2011-2012 Canes

Trade? New coach? New Captain? What's going to happen? I've only seen a few games this year, but I keep hearing they are lacking leadership. What's the deal.

 

They haven't developed young players very well and a lot of people put that on Maurice.

 

You sleep at a Holiday Inn last night?

 

Yes

 

The season is lost and it's not even Thanksgiving. Karmonos (a cheap bastard) and Rutherford (GM) are the reasons for the on-ice suckage but of course Maurice will be the one scapegoated.

Being a small market team, our cap is 10-15 million below what the true NHL salary cap is, so we will always be undertalented. We lost Cole to Montreal in a bidding war and Rutherford's idea of suitable "budget" replacements were Ponikarovsky and Anthony Stewart. Neither has shown the ability to replace Cole's production... not to mention his leadership.

Then Rutherford made the incredibly boneheaded decision to sign Thomas Kaberle to a 3 year, 12 million dollar deal to improve our power play. Kaberle is old, soft, slow, and a turnover machine. The Cane powerplay is currently ranked 29th. "No Mas" Kaberle has played so poorly that it is unlikely we could get a bag of pucks for him in a trade. I would not be surprised to see him waived or bought out (see Kaberle, Frank).

Staal, butthurt by the loss of Cole, has yet to show up this season. Many speculate that he is bothered by the hit he laid on his brother Mark who has struggled to return. Others feel that he is lacking top line talent and is trying to overcompensate, or do too much. Whatever the cause of his funk, he is not giving 100% effort on every shift (as evidenced by his -18 rating). Staal is on pace to finish the season with career lows in points and assists. If he is not working hard and not playing sound defense, what right does he have to wear the "C?"

I have never been a Maurice fan and feel he should never have been re-hired. But he got dealt a really shitty hand and is trying to make the best of it. Unfortunately, his time is almost up.

I would like to see the Canes bring in a coach from outside the organization (as we did with Laviolette). This coach should be skilled at developing young talent and not be afraid to shake things up. I would like to see us deal any impending UFAs that we do not want to build around. I can see Gleason, Allen, and possibly Ruutu being dealt for picks/prospects. Strip Staal of the captaincy and bump him down a line or two. Try to take some of the spotlight off of him and let him find his game. Bring up Faulk, Dalpe, Boychuck, and maybe Nash to get them some ice time with the big boys to see what they can do. We aren't going to win many so might as well start building on next season.

 

Have they ever had good special teams?

 

Yup, in 2005-2006 when we won the cup. Had the 8th ranked power play in the regular season. In the playoffs we had the #2 ranked power play (24%) and the #6 ranked penalty kill (14%).

 

Well, there you have it.

 

Maurice is out. Muller is in.