For anyone who could use some lighthearted Canes reading, here is a link to an article from a while back that compiled a reasonably thorough list of John Forslund-isms from the team’s TV broadcasts.
I have a half-written article that looks at impacts of season being suspended for the NHL in total, the Hurricanes 2019-20 season and also going forward, but timing does not seem right to jump straight into that after quite an eventful couple days.
Tentative plan is to finish/post that for Monday and to continue covering the team during the layoffs.
For today, it is either a day off or a chance for readers to start their own discussions in the comments.
Wash your hands and stay safe y’all!
Go Canes!
My kids are asking me what other event in our life rivals the disruption we’ve seen over the past week – really the past two days – and the only thing for me that comes close is 9/11 – though this seems to be an even bigger ordeal that’s going to last far longer.
In my world, most people are self-quarantining at least for the next week and hopefully that will start to make a dent in the rate of spreading; let’s hope we can back to some form of a new-normal as fast as possible.
As for the NHL, the biggest issue related to resuming the season I see is this: given the remaining schedule, how is the league going to insure that each team, at least each team in playoff contention, ultimately plays the same number of games? That may be a very big challenge.
Maybe my priorities are all messed up, but I miss hockey already.
Agree on two counts.
In my lifetime, this most compares to 9/11 in the sense that very instantly the world felt like a significantly different place and the path forward even just a couple days seemed very uncertain.
I also agree on missing hockey. I obviously understand the need for the measures taken, and I hope that the NHL and other pro sports base their return on advice from medical experts not economics even if that yields answers that I do not like. But during times like this hobbies like sports are incredibly valuable to for not getting too buried in the difficult times. As such, Canes hockey is tremendously missed.
A random collection of notes:
Hope Forslund tests negative and gets out of his home basement prison unscathed. It’s crazy that when he’s not calling games he’s watching games, checking out the Canes opponents. There is no better play-by-play voice in hockey, the team of John and Trip as as integral to the Canes experience as the arena or the tailgate, hope they are extended for the next decade or two.
In his most recent 10 thoughts blog, the Checkers broadcaster, Jason Shaya, said that in his interview with the Canes VP of operation he was told that when Jake Bean is called up he’s unlikely to ever be sent back down. He’s been playing very well down in Clt and the plan must be to give him a pretty good look starting in training camp. Definitely sounds like the team is considering not resigning TVR, or maybe it’s Hamilton, or they are considering trading Pesce for maximum return. My bet is on the team trading Hamilton. Between his injuries and asking price I think the team won’t find a way to get it done. It’d be Pesce, TVR, and Jake Bean on the right side, I doubt Vataenen will be playing with the Canes next season, hopefully he will get an audition this season.
It’s a risk, TVR is not really a top 4 D, so maybe TVR and Hamilton are both traded and the team signs Vatanen as a top 4 choice while Jake Bean finds his game.
Best case scenario, Hamilton agrees to sign for a big hometown discount, but I doubt it. For some reason, even if players have more than enough to live like royalty for the rest of their lives (+500 years), they want more money. I guess their paycheck is a reflection of their success, or maybe we’d all be that greedy.
On that thought, nice that Xion Williams has offered to cover all Pelican employee salaries for the next 30 days. It’d be nice to see one of the Canes young guns step up and make a public commitment like that.
I think you miss an important point. Bean plays on the left. And with Slavin, Gardiner, Fleury we are stacked there right now.
I don’t see the team re-signing TvR or even trying to do so. As a 2nd or 3rd pairing D he is replaceable by multiple players at a lower salary.
I do think the Canes and Hamilton both see this is a great fit for both. They will come to terms – but in 5 years we will be complaining about how much we are paying him! 😀
And TD is already weasel-wording about how he has to think about whether he is going to pay other employees of his. He is the billionaire.
Duh, my bad, I thought JB was right-handed.
That does change the picture, especially with shady Brady is crowding the left side.
Ha! And I forgot Brady! 😀
I absolutely do not understand the signing of Brady, given the failed signing of Gardner and the presence of Slaven and Fleury on the left side.
I guess the team still doesn’t trust Fleury at a top 6 defenseman, only explanation I can think of.
Also that signing contradicts the team’s claim they have high hopes for Bean, after all they’ve more than crowded him out of the left side altogether, unless they plan on being able to trade one of Gardner or Brady (they have not exactly impressed so I don’t think they’re supreme trade assets).
I could kind of see the Vatanen signing on the right side, until I found out about his injury and that he was far from game shape.
I have to say that the Canes’ management activities this year have perplexed me, and not in a good way. I admit I tend to take the pessimistic stand, but I admit thinking the Gardner signing was great at the time, he just hasn’t found his game, safe glimpses lately, and maybe, just maybe, there’s a chance he can play himself out of the funk next year, but the signing made sense at the time and the Canes gave up nothing, other than TD’s cash.
But the tradeline activity is a total fail in my opinion. Maybe Trocheck can come around and I like having a right-handed centerman to bring some balance, but his play so far has not warranted much admiration.
I hope Geekie continues to impress and that it will encourage the Canes to try and put some trust in their own draft picks before trading them away and backfilling with overpriced and underperforming castaways from other teams, even teams they are competing with for a playoff spot, they are not out to doing us a favor.
Sometimes the only way to find out if someone is trustworthy is to trust them, I need to see more of that out of RBA and the management.
breezy. Good points. I read elsewhere that Nic Roy had kept Draisaitl off the score sheet in Vegas’ last game. I went to hockeyviz and that was in fact the case. Roy was on the ice 75% of the time that Draisaitl’s line was also on the ice. Roy never got much of a look for the Canes—same with Kuokkanen and Luostarinen. Yet the Canes keep shopping for a center. It appears that Geekie is going to force the issue. Good for him.
It is possible that the Canes gave up a 2nd line C/W (Roy), a 3rd line C (Wallmark), a future 4th line C (Luostarinen) and a power play QB (Priskie) for Trocheck. He will need to get back to being a 70 point producer for that to be an even trade.
If Trocheck is a 2nd line center then it is a good deal. Roy has been surprising bu he is not 2nd line center and neither is Walmart IMO.
I think Slavin plays the right side but moving one or two could be a better idea. Also Ron Francis will probably take one of the Canes D.
Also, We don’t know about Pesce’s future.
I didn’t really think about Roy, given that that trade took place last summer but, yes, since he was the precursor to the Haula trade you are absolutely right there, there is a connection.
We should’ve retained Roy and given him a shot at being the next version of Jordan Staal, quality defensive centerman. That’s what the team needs going forward and it would’ve opened up the possibility of trading Staal for other assets, not that I am saying Staal must be traded, he’s performed well for this team through mostly bad times and he comes alive in the playoffs, but for the money he is making and the fact he has a lot of tread on him, I think it would’ve been one direction the team should’ve considered.
I forgot to mention the trade of Gauthier, a power forward with some potential, for another D prospect (then we gave away Prisky), so I’m not quite sure what the plan is there. If this guy pans out as a legit prospect (he’s highly rated in his AHL games, but the Canes put very little stock in that, especially on D) I can sort of seeing it as a longer term future, but given that the Canes really need more size and power forward type guys with some scoring upside now, this trade does not make sense to me.
Gauthier played reasonably well in pre-season, had a couple of failed attempts at the NHL (but so did Necas, and Svech took half a season to get going). He seemed prime for another shot, and I was looking forward to it. If he had failed that shot I can see the idea of trading him making more sense.
Roster management is not easy, just look at the Oilers, no end of #1 picks but still they’ve managed to avoid the playoffs for more o less a decade, because they do not invest in sufficient quality support cast or construct a roster that goes along with the team identity.
Look at the Leafs, they thought a small group of high end forwards could outscore the defensive weaknesses, it was one of the things I was most curious about at the beginning of the season. I think we’ve seen that experiment fail.
The teams that impress me the most are Boston and Tampa, especially Boston.
Boston uses a lot of their own draft picks, play hard, play big, play defensive, right mix of veterans and younger players. That team is always hard to beat.
Tampa has the same philosophy of drafting and trusting their draft pick. Same mix of veterans and younger guys. Admittedly they’ve never quite taken it all the way so there are flaws in that roster, like Toronto too much reliance on firepower and I have to say Stamcos is one of the most frustrating almost-superstars of the decade, shows flashes of being in a class all his own but plagued by injuries and does not show up when the stakes are high, he is vastly overpaid for what he brings and I think that’s Tampa’s biggest fail.
But, bottom-line, I think the Canes need to look at Boston and model their draft/development strategy a bit more after their success. They have almost all the players they need to become a Boston, at least a Boston Lite.
Next season is huge for the Canes, anything short of ECF playoffs is going to be a fail that will set the team back a bit.