Last night, I posted my thoughts on a couple different levels on the return of Eric Staal as a visiting player on Thursday. You can find that article HERE. With Eric Staal’s return being the biggest news going in terms of Hurricanes hockey today, he features prominently in both the polls and discussion questions for today’s Coffee Shop.
Carolina Hurricanes polls
Please remember to click ‘vote’ after each individual poll.
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After 2 games,what grade would you give Lucas Wallmark's play at the NHL level?
- C (52%, 24 Votes)
- B (35%, 16 Votes)
- A (7%, 3 Votes)
- D (7%, 3 Votes)
- F (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 46
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What are your thoughts on adding at least 1 player to the prospect pool by signing an NCAA free agent?
- Definitely. Francis should leave no stone unturned; plus the team has room contract/roster-wise at the AHL level. (55%, 27 Votes)
- Meh. Whatever. These players so rarely work out that I could care less either way. (31%, 15 Votes)
- Not interested. Would rather save the roster spot and ice time for players with higher ceilings. (14%, 7 Votes)
Total Voters: 49
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Carolina Hurricanes discussion questions
1) Past the ‘check a box’ simplicity, what are your thoughts on Eric Staal’s return to Raleigh on Thursday night? I talked to multiple people about this on Wednesday with answers ranging widely from ‘could completely care less’ to ‘am very excited to see him back’ to angst about the mere mention of Eric Staal.
2) Does anyone have a college free agent that he/she thinks would be an interesting addition based on what they have read or seen?
3) Who has suggested topics for next week? (Or if it just takes off and runs here, that is fine too.)
Go Canes!
Topic for next week Who should stay and who should go. I will always be a Staal fan. It was never his fault we didn’t have enough talent on this team.
Eric was the scapegoat for the poor performance of all the poorly constructed teams that followed the 2006 season. Look at that team and the careers of the players who did not return with those that replaced them. His salary was out of line with his production, but that contract was a bizarre, long term and heavily back loaded concoction drummed up by Jim Rutherford. That contract also became financial handcuffs for Ron Francis. While fans may have questioned his leadership, other players never did. On this team Eric would have been the 1C we needed. The development of Aho, Lindhom, etal may have been the higher quality line mates he needed. For me, RFs inability to charm Eric back to Raleigh was one of his bigger missteps as team GM.
Here’s a topic idea. “The Ones Who Got Away.” Looking back ,the case can be made this team is not good at evaluating it’s own talent, not re-signing young players who continued to very good careers, improved after leaving, or were traded for players who were at best equal to those who left. Names like Justin Williams, Craig Adams, Radim Vrbata, Jussi Jokinen, Ray Whitney, Alan Ladd come to mind.
Interesting to look at. A somewhat similar thing that I wrote about awhile back is what happens to Canes players who leave. In terms of depth players, the track record is mostly horrible – so many players who had regular roles on the Canes ended up out of the NHL or back in the minors after leaving.
The story is more mixed for top half of the roster players including the ones you mentioned.
I agree with surgalt’s appraisal of the Erich Staal situation above to the most part. My thoghts now about Erich are that despite the bad times and the causes for the bad times while he was here, he is one of OUR all-time great players who is also class person. He’s going to be here as an opponent tonight, so I will be hoping he does not do well tonight, but otherwise I am happy for his success this season. Let’s give him a standing ovation before the game and then hope Jordan goes out and whips his behind.
I think “class person” is both accurate and important. For whatever debate there is about his level of play, the team’s level of play, his role in all that, etc. I have never once questioned Eric Staal for his effort level and commitment to doing best for our hockey team in both good and bad times. He deserves to be commended for that.
For suggested topic I am curious to hear what others think will evolve in the NHL. Analytics has created significant changes in baseball (using multiple relievers depending on situations), basketball (increased emphasis on threes), and football (changing belief that running backs are overvalued). But traditionalists still hold some sway–apparently few football coaches go for it on fourth down nearly as much as analytics indicate.
I have read that the smart play would be to pull the goalie for power plays to create 6 on 4. Anyone see this or any other “geek” changes in the near future?