Samson Shines: Flyers 2, Hurricanes 1

I saw the seem things. I was rather surprised to read the gameday thread and see everyone saying the game was close and that we were fighting hard.

Well, I didn’t think that at all. We were out-muscled all game. This is probably the softest Hurricanes team I have ever seen. None of our passes were connecting, players were bobbling easy pucks. Everytime we finally got the puck on our stick, we would hold on to it for a second too long and a Philly player would come and snatch it. We got very few good scoring chances. Most of our “shots” were weak little lobs from the blue line/outside the circles. Rebounds were there, but no Hurricane was. We couldn’t even set up any play.

Here is a summary of our offensive push: Defenseman passes it to forward, forward fumbles puck, Philly takes puck and throws it up ice. Defenseman tries again, forward takes it to the half boards and stops. He sees Philly player coming at him and throws the puck away, often to either a Philly player or open ice. Defenseman regains puck. He dumps it in to Philly zone. Forwards go after it, and then see that they are about to get hit. LINE CHANGE!

This “physical” practice that apparently happened didn’t seem to do anything. Minus the better penalty kill, this game was a clone of the Nashville one. Bad bad bad bad bad.

I watched the game from Alabama, so I am surprised at your observations. I defer to you because hockey is a game best experienced live, I think. On tv it was a very closely played game. I have no doubt, however, that the Flyers are a much more physical, bigger, more aggressive team. The Flyers are built the way the Hurricanes have to go to compete. The Hurricanes forwards are not great open ice hitters and it shows in the way opposing teams rush down the ice. Ruutu had some nice hits, at least as seen on tv.

Samson looked quite good. Nodl had some fine speed and hands. Faulk seemed again to me to be the best Hurricanes defenseman. I don’t know how the team morale can be very high knowing that significant trades are on the way. I really had hoped Staal would take over the game; and he did have a great pass to Samson. It was not frustrating to watch on tv. It must have had a much different feel at the RBC.

I’m totally on board with bringing up Dalpe and Bowman. Staal is now plus/minus minus 24; and it seems as if unless Dalpe is on his line, he sinks down deeper. As far as I am concerned Ruutu and Staal do not generally work well together because they try to get to the same places on the ice. Also, it seems as if Ruutu is not on the same wave length as Staal. I think Tlusty can be a good player on the third line; and has more talent than he is showing. Still, as I said on tv it looked like a hard fought, tight game.

I do disagree about Nodl. He looked fine on video and gathered plenty of pucks and made good decisions with the puck. It will help the team to get the trades completed. Nobody on the team can be feeling very focused not knowing who will be on the team after February 27th.

I think the short answer is that Ward and Staal are frustrated to the point of being depressed about the season. It’s understandable. They have won a Stanley Cup; and went into this season thinking they’d be in the battle for a playoff spot. Now they are in a battle to see which players will remain after the firestorm hits. The second goal was one Ward typically stops. It wasn’t a mind freeze goal, but it was one that Cam Ward on the top of his game will stop. I suppose that is the point. Ward is playing fine by almost anybody’s standards other than his own. Staal is playing better; but Staal on his game finds a way to score a goal. So be it. That’s hockey. Sometimes the hockey gods make fools of the players, the coaches, the general managers, the owners, and the fans. “What fools these mortals be.” Still, it’s fun watching the kids play. It’s fun watching Muller sort out who he wants for next season. It’s fun thinking about the 2012 draft and the potential for a top five pick.

There are much worse things in life than watching a young team try to pick itself up after flopping in the mud. There’s a tunnel at the end of the light, or something like that.

someone seeing this game as their first 2011-2012 ’Canes game would think, “Geez, those guys are pansies, getting pushed off the puck, not driving the net consistently, doing fancy drop passes, skating away from the crease on rushes, defensively getting dominated…” but to the trained Caniac eye, this was one of our better games.

Sad, isn’t it?

ANYWAYS…great for Samson! I thought he looked awesome out there, really. Imagine if players like him had gotten significant ice time earlier, their progression as an NHL-ready player would’ve been happening earlier, and lines in Raleigh would be more cohesive.

Here’s to next year, then!

Cam looked real good, too. Flyers are pretty darn good team.

He was in a no win situation there…he had to take one of the two. Cam had to do his part.

I’d betcha Bowman Sutter Samson would be awesome compared to what we’ve played in that role the rest of this year: Both offensively and Defensively. Fast, Hands, guys with Hockey Sense in capital letters.

Teams near the salary floor cannot just fire sale and not take on salary in return. I agree it is time to start seeing what the future holds for some of the young UFA’s in Charlotte, however this does create some challenges for the GM in making trades.

yes he was 0-3 on those last three faceoffs (the last two were in the last 10 seconds) but we generated sustained pressure for the entirety of the second half of the third period, especially the Staal, Ruutu, Samson line.

I saw one absolutely beautiful pass from Staal that Samson was inches from burying. And another from Samson when he missed that shot, skated behind the goal and fired it back right into the crease.

I was pleased with the effort. Bobo played great and stopped some solid scoring chances.

Remember, this team is playing without a good deal of its scoring ability with Pikanen, Skinner and LaRose on the shelf at the same time.

From the boob tube Bobrovsky seemed to be playing out of his mind at times. This thread has really demoonstrated how fans in the arena and fans at home can all see the same event in different formats and come up with different views of how the game was played. Tripp said what a great hockey game it was immediately after the horn sounded.

I came away feeling like it was a good game to watch from home. At times, I felt like Philly just had a gear we do not possess. I sure liked Samson with Staal…maybe it was adreneline, but he seemed to be able to hang well against the physicality that a FLyers team is sure to bring. I hope he sees more time on the top line and on the PP.

By the way, remember the show “Oil Change” on the NHL network? I am hoping we get a show called “Weather Change” or “Winds of Change” ….that would be cool to see.

Good news indeed!

Our shooting was not a good as the flyers, that’s for sure—but that’s consistent with only having two true NHL top six guys playing: Ruu and Staal. We also had little net presence or guys trying to get in for the many rebounds Bob left on the table.

One of the good things I thought we did was not to quit when the FLyers tilted the ice, or when they took the lead. Despite this no being the Flyers best game, we managed to swing momentum back and forth, so we at least matched the intensity the Flyers threw at us. Might not have been their best, but we at least stayed competitive and had a chance. Baby steps.

It’ll take JR making moves for us to really be competitive. This team is not physical enough, and doesn’t have enough finishers. Whether those moves involve giving Dalpe, Bowman or Samson more time, trades, FA acquisitions doesn’t matter. This team’s status quo sucks.

There is no purpose in keeping LaRose. The Hurricanes have Dalpe, Bowman, Samson, Rask, Hofmann, Boychuk, the 1st round pick in 2012 (if not two or perhaps three 1st round picks), and Nash. It’s time to rebuild the Hurricane team. From 2005 to the present, the Hurricanes have two playoff appearances. It’s time to turn the page.

In the Hurricanes system, the closest player at present the Hurricanes have to Erik Cole’s style is Hofmann. He is smaller than Cole, but he plays that kind of physical game. He’s about ten to fifteen pounds of muscle mass from being able to translate his game to the NHL. He has the attitude, the speed, hands, and shot to play in the NHL. He’ll be fun to watch in training camp next season.