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Carolina Hurricanes Blogger •
Well, over the course of 3 ugly losses last week, the Canes early season slide has now reached well past a slow start and is to the point where it is already jeopardizing late April hockey.
As they say, you cannot play your way into the playoffs in October and November, but you can play your way out of them. And right now the Canes are trying like mad to do that.
I am going to take a couple rounds at the state of the Canes in blogs this week, but rather than trying to save the best for last, I am going to surge the sense of urgency and go straight to what I would do if I were in charge.
The situation is thus:
--The team, pretty much to a man, just is not very good right now. Even Cam Ward who was very good through the first 6-7 games has been sucked in and struggled of late. Save maybe Matt Cullen and maybe Tuomo Ruutu and Tim Gleason who were pretty good in the lineup and also missed 3 of the losses, no one is exempt from the 'bad' label.
--More than any other year in recent memory, the Canes have a decent amount of youth that projects to be good NHL talent someday.
So here is what I do:
1) I make room for as many new faces as I can. I put 3 veteran forwards in the press box to prove a point, and I am not talking about the 4th line variety. It has to be people that matter from a collection of BrindAmour, Staal, Whitney, etc.
2) I run a couple guys through waivers who should clear them and would not be a catastrophic loss if claimed. It seems like Conboy, Yelle and maybe someone like Harrison are the options here.
3) I use the 3 roster spots to bring up 3 forwards who can fly around and ideally score. (Check my math, but I think 3 in the press box (same as Sunday, plus 3 on waivers should buy me 3 spots).
4) Assuming Gleason is ready, that gives the Canes their top 6 on the blue line and it also leaves mostly defense-capable forwards except maybe the kids.
I am looking for 3 things:
1) More speed, aggression and fire. When the kids get off the bus, they get the pep talk that priority 1 is that they play with fire and speed, and if they do that they earn more ice time.
2) It both sends a message and just gives some guys some time to think when they get a day off.
3) It gives Rutherford a better idea of what, if anything, he already has on the shelf that might help get the team out of the funk without treading into the treacherous November trade pool.
What say you about how to pull the train back on the tracks?
Go Canes
As they say, you cannot play your way into the playoffs in October and November, but you can play your way out of them. And right now the Canes are trying like mad to do that.
I am going to take a couple rounds at the state of the Canes in blogs this week, but rather than trying to save the best for last, I am going to surge the sense of urgency and go straight to what I would do if I were in charge.
The situation is thus:
--The team, pretty much to a man, just is not very good right now. Even Cam Ward who was very good through the first 6-7 games has been sucked in and struggled of late. Save maybe Matt Cullen and maybe Tuomo Ruutu and Tim Gleason who were pretty good in the lineup and also missed 3 of the losses, no one is exempt from the 'bad' label.
--More than any other year in recent memory, the Canes have a decent amount of youth that projects to be good NHL talent someday.
So here is what I do:
1) I make room for as many new faces as I can. I put 3 veteran forwards in the press box to prove a point, and I am not talking about the 4th line variety. It has to be people that matter from a collection of BrindAmour, Staal, Whitney, etc.
2) I run a couple guys through waivers who should clear them and would not be a catastrophic loss if claimed. It seems like Conboy, Yelle and maybe someone like Harrison are the options here.
3) I use the 3 roster spots to bring up 3 forwards who can fly around and ideally score. (Check my math, but I think 3 in the press box (same as Sunday, plus 3 on waivers should buy me 3 spots).
4) Assuming Gleason is ready, that gives the Canes their top 6 on the blue line and it also leaves mostly defense-capable forwards except maybe the kids.
I am looking for 3 things:
1) More speed, aggression and fire. When the kids get off the bus, they get the pep talk that priority 1 is that they play with fire and speed, and if they do that they earn more ice time.
2) It both sends a message and just gives some guys some time to think when they get a day off.
3) It gives Rutherford a better idea of what, if anything, he already has on the shelf that might help get the team out of the funk without treading into the treacherous November trade pool.
What say you about how to pull the train back on the tracks?
Go Canes
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