Jun 27 2011
Canes end of season report. Grading the goalies, coaches and comments on draft and free agency. #Hurricanes
I know the season is over and I know the draft just ended but I am now going to finish up the review of the season for the Canes. This was an easy one to push off until now b/c I wanted to wait and see how the Canes did in the draft, if they made any moves, and if any of the RFA’s would be signed by now. So off we go!
GOALIES
It’s no secret that Cam Ward was amazing for the Hurricanes last season. He just played in too many games and saw too much rubber. He saw more then 200 more shots and made over 200 more saves then the # 2 guys in the league in those categories. This simply cannot happen again. The Canes need to do a better job in their own end to not give up as many shot and possibly his GAA will come down leading to more Wins for him and the team. He’s in his prime now and needs to be at the top of his game for this team to go far (we all know they won’t spend money so it’s go with what we got now, and what we got is Cam Ward). It’s also no secret that if they get to the playoffs, Cam will bring them far. He is one of the best playoff goalies in the league and when he’s there he shines! Problem is the Cane suck at getting him there.
Grade- A This was a no brainer. He did everything they asked him to do. He played a league high 74 games. He was tied for fifth in save % (.923) and was tied for second in the league for Wins. The big problem is he still gave up too many goals. He was 19th in the league in GAA which is why he’s not at A+. Yes, I 1000% blame the coaching for this but I only took a slight bit away from him for it. Great season by Cam whom I think was truely the Canes MVP this year, even with the great years by Skinner, Cole and Staal.
Outlook–> I am hoping for more of the same. All around. With their first pick being an offense only D man this screams to how the coaching is moving with their defense. And with the BAD BAD news that Pitkanen may in fact, be back with the team it further shows they will be playing VERY little defense on the blue line. This is bad news for not only Cam but us as fans as well. The worse this D is , the more shots Cam faces, and the more goals they will let up. And with them unwilling to sign or trade for another sniper they are in NO position for high scoring games. I would really rather see Cam only start 65-68 game this year, which is his sweet spot. NOT NOT NOT over 70 games. I don’t care how old or how durable we think he is. Bad thing happen when you start a goalie too much, especially if that goalie happens to get into the playoffs, where he will undoubtedly be tired.
Peters was given the backup job outright last season and I was all for it as well. He has earned the promotion and was good enough in his outings in ’09-’10 to prove to me he was ready. This is however, assuming the team used him right, which they did not. Peters only started 8 games this year and that is piss poor coaching by Maurice and the staff. As a younger goalie you simply cannot get into any sort of groove and get momentum to fill in effectively and his stats showed it.
Grade- C+ I only give this high of a grade to him b/c I do not think he is to blame at all for his performance. I will site this as under usage. Maurice started Peters all of 3!!!! times in 2011. And that’s 2 times in January. His next start was in March in a 2nd night of a back to back game on the road against a surging Chicago team. That was a lose-lose start in which the team was definately going to play like garbage and he got shelled. The way Paul Marice used the goalies this season is the #1 reason the Canes missed the playoffs. More rest for Cam in the middle of the year means more stamina he has in March and April and better he would have been. Let’s not forget they only needed 1 more win to get in. I blame you Maurice…
Outlook–> Well, it’s kinda bleak this season for Peters. Rutherford is throwing Peters under the bus for his performance last year and has openly said already they will be signing a veteran back up to play some games this year. Which is fine if they get one good enough to start 15 games for the Canes and get Ward back to that sweet spot of 67 or so games started. So look for Peters to dominate in Charlotte in the AHL and come up any time someone gets any injuries with the big club.
Draft and Free Agency
Jim Rutherford did a masterful job a month ago at giving the Canes fans some hope for the future. I say masterful b/c he got some buzz going for the whole month of no Canes hockey and the days leading up to the draft. He originally said that Jokinen and Pitkanen would likely not be back, and that they were looking to sign a big name D man to replace Pitkanen and trade or sign a sniper (or two) in his prime to fill out the forwards better. Now that they have had a pretty good draft he has again taken our hopes, thrown them on the ground, spit on them and stepped on them with spike covered boots. How? With that crappy little announcement at the draft. JR announce that they are in fact closer then they thought to a deal with Pitkanen and Jokinen and possibly even Cole. He furthermore said they would only likely be spending “a few million above the 48 million salary floor. So let’s call this a cool 50 million payroll (14 million below the cap), with them currently sitting at 33$ mil according to Capgeek. I then predict he’s going to thro 4 mil a piece at Pitkanen and Jokinen, and 2.5 at Cole and 1.0 at LaRose (I still think he stays here) then throwing no more then 750k at Joslin (RFA). So call that 12.25 mil more to bring them to 45.25 mil. Thats 3 under the “floor” and about 5 under what I think their self imposed cap will be. This will leave them about 3 forwards short of what I want, and 1 D man but they won’t go after any D b/c they love the kids in AHL and will get by with what they have right now. So for that money they have left under the real cap they can absolutely afford a big time FA at 4-5 mil and get 1-2 defensive depth forwards at 1-2 each. Will, they? Hell, no. We will see them do what I predicted above and then sign 2-3 journeyman POS forwards to round out the lineup and rely again on Drayson Bowman, Zach Boychuk and Zac Dalpe to play big minutes on the 3rd/4th line. Of those guys I onlly think Dalpe has any chance of being a real NHL player. Bowman and Boychuk have shown me nothing to lead me to belive they will be useful long term.
Verdict—> My pre-free agency predictions being above paired with no coaching change yet I am going to predict a bad start for the team with a coaching change in December. Depending on who they get and how they react to that will decide how their playoff hopes ride. I say they miss the playoffs again. Why? B/c they are now going to the CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP spending model. You will not win anything again if you continue to spend pennies to try and buy gold. I don’t want them to spend 64 mil at the cap but I want to see 55-57 million spent on a respectable product on the ice. So go ahead JR prove me wrong and have a good free agent crop. Please please —- PROVE ME WRONG.
(I will update this post today or tomorrow if and when he announces those RFA signings)
