All Entries in the "Michael Leighton" Category
The Next Great Goalie Debate
You knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. The recent success of Michael Leighton along with the preseason struggles of Cam Ward have created a goalie debate of sorts among several Hurricanes fans. If Leighton’s success continues, it’s only going to heat up even more before it goes away.
First of [...]
Canes Try Again this Afternoon
After another exhibition loss yesterday by a score of 4-2 to the Philadelphia Flyers, the Hurricanes will try once again to earn their first preseason victory, today at 3PM at the RBC. Their opponent will be none other than those same Flyers, as the teams complete the back end of a home and [...]
Capitals 5, Hurricanes 2
Something came up and I missed the contest last night, but according to all reports the Canes played a much better game than they did on Wednesday. After the “Junior Canes” jumped out to a 2-0 lead, the Washington regulars woke up and took control of the game. Dan LaCouture had one [...]
Goalie Rankings Peg Ward Near The Bottom
Maybe it’s for the best, because the last time Cam Ward had low expectations tagged to him, he turned around the Hurricanes’ first-round playoff series and eventually led Carolina to the Stanley Cup, along the way earning himself a Conn Smythe Trophy.
See, back then at the beginning of the 2005-06 season, Ward was a rookie [...]
Q&A with Michael Leighton
This is the last of a four part series of interviews taken after a prospects practice on Thursday, July 10th.
Michael Leighton was recently signed by the Hurricanes to a two year deal. He had a tremendous season for the Albany River Rats last year, setting franchise records in many different categories. He was [...]
Carolina Hurricanes Prospect Conditioning Camp - Preview
The “Young Guns” of the Carolina Hurricanes organization are in town this week to take part in the annual conditioning camp for prospects. During the camp, which is officially running from July 9th to the 12th, the players will learn new physical training techniques, have media training, learn proper eating habits, and will be [...]
Let’s Stay Together - Canes Extend Lease
The Carolina Hurricanes made a commitment to play in Raleigh until the year 2024 as their parent company, Gale Force Holdings re-negotiated a lease with the Centennial Authority, the legal owners of the RBC Center. The original lease kept the club in the RBC until 2019, so the Canes extended their previous [...]
Come On Over - Hurricanes Sign Leighton
The Carolina Hurricanes signed goalie Michael Leighton to a two year, 1.2 million dollar contract yesterday, making Leighton the number one option to back up Carolina starter, Cam Ward. The 600K per year that the Canes have committed to this backup is 800K per year cheaper than what they were paying John Grahame previously.
Let’s [...]
Give a Little Bit - Leighton in, Hedican out, Lavi quiet
Reviewing some brief news….
Luke reported late yesterday that Michael Leighton will indeed be offered a one-way contract with the Canes for next season. This news isn’t shocking considering the goalie’s outstanding performance in Albany last season. He also performed well in training camp and during a brief stint during a call up with [...]
Rats Join Canes on Golf Course
The Albany River Rats ended their season with a 2-0 loss against the Philadelphia Phantoms last night in the final game of their round one, playoff series. As previously mentioned, goalie, Michael Leighton was the hero of the series for the Rats, but he wasn’t quite good enough. Congratulations to Coach Tom [...]
Leighton and Rats in Game 7 Tonight
The Albany River Rats and the Philadelphia Phantoms finish their best of 7 series tonight in Philadelphia with the series all tied up at 3 games apiece.
Rats goalie Michael Leighton has been nothing short of spectacular in this showdown. Not only does he have 2 shutouts against the Phantoms so far in this playoffs, [...]
Record Setting Night in Albany
Game five in the series between the Albany River Rats and Philadelphia Phantoms was one for the record books. First of all, it was the longest game in AHL history as it lasted 5 overtimes! Secondly, Rats goalie Michael Leighton made a record, 98 saves! Yes, 98…that is not a typo.
Unfortunately [...]
Back For More - Who Will Be in Goal Next Year?
Following up with our end of year “Back For More” feature, we will now look at the goalie position. We have already reviewed the defense, and within the next couple of days we will review the much more unpredictable and volatile forward situation.
The deal with the goalies is pretty much cut and dry, in [...]
Shakedown - Brodeur and Avery Epitome of Class - NOT
The New York Rangers eliminated the New Jersey Devils on Friday night and something different happened during the traditional hand-shake ceremony. Martin Brodeur refused to shake Sean Avery’s hand and passed him by, while shaking everyone else’s hand. Pretty funny stuff.
Avery wasn’t amused though and called out Brodeur in the press afterwards. [...]
Rats Win, Sens Lose, and Preds Have Hope….
I haven’t posted much about the playoffs because quite frankly, it’s been difficult for me to get too hyped up about them yet. There are several interesting matchups though, and the action is heating up, (as well as winding down), in some of the series.
First of all, the Carolina affiliate Albany River Rats won [...]
Waiting - Michael Leighton on His Way?
A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from my friends at Eyecandyair informing me that they recently had the pleasure of airbrushing a new mask for River Rats goalie, Michael Leighton. Strange thing about this mask though. There isn’t much, if anything about Albany on it.
Since this is a relatively new [...]
Afternoon Delight - Hurricanes 3 Islanders 2, (OT)
I was able to get away for a couple of hours this afternoon and watched a pretty decent hockey game. The Carolina Hurricanes outlasted the New York Islanders 3 -2, in a tightly defended contest which wasn’t decided until overtime. That makes 2 wins in a row for the Canes and 4 home [...]
Hurricanes at Islanders - Pre Game Ponderings
Happy Martin Luther King Day to all those celebrating! In recognition of the day, the Hurricanes and Islanders will be playing their game starting at 2PM, at the Nassau Coliseum.
General Colin Powell will be on the ice and dropping the puck during a special opening ceremony with Islanders owner Charles Wang and both team [...]
Sunday Musings - John Grahame on re-entry Waivers
After taking the day off and having a rare Saturday night without a game to play, the Carolina Hurricanes were back on the ice for practice this morning. But according to Lord Stanley’s Blog, Erik Cole took a nasty tumble and had to be helped from the ice. Cole, who has had a [...]
Oilers at Hurricanes, Pregame Thoughts
Edmonton and Carolina go at it tonight at the RBC. The Oilers defeated the Canes 3-1 last year in Alberta, but this will be the first time since game 7 of the 2006 finals that the teams square off again in Raleigh.
That seems so very, very long ago.
The Hurricanes have lost 4 in [...]
Bottoming Out - Maple Leafs 5 Hurricanes 4
Reaching their lowest point so far this season, the Carolina Hurricanes lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs last night, 5-4. Not only did the Canes lose to another team riding a long losing streak, they finally relinquished their lead in the Southeast Division.
The Atlanta Thrashers easily beat the Detroit Red Wings 5-1, tying Carolina [...]
Lunch with the Leafs….and Canes
It’s been confirmed that tonight’s starting goaltenders will be Vesa Toskala and Michael Leighton. It looks like coach Laviolette and I are on the same page there.
Where we are not on the same page is regarding Keith Aucoin. The dude has scored 2 goals and has a nice assist in the past 2 games, [...]
Symptom of the Universe - Carolina at Toronto, Pregame Thoughts
The Carolina Hurricanes are in the center of the hockey universe to take on the reeling Toronto Maple Leafs tonight at the ACC. The Leafs are currently in crisis mode and have only won 2 out of their past 13 games. Rumors are running rampant that everyone’s neck is on the line, [...]
I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues - Blues 1, Hurricanes 0
The Hurricanes lost a tough game Saturday night, 1-0 to the St. Louis Blues. The Blues goalie, Manny Legace was rock solid in net, plus the St. Louis defenders played a very tight game, hardly allowing any uncontested shots at their netminder. The Canes came out full of jump and played one of [...]
Don’t Stop Believin’ - Hurricanes 4, Thrashers 3
After a slow start, (okay, would you believe a very slow start), the Carolina Hurricanes held on, then revved themselves up to beat the Atlanta Thrashers, 4-3. Atlanta’s Mark Recchi scored just 32 seconds into the contest and it was like deja vu, all over again for Caniacs. Welcome to your new [...]
Road Rats - Hurricanes at Thrashers Preview
The Carolina River Rats are in Atlanta to take on the Thrashers tonight, in a rematch of Wednesday night’s overtime “thrilla in vanilla”. Newbie, Michael Leighton will get the nod, as the Canes start right off by seeing what the recently recalled goalie can do. You better bring your scorecard to the coffee [...]
Watching the Wheels, John Grahame on waivers
Jim Rutherford’s wheels are turning now and I have a feeling there are other moves on the horizon. The Carolina Hurricanes placed backup goalie, John Grahame and his 3.83 GAA, on waivers today. Grahame had a save percentage of .875, near the worst in the league. According to Luke DeCock, they [...]
That Smell
The Carolina Hurricanes laid another stink bomb on their home ice last night, and the fanbase is frustrated. One problem is, it’s not the first time that it’s happened this year. Another problem is, there doesn’t seem to be an easy fix. By the end of the 1st period, they were down [...]
Home Sweet Home
The Carolina Hurricanes continue to play at the Bell Centre in Montreal like it’s their home ice. Cam Ward has yet to lose there. Erik Cole usually plays his best hockey there. Saturday night was no exception as the Hurricanes beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-1, to make it nine victories in [...]
Only Worse
Sabres 8, Hurricanes 1. Ouch! The mediocre month of November is finally over but the month of December took a turn for the worse so far as Buffalo humiliated Carolina in a game that really wasn’t as close as the score, if you can believe that. John Grahame was in net and [...]
Take Me To The Top
Carolina Hurricanes captain, Rod Brind’Amour is doing everything in his power to help take the Canes to the top again this year. Yesterday, Brind’Amour was named 2nd Star of the week by the NHL! “Brindy” led the entire NHL in scoring for the week with 9 points, including a hat-trick against the Islanders on [...]
Give a Little Bit
The Canes are off for a couple of days, so there’s not much going on at the moment here in “Carolinaville”. So let’s take a quick look at a little bit of this and a little bit of that around elsewhere. Remember Michael Leighton, the goalie who seemed to be pushing and [...]
Take This Job and Shove It
The talk of the day is still about Jason Karmanos resigning from his position yesterday. In subsequent interviews, he said that he had been thinking about doing it for awhile. In my opinion, the timing of this seems a bit weird. While Jason said that the busy part of the year for [...]
Down the Road Tonight
Just a brief update with information about the game tonight. John Forslund reports that Bret Hedican will finally grace the team with his presence in a pre-season game. Seriously, best of luck Bret! We’ll see how that hip holds up when people aren’t holding back from hitting him. Contrary to [...]
Be Good Johnny
Last night the Canes lost their first exhibition game of the season to Nashville, 4-1. Let me start this post off by saying that obviously, I didn’t watch the hockey game. I was out of town yesterday and last night, so I didn’t even get to listen to it, (because it wasn’t [...]
Stay or Leave
How long can they stay? When will they have to leave? Those are the questions most of the Carolina Hurricanes prospects have to be asking themselves. Four of them got their answers last night and were re-assigned to their respective junior teams. Drayson Bowman, Justin McCrae, Harrison Reed, and Chris Terry [...]
Sooner or Later
While watching the first two periods of the game this afternoon, I was hoping that sooner or later something positive would happen to spark the Canes. The team was skating very tentatively, as if they were afraid to make a mistake. It certainly wasn’t the most exciting 2 periods of hockey. In [...]
