Head scratchin' Canes

Time to see which team shows up tonight at the RBC Center. Will it be the hungry Canes that came out after the all-star break and put it to the Washington Capitols or will it be the on again/off again Hollywood love story Canes that have struggled for consistency all season long. At the moment there isn’t much that I can say about the team that most already haven’t.
Will a trade do the team good? Will not making a splash in the trade market do the team well? Will the Canes falter if no changes are made? Will this team make the playoffs? Can this team catch up and bypass Atlanta for the Southeast divisional title?
All will be answered in a shot time as Carolina has 30 games left in the season.

Caps Canes - Part Deux

A chance tonight for the Canes to pick up ground tonight as the head into Washington to battle the Caps for the second night in a row, as the Atlanta Thrashers have the night off. In a since, they pick up ground, but with the Thrash having a game in hand, it could be bad news if the Canes were to lose tonight.
And what was up with the Canes last night? That is probably the best game they have played all season, if you closed your eyes on the second half of the first period. Cam Ward made some big saves and the captian Rod Brind’amour had moves that we haven’t seen from him since the 80’s. Lets hope that the Canes keep the peddle to the metal tonight and not let up.
The place that Carolina needs to improve on which is no big secret – the power play! Carolina went something like 0 for 7 last night. I enjoyed the hitting going on and what a Scott “let me get my nose dirty” Walker? Man that guy has everything that the Canes were last year and maybe they can become again this season.
Now to tonight’s game, look for the Capitals to start Kolzig in net tonight who has always been a Canes killer while I presume that Johnny Grahame “Cracker” gets the start tonight for Carolina between the pipes. Lets just hope that the Canes can bring the same fire power they did last night and that they can again shut down the Russian tandem of AO and AS.
For more info on tonight's game, click on title of entry- it takes you to dellow blogger Eric Mcerlain's page.

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.

Blog Musings -01/22/07

One would think that an NHL team could hold on to a two goal lead in a game and win it before it ever gets to the stage of a shoot out, but alas the Carolina Hurricanes coughed up not one but two – two goal leads to Tampa on Saturday night and then failed to get the biscuit in the basket on any of the shots in the shoot out and alas, the Canes are again six points behind the Atlanta Thrashers – a team that is not all that great but is winning when they need to. Don’t look in the rear view mirror either as the Lightening are just two points behind Carolina in the standings.
I have been very amused this season at the lack of hustle and toughness that has left the Canes since June of 06. No, it’s not the injuries, not the schedule, not the players lost to free agency – it’s a lack of aggression, lack of want and it seems as if it is a lack of everything. Scott Walker seems to be the one with the most drive from any of the players on the team. He works hard night in and night out, he plays whatever line he is assigned to and he will scrap if he needs to when a cheap shot is taken on one of the big 3 (Staal, Cole, Brind’amour).
Let’s bow our heads and pray for the hunger to get back into this team, from Jim Rutherford to shake things up with a big trade before February 27th –trade deadline – and for the shoot out to be more productive or else lets have a few mighty mites on the bench for just that case of each game.
I digress – Just my opinion.

Opportunity Lost—

While the Canadians were doing the Canes dirty work of beating up on the Thrash, the Canes sputtered like an engine that lost a cylinder last night against the Washington Capitals. Johnny Grahame “Cracker” made some good saves and kept the team in the game through a first period that saw Washington outshoot Carolina 17 to 11 and the only damage on the scoreboard was the fluke goal scored off a highstick of David Tanabe. Two games and two fluky goals – one for and one against.
Take that goal away and this game could have possibly gone into overtime. Alexander Semin scored the power play goal in the second – Erik Cole gets the equalizer. Semin scores again – Eric Staal gets the game tying talley. John Grahame stays in net and Chris Clark does not get the empty net goal. But hey, win some and lose some – lets just hope that this team can get it together for the stretch run that in my mind begins Saturday night at the RBC Center at half past eight.
Look for Cam Ward in net, lines to be changed, and weird bounces since NC State hosts Duke in a basketball game earlier in the afternoon. No television (or at least not locally) – thank goodness for Center Ice!

Entry to post an entry

For what it is worth, I am still alive and kicking, but I do apologize for not blogging in quite some time. I have been so behind that I missed the news of Kevyn Adams getting traded to the Yotes for Dennis Sedinberg. I was on the road for the last two weeks and the last thing that I really wanted to do was get on a computer after working with them onsite for the last few weeks. It’s nice to get back to the hotel and just relax. Now that I have been back in Raleigh for a week, I need to get going on my blogging. So I should have entires forth coming.

Now lets talk about the Carolina Hurricanes and the Washington Capitols. The Alex’s have been on a roll for Washington, but the rest of the team hasn’t. Meanwhile, Carolina is getting healthy and hopefully on a roll to catch Southeast leading Atlanta. The Canes are five points back and can wittle that down tonight with a win and of course some kind of lose by Atlanta. The Canes play their next two at home against Southeast teams Washington and Tampa Bay. The Thrash are home against Montreal. I will have more after the results of tonight’s games.