Today’s Daily Cup of Joe offers a short collection of quick hitters.
James Reimer
Reimer’s level of play thus far is underappreciated. His 5-5-0 record is nothing special, but when context is considered, the impressiveness increases. Reimer has made eight of his ten starts on the road. In addition, he has done the heavy lifting in terms of tough match ups having faced Washington, Boston, San Jose and Florida.
The road ahead
With a long road trip following two home games, I think the ball is in Brind’Amour’s court to figure out what could be effective. Without the ability to dictate match ups on the road, Brind’Amour has leaned toward balance in the past. I think that likely makes sense again.
Martin Necas
Though his point total is not incredibly high, I think the Hurricanes really miss Martin Necas. He adds another player who can skate and create in a way that pressures opposing defenses and also adds playmaking to the lineup.
Jake Gardiner
I wrote about this in some detail in Tuesday’s game recap, but might the directness of Gardiner’s error on Tuesday leading to a loss five minutes later be what causes Brind’Amour to put Gardiner in the press box for a game or two to try to reset?
What say you Canes fans?
1) What do you think of my quick hitters above?
2) Everyone add 1-3 quick hitters of their own.
Go Canes!
Reimer has been playing well recently. It’s good to see for two reasons. First, it helps the Canes win. Second, if someone is in the market for a goalie the Canes may be able to trade him, clear some cap room, and get some help at forward.
The team will definitely misses Necas. They may not have missed him yesterday as that was a tight checking game and Necas still has a propensity to make defensive mistakes. Moving forward they will miss his ability to create offensive chances. Hopefully he will be back soon.
To misquote the late football coach Dennis Green, Jake Gardiner “is who we thought he was.” Gardiner is a mistake prone player and it seems he has ratcheted up the mistakes this season. Last night was brutal. The turnover at the offensive blueline was bad enough, but instead of hustling and getting back to play D he throws his hand up in the air to complain about not getting a penalty. He then floats back and is too late to cover Coyle at the net. We all know he’s been bad. The question is when does the team lose all faith in the guy? He can’t be trusted. You know he’s is going to screw up, the question is when. It’s like having Scott Darling in net. The sense of dread is palpable.
Not sure if everyone caught the update on Huala yesterday. Waddell said his issues is tendonitis. That’s good news and bad news. It means it shouldn’t be a career threatening injury, but it also means he will probably be dealing with it in some form all season.
The trouble with tendonitis is that it requires ice/rest to heal and frequently recurs. I expect he will continue to re-aggravate it specially so because it is tendonitis on a reconstructed knee. I wouldn’t be surprised if he will need some more surgery in the future to make some soft tissue adjustments.
1. Reimer’s success should be not be a surprise. He has a career of solid numbers. He did cough up a lot of rebounds last night (a la Darling) but was able to cover or deflect them so no harm done. I think he is effective when he gets more ice time (all goalies do) – he is earning a right to be a 1B and not a 2.
2. With our scoring deficiencies, particularly in the center now with Haula out as well as with Necas who can open up the ice with his skating and puck movement, that last change becomes really important – particularly if the players we have left are not stepping up offensively (and they are not – two shutouts in 3 games).
3. Necas is definitely missed – he was starting to received about the Calder and his point totals were on the rise. His speed and ability to move the puck, as well as his ability to backcheck (see speed and ability to move the stick) are notbeing replaced. Hopefully he is back on ice and back on track soon.
4. I really think Gardiner was trying to be a hero last night on that play, after having played a solid game. It was bad timing late in a long shift that exposed him. But I cannot see RBA punishing Gardiner with the press box on an error he made trying to do something. Quite the opposite – RBA should reward Gardiner for the solid play and recognize that mistakes happen when you try too hard (as he said last night) or try to do too much.
Others?
We need to stop the 11/7 play. There is no reason we couldn’t have another forward from CLT up to fill in on Wallmark’s right with Necas gone. Could have been a good opportunity for Gauthier to show how he has improved. There is limited continuing and chemistry when you are shuffling 11 forwards.
I thought RBA took a personal swing at Maniscalco last night in the post-game presser. I didn’t expect to see him call out Mike like that in public. He could have handled the question better.
Gardiner’s turnover was one thing, but waving his arm whining about a call instead of getting back and helping his team really led to the goal. That’s something you know better than do in youth hockey. Hard to face your teammates after that one.
The Canes are trying to save cap space so they have room for a move at the trade deadline, IMO. If they bring up another minimum guy for any time it cuts into that money. The last I looked the Canes should be able to afford a $4M player at the deadline. If they add another salary that would be reduced a lot. All that to bring up a player that likely isn’t going to help other than reducing ice time a bit for the better players.
Yeah, I cringed when Brind’Amour snapped on Maniscalco, especially since the guys in the locker room kept repeating the “taking a breath” mantra to him. Brind’Amour is trying to keep things positive in the room, so he is going to defend Gardiner as long as humanly possible. Still, a loss like that is a punch in the gut and I think Brind’Amour’s facade just cracked a bit.
I had no problem with the interview response, it’s a matter of differing opinions that has in fact been noticeable in recent interviews. MM and RBA have been seeing the game differently of late.
Ther’s a time and a place for trying to make something happen offensively.
The time is not with 3 minutes to go in a tied game against a quality opponent where getting a point is a huge victory.
The place is not Boston.
And if you do mess up you fix it, you don’t stand there whining about it wile the opponent makes you pay.
RBA definitely lost his cool and that whoe thing was a bit of a messup, but the guy cares; he cares a lot; and I am sure he was massively frustrated, so I’ll forgive him.
I’d trade Gardner + the first from Tor to Detroit for AA.
AA is only 25 so I think the Red Wings would keep him. Detroit will probably want to trade Frans Neilson(who has a few yrs left on his deal).
Not much out there other than JWilly. Couldn’t make a deal for Jesse P, for better or worse.
Make a push for Hall, if only to keep out of Pitt, Mtl etc.
No idea if JW is even practicing right now, or if he is ready to step into the fire and repeat lats season’s miracle. I think the team needs to tread water for another month before he would consider it.
Detroit needs D men so I think we could try to pry one of AA or Nilsen or similar from them.
Nilsen isn’t great, but better than Gardner.
If the Canes could somehow get in on the Sens Pageau now that would be something special (I’ve always liked this player, solid and he is on fire this season).
Looks like the Canes have recalled Gibbons for tonight’s game.
That’s another meh recall. I’d rather try to motivate some of the Checkers young guns (who admittedly are not doing that hot but neither is mr. BG) with a game or two, Gibbons is what he is, a defensively solid 13 forward with little to no scoring potential, I know Roddie loves those guys and they typically make the team competative and the score close, but they need to be able to chip in, at least the occasional goal.
Maby AA is availalbe:
https://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Jeremy–Laura/Mlive-believes-Athanasiou-may-not-be-part-of-Wings-future/275/103032
I’d prefer to send Gardner to Detroit but maybe our Hayden will get it done, give him real minutes with an up and coming team in a meaningful role.
We’d have to include something else but we can give them Forsberg in goal or a first or a second round pick.