Under Pressure - Laviolette Stress Free?

Hurricanes beat writer Chip Alexander recently wrote an interesting story for the News and Observer’s Sunday edition. It seems that Jim Rutherford has finally given coach Peter Laviolette a public vote of confidence, something that hasn’t happened since the end of last season.

“I don’t want to enter the season with anybody being under the gun,” Rutherford said. “It’s not fair for someone to go into a season under that kind of pressure.”

Having said that, it’s only logical to assume that the Carolina General Manager’s patience will wear thin if the Hurricanes get off to a slow start this season. While Laviolette still has three years left on his contract, odds are that he won’t last this season if the Canes aren’t battling for first place in the division and playing winning hockey come December.

Reportedly, one of the points of contention between coach and GM was the fact that Laviolette skipped the required end of year exit meetings with players. Rutherford wasn’t happy with the apparent insubordination, but all will be forgiven if the coach can lead the Canes back to the promised land.

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Greg Wyshynski, Yahoo’s “Puck Daddy” recently commented about our interview with John Forslund and started a valid discussion about whether or not the NHL would be better off being shown on ESPN. Good stuff.

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Speaking of John Forslund, he started up his blog again over the weekend. In case you missed it, his blog can be found on the WRAL site called “An EYE on the Canes”. I will set up the RSS feed loader for that on the sidebar again in a few days.

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In other Sunday news, the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch is reporting that the Hurricanes are shopping Frank Kaberle as well as Joe Corvo. It’s well known that Kaberle is on the market, but Corvo? That makes no sense. Not only was the blueliner a point a game player since moving down south, but he’s very reasonably priced at $2.75M a year for the next two years.

The Ottawa press has had an ax to grind with Corvo since day one and it seems that they won’t let it go, even if he has moved on to greener pastures. Garrioch’s comment, “Corvo was dealt….along with his baggage”, speaks volumes. What baggage was that? His lifetime positive plus/minus rating?

The Hurricanes will gladly take Joe Corvo and “his baggage”.