Author Archive for Bubba

Staal Named to All Star Game Again

The NHL just announced the East’s roster for the All Star game to be played in Montreal later this month and once again Eric Staal will represent the Carolina Hurricanes. Of course, the franchise player for the Canes was the MVP of the game last year and used the experience as a building [...]

Hurricanes Mid Season Grades - updated

The Carolina Hurricanes have completed 41 games and are officially half-way through the regular season. Let’s take a quick look at where they stand and grade the players based upon their individual performances so far.
The team has a record of 21-15-5, good for 47 points and seventh place in the Eastern Conference. While [...]

Carolina Holds on to Beat New Jersey, 3-2

The Carolina Hurricanes jumped out to a 3-0 lead, then held on as New Jersey made a game of it late in the third period, 3-2. The victory was the fourth in a row for the Canes, their longest winning streak of the season.
The Hurricanes took an early lead on a goal by Ray [...]

Playoff Memories - Devils at Canes Preview

Whenever the New Jersey Devils hook up with the Carolina Hurricanes, you can’t help but think about playoff hockey. Since 2001, every single time the Hurricanes have qualified for the playoffs the road has led through the swamps of New Jersey.
We have talked about rivalries a bit on this blog, but we have [...]

The Return of Canes Country Points - Devils at Canes

Time for another chance to win free tickets. Once again these are club level seats up for grabs, this time in Section 201, row C for the game on January 29th against Tampa Bay.
If you participated before, your old points will count toward this contest as well. But to keep interest going for [...]

Loose Pucks - Crosby Ignores “The Code”

As we take a quick look around the hockey world, there were a couple of interesting hockey “fights” this weekend. First of all, Sid Crosby picked up an instigator penalty as well as an unsportsmanlike conduct and a 10 minute major misconduct for mixing it up with Brett McLean during the Pens loss to [...]

Canes Recover to Take Lightning, 3-2

After a slow start, Carolina woke up mid-way through the first period and took over the hockey game last night in Tampa. The Lightning came out with major jump, controlled play in the Hurricanes zone, and took the lead just five minutes into the game on a rebound chance by Ryan Craig.
About a [...]

Dwyer Recalled - Canes at Lightning Preview

The Hurricanes are in Florida for an abbreviated road trip and will take on the Lightning tonight at 7:30. Patrick Eaves did not make the trip because of his upper body concern, but the Canes called up Patrick Dwyer from Albany to take his spot. Coach Paul Maurice said that he believed the [...]

Ward Shines as Canes tip Blues, 2-1

Cam Ward made 30 saves on 31 shots as the Carolina Hurricanes were able to fend off a furious third period St. Louis rally, and held on to beat the Blues 2-1 last night at the RBC. A couple of his saves were spectacular as the visitors out-shot the home team by a [...]

It Don’t Come Easy - Blues at Canes Preview

Coach Paul Maurice is hopeful that the upcoming schedule will help increase Carolina’s chances to better their mediocre record over the past month. The majority of games played in December were against future playoff teams, while the majority of the opponents in January have losing records. Don’t be thinking that these “weak [...]

Hurricanes/Canes Country Year in Review

If you look back at 2008, it was not the best of years for the Carolina Hurricanes. Let’s take a glance at some of the year’s highlights and lowlights, as well as a few notable events that happened on the blog.

1/7/08 - We discuss Luke DeCock’s article about the team’s search for a “depth forward”, [...]

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of our readers from everyone at Canes Country.  We have had a year of tremendous growth and hopefully the coming year will be no different.  Look for more contests, more ticket giveaways, and perhaps another facelift to the blog itself in the days and weeks ahead.
Now is a good time [...]

Carolina in Control - Canes 3 Thrashers 1

The Carolina Hurricanes were in control most of the game as they defeated the Atlanta Thrashers 3-1 last night, on New Year’s Eve.
About half way through the first period, the Thrashers took a 1-0 lead on a powerplay goal by Ilya Kovalchuk. The Russian superstar had been suffering though a career worst scoring slump, [...]

New Year’s Eve Showdown - Thrashers at Canes Preview

The Atlanta Thrashers will take on the Hurricanes tonight in the traditional New Year’s Eve “Classic”. This will be the seventh time the franchise has played on New Year’s Eve. They have a record of 2-4 in the previous holiday contests, including a loss to the New York Islanders last year.
Atlanta is coming [...]

Kaberle Clears Waivers, Now What?

Some of you might be wondering about this waiver business. What does it all mean? What happens next? It can get a bit complicated because some of the rules are predicated upon a variety of issues, including how many games a player has played in the league. In Frank Kaberle’s [...]

Bruins at Canes - Game Preview

My apologies for the brief preview:
Cam Ward will start again tonight.
Dennis Seidenberg should return, which means that Wade Brookbank will most likely return to the pressbox.
Ray Whitney has points in five consecutive games.
The Canes have won three in a row at home and are 5-2-3 in their last 10 games. The Bruins have won [...]

Staal Scores Three in Third Period, Canes 5 Thrashers 4

Eric Staal scored three goals in the third period in a time span of less than five minutes, and the Carolina Hurricanes outscored the Atlanta Thrashers, 5-4 in a struggle on Friday night. Staal was in a zone as his last two goals were unassisted. He beat goalie Johan Hedberg every which way [...]

Canes at Thrashers - Game Preview

The Hurricanes flew to Atlanta this morning to take on the Thrashers in the first game of a back-to-back sequence which will see the team return to Raleigh for a matchup against the mighty Bruins tomorrow night.
Carolina has lost twice to the woeful Thrashers and will be looking for their first win of the season [...]

World Juniors Start Today

The World Junior Championships get underway today in Ottawa, Canada. You can keep an eye on some of Carolina’s prospects as Drayson Bowman from Team USA will be facing Team Germany starting at 3:30 while Zach Boychuk and Team Canada will be playing Michal Jordan and the Czech Republic tonight at 7:30. The [...]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

They say that rust never sleeps and neither does this blog, but we will be taking some time off over the next day or so to celebrate the holiday and spend time with our families. Let me take this opportunity to wish those of our readers, contributors, and visitors who celebrate, a very Merry [...]

Special Teams Implode - Wild 3 Canes 2

The Carolina Hurricanes played what could be considered a good game in St. Paul last night, but their failure to capitalize when they had their chances and a few untimely mistakes ended up costing them yet another victory as they lost to the Minnesota Wild by a score of 3-2.
As Ron Francis eloquently and accurately [...]

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics - Volume 1

There has been some recent chatter floating around the hockey blogosphere concerning a set of convoluted stats called the “PythagenPuck Analysis”. The Forechecker plugged in some year-to-date numbers and used the formulas provided in a “Win Probability” model given by a Hockey Analysis guideline put out by Hockey Analytics.com, and determined that the [...]

Katherine Fritsch on UNC-TV Tonight

Carolina Hurricanes anthem singer, Katherine Fritsch will be on UNC-TV tonight, December 22nd at 7:30 PM, as the “NC Now” show will be airing a story about the young performer.
“KK” has been singing the anthem for the Hurricanes for over two years and most recently has been asked to sing on occasion for the Carolina [...]

Corvo Works Magic - Canes 2 Panthers 1, OT

The Carolina Hurricanes came out in the first period skating hard and never looked back as they defeated the Florida Panthers, 2-1 in overtime last night at the RBC. Not only did the Canes outshoot the Panthers in each and every period, but they held the advantage in time of possession and scoring chances [...]

Babchuk Activated - Could Play Tonight

The Carolina Hurricanes just activated Anton Babchuk from the injured reserve list. The defenseman could be called upon to play tonight against Florida. This news from the Hurricanes presser-

RALEIGH, NC—Jim Rutherford, President and General Manager of the National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes, announced today that the team has activated defenseman Anton Babchuk [...]

Florida at Carolina - Game Preamble

The Florida Panthers are in Raleigh to battle the Hurricanes for second place in the Southeast Division tonight at the RBC. While the Hurricanes currently have 33 points and the Panthers have 31, if Florida is victorious they would have more total wins and would move into second place. (They would also [...]

Plenty of Practice for Powerplay - Canes 3 Habs 2

In a somewhat bizarre game where 11 penalties were called against the Habs in just the first two periods, Carolina took advantage of the practice time and scored three goals while on the powerplay and defeated Montreal, 3-2.
Eric Staal scored the first two goals of the game, both in the opening period. The first [...]

Montreal at Carolina - Game Preview

The Canadiens visit Raleigh for the last time this regular season as the Habs and Canes tangle at the RBC tonight. Both teams have been struggling with injuries, and both teams powerplays have been pitiful or “nonexistent”, as Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau stated.
Montreal has actually dropped below Carolina and is currently ranked 29th [...]

Boychuk and Bowman Make Respective World Teams

Top Carolina prospects Zach Boychuk and Drayson Bowman earned spots on their respective country’s Junior World Tournament squads this year.
Boychuk made Team Canada for the second consecutive year and will be looking for another gold medal. The Lethbridge winger has 12 goals, 14 assists, 26 points and is a (plus) +13 in 21 [...]

More About Injuries and Training

Are the Carolina Hurricanes being penny-wise and pound foolish regarding their conditioning, training, and injury rehabilitation? It seems like every single year the team is near the top in the league regarding man-games lost. Once again this season, the Canes have skated 30 players so far, which is tied for the most [...]

Sunday News

For the first time in what seems like forever, the Hurricanes have a Sunday off. The team did have something to announce though as Bryan Rodney returned to Albany. Here’s more information from the Carolina press release-

Rodney, 24, played in two games during his first career NHL recall, earning a +1 plus/minus [...]

Canes Powerplay Takes Step Back, Rangers 3 Canes 2, SO

The Carolina Hurricanes had numerous chances on the powerplay including a full two minute 5-on-3 advantage, but failed to capitalize while falling to the New York Rangers, 3-2 in a shootout on Saturday night. Not only did the Canes end up 0-8 while playing with the advantage, they also allowed a short-handed goal when [...]

Canes at Rangers Preview - Tim Gleason Activated

Don’t look now, but the Florida Panthers are now ahead of the Hurricanes in the standings. The Panthers are 7-1-2 in their last ten games, (31 points) and are currently sitting at ninth in the conference and second in the division. The Hurricanes are 3-5-2 in their last ten, (30 points) [...]

Canes Choke in “Fly Town” - Flyers 6 Canes 5, SO

The Carolina Hurricanes blew a 5-1 lead in the third period and lost to the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night, 6-5 in a shootout. It was the biggest comeback for the Flyers in 20 years.
Thanks to the blog’s “technical difficulties”, we are late to the party commenting about this game. But I’ll throw [...]

Tech Problems -

Our webhost had a power outage late last night (12/11) and we lost some data. I will try my best to get things back to normal. Sorry for any inconvenience.
((update))
Looks like most everything posted during the day of December 11th was lost. All of the comments and guesses for the Canes Country [...]

Canes Country Points - Canes at Flyers

Time once again to try to win points for tickets. We are getting pretty close to the date the tickets need to be used, (12/16) so if someone has not reached 100 points after Saturday night’s game, we will take the highest number at that time.
The good news is, several people are getting close. [...]

Television and the NHL, an Imperfect Marriage

Lately, it seems like devotees of the NHL have had one problem after another just trying to do what should be a simple thing: watch their favorite sport on the airwaves.
ComCast has “bandwidth” issues on the west coast, Versus has blackout rules concerning multiple games at certain times on Monday and Tuesday nights, [...]

Seidenberg Activated, Babchuk Placed on IR

The Carolina Hurricanes activated Dennis Seidenberg today and he is expected to play in Philadelphia tomorrow night. Seidenberg has practiced with the team for the past few days and looks ready to go. More from the Hurricanes press release-
Seidenberg, 27, leads all Hurricanes defensemen and ranks fifth on the team with 13 points [...]

Carolina Has the Second Lowest “Fan Cost Index” in NHL?

Here might be some good news for Hurricanes fans. According to recent research by the “Team Marketing Report“, a leading independent publisher of sports marketing, the Carolina Hurricanes have the second lowest “Fan Cost Index” in the entire NHL.
The NHL average “Fan Cost Index” is $288.23 while the FCI in [...]

For the Love of the Game - Guest Feature

The past week has been a rough one for many Caniacs. They have gone through a coaching change, their favorite team has lost several recent games on home ice, injured players are the norm, and negativity abounds. A few days ago, I received an email from a fan who offered some perspective.
This was [...]