Anybodyhome

The Canes decided to ring in the new year with a second shootout loss to Columbus Tuesday night. Same team, same building. The only 2 shootout losses of the season and both to a team who was below .500 at the start of the night. After a 7-2 start of the season in October- remember, most of that was on the road- winning 4 in a row in Edmonton, Calgary, Seattle and Vancouver; returning home to curb-stomp the Bruins 8-2. Freddie Andersen was lost to injury on October 26. November was a second good month with a few more home games to make up for the NC State Fair road trip. Late in the month things began to slide the wrong direction. A loss to NJ on the 2nd game of a b2b followed by the first shootout loss to Columbus. But things might have looked a little better following wins over Dallas and the Rags at home... and then a b2b with Florida to end the month was a disaster, giving up 12 goals while scoring 3. A 9-5-1 month of November isn't enough to complain about, is it? A 63% point month? Not so bad? December was, based on the Canes winning history over the past 6 seasons, a nightmare. 6-6-1 to finish the month with a single 2-game win streak the entire month, beating Columbus and the Islanders. And, to match that effort, the Canes also had a single 2-game losing streak. A loss to Nashville heading into the holiday break and a loss to NJ coming back from the holiday break. A strong answer to that NJ loss was a 2nd game b2b win over NJ the next night. My 2025 starts with much lower expectations as the Canes will face Florida on the road Jan 2, followed by home games against a strong Minnesota team and the Pens. And so it goes. If I'm being honest, January looks like another .500 month. Three b2b sets, starting with Saturday-Sunday this weekend at home; next Thursday-Friday at home and a b2b road trip in Chicago and Dallas. I've got the Canes pegged for 7 losses in a January filled with 15 games. The trade deadline is March 8th this year. And don't forget the 4 Nations Face-Off with Canada, Finland, Sweden and the USA from February 12-20. The Canes play their last game heading into the tournament on Feb 8 and don't return until Feb 22.

Standings at the end of 2024: ABH-4; PF69-4; MDC-2; P81-2; OR1201-2; PC-2; DE-2; DamnIt-1; Stumpy-1

The highest paid players on this team, for the most part, have been absent for weeks. Aho, Necas, Svech. Jack Roslovic now leads the team in goals. Gostisbehere leads the team in PP points. Walker, Carrier, Robinson are grinding away trying to keep hope alive. Jarvis is getting hurt nearly every game, Chatty and Orlov are underrated and Staal needs to hold a players only meeting and right the fugging ship. It's time for some leadership.

I'll have a btter breakdown in the next couple days, but I don't see this team making the playoffs with the 95 points I think they'll finish with.

Columbus owning the 3rd.

Can we put out an Amber Alert for #37?

That Jarvy pass was epic. Highlight reel stuff.

2 defensive mistakes= 2 goals against.

Ty Smith with his first NHL goal on the PP. Update will be posted tomorrow sometime.

Staying with Martinook.

Vatrano is a LW, not a center. He played center his first 2 years in the league at Boston and has played nothing but LW since. He is in the final year of his current $3.65M contract. He's coming off 41 and 60 point seasons in Anaheim. Played mostly on the 3rd line, where Staal is now. Unless Carolina is thinking about moving Robinson? Carrier just signed a 5-year deal, so he's going nowhere. I have no idea why or how Vatrano comes into this unless KK is suddenly in play. I don't get that, either because his contract is ridiculous. Prospects? To get a backup goaltender and a LW, Carolina is going to give someone up from the starting lines as well as prospects, at least 2, I'm thinking. Did KK piss off RBA the other night when KK didn't drop the gloves and protect Necas and Orlov when he was on the ice for both hits? A lot of variables here... And, for the record, I said on this very board a couple years ago the Canes should have signed Gibson as a #2 when he was a UFA.

It was Orlov.

Which retread do you want? In a league that values retread coaches more than any other sport.... who do you want to see as the head coach?

I'm gonna ride Martinook again tonight. The only line that consistently shows up to work every game.

1 season into his extension.

The Orlov- Chatfield tandem is one of the highest ranked defensive pairs in the league right now. KK's contract prohibits moving him unless the Canes retain 50% or more. Maybe landing a UFA goalie at the TDL with prospects and draft picks...

A couple trades are indeed necessary. Unfortunately, the best trade bait the Canes have in terms of contracts are the best players on the team right now- Roslovic, Robinson, Walker...

I have tickets for tomorrow. A repeat of tonight's sh!show, I'm sure.

Just a soft team. Letting the opposing team to skate wherever they want without so much as a check or push or shoulder. Game over.

Changed the goal scorer to Robinson.

Collapse incoming.

Nobody had Blake.

I'll take Martinook against the Devils and Markstrom tonight. Wasn't Markstrom in Calgary or ??? last season? Wasn't he a free agent signed by NJ? Coulda, would, shoulda...

At the risk of being a Grinch, I thought I'd wait until after the holiday to give you the gift of statistics. In 21 wins, the Canes have outscored their opponents 92-38, scoring 4.38 goals per game while allowing just 1.8. In these 21 wins, the Canes have scored 4 or more goals in all but 3 wins. In 13 losses, the Canes have been outscored 58-26; giving up 4.46 goals per game while scoring 2. With the exception of the shootout loss, only 2 other losses have been by 1 goal. PP goals: 28 (33% above than the league average) PP percentage: 26.17 (5.3% higher than the league average of 20.84) SV percentage: .889 (below the league average of .893) 5-on-5 SV percentage: .906 (below the league average of .918) +/- leaders and losers: Orlov (+17)/Chatfield (+14) a combined +31 for a defensive pairing is almost unheard of. Martinook (+11)/Staal (+8) for a combined +19 for the heavy line. Svech (-8), Gostisbehere, Walker, Aho (-6). -------------------------------------------------------------------- What does all this mean? When the Canes win, they win convincingly and usually soundly. When they lose, the lose like they win- convincingly. The Canes have won a game or 2 thanks to the blue line scoring, but more often than not, losses have come when the top 2 lines are non-factors, which has occurred far more than previous years. To be clear, the Canes have lost more games because the top end of the payroll not producing than they've won when the top line shows up. And, I'll just add this from another thread I posted in just 11 days ago. The point is still valid: The Canes lost Bunting (13), TDA (3), Noesen (14), Pesce (3), Skjei (13), Teravainen (25), Guentzel (8), Kuznetsov (2), who accounted for 81 of Carolina's 277 goals (29.2%) last season. They were replaced with Blake (0), Carrier (6), Gostisbehere (7), Robinson (3), Roslovic (9), Walker (10), who scored a combined 35 goals last season.