Quick catch up from the last few Canes games and a few comments looking forward:
Red/White scrimmage Friday:
--Good for Brock McGinn netting a goal. Despite hitting the score sheet, my read is that he just is not ready for the NHL yet. The rough and tumble, wrecking force style of play that he shows against younger players just does not translate to the NHL yet. He has some adjusting to do trying to play a variation of that game when he is 6-0 185 lbs often trying to run at players who have 20 or more pounds on him. With the Canes having an extra opening at forward, he might stay in the mix until the end, but my read at this point is that he is bound for the AHL.
--Anton Khudobin. He looked sharp again on Friday making some good saves on a couple breakaways. It is about time to figure out what he thinks he needs to be ready for opening night and give him that and nothing more. Coming into this season as a starter for the 1st time, the drill is a little bit different. As a backup, you want to get as much ice time as you can in preseason to get into a rhythm knowing you might not see much more once the season starts. As a starter, there is much more the aspect of making sure you are ready but then once you are saving resources. (Yes, I realize that some people still think there is a goalie competition for the starting job. Even with Ward's solid effort tonight (see below), I don't get it.)
--Victor Rask. At a basic level, his general unwillingness to give up the puck until he has somewhere to specific to send it fits well with Peters' style and the team's gradual move toward being heavier on puck possession. But on the NHL rinks and with the speed that room closes up, Rask still has a little learning to do on when/how to get rid of the puck at times sometimes making the small turnover, i.e. dumping the puck to center ice, versus the big one. In the scrimmage, he got pickpocketed for a 1v0 breakaway at his own blue line (Terry I believe) and had another near miss just past the blue line. I like his future too, but I think optimists who think he is the replacement for Jordan Staal are looking a bit too far forward. He has yet to play an NHL game.
--Maybe it was because I was distracted by the popcorn chucking war between my 2 boys (sorry if you were sitting near us - it happens), but no one else who I am hoping will step up really did in that game.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday versus St. Louis:
It is really hard to draw too many conclusions via the radio, but let me chime in anyway and focus on the positives:
--Cam Ward. From the sound of the radio broadcast and all accounts afterward, it sounded like he played a solid game despite the loss. The Canes were outshot and outplayed overall, and he gave up only 3 including a 5v3 and a real late goal. Hopefully this is something he can build on to get the Canes to 2 deep in net.
--McGinn/Rask/Terry. Again, it is hard to say for sure from radio, but they just seemed real quiet. I am not sure Chuck Kaiton raised his voice once for a good scoring chance with this line on the ice.
--Eric Staal and Alexander Semin. The biggest thing is just getting them game situation ice time without incident, so I will mostly call Tuesday a success despite the fact that they were not overly productive. I guess the 1 disappointment for me was that the power play which has generally been pretty good went quiet with them in the mix.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other quick random thoughts...
For Wednesday, I will be curious to see what Peters does with the lineup in 2 regards. First, who skates with Hainsey tomorrow? Best bet is that Bellemore and Liles are both in the lineup. Those and maybe Ryan Murphy as a dark horse seem to be the most likely partners for Hainsey, so it will be interesting to see where Peters stands realizing that there is still about 10 days to sort it out. Second, I will be curious to see who slots on each side of McClement. I am on record as voting for a "line you can trust" for a 3rd line to eat up many of the tough minutes that Jordan Staal would have taken and building a 4th line that is young, scoring-capable but also real inexperienced that you can opportunistically pick matchups for. So my 3rd line was Gerbe/McClement/Dwyer. Dwyer was dinged up and on the shelf for a couple games right after JStaal went down, so tomorrow we will get a 1st indication of if Peters is leaning in my direction or if he prefers to mix the skill/youth and veteran defense-first types on the bottom 2 lines. I am also watching to see who rises up. I think were are fully at "it's time to seize a spot" for the forwards on the fence. After a quiet night from Terry and McGinn tonight, I do not think Boychuk can clinch anything, but he can certainly claim front-runner status by a larger margin with a strong game on Wednesday.
Having actually seen 2 games, a couple scrimmages and some practice time, I am starting to get a feel for how the system works for Peters. I hope to write that out in some detail when I get a chance maybe between the Wed and Fri games.
Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63
Go Canes!
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»