastic a place this is to live, so guys who come here and embrace the city and the team get a little extra TLC. So, in short, even outside of his torrid scoring pace, the guy is absolutely most deserving.
I think TT is good for the “last man in” because it is a way for the team to identify and appreciate his contributions to the recent success, he is often a bit underrated and the Allstar event is a way to showcase such players, especially with the Canes having a few stars on the rise who are likely to be going an awful lot in the coming years.
I read somewhere that Korpisalo suffered a bad injury a couple of days ago while saving a penalty shot, which might bump him out of the metro roster automatically so there may yet be changes.
I’m pretty much going to ignore the whole event as I have in years past and join the rest of the squad in taking a week long break from hockey, other than checking in with this joint of course.