Monday’s Daily Cup of Joe entitled, “What now?” takes on a similar theme, has another viewpoint on where to go from here and already has a discussion in progress, so please also stop there if you can stomach more Hurricanes hockey today.
As I post this, the Carolina Hurricanes are being bag skated at PNC Arena (courtesy of Twitter feed from Cory Lavalette from the North State Journal). Following Bill Peters’ salty post-game press conference after Sunday’s deflating loss, there is no other official news out of 1400 Edwards Mill Road yet. The group on the ice is still the same set as Sunday’s game. Francis has not said anything publicly, and no players have yet been recalled from Charlotte. Peters’ comments after practice might offer an indication of the lineup changes that he said would happen for Tuesday’s game.
Against that backdrop, it is hard to make the Monday Coffee Shop more than doom and gloom without being rightfully accused of ignoring today’s reality. So here we go…
Carolina Hurricanes polls
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Discussion questions
One of the absolute best things about Canes and Coffee are the intelligent viewpoints of readers combined with thoughtful, energetic but also respectful debate. The current state of the team provides a bit of a test in that regard. Heated is fine. Suggesting that players, coaches, etc. are not performing is fine. But let’s make sure we continue to stay on the right side of being respectful to each other and also to team personnel who are also people.
1) If you could make only one move right now seeking a spark for the 2017-18 season, what would it be?
2) More broadly, if you were Ron Francis, Bill Peters or Tom Dundon for that matter, what would you do right now considering both short-term and long-term?
Go Canes!
I think Francis has had to deal with budget constraints from Karamanos. We have the lowest salary in the league, 2nd year in a row. Why is this Francis’ fault? I think he has done well with what he has had to work with. The Darling signing seems to have been a mistake, but he took a risk on an unproven goalie to save some money. Everyone loved the signing when it happened, hindsight is 20/20.
Peters is the main reason that the Canes have been as competitive as they have been over the last few years. I think he is getting the most from this group that he can. There is just not enough talent on this team, top to bottom.
New ownership is exactly what this Canes team needed. Karmanos shoulders the blame for the current team. Hopefully going foward, the Canes will be able to spend to a salary amount that is competitive with the rest of the league. Unfortunately there are no quick answers, no quick solutions to a simple lack of talent.
I know Puckgod believes RF has not done the job. I really do not know if RF had the license to spend. If he did, and Dundon will know, then I think he is on the hot seat. If he did have his hands tied, then I agree, he has been doing his best in a bad situation. Unfortunately, we do not know.
I am wondering about BP. Changing a coach now when we are close to the playoff cut line is probably not a good move. I was at the last game and there have been so many times where the team comes out without any emotion. It is the coaches job to have them ready and that has been a failure many times. Its on the players and the coach but BP may be on thin ice.
Yes, I loved the Darling signing. Yup, I totally blew that one.
1) The spark this team needed was from day 1 of the season and it was extra offense. With that said I think trying to get a roster player (rental type) without subtracting a top 9 player is the best way to ADD offense without creating a new hole. I figure teams might be highly interested in taking back either Lindholm or Terevainen for a legit top 6 forward but I fear that wouldn’t be enough of an addition to lose those guys. The only forward that can be shipped out in the top 9 is Victor Rask in my opinion. Guys like Ryan, Mcginn and Stempniak i’d rather see them bumped to the fourth line to upgrade the offense there before just getting rid of them. Otherwise a more risky spark would be to accept the inevitable price of trading at least 1 key roster player for offensive help. It would probably end up being a dman, or they’d have to pay with multiple picks and prospects to get that level of offensive help. I see that more as an offseason trade than midseason trade to be honest.
2) I would just say for the short-term – do not panic. The team we are witnessing in front of us is not shockingly different than some of the less than ideal scenarios that could have been predicted on paper going into this season. Goaltending was a question mark, and it has remained a problem unfortunately. Offense was a question mark, and it still remains a problem. The supposed strength was the D corps but it hasn’t been as bright a spot as people expected. All in all with that missing the playoffs should kind of be expected.
For the long term – and i’m using next season as the long term – it is simple they need to find a way to address the offense (except goaltending because now they’ve basically forced themselves to go with Darling + Ward next year too). I have the utmost faith that with Tom Dundan as the new owner Francis may be encouraged to gamble and sign one of those bad free agent contracts like a slight overpay and too many years to bring in a difference maker. The truth is, it might be what the team needs for NEXT season even if it might burn them in 2024. Bring in talent from one more draft with a lottery pick this year, and then be willing to trade 2019 first and second round picks along with prospects and possibly one roster player to bring in that big time player.
1. For the past two seasons that spark was delivered by calling up multiple players from Charlotte. I have been an advocate since December of doing this – I still am. To me it is the no-brainer move and has been for a while. We have talent performing at a high level in roles that we need filling. In a brief stint last season Zykov showed what he is capable of. Wallmark or Foegele also offer upside potential to current roster holders.
2. The last thing to do is panic now. We are only a few points out of the playoffs and a short winning streak is all that is required to bump us back into position. This is not the team I was expecting this season and, playoffs or not, there will plenty of things to consider in the retrospective. But you don’t fire a coach this late in the season when you are still knocking on the playoff door. A losing streak that takes out of the picture may be a trigger – but even then there are better candidates available after the season. I don’t think you trade a core player unless you get good value in return. But trading Ryan at the deadline for picks/prospects and bringing up Wallmark may make sense – playoffs or not. But I just don’t the reason to go frantic in spite of the poor performances of late when we are still this close.
This sums up my views perfectly.
I’m not sure anyone in Charlotte is the answer to change the fortunes of this year. Not saying I would mind a call up, but I view those as complimentary moves. Rather, trading someone from the current core in exchange for proven veteran grit/leadership would be ideal.
1) If I could make a move right now, I’d be looking at the rosters of non-playoff/selling teams and see if there is a deal for a non-UFA scorer that makes sense, even if it means sending a young D the other way. If nothing is available there, I would look to move one of the UFAs on the team to free up a spot to bring up someone from Charlotte to shake up the bottom 9. If a trading partner can’t be found, then I’m putting a forward on waivers to call someone up from Charlotte (likely PDG or Jooris would be my guess). Outside of the TSA, nothing is working consistently offensively. Blend-o-matic lines haven’t produced results. Time for a change we can believe in and a roster shake up to get guys out of their comfort zone.
2) Long term, Francis needs to have two focuses going into the offseason:
strengthening the talent pool of the forward core and scouting a goalie to sign for next season to replace Ward, since his contract is up this season. I only fire Peters if it is clear he has lost the room. Can’t say I expected the current group to be significantly better than average in the offense department but they are 22nd in the league in scoring and are below league average. To me, I feel this is the biggest reason the Canes are where they are right now. When the Canes won the cup in 06, they finished the regular season as the 2nd best offensive team in the league…boy were those fun times.
One other note that sticks out to me. I see a dozen people selected the signing of Darling as being a misstep which is contributing to the team’s struggles but, for now at least, I have to disagree (unless he’s contributing to the team’s offensive struggles). I say this because Darling has started 28 games, played in 12 games where the Canes only scored 1 goal, & the team last scored 3+ goals in a game he started and lost in regulation on NOVEMBER 16. I know I’m defending goaltending when it hasn’t been good at times and Darling has been an enigma since mid December, but my point is that it’s the easy narrative to point to Darling being a big problem but in his defense, he hasn’t gotten any goal support which seems like the biggest issue this season to me. Because of this, any goal against Darling has been ultra magnified. As a player, I would imagine it’s just as tough to start in net having no confidence your team is going to score as it is for a skater to take the ice having no confidence in your goalie keeping the puck out.
One other stat that’s glaring to me: the NHL league GAA is 2.72. The Canes haven’t scored more than 2 goals in 24 games this season or 45% of their games. Based on those numbers, to me the team is lucky to be above .500 in the standings (and if it weren’t for OTL points they technically aren’t above .500 but that’s a whole other topic). Long story short, unless the Canes were scoring 3 or more goals per game more consistently, average or even slightly better than average goaltending isn’t solving anything. The Canes are averaging 2.64 goals per game. Only 24 goalies in the league have started 15+ games with a GAA lower than the Canes offensive average. That stat includes both starters and backups with 15+ games. Based on this stat, I would argue the Canes goalies need to be playing well above average or the Canes need to finally fix the offensive issues that are plaguing this team for the team to improve. Fixing the offense seems to be the thing to do and because of that, I hesitate to toss Darling under the bus until I see evidence that he is contributing to the lack of Canes goals in the games he starts.
I think this is a really great point. To me, the first 10-15 starts Darling made he was actually playing reasonably well but the team just was not scoring. The offensive issues really magnify the weaknesses of the goaltending and defense. A good offense takes the pressure off the goalies and defense to be mistake free every night and the Canes just don’t have enough firepower to leave any room for error on the other end, and that is not an easy way to win hockey games in the long run.
As stated, the Canes don’t have the firepower offensively to overcome playing from behind and mistakes are being amplified as a result. Recently it feels like the Canes aren’t going to come back if they are scored on first and as I dig into the NHL.com stats, it really is the case. The Canes only have 4 wins when they give up the first goal and the 4th one was the Ottawa game just last week. Only Arizona is worse in that category. Teams that score first on the Canes have a 82% chance of getting 2 points in the game. That needs to improve and improve quickly because that doesn’t sound like a stat that should be that low for a playoff team and/or a team that is “hard to play against.” This team isn’t handling adversity well and I would argue they may be so accustomed to losing that they don’t know how to fight back and win.
That is a really good point jdNC. I am definitely in the “done with Darling” camp, but you can’t win games with 1 goal. That is what I like about this sight, you have a position and somebody points something out and it makes you question your position.
I still have seen Darling miss so many stops he should have had. Even if he makes those saves we still loose the game due to lack of scoring. Okay, goal scoring is probably the bigger issue.
Prior to reading your comment I actually selected scoring but I almost pushed the button for Darling.
This is an excellent observation … I haven’t given up on Darling.
Folks, Ronnie freaking Francis has been running this dysfunctional hockey team for WAY TOO LONG!
So many unknowledgeable “Francis-fans” have claimed that he had NO CONTROL of spending! …he was the GM, THAT WAS HIS JOB…if he wanted it different, he had two choices…follow, or QUIT!
His choice, AND HE IS STILL HERE! You decide…he sucks, OR HE IS A TOADY!
puckgod, RF is a life-long Cane. He’s not going to quit on his team. He’s going to put his head down and work as hard as he can to do the best job he can with what he’s been given to work with. I give him credit.
The high-end upgrade ($7-mil/yr) on offense that you want – that we all want – only brings payroll to 26th in the league. That’s the real difference.
Agree with above sentiments on Darling, but I also think he never really stole games for us either. He needed to come in and “own” it…I don’t think the players in front of him bought in (which is on the players).
The true shake up needed is on offense. Skinner to Ottawa for Hoffman? Faulk to Minny for Dumba? Rask, 1st and Darling for O’Reilly and Lehner? These are potential moves that would, as others have mentioned, change the dynamic and grit.
In my opinion those are not the sort of changes that are needed (Other than moving Rask). Instead of trading Skinner for Hoffman we need both Skinner AND Hoffman. I am definitely sold on moving Rask and futures to upgrade in the center position but unfortunately I don’t think Scott Darling has any trade value in that last scenario you suggested and Lehner’s save percentage is pretty solid with not such a good defense in Buffalo.
I think Ron Francis owes this promising group at least one addition without subtraction (using draft picks, prospects, maybe one replaceable roster player) and see how a buffed up version of this group does before talking about replacing core pieces like Skinner. I think a fair list of untouchables at this stage would be – Aho, Skinner, Staal, Terevainen, Lindholm, Slavin, Pesce, Hanifin (until we see what Bean can do). I would even include Faulk in that list because even if he is moved for offensive help I do think his absence would create an immediate need for another top 4 right handed dman (TVR is the absolute ideal 3rd pair righty who can play above if needed).
What if they rent Mike Green (with intent to re-sigh), and then use Faulk as trade bait for offense?