In advance of Sunday’s preseason finale, the Hurricanes reduced their roster to 22 players presumably locking in the lineup for the regular season opener on Thursday.
The only move that surprised me slightly was that Janne Kuokkanen was cut. Awhile back I had Warren Foegele, Lucas Wallmark and Janne Kuokkanen joining the players that were more or less sure things and pushing the Hurricanes to 14 forwards. But with everyone currently healthy, the team instead opted to send Kuokkanen to Charlotte where he will play a bunch of minutes and likely be the first forward recalled in the event of an injury.
Here are my quick thoughts on the roster and lineup options
In goal
After a strong preseason, I figure Scott Darling starts as the 1A and gets the start on Thursday. The team has so much invested in Darling that at least initially there will be a slight bias toward Darling. But the wild card is Darling being pulled from Sunday’s game with a lower body injury.
Janne Kuokkanen
In terms of cutting one of Warren Foegele, Lucas Wallmark or Janne Kuokkanen, I agree with the decision. Warren Foegele has been the best try out formula, and as I said awhile back is the epitome of what Brind’Amour hockey should look like. Wallmark was a near certainty for two reasons. First, he must clear waivers to go back to the AHL, so the team would not like to risk losing him for nothing. Second, Rask’s injury created an opening at the center position. As such, Kuokkanen was the odd man out. But as a heady, two-way player, I still see Kuokkanen as potentially a great fit on Staal’s line.
Justin Faulk
His usage and level of play early in the season will be very interesting. As a player who could still be on the trade block when the time is right, his start could have a significant say on his value. After a generally strong preseason, he had a somewhat lesser game on Sunday. I will be curious to see if Brind’Amour leaves Faulk in the top 4 and then how he performs in that role.
Valentin Zykov or Micheal Ferland versus Warren Foegele
I think I am in the minority in preferring Zykov or Ferland over Foegle on Aho’s line. I am fully on board the Warren Foegele train, but I just think his skill set is better suited for a less scoring-centric line.
Haydn Fleury over Trevor van Riemdsyk
I actually think Haydn Fleury outplayed Trevor van Riemsdyk by enough to win an opening night lineup spot. Important to note is that this is not because van Riemsdyk has been bad by any means. Rather, Fleury has been that good.
What say you Canes fans?
1) What are your thoughts on the 22-man lineup?
2) How do you see the team lining up on Thursday night?
3) Is it a foregone conclusion that Scott Darling will starts on opening night? Or could Petr Mrazek get the start?
Go Canes!
yesterday they said Darling was injured so that may play into who starts Thursday.
1. Am I counting right – we have 5 LWs? – Foegele, Zykov, McGinn, Martinook, Ferland? How do you make that work? – short of moving Martinook to center and displacing Wallmark. I haven’t see any of them play on the right side.
You mentioned the number of minutes that Staal played last night – he can’t be expected to be playing 22-23+ minutes a night; neither can Williams sustain that type of load. I know RBA’s perspective is this is a “man’s game” but he is going to have to gain some confidence in the young players. We start with 3 games in 4 nights, and 5 games in 7 nights. That’s a fast start.
With all the hoopla about Svech, starting him on the 4th line like was done last night? Giving him 10 minutes a game?
I hope last night’s lineup was, indeed, “experimental”.
2. I have no clue – but Aho stays with Turbo.
3. If Darling is fully healthy he will get the start – the least little bit of an issue and it is Mrazek; you can’t play goalie with a tweaked hamstring.
1. The line-up is pretty much what I expected after the first 2-3 pre-season games. I agree with Kuokkanen getting big minutes in Charlotte to start and being available as first call-up.
2. I would like to see the following lines:
Zykov – Aho – Teravainen
McGinn – Staal – Williams
Ferland – Necas – Svechnikov
Foegele – Wallmark – Martinook
Slavin – Hamilton
De Haan – Faulk
Fleury – Pesce
I think Zykov/Ferland and McGinn/Foegele are interchangeable; and honestly feel like all of the LWs could be shuffled as needed. Faulk/Pesce are interchangeable on the blueline.
Aho and TT obviously need to be paired and they need someone who can get to the front of the net to compliment them. As much as RBA has said he doesn’t want to have Necas and Svech together they are clicking and our are future 2nd scoring line; give them sheltered minutes and some protection (Ferland) and let them figure things out.
3. Before the injury I would saying Darling for sure starts on Thursday and the 1A spot is his to lose. Hopefully his lower body injury (hearing hamstring) isn’t bad but all of that is now up in the air.
Apparently he skated over to the bench when Nashville was changing goalies and let coaching staff know to get Mrazek ready; he played another couple of shifts before he came off so I’m going to cautiously assume it’s not too serious.
1) I think they made the right calls.
2) Really tough decision on Fleury vs TVR. Perhaps have them split games for forst 10-15 games, make sure there are no injuries, etc. Can’t really go wrong with the decision. For forwards, I would go with:
Zykov-Aho-TT
Foegele-Staal-Svech
Ferland-Necas-Williams
McGinn-Wallmark-Martinook
But I’ll admit the Svech has looked a little lost on the ice at times, and watching the team in person Sunday, I understand why RBA would not want Necas and Svech paired yet on 5v5. Necas and Svech look really good on the PP though.
3) If it’s a hamstring, we definitely won’t be seeing Darling for weeks.
This is the line-up I like. i think Staal can help Svech with his defensive game and still find time to get him to score, Foegele doing what Foegele does to be disruptive. Williams offers good guidance to Necas while having Ferland out there helps protect a goon like Rinaldo looking for him. Both Willaims and Ferland have a knack for scoring goals.
D pairs, as long as Faulk is in the 3rd pair, I’m ok. i wasn;t too thrilled with Faulk/DeHaan yesterday, nothing against deHaan. I really thikn Faulk needs to have someone like Fluery out there to make him be a bit more defensive responsible. Let him be offensive when he’s on the PP
As long as the team is playing for the playoffs (which it should be), Svechnikov is not ready to play wing on Staal’s line given the match ups he faces.
Though at the beginning, Brind’Amour was against pairing Svechnikov and Necas, I wonder if he might rethink doing exactly that and using them in a sheltered role. If you surround Wallmark with veterans, then I think it becomes possibly to use Necas/Svechnikov opportunistically and way from bad situations especially at home.
It’s going to have to happen eventually, rookies or no. They are simply better together than they are apart. Necas, moreso than Svech, but did anyone else notice how often Necas and Svechnikov showed up on the other’s scoring plays this year?
They will need some time to get their legs under them sure, but this is very much a pairing that we will eventually want to see on the ice if we want to maximize our on-ice success IMO.
Everything I’ve seen leads me to believe that Necas-Svechnikov can be the next Aho-Teravainen. I want two pairs like that. That is all.
Agreed 100% Fogger. It’s gotta happen sometime – and Svechnikov has already been compared to players like a MArian Hossa – in other words I see the final form of Svech being an elite defensive player and being a nightmare to play against on both sides of the puck – Staal is seemingly the perfect linemate for his skillset. I don’t think the Canes will make the playoffs this year even if they carefully micromanage their matchups and lineups just like Bill Peters would – so why not lose with the intent to learn – let Svech be -20 this year so he can figure out the places he needs to be defensively.
I really don’t want him on the 4th line – and I can see how having him and NEcas together at 5v5 is a recipe for disaster – so just play Staal and Svech it gives the ‘2nd line’ at least the upper ceiling of scoring more goals than McGinn or Williams.
I like how Svech and Necas play on the same line. Give them a tough gritty vet who can finish (and mentor, nevermind protector – Rinaldo would have had some answering to do last night) – Ferland – and I think they will be solid. Ferland can cover some mistakes, as he did a few times last night.
The only reason Svechnikov is on the team is it would be a waste to send him back to juniors. He isn’t ready, but will learn more here so he will stay on the roster and play. Hopefully he will get more comfortable with the NHL game and be able to contribute later in the season. For now he is a PP specialist and hopefully he doesn’t cost them too much in other areas.
The youngsters showed their good/bad sides yesterday vs a good team playing like one in Nashville. Lots of turnovers and penalties that need to be avoided. They should learn.
Nashville is good and they will make a lot of teams struggle in their own zone. The Canes held in there and made a game of it. I think it was a good performance over all.
BTW…greatest goal celebration ever by Ryan Johansen last night in OT.
Nashville was literally OUTSTANDING and they were missing Turris, Ekholm and Ellis!
Imagine those three in the lineup? Wow – that team is an elite hockey team and the Canes have to strive to be like Nashville someday.
I’ve seen only one complete game (TV), but it appears to me that the physicality this team has is considerably better than the past several years! Can anyone confirm that to me? If so, I think we should continue to outplay /skate most opponents!
Zykov, Ferland, and Foegele are effective, largly due to utilizing their size and toughness, IMO!
CT, this is where stats can fail to capture the benefits of being tough-to-play-against. Most games that I played (decades ago) I had better success when I made good use of size-advantages, and the reverse was ALSO TRUE! My son couldn’t beat me before he had a size advantage and a decent outside shot (basketball). Skill alone w/o size can be neutralized, frequently.