With the passing of Easter weekend, the 2017-18 NHL season for the Carolina Hurricanes now has only one week and three games remaining before another long offseason ensues.
The Monday Coffee Shop dabbles a bit in the Canes 2017-18 season and looks forward to another round of NHL playoffs without the Hurricanes for the ninth straight season.
Carolina Hurricanes polls
Please remember to click ‘vote’ after each individual poll response.
Loading ...
Loading ...
Loading ...
Loading ...
Discussion questions
1) What is the single biggest factor that contributed to the Carolina Hurricanes demise during the 2017-18 season?
2) What is the single biggest factor that will or at least could lead to a bounce back in 2018-19?
3) What is your outlook for the 2018 NHL playoffs? Who will win the Stanley Cup? What are the best story lines worth tracking? Etc…?
Go Canes!
1. Failure of the goaltending as well as the failure of the defensemen to build off of the prior year.
2. Goaltending must improve and we must get at least one finisher on offense.
3. I’m pulling for Minnesota because of the presence of Eric Staal and the fact that he is the brother of Jordan and an ex-Cane and for Las Vegas because of Fleury because he has proven to be a truly class individual.
First, as to Greenberg’s failed bid to buy the team – apparently he was never even close on the money so we might as well be talking about my failed bid to win the lottery and buy the team. 😀
1. Biggest factor to me was the continuing issue of defensive breakdowns and puck-clearing errors leading to Grade A chances in front of the net. Over the weekend I saw an article about how the remaining Rangers’ veterans have to get used to and accept the youth movement. The play used to highlight this issue was…wait for it…a young Ranger forward losing his mark in the defensive zone leading to a Grade A chance the puck getting past Lundqvuist, and then Lundqvuist’s reaction on ice and afterwards.
It is doesn’t matter how good the goalie is if the team serves up multiple Grade A chances every game.
And it doesn’t matter how your forechecking is if the puck ends up in the slot on the stick of one the bad guys while the good guys are on the boards or at the blue line.
This failure falls on D and forwards both.
2. Cleaning up play in the defensive zone. Or, rather, the single biggest factor is changing the coach(ing staff).
3. Vegas – if only because an expansion team winning the Cup ranks right up there with a 16-seed beating a 1-seed.
1/ Too many defensive breakdowns – we thought that would be our team strength but we took a step sideways/backwards this year instead.
2/ Committing to building the team around Aho/Lindholm at Center. We are a different team with these two in the middle. I’ve seen enough to know they can handle it. (I do think this opens things up to making a trade for a difference-maker on offense that is a winger and not a 1C, and wingers are more numerous and easier to come by.)
3/ Nashville will beat Boston.
1. Is a combination between how TD chooses the next GM and if we get a new coach to replace Bill Peters. This trinity is the key on how well the team will improve or regress.
2. Rather than shooting 40 or 50 shots at net let’s try and get someone who actually puts the puck in goal. This will cover a lot of the bad defensive breakdowns and shaddy goaltending if we keep the puck down in the opposing zone trying to score.
3) As stated previously, “Vegas is like the 16th seed beating the number 1 seed” but add and going to the final four….I guess I have been rooting for the underdogs (Hurricanes) for too many years now…..
1. A tie up between goaltending,lack of scoring and defensive zone breakdowns.
A second factor is the combination of the PP and PK (bottom third in both statistics).
2. More scoring and upgrade in net, whether the scoring comes from a new system and a new coach, players coming through the ranks with fire or retooling via trades or free agency remains to be seen.
3. I route for the Leafs, it’s time a team from the birthplace of hockey gets to hoist the cup. I don’t think they can make it all the way but I route for them nevertheless.
The Leafs were a lot like the Canes a few years ago but they went on an ambitious path towards a rebuild and did it a lot better than the Canes. I’d love to see that path lead to a cup,.
The problem with Lindholm at any position, one that Trip kept stressing in yesterday’s broadcast, is that he has not scored a goal in 25 games.
Unless you’re the goalie, that number is not going to help your team, no matter what else you do.
The single biggest factor that made us fail was Ronnie’s failure to obtain even one player who can protect his smaller teammates who cannot defend themselves.
It would seem that there exists a faction of media as well as management people who are fanatical about depriving our players of the kind of protection an enforcer can provide. Our scoring would definitely improve.
It is good to see the combo of Turbo, Fishy, and Zykov working out. While not an enforcer, Zykov does provide another big body. He is not shy about charging the net and hanging around in front of it.
The biggest thing we need is an enforcer (Lucic).
But we also need to match each offensive defenseman with a big strong stay-at-home partner.