Game Thread @ Florida Puddycats 4.7.12

[KaniacFever]

Originally Posted by nccanes

Agree I SHC's points.

Did I understand JR on the pregame interview with Harwood when he said he was happy with the top 4, and then listed them as Gleason, Faulk, Pitkanen, and McBain? And hasnt Tripp been pimping Faulk/Gleason as 'the future'? I thought Faulk has played a lot with Harrison?

You heard correctly. As Andy said, the d pairings got switched up for Ottawa and they've remained that way for these last 3.
I know there's been talk of possibly going after a Suter, but from the sounds of it, JR is looking for that guy for Staal. Atleast that's what I got out of it.

I wanted to play spoiler, but I do feel for the Panther fans. I mean we usually miss 3-4 years and then get back, but those 3 years missing are torture, these guys waited 12 years.mThey'll be out early anyway

I thought the Welsh kid looked pretty good in his debut. Wouldn't mind seeing him more.

[IceSun]

Too bad it ended this way on a few fronts.

We could have spoiled FL 1st Div Championship
We could have finished tied for 3rd in points in the Division with WPG and TBY (would have lost tiebreaker on ROW, but still would have felt better than owning last outright).

Glad at least it wasn't a shutout though.

Time to root for Boston & NJ in the first round.

SO looking forward to the silly season and next season.

[IceSun]

One more thing I thought of for my list of what me missed by not winning - we would have finished over .500 for the season (although in all fairness, even making it back to .500 seemed impossible around Dec. 4)

[nccanes]

Yup - the W would have been 'meaningless' in most ways I guess, but it would have been nice to prove that they were the better team yesterday. They didn't.

Finishing at the bottom of the SE takes away from a lot of the 'good' that's happened for the team...imo.

[MoBigRed]

Originally Posted by IceSun

We could have finished tied for 3rd in points in the Division with WPG and TBY (would have lost tiebreaker on ROW, but still would have felt better than owning last outright).

Just imagine had the Hurricanes not been so putrid in OTs (and even moreso SOs) for the first 80 games of the season...

[ontheboards]

I suspect this was an entire season of What Ifs...

What if we fired Maurice at the end of last season?
What if Barrassso was never the forwards coach for this team?
What if we never got Kaberle and we used Kaberle money for a legit top 6 forward?
What if the power play worked all season long?
What if this team could hold the lead and close out a victory?
What if Eric Staal started the season the way he finished it?
What if this team wasn't so fragile for the first six months of the season?
What if we could win a shoot out during the season, not just the last home game?
What if the Canes weren't the team to most likely to let a player score his first ever NHL goal? (OK, I made this stat up, but doesn't it seem that we are??)

[kermelbar]

^
What if we weren't the team most likely to end an opposing player's scoreless streak? (Another made-up, but likely accurate, stat.)

[SouthernHockeyChick]

Along the theme of made up but seems true......

What if we weren't the team most likely to make a backup/rookie goaltender look like a Vezina candidate?

[MoBigRed]

Kind of a different angle to this one, but what if Skinner didn't have a concussion?

And my favorite - what if the fans in Winnipeg had chanted 'Jordan's better' the first time the Hurricanes played there this season?

[nccanes]

Originally Posted by SouthernHockeyChick

What if we weren't the team most likely to make a backup/rookie goaltender look like a Vezina candidate?

But I also wonder (and really have no clue about the result) how many Wins came against backup goalies.

[wa10]

Originally Posted by nccanes

But I also wonder (and really have no clue about the result) how many Wins came against backup goalies.

We did see a lot of backups this year.

[superdave]

Originally Posted by wa10

We did see a lot of backups this year.

It seems like about half the games or more were against backup goalies.

[ontheboards]

Originally Posted by wa10

We did see a lot of backups this year.

That's probably the most damning fact. It's such an indication that teams coming into our building were anything but intimidated by us our ice...

[nccanes]

Oh - and meant to ask this. Not that it's any of my business, but did they mention why Dwyer was away for personal reasons?

The only reason I ask is the way Tripp mentioned it at some point during the game, he used the phrase "left the club". I presume he just meant, he didn't travel with the team, etc. - but wasn't sure if I missed something more specific. Hope all is well in family Dwyer.

[SoCalcaniac]

Nope E, you didn't miss anything else--- it was kinda cryptic. I hope his family is ok too. When I saw the original tweet I figured we might have heard more in the broadcast, but Tripp said essentially the same thing.

So this whole theme of "what ifs" would make a real good thread/topic of discussion. I know it's horrible to play that game; I try to avoid it at all costs, however, something about this season makes it appropriate- for lack of a better term- ; would give us stuff to talk about!

[MoBigRed]

Curious about Dwyer as well. When everyone else was tweeting Friday that they'd arrived in Florida, Dwyer tweeted 'Fort Lauderdale', so i'm guessing he was there with them then.

[nccanes]

Originally Posted by MoBigRed

Curious about Dwyer as well. When everyone else was tweeting Friday that they'd arrived in Florida, Dwyer tweeted 'Fort Lauderdale', so i'm guessing he was there with them then.

That's right. Ok, then the "left the club" probably just referred to him leaving FLA and going home or wherever the issue was.

[Canesluver]

What struck me during the broadcast (re: Dwyer) is that when announcing the scratches, Tripp said (something like), "Pat Dwyer is out for personal reason, and our thoughts..." and he just stopped abruptly and went to the next person. It sounded to me like he knew more, but had been instructed to just say "personal reasons,' and he caught himself before he said too much.

[andyt]

Originally Posted by Canesluver

What struck me during the broadcast (re: Dwyer) is that when announcing the scratches, Tripp said (something like), "Pat Dwyer is out for personal reason, and our thoughts..." and he just stopped abruptly and went to the next person. It sounded to me like he knew more, but had been instructed to just say "personal reasons,' and he caught himself before he said too much.

Thought that was odd too. Whatever the "personal reasons" are, they are either over or close to being over since he's playing for Team USA in the World Championships.