Carolina Hurricanes will see a lot of familiar faces against the Colorado Avalanche

Carolina Hurricanes will see a lot of familiar faces against the Colorado Avalanche

Good example of the defenseman being part of the offense as Babage follows the play up. We’re going to see Jody Hollow. He’ll get the puck at center ice and he hit Scott Young. And this is the finishing touches to that play. That’s pretty cool. I I didn’t know that this uh this rejoin was coming, but that’s pretty cool. Obviously, it’s Kane’s Avalanche tonight, but they’ll be wearing the Whalers and the Nordics gear. So, uh little throwback highlight there coming out of break. It’s pretty cool. I’ve said it. If I If I were the Canes or the Avalanche marketing squads, when these jerseys are on the ice, I would go I would go all out. I would I would do some kind of food special with prices from back then. I would I would give away uh like trading cards or something to the first however many people and it would be all 1991 uh whalers. Uh that that’s that’s what I’d be doing because I think it’s I you know encourage everybody to dress like the time period. Do all that kind of stuff. Yeah. Just make it like an 80s night. Yeah. That’s all you got to do. 80s night. Put uh something with the jumbotron involved. By the way, that was a highlight from Hartford against Quebec. There you go. So yeah. Yeah, man. That’s I’m I’m all for nostalgia in doses. In doses. I’m all for nostalgia. Um, I don’t know if I told told everybody this, but but my dad grew up in New England and was a he was a Hartford Whalers fan. So, having me cover the Canes is kind of like a weird like what is going on here moment for him. Uh, last Christmas I got him some some Whalers gear from the Canes team store and it was like, how did how did this happen? Uh, yeah, kind of kind of a cool moment. Uh, anyway, the Canes when we’re talking hockey, I’m not calling I’m g we’ll allude to them as the Whalers. I’m not calling them the Whalers all day. Uh the Canes tonight have a uh a game against the Avalanche and despite all of that, right, the cool stuff, the new jerseys, the green, you you look different. Gotcha. Um it’s a big game. And there’s there’s a lot of uh obvious like uh like measuring sticks happening, right? It’s going to be hard. I mean, I’m going to try not to. I encourage you all to try not to. It’s going to be hard not to judge some of the Kane’s moves over the last year based on the eye test today, right? If if if Stankovven scores and Keandre Miller makes a few big defensive plays, some highlights, maybe he’s he’s quarterbacking a power play that gets going, boom, winner, right? Gave up what you had to give up to get Mo. Gave up Mo to get what you got, turned it into this, turned it into that. Look at how awesome this is. All those pieces add up to a great team. However, if Martine Nes stays hot, Jack Jury wins like 90% of his faceoffs. If if a bunch of other things happen, go a different way, questions are going to loom, right? And it’s going to be, well, should we have why didn’t it work? Why did this have to happen? The MA blah blah blah. I don’t think that’s fair, right? Because it’s not a controlled experiment. If Martinez stays hot, Nathan McKinnon might have something to do with that, right? right? If he stays out their system, Kale Macar might have something to do with that. What I think it really comes down to is simply uh these are two teams that are really good. And when there are two teams that are really good, and this goes for for all sports, um one’s going to get the better of the other. Okay? It’s not always some indication of something big and terrible that happened on the losing team. Although that’s usually where our mind goes. Sometimes it’s just, you know, two two teams playing good hockey with good players. One dealing with an injury here, one dealing with an injury there, one a little offbeat because they’ve been on the road for a while, one at home, but dealing with something else going on. And and it you come together, you play hockey, one’s going to win, one’s going to lose. Now, I do reserve the right if it’s, you know, 40 at the end of the first period in either direction to then change my ideas from like, let’s not overreact to, all right, let’s see what happened here. But, but I think in a lot of ways, this is a good big game test. And I’m I’m not going to do this all year. This is one of the things that I I would do occasionally uh last year because you know there the Canes, the Avalanche, a few other teams uh across sports it might be um you know the Bills, we we’ve we’ve talked about this. There’s very little these teams can do to prove to us in the regular season that this year is going to be a success, right? when when each of these teams have been in the postseason, meaning the Avalanche and the Canes have been in the postseason every year since 2019, right? So, there’s very little that they can prove. They’ve been every seed. They’ve been every, you know, point total. They’ve had individual great seasons, seasons where they got it done as a team and and all. It’s been a long time where these teams are good. There’s very little they can do in the regular season that’s going to make me go, “Wow, what a great year.” It’s all about how they perform in the postseason. So the regular season becomes all about preparing you for the postseason. So last year what I would do is I would look at these games and I would say you know on a scale of 1 to 10 how big of a game is it? Because you can’t you can’t simulate you know beat forbeat a postseason game. But I do think the bigger games in the regular season are good little dress rehearsals, right? Where you get where you have two good teams, where you have um maybe if it’s a big divisional game, that adds it up, right? If seating’s on the line, if there’s some other emotion, right? A return game, a revenge game, if there’s there were previous fights between these two teams and they’re playing now, I’m like that ups the intensity. Feels a little playofflike. Like I wanted to see the Canes do well in those games because that would indicate that I think they’re getting ready for the postseason which their knock has always been very good team very talented very deep doesn’t work in the postseason right that’s what’s the knock’s been the last five years this game I think if we were to give a big game rating pretty big right scale of 1 to 10 it’s not a 10 but it’s it’s well above five say seven something early in the year seven I would have gone like seven and a half. Yeah. Uh and partially because it’s their first bounceback, right? They lost to Vegas in their last game. This is their first opportunity to shake one off and get back out there, which in the postseason is a requirement, right? When when you’re playing a seven game series against a really good team, sure, you want the sweep, but you’re probably going to have to lick your wounds, dust yourself off, get back ready, and play again in another two or three days. big game rating. I I think this one would be up there and I think that’s part of the reason why it’s going to be tempting to overreact. It’s also important to put all the context on there, including Jacob Slavven and Shane Gospear not being on the ice for the Canes, which in a big game, you do want your veterans, especially some of your more proven guys out there. So, uh, here’s Rod Bindammore, the head coach, on being able to overcome those losses. Those are huge losses and on any team you lose your defense, it’s just hard. And so you need you need other guys to pick up the slack. It’s not just in your play, it’s in, you know, how you help other guys and we got young guys back there and um you know that’s any help that they can have and feel comfortable, it’s just going to help our group. So it’s nice to have veteran players that understand that. Now I am uh I’m not a superstitious person. I say that often and I’m not making the I’m a little joke. Uh I’m not a superstitious person. I don’t believe in it. If I were a superstitious person, I would tell everybody to to never mention depth because doesn’t it seem like as soon as you talk about like actually they got some pretty good depth out there this year, their roster, you know, oh, they’re going to have to decide who uh who gets the opportunities. As soon as you say that, you know, like two guys are going to go down right away. Uh, it did feel like their blue line had some depth, right? Mike Riley. Oh, what a great seventh defenseman. LGO. Oh, and an emergency, you had to go to Charles Alexis Lgo. He’s looked really good this preseason. That’s not bad. We’re what, two weeks in. Both of them just kind of locked into the lineup while other guys figure out what’s going on. LGO made his debut last game uh on the road at the Vegas Golden Knights. Not the easiest introduction. Uh now he gets his second game, second cap if we’re talking about soccer. Uh on the road at the Colorado Avalanche. That’s your depth is being tested out the gate. There’s going to be and again when you’re it’s it’s a bigger deal. I don’t know if it’s the the biggest deal, but it’s a bigger deal when your blue line is is banged up and you’re on the road because you don’t you don’t get to decide those matchups, right? You don’t you don’t always get to decide who’s out there on the ice. I’m going to flip a question on you, Tim. I know this is something you ask Mike Glennon, you ask me. What has to happen tonight for the Canes to get a win? You’re I’m flipping it on you. No, you’re not. You’re not allowed to do this. You can’t run the triple option against Navy. All right. Too bad I did it. If this happens, therefore the Canes win. Cuz last time you asked me, I said Kane’s got to score in the power play, and that’s when I think remember correctly, they beat the Kings. Uh, I I was tempted to go power play, but I but I won’t. I’ll go if this one’s tough. And not if they score more than the other team because that’s, you know, well, the tempt McFarland. The temptation is obviously we know Colorado can score. So, actually, I I’ll flip it on the other side. Okay. Colorado’s power play also stinks. Uh, it’s true. Actually, this year the Canes I think are 31st in percentage and and I don’t like this was as of a day and a half ago. So, whatever’s happened since then. Uh the Canes were 31st in power play percentage. Colorado was 30th. So, they were two of the very bottom feeders in the NHL. I’ll I’ll go it’s it’s power play related, but I’ll say if they have more power play goals than Colorado, if the PK wants to go out there and blank Colorado and all you need is one, but if the the PK gives up one to Colorado, which they got some dudes on their their power play units, then the Canes have to go out there and get two. I think if they win the power play, kind of like winning the turnover battle, then uh then I think they win. Colorado 11.5% on the power play, 30th in the NHL. Carolina 9.5% 31st in the NHL with all this firepower and both these teams also cooking to start the year. I mean, if you just go like if you just list the names on the power play and then you say these are guys on some of the worst power play units in the league thus far, it just doesn’t add up. It’s confusing. They’re combined 101 and two on the year. Yeah, which is think about that without pretty much without power play contributions. Yeah, that’s that’s pretty ridiculous. Uh so yeah, so of course today that it’s going to be 4-3 in the power play. Like of of course that’s just that’s how hockey works. Uh the drive with Tim Donnelly 999 the fan. We will continue to look at that one throughout the show. Of course we will. It’s a hockey night in Carolina.

Tim Donnelly & Dennis Cox discuss the Carolina Hurricanes taking on the Colorado Avalanche as the power play struggles to start the season.

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