In terms of answering the bevy of open questions and filling open roster spots, I think 2 things were finalized in the Canes 2-1 win Thursday night versus Columbus:
1) Nathan Gerbe made the team. He now has 3 preseason goals. He plays the kind of in your face game that Muller clearly wants. In an ideal world he would be 8 inches taller and 40 pounds heavier, but Muller is not looking for perfect, he is looking for good. Gerbe has been generally good in preseason and seemed to show some chemistry with Jordan Staal today. Put him in the LW2 spot. Jordan Staal had a HUGE game as the yin to Gerbe's yang.
2) Brett Bellemore will not see waivers. Borderline AHL/NHL forwards with potential are a dime a dozen. The Canes have literally a dozen. But defensive depth for the right price (not cast off veterans who are making $2M+) is incredibly scarce. Especially given the lack of depth below him, no way will the Canes risk sending him through waivers. If the vets all step up and get healthy, there is a chance he could fall to the press box but not Charlotte.
In other things I was watching (via Chuck Kaiton), here is a quick rundown:
--Cam Ward. Without the ability to see the game, what some of the rebounds looked like, etc. it is hard to make real detailed assessments. But simple is good enough. He gave up only 1 goal. He won. Anything else is just details that do not matter that much.
--Sekera/Faulk. Again it is impossible to critique things in detail via a radio perspective, but this duo logged about 24 minutes and seemed to stay out of trouble. Like my assessment of Ward, that is good enough.
--A decent effort. Chuck Kaiton and John Forslund both seemed relatively unimpressed with the intensity level and physicality which is disappointing. But with a win and nothing even remotely close to the disaster from last Friday night, I think you can also call this good enough with room for improvement.
--The tryouts. From how little Terry's name was called playing on the top line it seems unlikely that he helped his case. Radek Dvorak drew a penalty, mustered a good shot off the rush and played a bit of PK. If no one else rises up and wins the spot, I am beginning to the think that the safe and sound veteran Dvorak becomes the fallback. If the team could get healthy, I think we now have Tlusty/EStaal/Semin, Gerbe/JStaal/Ruutu, Skinner/_____/Dwyer, Bowman/Nash/____ +Westgarth. From the current roster, I am still betting on Lindholm if he can get healthy and Dvorak.
Other random thoughts along the lines of sorting things out:
--Elias Lindholm. If he can get healthy, I still think he is the front-runner of the current Canes to win a center spot. There just are no other options unless the team tries to do something strange and play a 4th line of 2 wings and a defenseman with the intent to double-shift 1 of the Staals some to get some minutes from those players.
--Ryan Murphy. After thinking maybe things would turn out different, I am starting to again think that he could lose out to the numbers game. Per my comments above, I really just do not see the Canes risking Bellemore on waivers. So if the Canes are healthy on the blue line (only Gleason is hurt right now and might be back), then Murphy would need to push another veteran to the press box to stay in Raleigh. The could keep him in Raleigh even as a #8 for that strange no-hockey stretch of schedule for the Checkers in early October, but no way would the team sit him in the press box as a #8 instead of playing 20 minutes per night in the AHL. My best guess is still my original which is that despite the breath-taking rush up the ice, he still needs time in Charlotte. I always think of it like this. Defense is a position where you can do a lot of things right all night and then have 2 big 'oopses', or even just 1, that leads to a goal against and you had a bad night. I think Murphy is still prone to a few too many 'oopses.'
--Still time for shopping. The information coming out on Lindholm is fuzzy. He is or was hurt. He was behind conditioning-wise and is trying to catch up because of his shoulder injury in July. Muller mumbled something about him possibly moving to wing. Most of this seems to suggest that he will stay in Raleigh once healthy, but it seems impossible to make a judgement on readiness if he cannot get into games. IF the team either thinks he just is not ready or that the health issues have set him back too much (meaning this is more than a 1 week, 2 week problem until he catches up) then I think you will see another center added to the roster either via trade or waivers claim.
--Matt Corrente. Best guess is that he will play defense on Friday simply to give 1 of the vets the night off and then he will be headed back to Charlotte soon thereafter. But is there a chance the Muller gives up on his forward options so much that he plugs Corrente into a 4th-line forward spot tomorrow just to see what it looks like? Defensemen can sometimes transition into this 4th-line role fairly quickly because they have the defense-first mindset that you want. I would put the chances of this happening at 10%, but if it does it could be a pretty damning statement as to Muller's thoughts on some of the forward options.
--Zac Dalpe. He was the only healthy forward to sit on Thursday. If he gets in the lineup Friday, he better play like his hair is on fire and make an impression.
Little by little the lineup picture is becoming clearer. Last preseason game for Muller to evaluate players in game situations happens tomorrow at PNC Arena. Then it is only 1 week until real hockey!
Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63
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