Kick it Out

Tonight the Vancouver Canucks are in town to take on the Carolina Hurricanes. The Canucks just played in Columbus last night, (and won 4-1), so they will be on the 2nd game of a back to back. Goalie, Curtis Sanford played that game, so look for Roberto Luongo to be in net against the Canes. Cam Ward should be back between the pipes for Carolina as they take their home ice for the first time in over 2 weeks. Andrew Ladd, Scott Walker, and Erik Cole are all out with various injuries and are expected to remain out for the rest of the week. Keith Aucoin and Ryan Bayda have been recalled from Albany to fill in for now. Remember, this showdown is Carolina’s “Fight Against Cancer” game and there are special discounts available for game tickets. Also, some proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to the charity!

It’s been reported that Erik Cole was injured before the Flyers game during a “soccer type warm up” in the halls outside the locker room in Philadelphia.   It’s pretty well known that most NHL teams have a few players who kick around a soccer ball before games as a normal pre-game routine.  What do you readers think?  Is this a good warm up exercise, or should the players be doing something else to warm up?  Maybe they should be given a class of how to do this soccer warm up without hurting themselves?  Jim Rutherford has to be thrilled.  He’s paying Cole 4 million dollars a year and Erik can’t play several games because of a non-hockey related injury which probably could have been prevented.  I wonder if Pete Friesen will be hiding the soccer balls from now on?  More later today.

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