The news for Hurricanes fans has generally been rough of late, as we AGAIN work through the painful process of letting go of the hope and optimism from October and push yet another season away from the team's last playoff berth in 2009.
My intent is not at all to candy coat the 2013-14 season. It just is not good.
But as committed as I am to Hurricanes hockey, I cannot just turn it off for the remaining 14 games (not that I blame anyone who does). And as a worker, a husband and a parent with limited free time, I just refuse to be miserable with anything that takes this big of a chunk of the small amount of time I still find for personal hobbies. So over the years, I have become quite adept at finding story lines to enjoy for Marches and early Aprils like this. If I get a few minutes, I was going to write up 2 of my favorites. I still look back on the tail end of the abysmal 2003-04 season cheering passionately for young Josef Vasicek's pursuit of 20 goals and to this day am absolutely heartbroken by his 20th goal which was incorrectly waved off by an early whistle. Ranking a close 2nd to that was the end of the 2007-08 campaign that saw an improbable line of 2 mostly career minor leaguers and a true NHL warrior put together for a great run. With the NHL getting bigger not smaller, I am certain that I will NEVER see another line match the heart (BIG) to total weight (about 566 total pounds at 5-11, 5-10, 5-10) ratio of Bayda/Aucoin/Walker. But I will save those for another day.
First, as bad as things feel right now, I do not think the Canes are that far away from making the playoffs, and I think there are even recent positives out of the fizzling out season:
1-Jordan Staal. He has had a much better year overall. Put in a role that suited his strengths, he has been much better defensively all season. The bigger, recent story is his scoring surge when accompanied by some scoring talent. I have no idea how Canes GM Jim Rutherford is going to round up a couple more scoring top 6 forwards who can also play defense with his limited budget, but if he does, it is not crazy to think that Jordan Staal's full season scoring total adjusts upward accordingly.
2-Ryan Murphy. Early returns are positive, but I think it is too early to say for sure whether he can mature into an every situation top 4 (on a playoff team not a team short on real top 4 defensemen) or if he tops out as a good offensive 3rd pairing defenseman. But who cares. He is fun to watch, already has a pretty good offensive tool bag and is only going to get better over the next few years.
3-The Khudobin signing. I was on record as concerned that he might leave to find a team where his role was less murkier. I was happy to be wrong and even more happy with his contract. Having him committed for 2 more years makes it possible to trade Ward if it becomes possible and Rutherford goes that route or at least to have 2 options in net which is a must after Ward's 2013-14 campaign.
4-Elias Lindholm. He thinks and positionally plays the game incredibly well. My preseason predictions (Oct 4 blog) included:
After a slow start and possibly even some time in Charlotte, Elias Lindholm will make gradual progress and begin to remind the Caniac faithful of another #16, Brandon Sutter, by January.
Though his timeline did not make January 2014 and looks more like Sutter's (he took off in his 3rd season after being drafted), I think the comparison is still a decent 1 in terms of thinking the game, being positionally sound defensively and being a very capable 2-way forward at a young age. But the positive is that Lindholm's offensive upside is much higher.
5-I have an entry in the $1 billion Warren Buffet funded bracket game. In about 3 weeks, I will be negotiating a deal to buy a sizable piece of the team. :-)
What say you Canes fans? Are you still watching or just checking out completely for basketball or baseball? What positives do you see amidst the negatives right now?
Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63
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