After being walloped 9-2 on Tuesday, the Hurricanes rebounded well for a 5-0 win in Tuesday’s finale against the Minnesota Wild. The win claims third place in the tourney.
For a standard game recap, I recommend checking out the team website where I expect Michael Smith will likely post a recap.
I will post a tourney recap that more broadly covers the full set of four games in the next few days. This article will simply share a few notes specifically from the win on Tuesday night.
Good for Mike Vellucci/good for Callum Booth
After an ugly affair on all accounts on Tuesday night in a 9-2 loss, I was happy to see Coach Mike Vellucci go right back to Callum Booth. Vellucci could easily have turned to Jeremy Helvig simply to split the four starts evenly, but I think Tuesday’s result made it even more important to go right back to Booth. Remember also that this tourney is the very beginning of establishing a working relationship between Booth who will be a first year player in Charlotte where Vellucci will be a first year coach. They are slated to spend a bunch of time together in a situation that sees Booth trying to make the challenging transition from Canadian juniors to the AHL. Vellucci going right back to Booth after Tuesday makes it clear that there is some margin for error allowed as part of the learning process.
And Callum Booth responded. The team in front of him was not the train wreck that it was on Tuesday, but I actually thought he was tested at least equally to his 6-2 win in game one. He looked similar to game one in being solid positionally to get hit by a lot of pucks, but he also made a handful of really sharp saves. The one that jumps out first in my memory was an odd play where the Canes defense had the puck trying to exit the zone. In a span of about two seconds, the puck was stolen, thrown toward Booth and then deflected off of Roland McKeown’s skate making for a tough deflection save which Booth handled nicely. I would rate the game as the best by a Hurricanes goalie in the tourney slightly trumping Helvig’s shutout last week.
Martin Necas
I thought he got better as he settled into the tourney. He reminds me a bit of my first impression of Janne Kuokkanen in that he seems comfortably pushing pace in straight lines into the teeth of a defense. That is significant for young players transitioning to higher level hockey especially for those who are accustomed to roomier European playing surfaces. Finding the right balance of playing in straight lines toward the net and only occasionally twirling to buy time and space is critical to being successful at the NHL and even AHL level.
Janne Kuokkanen
He continued to be what I will term “intermittently phenomenal” offensively. I will likely talk about him in more detail in the tourney recap, but on Tuesday he had another great play to create offense when he surprised a defenseman off the rush and carved a path to the net. The play completely broke down the defense, sent the Wild scrambling and resulted in a loose puck barely eluding Warren Foegele who was charging at the other post. But the puck found Roland McKeown who made no mistake burying the rebound. Kuokkanen had a few other nifty plays offensively and at least in terms of “volume of generating offense” rated well for the tourney.
Would have preferred a little more answer
I am glad we are mostly past the days where every play like the early hit on Nicolas Roy requires a fight or two. And Spencer Smallman did stand up for his team mate. But at the same time, I wish the Hurricanes would have answered a little more firmly within the context of the game. For as much as the Hurricanes group of forwards mostly has good NHL size and an element of “power forward” the team really was not incredibly physical on Tuesday nor for the rest of the tourney.
Andrew Poturalski
He led the way offensively with the team’s second and third goals. It is unclear if his ceiling is more than that of a good offensive AHL player, but he did what one would hope for him coming back to Traverse City as a veteran.
Haydn Fleury
He did generate a ton of highlight reel plays, but he was steady on the back end again. He looks ready physically for the NHL level in terms of size, strength and skating ability. That is a great starting foundation. NHL success and his time line for it will be how quickly/easily he can make the transition to NHL speed and also defending players who are a couple notches better than what he is used to.
What say you Caniacs?
What else did you see in Tuesday’s 5-0 win?
Go Canes!
I was not able to see any of the games for various reasons (including the Bulls’ first game in the Governor’s Cup tonight =- #BULLieve!). But I have read as much as I could find from as many different sources.
I totally agree with you assessment of Vellucci/Booth – it speaks well for Vellucci’s approach in Charlotte and Booth’s bounce-back speaks quite a bit about him.
I am glad to hear your positive impression of Fleury. I continue to think he may well be the reason we seriously question why Hanifin was brought up so fast. Fleury may well challenge Hanifin for that 2L spot as the season progresses.
As high as I was earlier on Kuokkanen, I do think he needs some serious time in the AHL before he can really make the move up.
Was Necas good enough to make him (or others) reconsider Europe/Juniors???
Necas can play. I didn’t think he looked lost at all on the smaller rink. Strength is what he needs. I’d say no reason for him to play in Canada, let him play against the men in the Czech league to work on gaining that strength.
The only reason I could think he wouldn’t return to Finland (his apparent preference) was if he played so well in Traverse City annd training camp that it was apparent his time is now. Thanks for the insight.
Here is a question – Gauthier is rarely mentioned in anything I have read of the tournament. I assume he played the last two games, true? Was he effective even if he was apparently kept off the scoresheet?
Goat man played, but he’s not going to take over anyone’s roster spot this year. I believe he’s Charlotte bound to learn more about the pro game. This last game against the Wild, Luke Kunin was showing what we would want Gauthier to be: parked in front of the net, hard to move, hard on others in the corners. Not sure if that’s just a feature of the offense the team’s have, or if that’s player nature.
Thanks – that is actually why I asked. My impression has been that he is inconsistent in using his size both around the net and just getting to the net. He is not a bruiser who is going to park in front of the net. But getting the puck to the net with strength and then staying there should be his natural game. Again, inconsistent with that mindset.
He did okay but I also believe he is not ready for the NHL yet. Gauthier scored an open netter in the last game. I believe I was the only C&C representative at the TC tournament but I would highly recommend it. It was cool because I sat next to Gauthier’s mother for the Wild game. She did not speak much English and I did not speak much French but we had no problem high fiving when we scored. RF, BP and many of the coaches were there.
My view was I can’t say I really seen anyone who was ready for the NHL this year. I think Foegele, Necas and Kuokkanen probably stood out the most. Scoring was pretty even across the team. Fleury did not wow me like I thought he would. It was only a quick 4 game test but it will be interesting to see what training camp looks like. The Chicago game was a total melt down. I have no clue what happened. Many folks were talking about it, we were thinking maybe they took the other team for granted and were over confident. Chicago was not blowing others out, they were one goal games. That is probably what dashed my thoughts of players being ready. Everybody looked bad that game.
Foegele. Foegele and Necas were the 2 main forwards that stood out. I list Foegele first as it seemed no matter what line he played with, he made things better. When he played with Geekie and Mattheos, he made both those guys better and I had pretty much figured those guys were non-factors. The way those two plus Elyniuk played, I was thinking these WCL guys won’t amount to much. When Geekie and Mattheos played with Foegele, I got a very different impression of those 2.
I liked how Bean played. He’s another that really won’t be challenging for a roster spot this year, but really shows a nice game. Needs a lot more of strength as he could still get pushed off the puck, but very good skater, great offensive vision.
Matt,
Great insight on Vellucci/Booth. I wasn’t thinking of the big picture with their relationship, and this makes a lot of sense. The whole team had a lousy 3rd game, and it was nice to see Booth bounce back with them. With Vellucci’s past coaching success at the junior level, I am very interested to see how Checkers players grow with his tutelage.
I will go a step further on Poturalski, and say I think he looks to be a great AHL player. I’m glad he had a good game because he works hard, does the little things, and thinks the game well. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have great speed or size, and that limits his ceiling going forward.
Only team in tournament with a shoutout and had two. Admittedly Chicago game was disastrous. But D was solid other three. So Fleury and Bean get good marks.
Gauthier showed some speed. Otherwise he doesn’t look like most talented player each shift/night.
No one has mentioned Lorentz. But in his two games he played better than 7th round pick. He is my dark horse to surprise in Charlotte.
Any update on the status of Nicolas Roy? I thought he played great in the games I saw (I didn’t watch the Chicago debacle, thank god, and missed most of the NYR game, but I saw his pretty assist in the latter), and he definitely was as-advertised in possessing an excellent feel and having a complete 200-foot game. I think, and this is why I really hope he’s healthy, of all the players we saw in TC he is the most likely to push for a roster spot out of training camp. Well, at least with the exception of Haydn Fleury who I’m pretty much assuming is already penciled into the 3LD. I thought he and Bean were very steady, Foegele, Smallman, and Lorentz were very good in playing high-intensity, responsible games, and that Necas and Kuokkanen looked like the most talented players out there much of the time. And a little more on Necas… Just wow. So fun to watch. That assist to Poturalski was a thing of beauty, working all the way around the zone and finding a perfect lane to deliver the pass right into Potsy’s wheelhouse. I do not think Poturalski has much of a chance to grow into an NHLer, but I also would not totally hate the idea of seeing him take Derek Ryan’s spot for a handful of games. They’re pretty similar players, to me, but that may be more of an indictment on the Doc than praise for AP. Also, I think people have a little bit of an off impression of what Gauthier is going to be, at least upon entering the league. He is not in the same category as Necas, Aho, Kuokkanen, etc. in that he is going to control the game with the puck on his stick and be the offensive catalyst; he is a fantastic skater, very strong, and possesses a wicked shot. I think he will play a simple north-south game and rack up the goals. He actually reminds me of rookie Skinner in a lot of ways. Skinner was similar in that he didn’t necessarily drive possession and definitely didn’t play a complete game upon entering the league… But man, he could score and make some pretty plays. Gauthier will be similar. He will play up with his competition, I believe, so if he is put in position to succeed, playing with say, a playmaker such as Elias Lindholm or one of the other aforementioned guys, he will produce. He will find soft spots in the defense and make no mistake when someone puts the puck on his tape (see goal versus Detroit in the opener – great pass from Kuokkanen, blasted the one-timer by the goalie before he could even react). But, like Skinner, and thanks to BP’s guidance, I think Gauthier will eventually develop a more complete game and be able to not only score at an elite level, but help pick up the play of others around him as well. He had a great backcheck yesterday that stifled an odd-man rush, showcasing the ability to use his speed to get back and size to knock the opposition off the puck; therein lies the basis his defensive potential. Overall this was a fun three games – we’ll just pretend the other never happened – and I cannot wait to see these guys, along with plenty of others like Filipe, Zimmer, Cotton, Saarela, Luostarinen, etc. make it to Raleigh.
Oh last thing… I loved seeing Smallman jump in after Nic Roy took that BS hit. These are exhibition games less than a week out of NHL training camps. I get trying to lay the body and make an impression, but that showed no regard for the other players. That kid deserves to get the crap kicked out of him… Complete bush league. I’m glad Smallman took exception and took up for his teammate.