The report out of Canes practice today was mostly that of injuries. Gleason, Semin and Ruutu all took the day off. None of these are said to be serious injuries. All 3 are sort of day-to-day. Elias Lindholm did not take part in practice but did conditionings skating afterward. Minus 3 regular forwards, I do not think there was much to be gleaned from who skated with whom at forward. The continued pairing of Hainsey/Murphy continues to suggest that Muller sees Murphy in the top 6 right now. I think part of it is trying to get the developing youngster as much ice time in possible (scrimmage and preseason game pairings) and part of it is likely trying to get Murphy time with a proven NHLer who he can learn from. But at some point Muller would need to get Hainsey more ice time with potential regular season partners unless of course he thinks Murphy is this partner. After its early practice, the team hit the links for the annual charity golf tourney. With the volume of strange injuries coming from the golf course (Erik Johnson missed a whole season somehow tearing up his knee and more recently Claude Giroux managed to splinter a club into his thumb or something OUCH!). So hopefully we do not get any bizarre injury reports tomorrow.
Below are a couple other things from the people side of hockey.
Zach Boychuk
I have to imagine he was incredibly disappointed Sunday at being cut and sent to Charlotte. (Side note: All of the players cut yesterday did clear waivers and will join the Checkers.) At face value, it is another failed attempt by a suddenly not so young prospect to stick on an NHL roster. But I repeat what I said in my previous blog, and give Boychuk a ton of credit character-wise. He showed up in camp early, in shape and with a great attitude. He made clear efforts to expand his game from the offense/skill role that he was drafted for. And in scoring 2 goals in the Red-White scrimmage (not counting a 3rd declared batted in with a high stick that might have counted with a replay) and then scored another in the first preseason game he played. If the Canes were team stocked with too many big, physical 3rd and 4th-line grinders and needed to find a little more skill to complement, fill out a scoring line or play on the power play, things might have been different. But they were not. The Canes are light on size and light on 2-way players to fill out the bottom six which is not Boychuk’s forte. So to Charlotte he goes.
Making any kind of final assessment on Boychuk’s NHL career is still a bit premature. The fast and easy path just is not happening, but there are Keith Aucoins who work for years at the AHL level to finally log at least parts of a couple years in the NHL. The key to going this path is not so much skill and performance but more attitude and character. To continue to get an NHL contract as a 23, 24, 25-year-old you MUST be the kind of person and player that your organization wants influencing and leading their future prospects. Sure it is not the NHL, but the “leader” type AHLers do get paid a premium (often via minimum guarantees at $200k) for filling this role which is not a bad living for doing something you love. The role oftentimes means swallowing your pride a little bit in watching a couple more next flavor of the months who are 19 or 20 fly right past you on the depth chart each fall (think Bull Durham) and be able to live with this and help and lead these players to some degree at the expense of your chances. Every single thing I have read about Zach Boychuk this summer suggests that while not giving up on his ultimate goal of playing in the NHL, he has the maturity and attitude to do well in the AHL role which could buy him more time. TriangleSportsNetwork posted a great read including an exit interview of sorts from Zach Boychuk. You can find that
HERE. So on a day of pretty significant disappointment while also probably pretty busy packing up to leave for Charlotte, Boychuk took a call to talk about the situation (not from the N&O but from a smaller shop) and had nothing but good things to say. It is hard to say where Boychuk’s career goes from here. He might be better served finding a team heavier on size and lighter on skill next summer to combine with a fresh start to improve his chances. Or just maybe karma will find a way for him to squeak into the Canes lineup later this year because of injuries. Regardless, I was impressed by his attitude and character this summer in spite of being in a situation that was not what he wanted, and for that I wish him the best of luck going forward be it in Charlotte or eventually in another organization.
Matt Corrente
There are Twitter reports out the Canes practice today from Chip Alexander that Matt Corrente took a puck in the nose at the end of practice but stuck around to finish the practice and shootout drill rather than going for full repairs. Is anyone really surprised? He was part of 1 of the 2 pairs that made for a high-intensity first scrimmage when he went after Brendan Woods for hitting and woozying Jiri Tlusty. He took on a challenging partner in Brandon Prust in an attempt to stir life into the team during a horribly lackadaisical effort against Montreal on Friday.
I put the short version of this (with a more serious tone) in my game recap from Saturday’s game, so you might want to read that for context first if you have not been tracking the preseason games real closely. So here is how it went down in Matt Corrente’s mind Saturday night (just to be sure no one takes this the wrong way, this is of course completely made up):
During warmups: “Coach is POed after effort level last need a spark. We need a spark. I GOT THIS!”
On the bench early on: “Cmon. Put me on the ice. I am ready to go.”
On getting tapped to go out: “Here we go! Okay. Who is out here that might go. Let me bang a couple people. Cmon…Cmon…there is a whole playground of kids out here. There has to be someone who will. Who is it? Okay. This guy looks big enough and as good of a choice as any given I only have 40 seconds to get this done." (at which point he more or less tackles a Canadien)
Heading to the box: “ I wish I didn’t take that extra minor, but I didn’t want to miss the chance and be heading back to the bench with nothing to show for that first shift.”
In the box when Gleason takes the next fighting major: “ Here we go! Cmon fellas. Now let’s turn energy into hockey." Followed by: "Nice to see you Tim."
When Bowman scored with Corrente and Gleason still in the box: “There we go.”
Next couple shifts after getting out of the box: “Okay after risking getting punched into next week and helping increase the intensity level, no way can I take the rest of the night off. Gotta keep stirring the pot to keep it warm.” (As he spends most of the rest of the night getting under the skin of about half of the Canadiens bench resulting in a chain reaction/domino effect of ill will here and there to keep everyone dialed up. We had players poking at EStaal causing him to corral someone around the next in front of 1 of the nets on a whistle. We had Tuomo Ruutu flying around in regular season form finishing checks with some extra oomph. We had Nathan Gerbe running around a bit trying to stir things up a bit and ultimately getting in a 3rd fight. And more generally we had a game with 2X the energy, intensity and slight amount of hatred that the team mustered in all 3 previous preseason games combined.
Sititng at his staal after a satisfying win: “I know there are going to be cuts tomorrow. The extra minor penalties that I took will not help me. But I can sleep well knowing that I did everything I could to try to move this team forward. Hopefully coach appreciates it.”
I would put the odds at Matt Corrente playing in a regular season game this year at a fairly low 30%. My best guess I that he is probably #9 on the depth chart (6 vets on 1-way contracts then Murphy, Bellemore and possibly even Jordan even though he was already sent to Charlotte). My hunch is that Corrente is still here as a small reward/appreciation for his willingness to do the dirty work and also because a tilt with the Sabres on Friday might want more of that in the lineup. But he has already made an impression on the coaching staff and his teammates that will help long-term. And in helping stir the lifeless Canes out of their preseason funk, he has also made a significant contribution to the 2013-14 Carolina Hurricanes even if he does not make it onto a regular season score sheet.
I have a couple random blogs half-written, so unless we get news out of practice or on the injuries, I will probably put 1 of those up tomorrow.
Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63.
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