Canes - Caps battle at RBC

From fourth liner all-stars back to top line forwards for the Canes, Eric Staal and Justin Williams a.k.a. Willie are back in the line up tonight against Alexander “Can’t get just one bag of Lay’s” Ovechkin tonight at the RBC Center. And might I ask, where is the love? I have read numerous blogs and most of them think that Williams nor Staal belonged in Dallas earlier this week. Others say that Whitney or Cole should have made it.
Let me get on my soap box if I may when it comes to Willie boy. Justin is an all-star. Just look at his point totals from last season to now, and you can see that he is becoming a star in this league just based on his play. If he were still in Philly, he would have been their all-star rep instead of Simon Gagne (a player that I like). Just watch Willie boy tonight and see that he did deserve to be in Dallas.
Now on to the game! The Canes are in 6th place and if the playoffs started tonight they would go against the Atlanta Thrashers, a team that Carolina has had their number this season with the only lose a shoot out lose about two weeks ago. The deal is, the playoffs don’t start tonight and the Canes need to shift from neutral or granny gear to high and like quick, fast and in a hurry mode. Tampa Bay is only two points behind Carolina.
The thing that concerns me the most is goaltending. Cam Ward has been damn good in net, but of late, those rocket blast from the blue line seem to scorch by him. No, I can’t save those, but if the last two blasts had been save – that is two wins for the Canes in their last three instead of two shoot out losses.
Words of advise – a month away from the trade deadline – watch for the Canes to ship a defence man or two for a proven forward that can be added to probably the Scott Walker line or the second line.