Even if you are good, you will push yourself off the cliff no matter how good you are. The NHL playoffs are hard enough without trying to navigate them like a bar bet. The Hurricanes didn't bother to win a road game in the first two rounds because they thought they could run the table at home. Hockey is too weird and stupid to think that it will keep happening. The Rangers are proof of that, because they are dancing off to the Eastern Conference finals even though they suck eggs at even strength.
The Canes do this every season. They have one of the best constructed rosters in the NHL, with a front office that listens to their analytic guys instead of locking them in a closet and only trotting them out to make sure they spelled their names correctly on the website. They try to fill the bottom of the roster with players who are fast and can play with some skill, they find undervalued players, they play an up-tempo system, and they try to fill the bottom of the roster with players who are fast and can play with some skill. They do everything right.
They can get it together in one place, but not in the other. If they pack their forwards with just second- and third-liners, their depth will carry the day because they are short on genuine first-line scorers. When faced with a world-class goalie, the Canes didn't have anyone to pull something from nothing.
The Canes have refused to invest heavily in the net. In today's NHL, you need it all, as the Lightning seem intent on proving to people who won't pay attention. Carolina sacrificed both goalies from last year, including shipping off Alex Nedeljkovic, in order to be economical with Freddie Andersen and Antti Raanta.
Andersen left everything on Raanta in these playoffs. If the Canes find themselves pining for what Andersen might have done in the playoffs, they would be the first team in history to do so.
When the autopsy is done on this Carolina team, the big question will be "Why couldn't they win a road game?" In the first round, they couldn't match up with Jordan Staal and the line ran wild. The line with Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak has been kicking opponents off for years.
The Canes did not do much wrong against the Rangers, dooming them throughout the seven games. The Canes won the first two games of the series despite not having the majority of attempts or expected goals.
The only thing the Canes showed was being dumb, and continually heading to the box against a power-play. The Canes had the best penalty kill in the league in the regular season, but they didn't think much of it. The Canes only go so far against the Rangers, who are in some ways the opposite of the Canes. They are only sharp ends. They have one big scoring line and the best goalie in the league.
The prescription was to give Chris and Mika space on the power-play against your mediocre goalie, so you could match special teams production. Which is where the Canes find themselves.
The Canes have had four excellent seasons, but have not won a game beyond the second round. They keep careening into the playoffs with a goalie who can make the big save or a forward who can reach into the fire to get their hopes. It doesn't matter how much roadwork you do if you can land or block a punch, as the Canes seem determined to ignore.
The Rangers are not likely to get a look at a backup or worse goalie in the next round, and they will get one with two rings plugging his ears. They will see a lot of people scoring. We will see if they can hurt themselves through this test, which is more likely to lead to a ritual killing.
Jesusnchez hit a ball to Mars.
There is an urge to dismiss it because it is in Colorado, but it is still a thoroughly pulverized baseball. It's usually only in The Show when you get to catch a pitch like this, and it's the kind of thing that brings you out of your chair. It's bad when the cameraman is caught off guard by where he has to follow the ball, not conditioned to pan up to the third deck.
Someone got over the new baseballs.
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