With opening night now only five days away, today’s Coffee Shop conversation will turn toward predicting the results for the 2017-18 NHL season at team level. Once the roster is finalized, we will loop back around on Thursday and bandy around similar predictions for individual players.
Carolina Hurricanes polls
Please remember to click ‘vote’ after each individual poll response.
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Discussion questions
1) What do you predict for the Carolina Hurricanes at a team level for the 2017-18 season both in terms of regular season and if appropriate the playoffs?
2) What do you consider to be the team’s greatest strengths heading into the season? What are the greatest weaknesses?
3) If you are new to the Coffee Shop, WELCOME!, and please include a short introduction.
Go Canes!
1) A team that is hard to play against 75 or more of the 82 games (not expecting perfection). I predict the games will look much like the first Edmonton and last Washington games of the preseason: suffocating the opposition’s chances, moving the puck, more offense below and in front of the net thanks to Williams and Lindholm picking up where he left off.
2) The greatest strength are all three D pairings–few teams will have offensive players who are superior to the Canes’ D. Closely followed by Staal and Kruger making life difficult for other teams’ top lines. The two layers of pressure will quickly become Carolina’s call card around the league.
My biggest concern is not about a team weakness so much as the opponents’ strength. Facing Dubnyk and then Bobrovsky, the Canes could play two strong games and end up with 1 point. Both those goalies can play really “hot” to start a season, especially after both didn’t play well in the playoffs. I am sure the team knows they have the talent and have committed to Peters’ system, but I think the fans will get discouraged quickly.
1. I put the odds at about 50 50. The canes are definitely better but I think it’s overly optimistic to put the odds any higher this early in the season. Hopefully I’m wrong though!
2.the teams greatest strength will be defence and possession again I think. Greatest weakness will be scoring until proven otherwise.
Go canes!
1. I think we are a fringe playoff team. A strong preseason by Rask would make me feel more confident but it wasn’t there. We still have a lot of ifs that need to be answered. I believe we are a team that will be in the 90s for points. The 10 point fluctuation will occur inside the “ifs.”
2. The strength has to be puck control and transitioning from D to O. A bunch of opposing announcers mentioned those two strengths. My concern the weakness will be physicality. We were vastly out hit in the preseason. Will the team be able to withstand all the hits all season? Do we slow down as physical play ramps up? A puck control team will face more hits than most teams but we aren’t dishing them out as much either.
1. It all depends. The Hurricanes should be an improved team from last year’s edition; however we are playing in the toughest division in the league. Still I believe we have a credible chance to be playing hockey in late April, but we will need a little help from the Hockey Gods — 1. no mass injuries, 2. player improvement and growth (offense!) and 3. consistent high-level play in front of the pipes. Ultimately, if we do not make the playoffs, I remain committed to RF and BP — we are definitely moving in the right direction.
2. We’ve got to light the lamp! I hope our younger guys and some of our vets will create more offense. Early season I will be watching guys like Aho and TT to see what offensive sizzle they can establish. If we continue to struggle offensively as we head into the Thanksgiving Holiday, I am curious if RF will initiate a trade for a more offensive-minded player.
On a separate note: Has anyone seen any news on the sale of the franchise? It seems to be quiet, but that is not necessarily a bad thing in a case like this.
I’m looking forward to the season — we really need a good start and establish confidence for our younger guys. Too often we start in a hole and never seem to recover.
Let’s go Canes!
1/ When I look at our division, I see PIT and especially WAS getting fewer points than last year (I think they miss playoffs) and CBJ treading water to sinking a bit; I’m very skeptical of NYR, especially in goal (sorry King); and do not think NYI moves changed the equation all that much. We are just clearly a significantly better team than we were this time last year, and we will wind up with more points. When I net it out, I believe we’ll make the playoffs if we avoid major injuries. As we saw last year, once in the playoffs, all bets are off.
2/ We were built from the backend out. Our core strengths are shot suppression / defensive pressure, speed up the ice, and puck possession. The template for our play should be the first EDM (dominant) and last WAS (efficient) games, where we hounded the puck everywhere and suffocated the other team’s offense especially through the neutral zone preventing clean entries. We have plenty of offense to win if we execute on our strengths; we could have easily scored 2-3 more goals in each of those games.
Our weaknesses are getting off to slow team starts, inexperience, proven scoring especially in crunch-time, and OT play (bottom of the league won’t cut it). I would add goaltending, but that’s not a weakness if Darling can at a minimum be league-average.
Yes, we are better, and, yes, we’re moving in the right direction with higher expectations, but, more than that, we’re a fun and exciting team to watch play. I can’t wait for the season to start.
While watching the final pre-season game I was struck by my lack of concern of the team being able to hold onto the lead and finish the game out without giving up a goal due to defensive breakdowns and the inability to clear the zone against a desperate team. Normally a third period lead raises my BP, pucker factor and “what goes wrong next” factor. Not so Friday. While it could have been that ovechkin and backstrom weren’t there, or that it was just a pre-season game, I lacked the sense of impending doom that this team has consistently given me the last few years in late game situations. That new feeling is the source of my optimism for this year. The team has the tools to win but needs to learn how to “be a winner”. Attitude not skill is this teams biggest need.
Well said. I felt the exact same thing.
Couldn’t have said it better. Right on. Guess it’s a change in attitude bought about by the perceived improvements in personnel and BP’s on ice systems meshing.
Make that 3.
AND the team needs to be in the middle of the hunt 10 games into the season to build the attitude and swagger they will need to make the playoffs.
I think we are solidly a playoff team this season. At the risk of broken-record time I believed we were a playoff team last year, but for two 5-game losing streaks in the middle of the season and a 6-game winless streak at the end. And that is why I think Justin Williams will make one of the biggest differences this season. Given that we have made significant upgrades in goal, and with both forwards (Williams, Kruger, Jooris) and D (TvR) we should finish better than a wildcard team. A hard-fought first round playoff series could see us playing into the second round.
Our greatest strenths are speed, speed, and speed. Also possession. Our forecheck is a beast – Williams leads by example there. Our special teams remain to be proven – but PK looked strong in preseason and should be better than last year.
I am looking forward to better offensive production (Lindholm, Teuvo, Rask) and an improved power play. We have the players for that, need to get the details in place.
If all the pieces fall together, it could be an amazing season.
One other big advantage – it is a good locker room; the players like each other and have fun with each other.
The risk factors are injuries – although I think it will take multiple to throw us off stride – and losing streaks.
If all the pieces fall together, it could be an amazing season – but not all the pieces have to fall together to make this a playoff team.
1) Ahh well I am one of the 2 or 3 that selected ‘outside looking in’… I hope I am wrong. I can only say I see the Hurricanes safely ahead of the Sabres, Panthers, Devils and Red Wings. Unfortunately, only one of those teams is in the Metro (what a shame to go from the South’least’ to the stacked Metro…). I see the Canes battling with the Flyers, Islanders, Senators, Canadiens, and maybe the Bruins for wild card spots. In the Metro I think the top 3 of Penguins, Capitals and Blue Jackets is set. I also think the Rangers who finished above us last year got better this summer and will still finish ahead. It’s just a numbers game, and while I think the Canes improve on their record I think they are still 15-30 goals short of the offensive benchmark to get in.
2) Their greatest strength is that they have young, versatile, improving support players (Lindy, Terevainen). I am talking about having the depth to ice Skinner on a secondary scoring line, the ability to use a guy like Lindholm on the wing instead of centre because we have competent centre-ice guys, the ability to ice TVR on the 3rd pairing. Depth has been built as Francis intended, plus there are probably a few at least replacement level players available in the system for insulation from injuries.
Their greatest weakness is that at the present time (and they are trying to make the playoffs at this present time) they have no ‘primary’ offensive threats. The Canes lack a line that would make opposition coaches say without hesitation ‘that is the line we have to put our best defensive players out against’. It’s not an advantage to lack that line, because other quality teams in this league can ice a line that features multiple elite offensive talents (Stamkos + Kucherov, Benn + Seguin, etc..) and other competitive teams can ice multiple lines that feature elite offensive players. The Canes still lack any elite offensive players in my opinion. I do believe they may develop (Aho), and I believe the Canes will be a contender when Skinner is the 3rd best offensive forward on this team, and right now he is still the best and he skates on our ‘third line’. Perhaps there is enough goal scoring support to do it by committee, but I genuinely believe that if they can make an asset only (no roster player) for quality offensive player (20 goals/45+ pts, e.g. James Neal, Galchenyuk, Duchene, Landeskog etc.) they will be solidly and safely a playoff team. Just one more piece! Two more offensive pieces and you are talking a cup contender, and it isn’t like the Canes don’t have the cap space to do this…
Darling also plays a major role. A difference between some ‘by committee’ teams in our conference versus our own version is that they have better goaltending. Columbus doesn’t have multiple elite offensive players but their top 6 d corps is easily comparable/better than our own, and Bobrovsky is an elite goalie. Washington lost a lot of scoring this summer and looked bad in the preseason, but they have Holtby.
1. If injury bug isn’t an issue…I see the team making the playoffs outright (top-2 in division)…and winning one or two rounds!
2. I’m confident that the “D” will be strong enough to keep us in “MOST” games… if we can improve our scoring (likely) we should win a lot of games! That said…I’m still afraid of bad goals (especially by Wardo), and injuries -particularly to our better scorers- …not sure who that might be this year??
Scoring really is the biggest question mark for me?
1. Ask me this question in November. On paper I think we finish 3rd in Metro, behind only PIT and CBJ. But a slow October has been this team’s Achilles heel all too often. We start with two home games against formidable teams, then have the usual western Canadian road trip. Add to this Rask’s up-and-down preseason and not being able to land a top-6 center during the offseason (I’d feel better if we did). So we could be treading water after a couple weeks. However, the improvements that were made in the offseason have proven fruitful in preseason and like many above have stated, I get the sense we now have that ‘winning’ way about us.
2. Greatest strength – puck possession and improved passing. Greatest weakness – lack of a true playmaking center (unless Necas is let loose to play his game).
For “If the Hurricanes do make the playoffs, what will be the biggest factor(s) propelling them upward?” My “other” answer – “All of the above” – and more. It won’t be the result of one big thing, but rather a large collection of (smaller) things.
1) The Canes will finish around 100 points. For them to advance deep into the playoffs, our team depth will need to be leveraged. Actually, a collection of short-term, non-serious injuries during the year to drive call-ups and the needed experience for organizational depth could ultimately be a good thing, as long as ability to make the playoffs is not impacted.
2) Greatest strength is team defense, 6 men working together, no one doing too little or too much. The other great strengths are driving possession and organizational depth.
On possession: Ward “freezing the puck” at every opportunity used to drive me crazy. It creates a 50/50 faceoff, where the 50% lost result in the opponent having possession inside their offensive zone. A faceoff win does not guarantee a transition to possession in your own offensive zone, so “freezing the puck” is statistically a losing proposition. In the preseason, it was exciting to see Ward (and Darling) passing the puck more often to drive possession. The goalie’s pass only has to connect 50% of the time to be possession-equivalent of a faceoff. I will gladly live with the occasional bad turnover and goal against for a statistically sound strategy.
Greatest weakness has been scoring. As BP says each game is “a race to 3”. If we can consistently score 3, it will be a good year. In the preseason we were 4-1 in games where we scored 3 or more and 1-1 in games that we didn’t get to 3. A similar pattern will emerge in the regular season.
The other area for improvement is OT performance. Unfortunately the sample size is small so we won’t really be able to evaluate this until later in the season.
1) I believe we have a good chance to get into the playoffs. We are in the toughest division but I think we have a chance.
2) Our greatest strength is our D and the fact that they are young and will only improve for future years as well. How Darling plays matters a lot. I hope with a lesser load the Ward can help. I know they burned him out last year but he has been less then adequate for a while now. I hope our young forwards mature and score more. If they do then we could be even better then squeaking into the playoffs. I am the most optimistic I have been in years, so things could go either way but we have the best tem we have iced in probably a decade.
I agree with everything people have said above.