As another season is coming to an end, this version of the
Canes team has many similarities with the past few versions along with some
notable differences.
The team once again finds itself in an extremely tight playoff
fight for the final couple spots, with 4 team battling over 2 spots. The team has 79 points, along with the Pens
and Sens, while the Leafs have 78. The tough
thing is that both the Pens and the Leafs have 1 game in hand, while the Leafs
have 2. Not to mention the fact that the Canes do not own any tiebreaker with
their 21 ties and only 29 wins. The
Canes will be scoreboard watching today from the sidelines.
On a corporate level the team have satisfied both endorsement
deals signed in the preseason. The CCM deal centered around Korpisalo was met
with the team allowing more than 1800 SA two games ago. The Honda deal required the team to score at
least 230 goals during the season and we are now sitting at 240 with 4 games to
go. This version of the Canes has had no
problem scoring goals this year, it has been the keeping the puck out of our
net that has been the problem.
The offense has really come to life as of late, Villardi, Monahan,
Virtanen, Boeser, Karlson, and Denisenko are all on pace for career years. Boeser currently is 2nd in the
league with 35 goals and Virtanen is 4th with 34 goals.
All in all, it may be a minor miracle if we squeak into the
playoffs.
12/22/2023 - 248 words
