Should Canes’ fans be worried?

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See website for details. All right, Luke Dukakis here, news and observer columnist. Look, we could talk about- I mean, we could talk about Florida State, but right- we'll see if we can get there. If I said that the Carolina Hurricanes aren't going to make the playoffs unless they address goaltending, am I being too alarmist? A week ago, or whenever that was, they blew the game against the Islanders when I wrote that they needed to address the goaltending situation if they wanted to remain a Stanley Cup contender.

I would have said you were being alarmist. Everything that's happened in the past week, and not just the goaltending, but the way that the Hurricanes have started playing in front of goalies they don't trust, which is something anyone who's got a memory longer than a fly around here should remember, is suggest that if they don't go out and address the goaltending, not at the deadline, but now, they are going to have a hard time making the playoffs. I mean, they've left, depending on how you want to look at it, four to six points on the table in the last 10 days. And in this league, in this division, four to six points is exactly the difference between missing and making the playoffs. Now that doesn't mean they're going to miss the playoffs, but they're putting themselves in the position really for the first time where that's possible. Because it's one thing to play terribly, get blown out by Edmonton. To me, that's the kind of game where you need a good goalie to make a save early to keep you in it. The Hurricanes haven't had that all year. But to lose in Winnipeg, because you got outplayed by the other goalie, that wasn't a goaltending issue. That's just something that happens to the Hurricanes a lot. But the Calgary game is a disaster, and the Islanders game was a disaster. And those four points are all on Peter Kachekov.

There's no excuses there. As badly as the Hurricanes have played. And now, the Hurricanes are playing terribly in front of both goalies because they don't trust either one of them.

And we're back in an area that nobody wants to visit called Scott Barlingstand, which is the place where promising seasons and potential goes to die. So, it's a huge concern because now it's bled over to other areas of the game. And what happens is, when you don't trust your goalie, you start doing too much, and then you get into the situation of what we saw last night. Rob Lindemore saying, not everybody's doing their job. Steph Mason saying, not everybody's doing their job. The Hurricanes have to play a very specific way to be successful.

We all know this at this point. They know it, you know it, I know it, every single fan in the stands knows it. There's a way that they play, there's an identity, they have to play that way.

Because if you don't play that way, these giant seams and gaps open up and they get torn apart. When they stop trusting the goalie, they stop playing that way. And this is what happens against Edmonton is what happened. What happened in the third period against Calgary is what happened.

It's a massive problem and it has to be addressed. There's no way around it now. This is not saying that Peter could check out is not potentially the goalie of the future, but the now has to be addressed now.

Or there's, this is going to be another season where the Hurricanes had a chance to win the Stanley Cup and found a way not to. Luke Tkach is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. I said, I said as much at the very beginning of the show. I think we put out a video on Instagram saying that. I've been saying in the podcast when at the beginning of the season when Carolina was allowing all sorts of juicy opportunities. More so then than they than they are even now.

Somebody asked me what's the number one problem that they have? And we were only like eight or nine games in and I said, I think it's goaltending because ultimately you're going to allow chances. No matter who they are, no matter who you're playing against, you're not shutting a team down and allowing no chances. But they essentially allowed nothing to Winnipeg and both goals are scored and neither goal. Neither goal was Piotr Kuchetkov's fault, right?

No, it was Aunty Ronta. Neither goal was his fault. I mean, they were they were just great shots. Very few goalies would have stopped them.

But it's indicative of when Carolina gets those opportunities. They don't all go in, obviously. So it's OK for goalies to make a save. I use this analogy all the time with the stall line. They are not paid to score goals, but they're also not paid to not score goals.

It would hurt, right? That's the thing with the goalies. And I tweeted this after the Edmonton game. I reiterated again that, you know, obviously there were incredible defensive and uncharacteristic defensive breakdowns. And when I tweeted that there was this another sign they need to go get a goalie, people are like, hey, you see it? Slave and install, right?

On the first goal, slave and install. Right. That's right. But as I said earlier, the team is playing differently in front of him because they no longer trust him the way they did last year. And how often do we do we the opposing team say, hey, we weren't at our best tonight and Carolina came after us.

But Barla mom, so-and-so bailed us out. When's the last time the hurricane said we weren't at our best? I'm asking you honestly, right?

I don't have an answer. When is the last time the hurricane said we weren't at our best tonight, but blank bailed us out. I'm sure it's happened, right?

But I went through my through the notes and the fast and all that stuff. I don't remember a game where the hurricane said our goalie bailed. He won us our game tonight. He got us two points.

Why? And the last year, maybe it's just you can't go through a season without having that happen by accident. Once in a while, you trip and fall in the pocket. See in the head, you've got to make a save once in a while. You got, if you let up every goal that you say, oh, well, you can't blame him for that. That's then why do you have a goalie back there? You've got to make a save at some point.

You've got to go make a save. That's the difference between making the playoffs. Not that's the difference between losing in the second round and not going on to the conference files are not going on the place. You look what Sergei Blavrovsky did for the Panthers. How many of the goals that the hurricane should have scored? Would you have said, well, you can't blame Blavrovsky back? Absolutely.

I'm near every one of them, Adam. I know he made say you don't expect a goalie to make. That's the difference. The hurricane don't have that. It's bleeding into every aspect of their game. It's killing them. And every day that goes by that Tom Dunin and Don Waddell don't address it.

Their chances of missing the playoffs increase. And I don't understand what's taking so long. I agree. Look, I said this yesterday and I was and maybe I am looking at this too old school because we know how the front office with the hurricanes operates.

They it's very much a numbers game to them. Right. But but you never know when your time is here. You never know when that is.

Sometimes you don't know it until it's too late. So last year, blessed with all of the cap room for with the long term injury of Max Pacioretti, when they put him back out there and the Andrei Svetchenko thing happened after. So you can't even include that. But blessed with all the cap space that was created by the long term injury. Carolina.

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No purchase necessary. Shane Gostis bear and I didn't hate that addition. But the number one thing that they needed last year was somebody who could help scoring goals. And the forward that they added could could not do that because they were more interested in. And this is going to sound like an indictment and I don't care.

It's not intended to be. It's just what they did. They they went for a potential lottery ticket, a scratch off ticket.

And yes, they pull your RV. Well, maybe he'll find his game playing with his old friends. Ajo and Tara Von. And what we found out was he can't play. But we knew that he couldn't play from all of his other stops.

So rather than use some of that cap space to go get somebody who could put the puck in the net. They found somebody who couldn't. And I keep hearing, well, you know, it's not this is not the year. Two years ago was the year. Last year was the year. Hey, Adam. Twenty twenty one might have been the year.

Yep. The lack of defensive depth after not making a move at the deadline to address a position of need. They knew they had. They got into that national series. And what should have been a sweep became a six game squad with Mack was law coming out of nowhere to be their fourth best, best defenseman. And then they got into that Tampa series. And when Alex did Elkevich faltered and I wrote when he gave up that goal, you know, which goal I'm talking about, that the series is over and people jumped all over me. How could you say that?

There's so much hack. It was over and everybody on both teams knew it at that point. But they dug that hole by dragging themselves through a series against the Predators because they didn't address their biggest need because they didn't think it was time yet.

The same point you're making at a certain point, you've got to put your chips in the table or it's going to be too late. And for this team, it's not even that. It's not even we need the bulk up.

So we have our best chance to win the Stanley Cup. This is slapping a butterfly bandage on a gaping wound. This, this is a sucking chest wound that needs massive attention and an emergency room and a crash cart. Their goal attending is killing them right now.

And they got to fix it. If you want to say, well, we can wait for Freddie to get back. I don't know how long it's going to take for them to dial in his meds. They can't screw this up. If he, if they go too far one way and he gets a clot on a plane, if they go too far the other way and he gets cut in practice and bleeds out, you have got to get that right. Way more important than hockey.

Get that right. So you can't count on him. Maybe he comes back, maybe he comes back and plays well.

That'd be a huge bonus. You have to assume that Ron can could check cover your goalies for the period of time it's going to take to make the playoffs. And you are not going to make the playoffs with these two guys who we love, but if he plays more than once or twice a week, he struggles and the team does play better in front of him, but they don't trust to check off.

You don't have to be a hockey expert to see it. They've got to get, could check out back to Syracuse and bring in somebody who can play. Obviously you are a whole lot couldn't play, or he'd be playing now, but they got to go get somebody. There is no question about that. And you basically answered the next thing, which was you can't count on really either guy physically because could check off has also broken down even at a young age. And that's that's fair. I mean, he's 24 years old, so it's going to take time.

Maybe he is the goaltender of the future, but he is not the goaltender of the present and the present is the most important thing for them right now. Final thing before I let Luke to cut go, let's just, we'll just, we'll just relax a little bit. Manny Diaz was hired. Many tell you about this many. Yeah, I like that. I'm not as big a fan. I'm underwhelmed. That doesn't mean it's a bad hire.

Here's my concern. And this is something, this is an archetype we see in college football. There are guys who are really good coordinators who are not great head coaches. You want those guys as your coordinator. Now, Mike Elko was a guy who'd been a really good coordinator, deserved a chance to prove he could be a head coach. Got that chance and was really good head coach. He's at Texas saying that now he's gonna make $7 million to never win a national title.

Manny Diaz had that chance and it did not go well. And he went back and was a very good defensive coordinator at Penn State. So I'm very concerned about a guy who couldn't win with every single advantage you can have in college football going to a program where you basically have to reinvent nuclear fission to win. That's just the way it is at Duke in the world of college football. Now, that said, 16 and nine in the ACC in Miami gets you fired. 16 and nine at Duke in the ACC gets you a statue.

So maybe it's a lower bar that he can clear. I think you and I look at his time in Miami a little differently. I actually think he did very well at Miami and he was only fired because they knew they could get Mario Cristobal. And I would say that they really didn't elevate the program. But I wouldn't disagree. I wouldn't disagree with that. But, you know, the fact that Miami thought so highly of them, they hired his replacement before telling him they were going to fire him certainly suggests there were some differing opinions on that. Yeah, there's some dysfunction there that I don't know, hopefully does not exist at Duke. All right, Luke, I'll see you on the seventh floor whenever it is the Hurricanes come back to play.

Now, now you're getting it. You're the only person I called the seventh floor for because I put I push five when I get in the elevator. Yeah, but you know what, when they built that building, what did you push?

I don't know. And how many how many flights of stairs do you have to climb from the ice? That is true. There you go. That now you're talking sets.

That is a lot of flights of stairs. All right, Ben, I'll talk to you later. But you got Luke to talk to the news and observer. So who else gets stressed when it comes to looking for the perfect holiday gift? Maybe you need something for the girls gift exchange this year or your office bestie that you spill all the office tea with family.

Don't forget about those fur babies. They need a gift to my friends over at Piper Lou. They got you covered and I can spend hours on Piper Lou dot com. They've got the best gifts for this holiday season, like the 40 ounce personalized tumblers or where's my Swifties at? How about a Swift Miss Christmas tea? Don't miss the most amazing holiday gifts for everyone. Visit Piper Lou dot com. That's Piper LOU dot com.