Which Carolina Blueliner Will Score The Most Goals?

There’s so much offense back there that we could almost ironically run both power play units with two defensemen on the points, instead of the “five forwards” unit we have experimentally put on the ice at times over the past few quarterbackless seasons.

An embarassment of riches…it’s a good thing.

I love that “someone else” got 1 more vote than Sanguinetti.

Well, I voted earlier this morning when my reading comprehension wasn’t at its best, and I totally misread the poll.

I thought it was asking which defenseman would score the most points, so I voted for the Finn.

Now that I realize the poll is goals and not total points, I think it will be a horse race between the other three.

Which is a damn fine problem to have.

def babchuk.
i hope hes number 33 again

I’m a little surprised how many people are McBain, I understand his stint was great, but he’s only played 14 NHL games vs Pitkanen & Corvo who have played over 400. Pitkanen’s over .5 pts per game and Corvo close to that as well, so I’m a little reluctant to put McBain ahead of those 2 given he’ll see significantly less ice time than both and will generally play 2nd PP unit. Wishful thinking I guess.

Okay, “lovers” and “haters”, let’s look at some hard numbers from that ‘08-’09 season, when last we saw Anton Babchuk.

Here’s his gamelog for the season.

After a quiet beginning (4-7-11 before the All-Star break), things heated up for Anton in the “second half” of the season (12-12-24), including scoring those 12 “second half” goals (7 of which were power play goals) in the last 24 games of the regular season and bagging 4 assists in the next-to-the-last home game.

So, clearly the org (and Anton) started figuring out just how to use that cannon shot of his somewhere along the way.

However, take a look at the post-season numbers, where a dramatic change occurred. No goals whatsoever and only one assist, despite logging over 16 minutes of ice time in 13 games. And, that +13 from the regular season dropped to a -5 in the post-season.

So, either he got solved by the opposing teams defenders and/or broke down on his own in execution.

That’s the data points we have and what was going on the last time we saw him. Not judging it one way or another, just putting it out there so we can talk about fact, not hazy memories.

It’s fixable. But, clearly there’s also something there that needs fixing, whether individually or systematically.

It’s just fun to say.

I have been having fun with the “editors” of Wikipedia, those nattering nabobs of nitpickery who insist nothing amusing can find its way into any Wikipedia entry. I believe Tim Gleason to be the new secret identity of Wolverine. I have expressed this several times in his Wiki page. I have recently undone an edit, and here is what it currently says (until some other busybody deletes it):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Gleason

Playing career
After a standout junior career with the Windsor Spitfires, Gleason was drafted in the first round (twenty-third overall) of the 2001 NHL Entry Draft by the Ottawa Senators. Unable to come to terms on a contract with the Senators, Gleason was subsequently traded to the Los Angeles Kings for forward Bryan Smolinski on March 11, 2003.

After spending three years in the Kings organization, Gleason (along with Éric Bélanger) was traded to the Hurricanes on September 29, 2006, for defensemen Oleg Tverdovsky and Jack Johnson. Since then, he has become the Hurricanes number one defenseman often paired with Finnish defenseman Joni Pitkanen. He is a fan favorite as well, earning raves from fans for his toughness and gritty play, including the diving effort to prevent the puck from leaving the offensive zone in Game Seven of the 2009 Eastern Conference Semifinals against the New Jersey Devils, leading to a game-tying goal. He also took a puck to the face against Washington in 2010, but returned to the ice after multimple stitches to score the tying goal on a breakaway. Gleason’s toughness leads some fans to claim on Internet fora such as Wikipedia that Gleason eats shards of glass for breakfast and is made of Adamantium, the metal which forms the indestructible skeleton of X-Men Superhero Wolverine.

Gleason played for the United States in the 2010 Winter Olympics.

On the topic of Defenseman who can score, one 18-year-old 2nd round pick Justin Faulk scored 2 goals today, both PP goals, which he was QB-ing. He is the only US player w/2 goals after the first game.

USA beats SWE 6-3.

Dumoulin also contributed an assist and picked up 4 PIM for Interference and roughing. He is 6-4, 203 lbs now. I hope Mr Rutherford is having a nice day.

USA vs FIN tomorrow. Dumoulin and Faulk vs Rissanen and Kivisto.