This is a bit of a lead in to the bigger assessment of players, who fits where and how to right the ship for a 2013-14 Canes playoff run. When I put forward this series of blogs, I will not surprise anyone when I say the defense needs to be better. We all saw it this year. It was unfortunately too obvious that GM Jim Rutherford's attempt to get by on the cheap on the blue line after spending a bunch at forward didn't work.
So that leads into my odd trivia question. Who is Dennis Seidenberg? There are a number of more straightforward and obvious answers, but what I am looking for is this - Is Dennis Seidenberg quite possibly the only defense partner who seemed to mesh and more importantly read correctly off of Joni Pitkanen?
I lean positive on Joni Pitkanen. Yes. I watch the Canes games and see the crazy stuff he does sometimes with bad results. But when you net out the good and bad, I still think he is top 4 defenseman with a ceiling that is in the elite category. This is because of his skating ability both in terms of straight line/north-south speed (think Bret Hedican) but also in terms of ability to maneuver and change direction at high speed (think lesser version of Nik Lidstrom). You can find a good number of players who are prone to fewer "what is he doing?" moments, but very, very few with his top end ability. Even the lesser version of Joni Pitkanen is good enough to play in an NHL top 4..............IF you can find someone to play with him.
The challenge with Pitkanen is he is not a textbook kind of player. There are times when I don't think he even realizes that there is a textbook. The play where he gets to the offensive blue line with pass/dump options but instead forges forward causes his partner to need to play the middle of the ice in case of an oops. But then it gets even wilder when he decides to carry the puck all the way around the net. At this point, the sorting out gets complicated real fast for his partner. On the one hand he needs to defend the side of the ice the puck is suddenly coming on if Pitkanen loses it coming around the net. But that is only if there is not a high forward who will streak by him on the other side in which case, he just needs to back way up and hope for the best on the inevitable 2-on-1 soon to be coming his way. But what if Pitkanen makes it around the net with the puck on his stick but has no good scoring chance passing options? Well then his partner needs to make sure you provide a point outlet just like for any other forward (because at this point Pitkanen really is a 4th forward) so he has an outlet instead of coughing the puck up and creating the previously mentioned 2-on-1. And in the event he does turn it over for a 2-on-1, you get to try to judge whether Pitkanen’s skating ability late to help mitigate the odd man rush. Etc.
My convoluted example with a hint of sarcasm makes a simpler point. Joni Pitkanen's freelancing creates the need for a defense partner who can pretty quickly and accurately sort out complicated situations and be a defensive backstop. And as highlighted, this is not the kind of stuff you learned in defenseman 101 or even 201 or 301. It is very much in the realm of hockey brainteasers.
The best hockey that Joni Pitkanen played as a Hurricane was under the brightest of lights in the stretch run in 2008-09 and even more so in the playoffs that season. Had you asked me after the New Jersey and Bostong 7-game series wins who the Canes MVP was, I would have punted and declared a 3-way tie between Cam Ward who was stellar, Eric Staal who put the offense on his back at times and Joni Pitkanen who ate tons of minutes and was flat out phenomenal. Pitkanen was that good. Quietly playing Robin to Pitkanen’s Bat Man, Dennis Seidenberg was incredibly good at reading and reacting to wherever Pitkanen was on the ice and what he was doing. He also skated well enough to get up the ice well enough to not function solely as a backstop on the rush.
Since Seidenberg's departure, Pitkanen has played with a number of partners probably the most time with Jamie McBain. I don't think a single one of them has found any kind of long-term comfort level in this role. I think you can make the case that he really hasn't had much chance to play with a partner who is legitimately top 4 capable, but I am not sure that is completely it. Because of his style of play, I think it can be/will be tougher to find a player that complements him.
This blog is a bit of an aside, but I think it also plays directly into what the Canes do this summer to correct the defense. First (fingers crossed) is the hope that Pitkanen recovers on schedule and 100% from the broken heel that ended his 2013 season. If that happens, then I think he remains 1 of the Canes top 4 defenseman and is capable of being a positive part of that mix. But the trick is finding a partner that can morph into the Spring 2009 version of Dennis Seidenberg and complement the good stuff Pitkanen does while minimizing the occasional problems that comes from it.
The difficult part is that I don’t think this ability is something you can assess via scouting and game tape. In basic form, the ideal fit is a right shot stay-home type defenseman who is skilled at sorting things out more so than just playing the guy/puck in front of him and making basic reads and tons of simple plays and executing. With this kind of complement, you get full advantage of the creativity and extra offense that Pitkanen can help create with skating without paying too much of a penalty for its downside.
The free agent market for top tier defenseman is almost non-existent this summer which is part of the reason I offered up my "the could be now" blog for Marc Staal. There are likley to be other options in the trade market, but none will come for cheap.
For a quick heads up when I post a blog or to join the occasional banter on Twitter, follow me at CarolinaMatt63.
Go Canes!
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