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Posts Tagged Joni Pitkanen

Carolina Hurricanes’ Jeff Skinner Returns

Jan 19

Posted by EB in Fantasy, News, Soap Box | No Comments

AP Photo/Richard Lipski

Carolina Hurricanes’ fans gave a collective sigh of relief last night as young forward Jeff Skinner has returned. Skinner, who has missed 16 games, was out because of a concussion.

The NHL continues its ongoing effort to curb head-shots, ultimately trying to remove concussions from the game. The charge to change the game for the better began last season as superstar Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins suffered a concussion, sidelining him for the last quarter of last season and out for the majority of this season.

Skinner’s return was a positive boost to the lineup of the Hurricanes as he continued where he left off. Playing two games so far, Skinner averaged 17:39 of ice time and picked up an assist in his second game. In time he will jump back up to his nearly 19 minutes a game norm.

Although Skinner’s return is a positive for the Hurricanes, the harsh reality is the team is in last place of the Eastern Conference. Last season the Hurricanes fell two points short of 8th place for the playoffs. This season the team will not make the playoffs even if a miracle happens. Very sad considering the team has such talent in Captain Eric Staal, Jussi Jokinen, Jeff Skinner, Joni Pitkanen and netminder Cam Ward. Major overhaul is in store for the team in the off-season, maybe even come trade deadline. From a fantasy perspective though, Skinner will still put up points to help out your team.

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2011-12 NHL Season Preview: Carolina Hurricanes

Sep 10

Posted by Eddie in Season Previews | 1 Comment

Offseason Losses: Erik Cole, Joe Corvo, Bryan Rodney

Offseason Additions: Anthony Stewart, Brian Boucher, Tomas Kaberle

Last Season Ranking: 9th in East

Expect Jeff Skinner to pick up right where he left off entering his second season.

Offense: The Canes are pretty stacked at the center position. The top three leading scorers from last season were all centers. Eric Staal returns as leader and face of the franchise. His offensive numbers were very impressive as he scored 33 goals and had 43 assists. But a byproduct of the awful defense the team had was his -10 rating. He will also quarterback the power play unit as he was the only player on the team with double-digit power play goals with 12 last season.

One of the breakout players from last season was rookie Jeff Skinner. The Calder Trophy winner led all rookies in the league in points with 63. He played a huge impact in them coming within a few points of making the playoffs. Just like with Detroit’s Jimmy Howard last season, I don’t expect a sophomore slump from Skinner.

The loss of Cole means there are 26 goals from last season that needs to be replaced. One player can’t fill his shoes entirely but expect a slew of young players to battle for limited spots on the team. They added Alexi Ponikarovsky and Anthony Stewart during the off season, but they can’t each be expected to score 20+ goals. Carolina could be playoff contenders just like last season if both players play within themselves ( 14 goals/35 points for Ponikarovsky and 16 goals/42 points for Stewart) they will have a solid first two lines.

This could be a make or break season for Zach Boychuk. Boychuk, 21, was the team’s first round pick (14th overall) in 2008 and the team is hoping can finally bust through and stick in Raleigh. In 23 games last season, Boychuk had four goals and three assists.

Defense: If there is anything the Canes need to an overhaul of, it’s the defense. They faced a league-high 33.2 shots per game and the addition of Kaberle should help keep the puck going the other direction because of his puck moving ability. The addition of assistant coach Dave Lewis should help strengthen their defense as he has many years of experience coaching stingy, sound defense while he was with the Detroit Red Wings. Carolina fans should still worry about the defense as Kaberle was the only addition and it appears the rest of the defensive depth chart will be filled from within during training camp provided they don’t make any other trades or free agent signings.

Goaltending: The addition of Brian Boucher is huge for the Hurricanes. They have someone who will give Cam Ward a few nights of rest without risking losing the game. That is what you need from a backup: someone who will give your team just as much of a chance to win as the starter. Ward started more games than any goalie in the league (74) and made over 200 more saves (2191 vs 1982) than the next goalie in the saves made list (Carey Price).

HWB Playoff Prediction: Not playoff bound. While the changes they made were good, they didn’t go enough to earn a playoff spot above the teams around them.

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Carolina Hurricanes

Sep 10

Posted by Eddie in Season Previews | No Comments

Rod Brind'Amour, who played in 80 games last season, has to improve his -23 rating if the Hurricanes expect to be a serious contender in the Eastern Conference

Rod Brind'Amour, who played in 80 games last season, has to improve his -23 rating if the Hurricanes expect to be a serious contender in the Eastern Conference.

The story with the Hurricanes going into this season is can they build on the momentum created at the end of last season? Every time they seem to take one step forward (Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 2002, winning the Stanley Cup in 2006), they have taken two steps backward (missing the playoffs in 2003, 2004, 2007, and 2008). The Hurricanes used a change in head coaches to surge to the playoffs, but upsetting of New Jersey and Boston in the first two rounds before bowing out to Pittsburgh in the Eastern Conference Finals.

On offense, this team will come and go with how center Eric Staal plays. If he can top the 40-goal season he had last season, this team could challenge Washington in the Southeast Division. If he gets injured or fails to score enough (Carolina went 7-1 in the playoffs when he scored and 1-9 when he didn’t), this team could be surpassed by Florida or Tampa Bay. If you were to say which way they will lean, go with a Carolina-Washington dogfight for the division title.

Staal will get help on the wings with Ray Whitney and Toumo Ruutu. Not many new players were added, but they will enjoy the return of defensemen Aaron Ward, who left the team after the 2006 championship season to play for New York and Boston. Expect Ward to compete for the third defensive paring spots with newcomer Andrew Alberts,  veteran Tim Conboy.

Keeping on topic with the blue line, that can appear to be a weakness for the Hurricanes.  After allowing only 17 goals in a seven-game series in the conference semi-finals against Boston, the defense of Carolina allowed 20 goals in a four-game sweep at the hands of the Penguins.

While the core of their team is young with Stall and goalie Cam Ward, several members of the 2006 championship team is either in or entering the twilight stage of their careers. The group of players over 34-years-old include defensemen Ward and Niclas Wallin, and forwards Whitney, Scott Walker, and Rod Brind’Amour. Things changed quickly last season during the conference finals when they couldn’t stop Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin as their age turned from a positive (leadership and experience) to a negative (age and fatigue).

Look for Joni Pitkanen, Tim Gleason, and Joe Corvo to carry majority of the defensive load while forwards Erik Cole, Matt Cullen, and Chad LaRose will be expected to anchor the second line. For the rookies, expect Zach Boychuk to make the opening night roster. At worse, he will spend most of the season in Albany, which will be better than last season when he made the team out of training camp but returned to Lethbridge of the WHL after two games.

In goal, this is the season that Cam Ward will join the elite goaltenders of the NHL. Working with Tom Barasso, Ward has to take how he played down the stretch and the playoffs last the entire regular season. If Barasso can transfer Ward’s strong play throughout the entire season, consider Ward an outside candiate of the Vezina Trophy.

Overall, this team can shock the Southeast Division and give Washington a good fight, but most likely the Hurricanes will fall between fourth and sixth in the East. What could be working against them if they are in a tight playoff race, seven of its last 12 games beginning March 20 at Pittsburgh are on the road.

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Let The Countdown Begin!

Jul 29

Posted by Eddie in Soap Box | No Comments

The 2009-10 NHL Season Begins in 64 Days.

The first 2 of 1,230 regular season games will begin at 7:00 PM Eastern when Alexander Ovechkin visits Boston and the Canadian Original Six rivalry begins when Montreal visits Toronto.

In other news, one of my longtime favorite players returns to a former team. Defenseman Aaron Ward was traded over the weekend from Boston to Carolina, where he won a Stanley Cup in 2006 with the Hurricanes.  One of the more underrated players in the NHL, Ward has three Stanley Cups in his career. He was also a member of the back-to-back championship teams in the late 90′s with the Red Wings.

Ward should be seeing time as a second or third line defensive pairing, especially how Carolina bought out the contract of Frantisek Kaberle because he would of made 2.2 Million this upcoming season.

This was an upgrade for the ‘Canes, with their increase in size to take on the skilled forwards of the Eastern Conference such as Ovechkin, Crosby and Malkin. He would be a great compliment with Joni Pitkanen, just like how he played with Zdeno Chara in Boston.

A #66 Satan jersey would be the #1 selling NHL jersey of all-time. On a final note, am I the only one who wishes that free-agent Miroslav Satan change his number to 66 when ever he signs with a new team?

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