lightsout

The V has that power. Wait what?

That was a flop. Jesus Christ that's a routine push

Here's the reality, and it's the first time I'll have questioned Rod's coaching possibly. The boys have worked hard as hell. They've absolutely given the effort. Nobody with two functioning eyes can in good faith say they haven't. So we're struggling. Either A) Bob is a god, B) Florida is a better hockey team or C) our strategy/lines aren't working. Now, multiple of these can be true simultaneously but the reality is this. If we roll the same lines and the same game plan in game 4, then Rod failed. Period. Even if we win, it's not a winning strategy for the series. If we mix it up and still lose? Then so be it. But you HAVE to try something new

Martinook - Aho - Teravainen Noesen - Kotkaniemi - Jarvis Drury - Staal - Fast There's no reason that as our first three lines couldn't work. Marty can get to the dirty areas well and has shown that.

Marty, Aho, Turbo could work. Absolutely. Noesen with KK is also a really strong idea for the second line. After that you're just making best combinations for 3 and 4 and hoping your top 2 lines net a few. Hell, if you jump out to a comfortable lead and you're trying to play a little tougher with smoother lines, revert back to normal lines. But as long as it's within reach, you gotta shake poo up

Alright now this is a treat. If you look really close here, you'll notice a little gleam. This gleam has ENORMOUS value because it allows one to carry on for months on end without the slightest bit of dread. This is called Hopium. It is amazing. And, oh my, this appears to be from a ridiculously pure source. What an absolute beauty. 4 GAME SWEEP TO CLOSE BABY! LORD STANLEY'S CUP WILL REQUIRE BLOOD BEFORE YOU ENTER HIS FINAL TEST AND BLOOD WE SHALL GIVE!

Alright you salty sons of bitches, time for me to dust off the old Canes Blog energy to bring some joy. I'm like that uncle you remember fondly but then he shows up drunk and at first it's endearing but then by the end of it you're like "he's funny but goddamn dude". Anyway, before the Canes wake up and realize the house is on fire and dominate 4 straight to advance, let's look at the multiple train crashes that lead us here. 1. Sergei "Playing Like He Wants Dad To Move Back And Love Me Again" Bobrovsky This absolute unit who does a Christian Bale weight transformation every two days is playing the best net time of his career. As he should because goddamn is his goal scoring in front average. You see, Bob knows he's fuged if he doesn't play like a man possessed by the power of Florida Man. I think checking his locker for bath salts is fair at this point. But the thing with Florida Man? He always dies or goes to jail. Eventually anyway. So just give it another period or so. 2. The Forecheck: Ode To A Sad Time If you've ever seen somebody drowning while frantically fighting until the bubbles stop, then you've seen the Canes offensive zone this series. It's just a lot of sadness. Seabass is floundering, Turbo is out of gas, Marty is less hearty, and Necas is....bad. But it's cool, because soon there will be a new unsung hero that will drag us to 4 straight kicking and screaming because Jordan secretly wants to play golf. His name? Jesperi Kotkaniemi. That's right, our loveable little loser who flashes brilliance before forgetting if he's right or left footed for a full period is going to have a lot more minutes. He's got that little bit of fight in him we need to get net front and he'll start the floodgates opening in game 4. Or he won't and he'll be shipped out for a ham sandwich by August. 3. Brindy's Crazy Eyes This genius psycho is tapping into his inner Ron Rivera with his post-game pressers, but that's not the problem. It's his goddamn eyes. It's clearly throwing off Seabass. Look at this motherfuger. Fishy is scared of the eyes, and I think that's reasonable. But those crazy eyes are attached to a mind that motivates so thank God for them. Hopefully he has a rousing speech that distracts from the sheer terror emanating from the upper half of his face. 4. Freddie "C'mon, Somebody Please Help" Andersen This is our guy right here. This calm, cool and collected motherfuger has been every bit as good as Bob, just without the scoring. Once KK starts tapping into his inner Crosby, Freddie is going to enter into the 5th dimension where he will cause pucks to divert out of respect for his greatness. Buckle up, motherfugers. Come Wednesday night, we're going to be in here celebrating the start of the wildest playoff turnaround in modern hockey.

135 shots on Bobrovsky across 4 games 132 saves. We're 100% hoping for his team to fail him. They block a ton of shots and take away any chance at great looks consistently. Extremely frustrating.

This. Svech brought this, and Patches could (less so now in his age, but still). They were the balance to Aho and Turbo slicing teams up and the physicality of those guys allowed our scorers to be able to get ice for good chances.

Bob isn't always this level of good because no goalie is. Cam Ward NEVER maintained his Conn Smythe performance levels but nobody doubts he was an absolute monster in net. Yall best stop pretending Bob is just another goalie. Dude is different and always has been.

Like look at Freddie's uninspiring pad design. It's very Cary Price levels of class which is fine, but tell me you wouldn't net a fuging hatty per shift if your goalie was rocking this Nedeljkovic never became the dominant ner presence I envisioned him to develop into, but his pad design was fuging slick

I'm gonna just say it. If Freddie had a sexier pad setup we'd score more. Goalie drip helps the whole team.

You guys 'member the whole "Bob is beatable" angle? Yeah, that isn't proving the case. Easy for us to say guys can't finish (and to be fair, Aho absolutely doesn't show up in big games, that criticism is 100% fair) but Bob is literally a robot since he got his net back. We've given him some strong chances this game and he's been cool as poo about it. Doesn't hurt his team is working their ass off keeping net front clear.

Little talked about, but this is the doomer take that SHOULD be taking hold. Miami has a strong sports market. The Heat and Panthers are both low seeds that are surprising in the playoffs. Both could advance to the Finals of their respective sports. More money in it than having a small marker team make the finals. Conspiracy to advance Heat and Panthers simultaneously for the story.

Pitter fuging patter boys

Jesus fug. This take isn't even viable. That's how premature it is.

The fuging memes though. Kirk Muller's honeymoon period ended as The CW's "Arrow" was getting hot. Which resulted in

You know there was a time where it was Million, myself and a buddy of mine and maybe a couple others posting in this sub. My buddy and I did a blog (there used to be blogs on the Huddle and it was a great time) on the Canes. It was a simpler time. We were pretty bad as a team, and nobody took themselves too seriously. Now we're slowly becoming ridiculous. Y'all just enjoy the suck of being down in a playoff series

Nobody playing hockey at the end of May sucks. This team is great. We're in the ECF with guys who shouldn't even be on NHL icd at this point in their careers, let alone in the NHL playoffs. We have got to find scoring. I thought we were set when we got so many looks in the first period, but Florida is deceptively scrappy. They're playing with house money and it shows.

Yeah I think we steal one at least in Florida but it's tough the rest of the way. Expect some line changes. Expect Freddie. I'm mostly pissed that we literally fuged ourselves in the corner to end it. Just fug man, can you get shittier luck? That play is literally non-existent if we're not tripping each other in the corner.

Aho needs to learn to create scoring chances. His dangles are elite but his scoring is so wildly inconsistent

It's coming. it's reality check season. Let em know. Remind em.

Noesen was closer to scoring there than half the guys on this board are with a woman. Good God what's it gonna take?

We're wayyyy too fine with what we're doing. That 2 on 1 chance needed a better follow up. Damn. Missed chance

As I hit send we're back on it. Lol. Just gotta make them respect that we can do it. They started stretching and we had to remind em. Respect it Brindy.