CANES ADD POWER TO POWER PLAY
Carolina
Last year, the Canes offense was about as pathetic as it could be. A team ful of house hold names that looked great on paper just never developed any chemistry and really looked flat on most night. This year, however, gunner Dany Heatley, playmakers Marc Savard and Tim Connolly and assistant captain Brad Stuart all look a little more excited about their chances.
What’s changed?
Well, the fact of the matter is, that the Canes have now added two new faces for what is setting up to be the club’s top power play unit. Jaromir Jagr, a former Art Ross Trophy winner, will be immediately inserted as the top right winger on the club and will no doubt get all sorts of offensive ice time to help earn that big salary of his.
“Whenever you have a guy like Jaromir, and there aren’t many of them around, you let him have the puck and you let him make the plays,” said head coach Joel Quenneville. “The Canes have never had an offensive talent quite like Jagr. He is a bull in a big man’s body. He is impossible to knock off the puck and he can snipe from anywhere inside the blueline. We will let him be the go to guy and see where it all leads.”
Aside from Jagr’s new face is the “other” blueliner the team has been lacking for years. Martin Skoula, the former defense partner of Brad Stuart in Montreal, comes over to run the other point. Skoula may very well be a better offensive defenseman than his counter part, but the duo have always worked well together.
“Having two big guns back there makes everything easier,” said Dany Heatley. “We have a guy now who can control the game down low and we have slick playmakers who like to play on the perimeter in Savard and Connolly. With an option to pass to either Stuart or Skoula now, I think our power play got real dangerous over the summer.”
Heatley, who was brought in to be the man last year, admitted to having a bad year by his standards. Only notching 29 goals and receiving most of the attention form the opposition, Heatley is looking forward to playing with his new team mates.
“This year we hope to capitalize on our depth and make the necessary changes to the lineup from within,” said Quenneville. “I think we have all the horses to get it done this time around. We lacked things like backend speed, size up front and a leadership last season. We also took an incredible amount of dumb penalties. This shouldn’t be the issue this year.”
Last year, the Canes offense was about as pathetic as it could be. A team ful of house hold names that looked great on paper just never developed any chemistry and really looked flat on most night. This year, however, gunner Dany Heatley, playmakers Marc Savard and Tim Connolly and assistant captain Brad Stuart all look a little more excited about their chances.
What’s changed?
Well, the fact of the matter is, that the Canes have now added two new faces for what is setting up to be the club’s top power play unit. Jaromir Jagr, a former Art Ross Trophy winner, will be immediately inserted as the top right winger on the club and will no doubt get all sorts of offensive ice time to help earn that big salary of his.
“Whenever you have a guy like Jaromir, and there aren’t many of them around, you let him have the puck and you let him make the plays,” said head coach Joel Quenneville. “The Canes have never had an offensive talent quite like Jagr. He is a bull in a big man’s body. He is impossible to knock off the puck and he can snipe from anywhere inside the blueline. We will let him be the go to guy and see where it all leads.”
Aside from Jagr’s new face is the “other” blueliner the team has been lacking for years. Martin Skoula, the former defense partner of Brad Stuart in Montreal, comes over to run the other point. Skoula may very well be a better offensive defenseman than his counter part, but the duo have always worked well together.
“Having two big guns back there makes everything easier,” said Dany Heatley. “We have a guy now who can control the game down low and we have slick playmakers who like to play on the perimeter in Savard and Connolly. With an option to pass to either Stuart or Skoula now, I think our power play got real dangerous over the summer.”
Heatley, who was brought in to be the man last year, admitted to having a bad year by his standards. Only notching 29 goals and receiving most of the attention form the opposition, Heatley is looking forward to playing with his new team mates.
“This year we hope to capitalize on our depth and make the necessary changes to the lineup from within,” said Quenneville. “I think we have all the horses to get it done this time around. We lacked things like backend speed, size up front and a leadership last season. We also took an incredible amount of dumb penalties. This shouldn’t be the issue this year.”
posted by Lohaus at 11:54 AM
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