All Entries in the "Nic Wallin" Category
Familiar Foe: Olli Returns To RBC With Coyotes
Carolina will be looking for its first three-game winning streak of the season when the Phoenix Coyotes visit Raleigh tonight at 7 p.m. The game is the third of four straight home games for the Hurricanes, who won the first two games of the home stand, managing a 3-2 shootout win over Tampa Bay on Sunday [...]
All-Star Campaign Started for Wallin
The NHL All-Star nominations have been announced and several familiar names are on the ballot. Representing the Hurricanes are team leaders Ray Whitney, Rod Brind’Amour, and last year’s All-Star MVP, Eric Staal.
Recently, I was informed that some fans are looking for even more possible representation from the Canes.
One of the pleasant surprises this year [...]
Loose Pucks — Nov. 10
More Loose Pucks:
• The Hockey News recently published their annual “Bucks And Pucks” report, which focuses on the financial side of the game. This year’s analysis looks at team finances and the salary cap — mostly how the current economic downturn is affecting the league. We hear enough about the bad economy, but there were [...]
Loose Pucks — Nov. 5
I figured I needed a name for these random things I find that really don’t deserve their own posts — so Loose Pucks is born!
• Three Hurricanes are will be on the ballot for this year’s All-Star Game in Montreal. Rod Brind’Amour, Eric Staal and Ray Whitney all made the cut for the voting, which [...]
Wallin Lifts Canes over Leafs in OT, 5-4
The Carolina Hurricanes jumped out to a big lead in the first period, but then held on for dear life to force overtime as they defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in the extra period, 5-4. It was another Jekyl and Hyde performance for the team as they looked like world beaters in the [...]
Carolina at Montreal - Pregame
The Hurricanes continue with game five of their six game road trip tonight and will take on the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre.
The Canes are sporting a record of 4-2-1, (3-1-1 on the road), while the Habs are 5-1. The Habs are coming off their only loss of the season against the Ducks, [...]
Iron City Meltdown - Pens 4, Canes 1
The Carolina Hurricanes lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins last night by a score of 4-1.
The Canes started the game out on a decent note, taking a 1-0 lead on Brandon Sutter’s first career NHL goal. Sutter took the puck from a bumbling Brooks Orpik, who mis-played the puck right in front of the rookie [...]
Canes Find a New Way to Win
The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Anaheim Ducks by a score of 3-1 last night in Anaheim. The Canes scored first in the contest, the only time they have done that all season.
Eric Staal zipped a pass across the crease to a wide open Ryan Bayda, who made no mistake. The team [...]
Canes Fall to Young Kings, 4-3 OT
The Carolina Hurricanes fought from behind to take a 3-1 lead, but ended up losing to the Los Angeles Kings in over-time late last night, by a score of 4-3.
In what is becoming a trademark for the Canes, they fell behind early as Michal Handzus beat Cam Ward, less than a minute into the [...]
Nashville Notes and Other News
Tonight the Hurricanes are on the road to play another exhibition game, this time in Nashville. There will be a few vets in the lineup trying to fine tune their timing, and there will be a few players in the contest still trying to make the team. CH.com is reporting that the lineup [...]
Death of the Nicknames
One of the minor details Bubba and I spoke about when we discussed me writing for Canes Country was my identity: Did I want to use my name, or would I rather come up with a pen name? The idea of having a nickname seemed fun, and it would surely protect me from all the [...]
“Fun Fest” Highlights
I went over to the RBC last night to check out how the Carolina Hurricanes first “Fun Fest” was going. I’m not very good at guessing the number of heads in a crowd, but if I had to make a guess I would say that there were probably a few hundred people in attendance.
While [...]
Houseparty - Canes Announce Summer Fun Fest
The Carolina Hurricanes announced yesterday that they will host a “Summer Fun Fest” at the RBC Center on Thursday, July 24th. There will be live music, street hockey, reduced food prices, and a showing of the “Miracle at Molson” on the front lawn.
The event will also be used as a marketing tool to drum [...]
And The Cradle Will Rock - Youth Served on Hurricanes Blueline
The defense is starting to take shape for the Carolina Hurricanes. Not only does it look much bigger and different than before, but it is also a great deal younger than it has been for the past several years.
Gone is the veteran experience of Glen Wesley and Bret Hedican. They have been replaced by [...]
I Will Buy You a New Life - Any Buyouts For The Canes?
Now is the time that many NHL teams will seriously think about buying out the contracts of some over-paid and under-performing players. Ottawa’s Ray Emery is at the top of the list of possibilities, as well as Boston’s Glen Murray and Atlanta’s Alexei Zhitnik.
There are also rumors that Andrew Raycroft and Darcy Tucker of [...]
Bad Moon Rising - Finland Beats USA With Bad Goal
Many hockey fans have said that NHL officiating is the worst of any league or any sport. Unfortunately for Team USA, those fans were proven wrong earlier Sunday night. The Americans were winning a tough game with Finland by the score of 2-0 when the Finns apparently scored a huge goal [...]
Gimme Three Steps - Round 3 Round-up
The NHL Conference finals took shape late last night after a marathon game was completed, as Dallas outlasted San Jose in a contest which went into 4 overtimes. I stayed up to watch that one and I’m glad I did as it was one of the better games that I have seen in [...]
Back For More - Who Returns on Defense Next Year?
It’s going to be a long off-season, but it’s never too early to start discussing what the Carolina Hurricanes will look like next year. One area where most fans would like to see some change is on the blueline. The aging Carolina defense seemed slow to react and was porous at times, [...]
Street Fightin’ Man - Hurricanes 3 Rangers 1
(previous game photo)
If New York Rangers coach Tom Renney was trying to send a message by sending Sean Avery out on the ice for the opening faceoff, Scott Walker wasn’t impressed. Walker and Avery started to mix things up before the drop of the puck and received matching roughing penalties before any time had [...]
The Blame Game - Why Are The Canes Losing ?
The Carolina Hurricanes started off the season with an 11-4-3 record, built up a double digit lead in the Southeast Division, and were once considered among the top teams in the NHL. But their record in the past 30 games has been an embarrassing 12-17-1 and their lead in the division has evaporated. [...]
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 [...]
Aftershock - Canes acquire Sergei Samsonov
Pardon me while I pick myself up off the floor here. In a move that I don’t think anyone outside of the organization saw coming, the Carolina Hurricanes picked up Sergei Samsonov on re-entry waivers today. While I was reading a general notice last night about Samsonov clearing waivers and being put on [...]
Good Times, Bad Times - Hurricanes 4, Bruins 3
The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Boston Bruins last night, 4-3 in front of a sold out crowd at the RBC. For the first time in 7 games, Carolina scored the first tally and they never were trailing in the contest. The Bruins made a game of it though, answering almost each Carolina goal [...]
Wild One
The Carolina Hurricanes outlasted the Philadelphia Flyers in a wild, back and forth game that ended in a shoot out Saturday night, 6-5. The game wasn’t a technical thing of beauty, but you couldn’t ask for a much more exciting game! Most importantly, the team gave it their all and that’s all that [...]
Funk 49
The Carolina Hurricanes are in some kind of weird funk right now. Nothing seems to be going right for them. Friday night, the Calgary Flames came into town having just played the previous night as well as 2 nights before that. The Flames are in the middle of a killer cross continent [...]
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 [...]
Badlands
The Carolina Hurricanes are playing the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight, and it hasn’t usually been a very good place to be for the Canes. So far this year, the Lightning have won games by the scores of 5-1 and 6-1, but Carolina won the last meeting 4-3. That win required a strong [...]
Fly Away
The Carolina Hurricanes take on the Philadelphia Flyers tonight, and let me just “objectively” say that I hope the Flyers “Fly Away” back home with a loss! The Flyers are riding a 2 game losing streak including a 6-2 beatdown by New Jersey, (when Martin Brodeur won his 500th game), on Saturday night. [...]
A Little of This and That
After playing 6 games in 9 days, the Hurricanes have a well deserved couple of days break in their schedule. They took a complete day of rest on Sunday, then they were back to practice yesterday. As Luke points out, for the first time in a long time the whole roster was on [...]
Russian Roulette
Look who is leading the NHL in goals scored! It’s the Southeast Division’s “other” Russian sensation, Ilya Kovalchuk. Kovalchuk has 15 goals and 10 assists in just 18 games so far this year and has been on a real tear of late scoring 21 points in his last 12 games. A [...]
Redemption Song - Part 2
Tonight the Hurricanes need to redeem themselves once again as the Washington Capitals come to town to face Carolina for their 2nd meeting this year. The first time the two teams met in Washington, the Canes forgot to show up and the Capitals outplayed them badly, eventually shutting out the hapless Hurricanes 2-0. John Grahame’s [...]
Driven to Tears
Last year’s tears finally worked for the Florida Panthers. Everyone from their players, to their coach and general manager cried. Soon the media caught on. They cried hard and they cried long. The Carolina players actually had the nerve to fall down when they got hooked, pushed, clutched, and grabbed, and [...]
Breakdown—Update
The latest from LSB is that Nic Wallin will play tonight, but Bret Hedican is questionable because of a sore knee. Hedican will be a game time decision.
During my daily lunchtime scan of hockey news, I see nothing but stories about Carolina “diving” from the southern Florida press. As a matter of fact, [...]
Father of Mine - Update
Nic Wallin is out of the line up tonight with a tweaked groin. Dennis Seidenberg will play in his stead. Dennis was playing very well before he injured his knee, hopefully he can pick up where he left off.
Wish You Were Here
The Carolina Hurricanes are on a 3 game winning streak and although it’s early, currently find themselves at the top of their division. One might think that everything is hunky-dorey in “Carolinaville”. But according to Luke DeCock of the News and Observer, Hurricanes General Manager Jim Rutherford is still considering tweaking the lineup. [...]
Only One
As most of you know, the Hurricanes lost last night to the Habs, 3-2 in over-time. It’s only one game so it’s not fair to make too much of it, but there are certainly areas that the team can improve on. Cam Ward was excellent most of the game. He really deserved [...]
The Best of Times
Recently I received an email from “Jack” asking me which 10 games over the past 10 years did I think were the best by the Canes. That’s a pretty tough question! Jack sent me his, (in no particular order), and here they are!
first playoff game in nc vs boston
2001 playoffs game 4, 5,6 [...]
Wild ‘n Free
There’s nothing better than a wild hockey game, right? Well wait a second, how about a wild hockey game that’s for free? The Carolina Hurricanes made a great announcement for their fans earlier today. The first exhibition game this year scheduled on Sunday, September 16th against the Washington Capitals, will be free! [...]
I Choose You
According to the News and Observer this morning, Niclas Wallin has a decision to make. He’s been asked to waive his “no trade clause” so that the Canes can trade him (supposedly) to Philadelphia for Joni Pitkanen. Decisions decisions….who will Nic choose, the Broad Street Bullies or the Cardiac Canes? Some [...]
