Iron Man
The Caniac Nation is still reeling after getting hit with the Frantisek Kaberle surgery news on Monday. I mentioned in my last post that he was no “Iron Man”. Let’s take a quick look at his stats over his NHL career. The most games he has ever played in a season was 79 back in 2002-03. Nothing to complain about there. He also played in 77 games for the Canes in 2006. Other than that though, the dude seems pretty injury prone. In 2000-01 he played 51 games. In 2001-02 he played in 61. In 2003-04 he played in 67 and of course last year he played in all of 27. Totaling up all of the games he’s played over his NHL career, he only suited up for 413 games out of a possible 574. That means Kaberle missed 161 games! For you non math majors out there, that’s a 28% absentee rate. I wish I could get away with that ratio where I work! In any event the Canes desperately need Kaberle, so hopefully he gets healthy and stays healthy soon. Maybe I should run a poll to see how many games you all expect him to play this year?
The Hurricanes web page posted some news about the pre-season camp held daily at the RecZone. I’ll link to the story here. Also, John Forslund has returned to blogging after a very long hiatus. He vaguely alluded to news about a new secret venture, but it’s pretty well known that he’ll be blogging this year for WRAL. Nice gig! He’ll still be blogging for the Carolina Hurricanes as well, but I’m guessing his activity there this year will be even less frequent than his sporadic posts previously. Infrequent or not, it’s always fun to read his stuff. In other news, the Jimmy V golf tournament was held over the weekend. For the first time in a few years I didn’t attend. They moved the venue from Cary to Pinehurst and reportedly the attendance dropped by about 50%. I guess they still made more money than last year though due to the increased corporate response. That’s a great cause, hopefully I can make it again next year. This isn’t Hurricanes related, but how about Eddie “the eagle” Belfour signing to play in Sweden! I wonder if he’ll complain about diving over there? You would think he would retire after not landing on an NHL team this year, but maybe he needs the money.
By the way for those of you who are curious, there’s still no Bret Hedican at pre-season camp.
Black Sabbath
About the Author: Bubba is a hockey fan/citizen journalist who has always wanted to be a sportswriter and is pursuing his dream. He also writes a Hurricanes blog for 
fanofhockey | Aug 29, 2007 | Reply
Black Sabbath,
My sister has been involved with professional figure skating for 15 years now. She is good friends with Kristy Yamaguchi. Because she knows that I am such a fan of the Hurricanes, she was asking Kristy how Bret was doing and what his plans are (Kristy does not know that I am a fan, and spoke to Laura in confidence).
Kristy told Laura that Bret is not doing any better, in fact, they have found a more serious issue with his hip that surgery will not aid, and he will probably make an announcement with the media in the next week, in regards to his retirement. She said that he is setting the presser up with the Hurricanes so that everyone can move on and a spot can possibly be filled at training camp. Also, she said that they have been in contact with management, and Bret will likely remain with the team in an executive capacity, and due to this capacity, she told my sister that there has been a “very high profile” defenseman, that has been spending some time down here with Bret and several players. Look forward to a possible presser shortly following Brets, that will possibly fill out the D with a young, but proven D man that needs a home, and should make the team and fans very happy!
Bubba | Aug 29, 2007 | Reply
All I have to say for right now is WOW. I’m going to send out a couple of emails to see if I can find out if this is true.