Archive for January, 2007
Birthday
Happy 40th Birthday Paul Maurice! Your team worked their butts off last night and earned a win for you. The Maple Leafs really wanted that game and it showed. They certainly wanted it much more so than the Canes did. Unfortunately, Carolina came out flat again to start the [...]
No More Mr. Nice Guy
The last time the Leafs came into town, I was singing songs about friendship and reunions and how nice it was the see Coach Mo behind the bench again. Also, Bates Battaglia was back in town along with buddy Jeff O’Neill. Wasn’t life grand? The only problem was that we ended up [...]
Stone Blue
Caniacs turned blue after watching the game last night. There were terrible turnovers, multiple mistakes, and sometimes an inexcusable lack of execution. Many of the boys seemed happier with dropping pretty passes behind them than they did trying to create plays in front of them. The main problem with that was that [...]
Superstition
Hockey players are a pretty superstitious lot and so are many hockey fans. We all have our little quirks, like special places to eat before games, lucky things that we wear on game day, or other little rituals that we do to help our team win. So why would anything be different when [...]
Let’s Get it Started
The All Star break is over. The first half of the season has flown by. It’s getting down to crunch time, time to start to separate the men from the boys, the contenders from the pretenders, and the playoff teams from the rebuilding ones. It’s time for the Canes to step [...]
The Gambler
Lately when I think of Jim Rutherford, I start humming the famous Kenny Rogers song, “you’ve got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em,” yadda, yadda, yadda. You can tell we’re within 30 days of the trade deadline because JR is in full “neither confirm or deny” mode. [...]
Skateaway
Tonight the All Star bash, or at least the on ice portion of it, gets underway with the Youngstars game and skills competition. Tomorrow night the All Star game itself will be played. The events for the next 2 nights are on Versus, the Gary Bettman hockey network!
Eric Staal and Justin Williams will [...]
Bad Moon Rising
It was a freaky game again Saturday night at the RBC. The team came out with a lot of jump. They came out with intensity. They took the lead at every point during the game putting the pressure on Tampa Bay. In my opinion they deserved to win, but that didn’t [...]
Too Late for Goodbyes
It’s a late, (but never too late), 8:30 start for the Canes tonight as they wait for another arena change-over because of an NC State basketball game which starts at 3:30. Last time this happened, the “change crew” set a new record and was able to turn the basketball court into an ice rink [...]
Perfect Strangers
The team didn’t look much like a team last night. They looked like a bunch of individuals wearing Hurricanes sweaters. Their passing was off target much of the time and any previous cohesiveness developed in recent games seemed to be gone. The powerplay was simply pathetic, especially when they failed to generate [...]
Superstar
Superstar Alexander Ovechkin returns to his NHL roots tonight at the RBC. Remember this photo fellow Caniacs, when the Caps made Alexander the Great the number one pick in the 2004 draft here in Raleigh?
I remember that day well, thinking to myself that I hope this kid doesn’t come back here and hurt us [...]
The Crying Game
Wow. To read some of the whining and crying that came from the Florida Panther’s dressing room after the game last night, you would have thought there was some grand conspiracy by the NHL and the NHL referees to screw their pitiful team out of every single game, anytime they play against the Hurricanes. [...]
Cat Scratch Fever
The Hurricanes are in southern Florida again to take on the Panthers tonight. The only problem is that the puddy cats are still steamed about the way they lost control of that freaky game last week when the Canes scored 5 goals in 9 minutes and 6 goals total in the 3rd period and [...]
I Walk the Line
The Atlanta Thrashers walked the line and played a clean game Saturday night in Raleigh while the Hurricanes were the ones who got themselves into trouble with a variety untimely penalties. Erik Cole took 2 holding calls himself in the 1st period alone, the second of which cost the Canes a goal as [...]
Breakin’ the Law
The dirty birds of Atlanta flew into town late last night to take on the Hurricanes for an important Southeastern Division matchup tonight. I call them dirty birds for good reason. They are not above delivering cheap shots, questionable hits, and basically have no qualms about bending the rules and “breaking the law” [...]
Tightrope
The Hurricanes used the hockey version of Muhammad Ali’s famous “rope-a-dope” strategy last night. You know, the strategy where you intentionally stand around for 2 periods and let your opponent skate circles around you and out shoot you 31-14 while they take a commanding 3-0 lead. Then in the third period when you [...]
New Kid in Town
The Hurricanes already have one new kid in town, defenseman Dennis Seidenberg from Phoenix. The question is, will there be another newbie in town as well anytime soon? According to Jim Rutherford, that’s the plan. His quote about Kevyn Adams is very telling. “If we stick to our plan and add another [...]
Higher
The Canes took another step to getting higher in the standings last night. It was a nice game, after a bit of a slow start. The Leafs began by out-shooting Carolina at one point, 9-1, but Cam Ward was sharp and only allowed a single goal from a blast by Bryan McCabe which gave [...]
Free Ride
Nothing good in life is for free, right? Wrong! This week Center Ice has their mid season free preview which means if you have dish or cable TV, you are able to watch hockey games for free from all around the league all week! Skim through your channels, (for me it’s [...]
Winds of Change
Everything is changing in the world, there’s constant motion. NHL hockey teams are no different. You either adapt and adjust to your needs, or the rest of the league leaves you in the dust. The Hurricanes did exactly that this morning, they adjusted to their needs when they traded Alternate Captain, [...]
Train Kept a Rollin
Erik “The Cole Train” Cole rolled into the RBC on Saturday night, and he kept a rollin all night long! Cole is one of the few players in the league who can dominate a hockey game pretty much by himself when he is on his game, and that’s exactly what he tried to do [...]
The Load Out
Remember that old, cool roadie song by Jackson Brown?
Now the seats are all empty
Let the roadies take the stage
Pack it up and tear it down
They’re the first to come and the last to leave
Working for that minimum wage
They’ll set it up in another town
The RBC “roadies” will be hard at work today. NC State plays [...]
Bad Day
The game last night was bad. Very bad. It’s always bad when you get shut out at home. I won’t necessarily call out any lack of effort because I think they are trying out there, but they are missing something. Maybe passion. Maybe pride. I really don’t know what [...]
Hair of the Dog
I think the Canes need to get a little bit of an attitude. Those of you who know this song will know what I’m talking about! Now you’re messin with….the Stanley Cup Champs! Tonight the Champs will take on the Coyotes here in the friendly confines of the RBC Center. While [...]
All You Zombies
Last night’s game was a stinkfest. While the Canes didn’t look exactly like zombies, they did look like they would have rather stayed in Raleigh than be playing hockey in Pittsburgh. I think the precise coaching term is “disinterested”. The forecheck was almost non existent. There were very few good scoring [...]
Living in the Past
I created a new page and moved the mid season grades there because the information was too long and cumbersome to keep on the main page, plus I thought it would be easier to find here later in the season. It’s located under the “Extras” section on the left margin, or just click [...]
New Year’s Day
Happy New Year’s Day everyone! I apologize for my lack of entries the past few days, but I’ve been out of town and finding the time to do some mobile blogging proved to be quite elusive, more so than I thought it would be! I missed the Buffalo and Anaheim games, so I [...]
