Matt Karash: 2013-14 Carolina Hurricanes schedule review

A post about the Canes? Hmm...

Glad to see you are at your regular comments ratio....(2...both from Flyers fans)

Maybe he should write more about the flyers and bost his hits!!

Thanks for the schedule breakdown. I believe the first 2 segments are the most critical. This team has had confidence issues. It's important for players like E Staal to get off to a strong start (re: 2011-2012). His bad start carried with him for most of the season and you could see it in his body language on the ice.

Thanks for your coverage, Matt. Don't let the Flyers fans get you down. It's not your fault the Canes didn't go on a deep playoff run like those Flyers did. We all know the measure of success of an NHL franchise is comments on hockeybuzz.

I think the pre-season and 1st few regular season games are huge! The key concerns to me are, determining the bottom two lines (and Skinner's slot ie 2nd or 3rd line) and building up the confidence back to where it was last year, prior to all the injuries (Wardo et al). It's more about playing up to our capability, and less worrying about who we're playing! When this team plays it's game it can be competitive with anyone, and the opposite is also true.

Glad to see you are at your regular comments ratio....(2...both from Flyers fans)
- SGTrader

To be honest, I am surprised that there are not a lot more Flyers well wishers for the blog following my sarcastic but I think on point assessment of Holmgren's (or Snider's or whoevers) front office work. I stand by it.

This said, I actually have a lot of respect for the Flyers' (and Philadelphia) fan base. It is passionate. It is loyal. And it is strong through thick and thin.

While we have not reached the level of long-time NHL markets like Philadelphia, I think the Carolina Hurricanes franchise is headed in the right direction. The core fan base is strong and growing. In a non-playoff season following a lockout, the team registered its highest average attendance (17,560 vs. capacity 18, 680). We are just reaching the point where adults grew up with the team. (People who were 2 years old when the team moved here are graduated high school this past year.) While we welcome the "2 jersey fans" who grew up with a different team and since moved here, I look forward to the day when they are significantly in the minority regardless of who is in town. Put more bluntly, nothing makes me happier than seeing a set of parents in PNC Arena wearing Flyers' (or whoever else's) jerseys sitting next to their children wearing Canes gear.

Next up I will write a blog highlighting why all of the other 7 teams in the Metro division stink...

I'm kidding...It's a joke...laugh...

I think the pre-season and 1st few regular season games are huge! The key concerns to me are, determining the bottom two lines (and Skinner's slot ie 2nd or 3rd line) and building up the confidence back to where it was last year, prior to all the injuries (Wardo et al). It's more about playing up to our capability, and less worrying about who we're playing! When this team plays it's game it can be competitive with anyone, and the opposite is also true.
- randycane

mike komisarek won't help you get in the playoffs.

mike komisarek won't help you get in the playoffs.
- Flyers_4_Life

..maybe not, but he won't hurt either, and with this team healthy again, we WILL be in the playoffs! bet on it!

..maybe not, but he won't hurt either, and with this team healthy again, we WILL be in the playoffs! bet on it!
- randycane

He couldn't even make the team on the leafs (who were a non playoff team until this year). They couldn't trade him, no one took him off the waiver wire. Now he's all yours.

He couldn't even make the team on the leafs (who were a non playoff team until this year). They couldn't trade him, no one took him off the waiver wire. Now he's all yours.
- Flyers_4_Life

To be fair, the reason he could not be traded was because of his $4.5M/year cap hit for 2013-14. The Canes are paying $700k for 1 year which is more or less a no-risk deal. We will not know for sure what will happen with Komisarek until we see real games, but the Canes have a history of taking players who were struggling and crushed under the pressure and scrutiny of a big hockey market and turned things around nicely with a smaller spot light in Raleigh.

Corvo (round 1), Samsonov, Pitkanen and Whitney are a few.