Carolina’s club management, which played a tight first third of the season, decided to wake up the team with changes. Played a weak autumn season Antti Raanta was put on the transfer list over the weekend. When no other club picked the Finn from the list, he continued his journey to the AHL.
The decision was a shock to the team, according to various reports, because Raanta is an extremely liked person in Carolina’s locker room.
For example Sebastian Aho after the decision was made, instructed each player to march in front of the mirror.
Will the decision made leave a scar on the team’s soul?
– It is possible, but in the end I don’t believe in it. Antti was given opportunities, but the results were not enough. This is how the NHL business works after all. It’s a pretty cold job, and there’s no time to worry about things, the former top goaltender who represented Tampa and Calgary in the NHL Karri Rämö says.
– Of course, you can ask whether this move was necessary and whether something will change now. At least it’s certain that if someone in Carolina hasn’t understood in the past that things haven’t gone as they should, they will now.
Although Raanta’s fate spoke in Finland, it was about normal NHL operations. Raanta was statistically the NHL’s weakest goaltenders throughout the fall. The same fate happened earlier in Edmonton to someone with a significantly higher salary than Raanta Jack Campbell.
Raanna was reported to have even considered ending her career in an emotional moment, which Rämö considers a normal reaction.
– It’s a tough place when you’ve been with the same club for a long time, the family has settled there and so on. Now we have to go to the AHL. It’s a big change and it’s quite natural that in the first moment you think that this must be here. But you shouldn’t start making those decisions right away, Rämö states.
– But Antti is 34 years old and he still has good playing years left. And you never know what will happen on the NHL side or when the door there will open again. Now you just have to focus on the essentials, start assembling the package again and think about what kind of impression you want to leave on this new team.
Raanta started in the ranks of the AHL team Chicago on Tuesday evening with a 6-3 victory.
Who surprised?
One of the biggest surprises of the NHL season is definitely the Winnipeg Jets. After several lean years, expectations were hardly met By Rick Bowness for the team he coaches, but what else. Winnipeg has remained on the winning streak throughout the autumn season and has won seven of its previous ten matches.
The pride of Manitoba is currently the fifth best team in the entire NHL.
– Here you have to go back in time first. The way Bowness publicly held the leading players accountable last season was one of the turning points in all of this. During the last season, he gave quite a lot of the message to the top guys that you can’t play like that, ‘s hockey expert Ismo Lehkonen remembers.
This season, Winnipeg is a fresh and disciplined combination that gets to enjoy top-level goaltending night after night. Connor Hellebuyck is once again the league’s absolute goalkeeper elite.
– The chains have skating power, physics and the team is well cast. Defense equipment is Josh Morrissey except very sandpapery, Vegas style. There they play quite hard in front of the goals and in the corners. There you even want to subdue a little, Lehkonen laughs.
Credit must also be given to the top players. The number one center Mark Scheifele play an excellent season and Kyle Connor is certainly one of the most underrated star category players in the series. Connor is the sixth best scorer in the NHL for the past seven seasons – behind Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko from Ranta, Steven Stamkos and so on.
– Great player. He is one of the NHL’s great trail machines, who hits goals at a really fast pace.
Who cheated?
Detroit, which played a good early season, has drifted into a strong sideways slide in recent weeks. The team has won only one of the eight previous matches. The team has suffered some injuries and the main striker David Perron is currently banned from the game, but these alone do not explain the coughing machine.
The structure of the team’s five-man play creates big challenges for playing. The certainty of playing on the puck and, on the other hand, the certainty of defense are things that Detroit always has difficulties with. For this reason, for example, the flow of superior attacks towards the own goal seems to be endless.
– There are still the same problems in the game as in previous years, even though progress has been made. Situations or moments are still not properly recognized there, but wrong decisions are made at wrong times and places. Guys lose pucks carelessly. They are still very much on the road to learning, Lehkonen sees.
– Detroit is still paying the price for the years when you could play there chasing power points no matter what.
According to Finns, the news is good and bad. Having done the painting on Thursday morning Olli Määtä +5 is the team’s best quote during a difficult period. Going to bad news Ville Husson injury at the weekend.
Goal of the week
For the goal of the week, Lehkonen wants to lift Arizona’s closing game Wednesday morning against Ottawa in the spirit of simple and smart is beautiful. Ottawa already led the match 3-0, but Arizona managed to pass with four consecutive hits. One of these was born Matias Maccellin as a platform.
The goal was not a particularly great composition, but according to Lehkonen, it said a lot about Maccelli’s sharp end of the game.
– He breaks into the core and deliberately shoots hard into the back mattress of the goalkeeper, which becomes a loose puck directly on the shoulder of his own player. That is something I would like more of in Suomi-kiekko. Breaking into the core and banging in such a way that at least a second hockey level game remains on offer.
What next?
The Edmonton Oilers will be one of the most interesting teams in the series in the coming weeks. The team, which changed its coach at the beginning of November, won eight matches in a row in the middle of the honeymoon, but has now lost three again. There are still seven points to the playoff line and there are several teams in between.
The difference to the direct playoff spot is already thirteen points. Edmonton can forget that.
Edmonton has improved under the new coach, but at the same time, the cold math is that Edmonton can’t stand any kind of losing streak anymore. In addition to that, longer winning streaks should be put together. There are huge stakes in the playoff battle between two generational superstars. If the bet falls short, disaster is ready.
– That three-game losing streak needs to be broken right away, but in New York (next matches New Jersey and Rangers) it won’t be easy.
Lehko is still not convinced by Edmonton’s eternal crown of woes defensive play.
– Video clips for that team should be organized for the last three games to see how poorly the team can defend. Men are not marked, and there is no way between the man and the goal, you may hit the puck in from the back post. Absolutely unimaginable thing to do. You just can’t play like that, Lehkonen states.