What are the top 5 things that Caniacs are concerned with today?

by CanesBigHitter on Aug 12, 2011 2:57 PM EDT

Canes Pulse and Heartbeat: What are the 5 biggest topics that Caniacs care about today?

1) Getting off to a good start in 2011-2012, unlike 2010-2011? Reason: The annual State Fair road trip.

2) Who is going to fill Erik Cole's shoes? Reason: Cole bolted for greener pastures in Montreal

3) Will Skinner have a better season or is he a rookie 1 season wonder? Reason: Calder trophy, All Star winner has set expectations high

4) Can the Canes move up past 9th place into the playoffs in 2012? Reason: too many seasons, the Canes miss the playoffs by 1 spot

5) Can Brindamour succeed behind the bench? Reason: the Canes dismal PP and Faceoff unit struggling all year. Could better performance in these 2 areas have lifted them into 8th place?

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5 Additional Items

1. Will Ponikorowski and/or Stewart provide scoring and “muscle” up front?

2. Will Maurice really give the youngsters a bonafide chance to make the team?

3. Did the team get slower by adding the additional heft up front?

4. Will Tomas Kaberle provide adequate defense and also be an upgrade offensively and defensively over Corvo?

5. Will the defense really jell and be a team strength?

by FoxtrotSierra on Aug 12, 2011 3:14 PM EDT reply actions

#2:

Did youngsters like Skinner, Sutter, and Staal have a chance, or did somebody else make those decisions?

Advance apologies if the contents of this sports-based post offended you. I'm just aiming to educate the masses. My law professor says they're asses.

Panthers '011: This is what we've been waiting for...we get to overpay the core of a 2-14 team!

by MichaelProcton on Aug 12, 2011 7:40 PM EDT up reply actions

ward, staal, skinner, sutter, ruutu, jokinen, mcbain, gleason, pitkanen, kaberle…you telling me a team with this young/old mixed nucleus CAN’T make the playoffs? I will be shocked if we don’t finish in the 6-7-8 slot this season.

Of Maurice, Karmanos said: "I’m happy Paul is back but he’s going to be judged the same way as any other coach. We need to win more consistently."

by Sergeant Stinky on Aug 12, 2011 3:46 PM EDT reply actions

Ahh, but you forget we have the worst coach in the history of sports.

It wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that you’re listing a #3 and a pair of #4-caliber defensemen as part of the nucleus.

Advance apologies if the contents of this sports-based post offended you. I'm just aiming to educate the masses. My law professor says they're asses.

Panthers '011: This is what we've been waiting for...we get to overpay the core of a 2-14 team!

by MichaelProcton on Aug 12, 2011 7:42 PM EDT up reply actions

Ahh, the first pre-emptive "It's not Mo's fault" post of the season

Of Maurice, Karmanos said: "I’m happy Paul is back but he’s going to be judged the same way as any other coach. We need to win more consistently."

by Sergeant Stinky on Aug 13, 2011 11:18 AM EDT up reply actions

Only to follow the first pre-emptive "It will all be Mo's fault" post of the season.

Advance apologies if the contents of this sports-based post offended you. I'm just aiming to educate the masses. My law professor says they're asses.

Panthers '011: This is what we've been waiting for...we get to overpay the core of a 2-14 team!

by MichaelProcton on Aug 15, 2011 2:54 PM EDT up reply actions

did i mention mo in my post? i think not

Of Maurice, Karmanos said: "I’m happy Paul is back but he’s going to be judged the same way as any other coach. We need to win more consistently."

by Sergeant Stinky on Aug 16, 2011 12:48 PM EDT up reply actions

You say it best...

when you say nothin’ at all.

Advance apologies if the contents of this sports-based post offended you. I'm just aiming to educate the masses. My law professor says they're asses.

Panthers '011: This is what we've been waiting for...we get to overpay the core of a 2-14 team!

by MichaelProcton on Aug 22, 2011 11:23 PM EDT up reply actions

c'mon don't put words in my mouth

if you want to imagine things, go for it. for my part, i refuse to put any pressure on a coach until i see some games and how he is handling the team. i’m optimistic coach mo will do a great job with the players on this team to vault us over the great playoff divide

Of Maurice, Karmanos said: "I’m happy Paul is back but he’s going to be judged the same way as any other coach. We need to win more consistently."

by Sergeant Stinky on Aug 25, 2011 1:33 PM EDT up reply actions

Philly, Boston, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Washington, Tampa, and Montreal are all on paper legitimately better than the Canes. That’s 7 teams. Pittsburgh is a bit of a wild card with Crosby, but that still leaves 6 teams. Then there is New York and New Jersey. I’d say NY is a bit better because of a more established defense, and New Jersey is equal but has the potential with Broduer to be much better. That brings the total to 9 teams who, on paper are better or at least equal to the Canes.

We haven’t even begun to factor in surprise teams. The Jets could surprise. Remember how well the Trash started off last year? That team in a building that supports them could be difficult. The Islanders have stock piled a lot of talent. They’ll probably suck again and I hear DiPietro is already on the IR, but stranger things have happened.

Burnside in his ESPN piece had the Canes just short of the playoffs, either 9th or 10th, and I think that’s about as accurate of a pre-season prediction as any can make. Before you play the games, before you see what injuries happen, before you see who surprises and who disappoints, to pick the Canes higher than 8 is to overvalue the Hurricanes talent.

Don't trust me. I have psychological issues.

by C-Leaguer on Aug 16, 2011 11:07 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

I'm not trusting you

You have psychological issues……Canes 6th this season….mark it down!

Desperation from Day One......let's not wait until the end!

by Mullett on Aug 16, 2011 12:09 PM EDT up reply actions

^

Smartest post ever!

Don't trust me. I have psychological issues.

by C-Leaguer on Aug 17, 2011 10:16 AM EDT up reply actions

mine

1. Will Mo further reign back the offense thinking we need to be more defensively responsible as an entire team—When JR has scoring forwards and offensive defensemen as his primary weapons?

2. Is Mo the best coach to properly use, guide, and take advantage of the young but undeveloped talent he is working with? Dalpe, Boychuck, Bowman, Stewart, Poni, Tlusty, McBain, Joslin and to some extent Sutter’s offensive upside—-Skinner seems to be taking care of himself, but will Mo quash or bring out the skills of the rest?

3. Will Lewis have free reign to set defensive pairings, will the defense gel and respond to his coaching, will the addition of Kaberle and the increasing experience of McBain and Joslin make a definitive improvement in our back end play?

4. Can we find (out of the mix) wingers for Staal (to replace both Cole and Stillman) that keeps him over a PPG as a player while providing alternate threats on his line so the opponents can’t gang up on Staal?? Can Staal mature and adapt to play his best without Cole?

5.Given some pretty substantial changes, new players, young prospects, etc can the team gel together and is it really improved from last year such that we are better than a .500 ish team.

Bonus Point

6. Can Mo improve as a coach such that he drops his old habits —i.e. given Brent and other good potential 4th liners can he play the fourth line more to provide more rested top end guys?? Given a good back up goalie can Ward get more breaks? Given a plethora of talented forwards can he keep LaRose out of the top six?

by Squeaky83 on Aug 12, 2011 10:47 PM EDT reply actions

1. Faceoffs
2. PP
3. Stewart/Poni fitting into the top 9 forwards
4. Reducing SOG
5. Will the price of beer be going up at the Big ATM?

by Gillimus on Aug 13, 2011 6:32 AM EDT reply actions

Goaltending

Will Cams new backup actually decrease the number of games he plays this season, or will he have another 70+ game season this year?

by kcljar on Aug 14, 2011 6:38 AM EDT reply actions

Great comments!

Thanks everyone for the comments. 2 trends that seem to come up that I didn’t even consider was:

1) Coach Mo’s ability to get this team over the mediocre hump. No one denies we have the team and talent to get to that next gear.
2) Can the new faces on D get on the same page and play together as a strong unit.

by CanesBigHitter on Aug 15, 2011 10:41 AM EDT reply actions

#1.

I deny that. I feel like anything short of a top four or five seed in the conference is mediocrity, and I think anything in that range would be overachieving big time for a budget team that’s still going to be quite young (if a good deal more experienced.

Advance apologies if the contents of this sports-based post offended you. I'm just aiming to educate the masses. My law professor says they're asses.

Panthers '011: This is what we've been waiting for...we get to overpay the core of a 2-14 team!

by MichaelProcton on Aug 15, 2011 2:55 PM EDT up reply actions

I’ll be happy if the Canes can squeeze into 8th place. Once they do that, anything can happen. I’ll go out on a limb and say this team is just as good as 2009, when it made it pretty far in the playoffs. In my opinion, that would be an example of Coach Mo’ getting the team over the mediocre hump.

by CanesBigHitter on Aug 15, 2011 3:31 PM EDT up reply actions

Fair enough.

We certainly do have a track record of performing once we get to the tournament.

Advance apologies if the contents of this sports-based post offended you. I'm just aiming to educate the masses. My law professor says they're asses.

Panthers '011: This is what we've been waiting for...we get to overpay the core of a 2-14 team!

by MichaelProcton on Aug 15, 2011 4:14 PM EDT up reply actions

I’ll go out on a limb and say this team is just as good as 2009

Maybe on offense, but I wouldn’t say that on defense. It still doesn’t seem like a cohesive unit. It still seems to rely to heavily on PMDs. IMO the blue line needs more balance and it’s that lack of balance that forces Mo to have everyone play a more defensive system. There are some moves that JR could make that would help things out. Maybe McBain and someone for a Gleason type, going with the old adage you have to give up value to get value and assuming JR won’t trade someone he just signed to a contract.

Don't trust me. I have psychological issues.

by C-Leaguer on Aug 16, 2011 11:12 AM EDT up reply actions

Allen, Gleason, Joslin, Harrison are not PMDs… We could be 50/50 PMD, traditional stay at home defensman depending how Lewis wants to go.

by Squeaky83 on Aug 18, 2011 11:00 AM EDT up reply actions

Yes, but you've probably named our bottom three defenders this year in ice time among that group.

Advance apologies if the contents of this sports-based post offended you. I'm just aiming to educate the masses. My law professor says they're asses.

Panthers '011: This is what we've been waiting for...we get to overpay the core of a 2-14 team!

by MichaelProcton on Aug 22, 2011 11:24 PM EDT up reply actions

Proving everyone wrong

1. Skinner is still the man……
2. making the post season
3. Getting the D up and running
3. Cams backup
4. Giving ALL the youngs guys a chance
5. last but not least…….. is Skinner still the man

Shaky….Shaky the 8 ball says “It is decidedly so”, it seems we are off to a good season

by littlepig on Aug 15, 2011 11:36 AM EDT reply actions