it' ovah !!!
hope the enthusiasm carries over to next season...
Printable View
it' ovah !!!
hope the enthusiasm carries over to next season...
Some of it always does. What killed it was 9 straight years without play offs. They held up with decent attendance for about 6 of those years...but there were carry over benefits from the deep runs of 02, 06 and 09.
I think they're up about 3-4000 season tix already for next season.
Disappointing end to a fun season. The Canes really shot themselves in the foot with some uncharacteristic penalties and were victimized by the refs a couple of times but Boston left no doubt. It was mainly Rask but it wasn't all Rask, you have to have a decent blue line in front of you. I think the series outcome effectively squelches the debate over whether Mrazek or McElhinney should have started Game 1. The Canes end the season knowing they now have their coach for the future and plenty of youth to keep them in the playoff mix. Goalie is still somewhat of a question but even there the outlook is a far rosier picture than this time last year. No need to beat up on Cam Ward but his play had been subpar for the previous 3-4 years IMHO.
Am I correct that one of our team weaknesses is physicality? It seemed like the Caps and Bruins played much more physically than we did.
I'm by no means a hockey expert, and I only started really watching hockey when the Canes came to Raleigh. But other than the goaltending (not necessarily indictment on Mc or Mrazek- Rask was just on fire), I thought the biggest difference was just they had a more skilled guys. The Bruins top line didn't have great games in the first 3 but they still won because the 3rd and 4th stepped up and their power play was huge. I feel like for the Canes, Guys like Aho and Svech have to play better to win in these late rounds. They're super young though, so hard to blame them.
The Canes were a bit too injured to be as physical as they normally are...injuries to Svech, Ferland and Martinook really took 3 of their most physical forwards out of the lineup for multiple games. I would say they normally are as physical as Washington and just a little less so than Boston...when healthy.
No doubt, the ole maxim..."our best players have to be our best players..." - played out better for Boston than for the Canes. Many think Aho must be nursing some kind of injury, and we know Svech was injuried...but still....
Make a few changes and Rod has them back in it, older, wiser, and tougher.
As a Canes fan, can't say I'm disappointed, hut that was a horrid non-call that led to the Blues goal.
The Canes were every bit as good as the Blues all season...and did it against harder competition....I never bought into the idea that Boston was simply superior to the Canes. By all logic the Canes should've won games 1 and 3, and the entire series would've been different. Of course, they had good fortune against the Islanders in the second round....thus the nature of hockey, and momentum in sweep series.
Meanwhile, the farm team Charlotte Checkers are making a heck of a run at their level's Cup Championship....
Well, congrats to the Blues, I suppose.