I could try to pretend to play qualified beat writer and cover the preseason game last night that I caught only most of and the radio version. But the N&O has people doing that full-time live and they have been doing a fabulous job this preseason especially with their up-to-the-minute coverage in the Lord Stanley's blog. So I will leave that to the pros and go another route for Canes words today.

When last season was all said and done, the Carolina Hurricanes missed the playoffs and instead received a long summer to ponder how they can be better.

There are potential gains simply from health and the long summer. Carolina entered last season knowing we were minus Stillman and Kaberle for a whopping 3/4 of the season each. That created 2 huge holes to fill. The team also entered the season with a bunch of banged up players who ideally needed another 4-6 weeks to be 100% healthy and ready to go. For a team that carries some aging players, the difference between the 'all-you-can-eat' offseason during the lockout year when players could rest and heal wounds for a whopping 15 months and a 2-month mini-recovery period after running the playoff gauntlet for 2 months was huge. Hedican never was healthy. Many others could also have benefitted from more time off. So I do think the Canes get a little bit better simply from having a full summer off and starting with a much healthier group.

But at the end of the day, the same players also just need to be better. With a returning team that is very similar - no changes in goal, no changes on defense, only 2 3rd/4th line changes at forward, the team needs to find improvement within the same players to be a playoff team and hopeful Cup contender in 07-08.

So which players offer the biggest upside over last season:

1) Matt Cullen. The Canes inability to generate much offense or create any kind of matchup issues from our 3rd line especially minus Stillman for 3/4 of the season made the team extremely shallow offensively. Any slow week for Staal/Cole put a huge spotlight and asked too much from 1 scoring line. In Walker you have a player who has proven that he is capable of scoring at the NHL level, and he even managed a decent job of that minus any help from a 3rd line center (when he was on that line). In Ladd, you have a young player whose game is at the cusp of where it needs to be to be a solid offensive contributor on a 3rd line that scores. Assuming this line forms as expected, Cullen needs to get his crew going. They should see the lesser of defensive pairings and have the chance to up the offensive and balance from last season. You could argue that offense was not the biggest problem last season, and I would mostly agree. But right or wrong, we spent our big money this summer on offense with Whitney and Walker's resignings and the trade for Cullen. That poured about $10M into the offense while we mostly stood pat on defense. For a team underspending the salary cap by about $6M, budgeting about $7M for a 3rd line is a lot. Based on the makeup and $ of the team, this team is built for and needs to win with its offense. The Canes have personnel that can go 3 lines deep offensively, and they must to do it, or it will find itself on the losing side of a lot of 4-3 and 5-4 games this season.

2) Ward. He was mediocre last season - not horrible by any means, but not good/great either - just mediocre. Mediocre generally does not cut it to make the playoffs. If you go through the list of goalies on teams that made the playoffs, you probably get 14 (Brodeur, Lundqvist, Emery, Miller, Luongo, Kiprusoff, Backstrom, Turco, Giguere, Hasek, Vokoun/Mason, Nabokov, DiPietro) that were good or better and another 2 (Fleury, Lehtonen) that we could debate. Both were very very good for stretches, but both also showed the typical inconsistency of a young goalie. In 06-07, Ward was almost unanimously good enough to win if the team deserved it and bad enough that you did not think he surely deserved better when the team lost. A good goalie on a playoff-bound team needs to be capable of putting a struggling team on his back for a stretch or 2 to smooth out the rough patches. Ward did not manage that last season.

3) Ladd. You can only use the "he is young and will be good someday" tag for so long. Despite his young age, Ladd enters his 3rd year of experience at the NHL level. He strung together a very impressive 20ish games to close out 06-07. If he can bring that for 75 games, he becomes another top 9 capable scoring threat and makes the team 3 deep in scoring potential at the normally low-scoring left wing position. Whether he plays on the 3rd line himself or jumps up to free up someone like Stillman to slot there, he is a big piece in the elusive balanced scoring from a 3rd line.

4) Wallin. For a string of 4-5 training camps straight Wallin entered camp on the outside looking in on the 6 defenseman spots that take the ice each night. There was the year we spent a fortune on Boughner and Markov. There were prospects like Tselios, St. Jacques, etc. who were going to step up and take a spot. There was always something. Via underperformance by other players, youngsters that never panned out and injuries, Wallin always quietly played his way into the lineup and usually spent part of each season providing pretty solid top 4 defenseman minutes. For the first time, we entered last summer NEEDING Wallin to provide stability for 20 minutes in a top 4 slot. While Wallin did not have a horrible year in 06-07, he did not step up to that next level. At this point, he brings a lot of NHL and international experience and a decent combination of hockey sense, strength/physical play, enough skating ability and solid positional play to be the quiet, unspectacular type of top 4. That is exactly what the team needs from him in 07-08. Except for maybe Hedican who gets better just by being healthy (hopefully) and Kaberle who makes us better just by being in the lineup, I think Wallin is the defenseman with the most upside to make our no-name defense look more like the 05-06 version and less like the 06-07 version.

5) Grahame. GM Jim Rutherford went experienced, proven, stretch run/playoff tested and therefore expensive at $1.4M at backup goalie in Grahame. Resume-wise he fit. He demonstrated an ability to step in from the backup position and carry teams (teams playing in or for playoff spots in games that mattered) in the past. He was a veteran who could stay calm under pressure of needing to win when he was in net. But like Ward, Grahame was mediocre. Though it was there for the taking multiple times last season, Grahame never managed to seize the starting job for a few weeks and put the team on his back during a rough stretch. He had a few good games. He had a few bad games. But mostly, like Ward, he was good enough to win when the team as a whole deserved it and not horrible but bad enough that you did not feel too sorry for him when he lost. He needs to prove capable of taking the reigns for a stretch or 2 to provide a lift for the team and make Ward's season shorter. ******I completely recognize that Leighton is trying like mad to play his way into Grahame's spot right now, but that is a topic for another blog.

Honorable mentions:

-Staal/Cole. I think you could make a strong case for either of these players. Both were too much on/off last season. If you took the better half of their games, they were good enough. But if you took the lesser half of their games, they were too often completely invisible for most of 60 minutes and nowhere near good enough for 1st line minutes. A first scoring line needs to make things happen even in the nights they do not crack the scoresheet.

-Hamilton. Our powerplay troubles from late last season (and all season to some degree) are well-documented. But I argue that if the ability of a powerplay specialist to jumpstart a powerplay is a key to your season, then you are asking too much of this role. Do not get me wrong. Hamilton and maybe even more so Cullen on the point, help things, but at the end of the day there is enough powerplay talent in players like Staal, Stillman, Whitney, etc. that those guys just need to get it done instead of looking to a relatively inexperienced specialist type to cure all ills.

So your turn...tell me why Cole or Staal is more important than the 5 on my list? Who else did I miss?

Go Canes!

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