Yesterday was a rough hockey night for Canes fans. If (and increasingly it looks like when) we officially bury this season, we will point to the abysmal stretch in the fall not a single game in February.
This said, is it possible that yet again, the painful nail in the coffin that killed off a great last ditch effort came via a painful loss at home to one of those Florida teams? I won't recount the past missteps here because the pain is too much, but yesterday just might have been that proverbial nail in the coffin for the Canes.
With a regulation win, the Canes would have pulled within 6 points of Florida with 3 more games remaining against them. There was still work to do to catch other teams in the division too, but they were all closer. And that was the path the game was headed on.
With less than 10 minutes left, the Canes had a 2-0 lead and seemed on their way to 6 points back. Then came a painful 3-point-in-the-standings swing with an OTL and suddenly a growing 9 point deficit.
And that is how we lead into the trade deadline stretch run...
Still available to be rented are 2 decent options on the blue line - Jaro Spacek and Bryan Allen. Allen is entrenched right now as a top 4 defenseman and playing prett well alongside Tim Gleason. Will Rutherford more or less punt on this season in trading Allen? And Spacek looks like decent, safe and sound, big game tested depth for a team looking to fill out a 3rd pairing or add a 7th defenseman. Joni Pitkanen's exact timeline is still hazy, but last report had him back in early March. That would seem to make 1 defenseman at least expendable. I was hoping to have a comparable or 2 by now to help gauge trade value, but not much is out there yet. The Zidlicky trade is too convoluted to figure out much of anything. I love the fact that he garnered a 2nd, a 3rd and a prospect (to go with a lower end replacement), but Zidlicky is signed through next year so he is not a pure rental, the picks are actually 2013 picks and Zidlicky is different in style than Allen and Spacek. So who knows.
What will Rutherford do in this regard? What should he do?
Also watch for the possibility of Jim Rutherford magician's trick. While everyone has been focused on the rental variety trade, Rutherford has multiple times used the volume of conversations this time of year to pull off non-rental deals of significance. The Andrew Ladd for Tuomo Ruutu deal went down near the deadline if my memory is correct. Justin Williams was also moved in the deal that brought Erik Cole back. Cole was a rental who was re-signed during the summer but Williams still had time on his deal and was not a rental.
The recent history is that Rutherford tried this summer to magically patch together a top 6 forward set by doing nothing certain and collecting a few "could work options" in reclamations (Steward, Ponikarovsky) and kids (Dalpe, etc.). It did not work, and it had a lot to say with the Canes digging a big hole early in the season. Staring down a free agent pool that is likely to be light and expensive this summer, might he try to do something now via trade when things are flying every which way? It is definitely not out of the question.
I am on record as to which big names I would pay for in trade and which ones I would pass completely on regardless of what they cost.
Anyone think there is a chance that JR pulls off a surprising non-rental deal to do some of his summer's work early?
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Go Canes!
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