All Entries in the "Ray Whitney" Category
Quarter Pole Grades: Forwards
Here are some grades, analysis and projections for the everyday players on the Carolina roster after 22 games. Grades will be based on mostly expectations, rather than overall skill level and stats. Projections are based on the player’s current statistics and assume they remain healthy. We’ll look at the forwards today.
Ryan Bayda (22G, 3-4-7, plus-5, [...]
Staal Breaks Out as Canes Top ‘Yotes, 5-2
Wayne Gretzky had a concern. Some fans had a feeling. Team-mates were confident. They all just knew that when Eric Staal got out of his slump, he would do it in a big way.
The franchise player is officially out of his scoring slump as he notched his fifth career hat trick last night [...]
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 [...]
The Better Life - Hurricanes 2, Canadiens 1
The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Montreal Canadiens by a score of 2 to 1 last night, as they played one of their best games of the season. The Canes opened up the contest with 18 shots in the first period and closed the door with 20 more shots in the third.
The game totals were [...]
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 [...]
Sullen Sunday - Thrashers 5, Canes 2
The Carolina Hurricanes played a regular season hockey game against the Atlanta Thrashers Sunday afternoon. Apparently, it was not a very important game. It certainly wasn’t important enough for either team to have it televised for their fans.
One might think that the NHL would realize that “big league” games need to be televised by [...]
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 [...]
Canes Outscore Leafs, 6-4
The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs by a score of 6-4 last night in a wild, rollercoaster ride at the RBC.
The game didn’t quite start out the way that fans had envisioned. The Canes came out flat and Toronto was still sky high after their come from behind victory the previous night [...]
Canes Let One Slip to the Oilers, 3-1
The Hurricanes took a lead in the first period, but could not take advantage of numerous powerplays and ended up losing the game on a goal by Ethan Moreau with about a minute and a half left in the contest. Moreau added an empty netter with 35 seconds left to add insult to injury.
Ray [...]
No More Love for Weight - Canes 4, Islanders 3
This blogger has been a fan of Doug Weight for a long time. Tonight, the fandom is over.
In the third period while rookie Brandon Sutter was extending himself and trying to make a play on the puck when approaching the Islanders zone, Weight lowered his shoulder and took out the vulnerable, 19-year-old. [...]
Hurricanes at Penguins, Preview-(Update)
The Carolina Hurricanes are in Pittsburgh to take on the Penguins tonight for a game at Mellon Arena. This will be game three out of a current six game road trip.
The Hurricanes have a record so far of 3-1-1 and are coming off a win against Anaheim on Sunday. The Penguins are [...]
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 [...]
Hopefully Sweet-Tasting Start Doesn’t Go Sour
Carolina started its season with two big come-from-behind victories against division foes, leaving fans enamored with the exhilarating play, never-say-die attidude and — most of all — four points.
There’s no denying that there are many pleasing things we can take away from this first weekend of Hurricanes hockey. The play of defensemen Joni Pitkanen, Frank [...]
Wild Side - Canes 4, Lightning 3 OT
After falling behind 3-0, the Hurricanes eventually turned on the pressure and fought back to win a thrilling game with just 24 seconds left in OT. Eric Staal zipped in the game-winner on a perfect pass from Ray Whitney.
It was a game of two extremes. The Lightning controlled the first part of [...]
Carolina Outscores Florida 6-4
In a wild and wooley back and forth game, the Hurricanes were able to find the back of the net a couple more times than the Panthers were able to, and came away with a 6-4 victory Friday night at the RBC. The Canes had six different goal scorers and netted two [...]
Canes Finish Preseason With Win
Ray Whitney scored in his first exhibition game and Cam Ward pitched a 31 save shut-out as the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Nashville Predators 2-0 at the RBC Sunday afternoon. Whitney had been dealing with a groin issue on and off during this preseason but said he felt fine after the [...]
Carolina Injuries - Bad Training, Bad Skates, or Bad Luck?
Last week, the Carolina Hurricanes treatment room looked like a waiting line at a MASH unit. Ten players were nursing some type of injury. Things are looking better at the moment, but the injury bug is nothing new for the Canes and it’s starting to make fans as well as team management ask [...]
Leighton and Canes Hold on to 1-0 Win
The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Philadelphia Flyers at the RBC yesterday by a score of 1-0. The victory was the first for the Canes this preseason and gave them an overall record of 1-3, with two more games to play.
Sergei Samsonov was the number one star of the game. Not only did he score [...]
Canes at Caps - Pre-game Hype
Tonight the Hurricanes find themselves up the road on I-95 to complete a back to back series with the Washington Capitals. The Canes will be looking to improve upon their lackluster showing last night which resulted in a 4-1 beatdown by the Caps.
According to CH.com, Carolina’s lineup will be as follows-
Sutter-Eaves-Bayda
Helminen-Bowman-LaCouture
Jensen-Chaput-Dwyer
Blanchard-Angelidis-Samson
Melichar-Kaberle
Seidenberg-Flood
Conboy-Rodney
Michael Leighton and [...]
Ray Whitney’s Keys to a Successful Season
Ray Whitney shares a few gems.
(interview by Penn Holderness of NBC17.com)
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 [...]
Injury Status Report - Q&A With Pete Friesen
Several readers have been asking about the current status of some of the injured Canes who were either unable to play, or who were not skating at 100% when the season unceremoniously came to an end last April. I decided to attempt to get in touch with the organization, to see if [...]
Back For More - The Forwards
This is the final segment of our end of year “Back For More” feature. We have already analyzed the defense and goaltending, next we will take a look at the forward position.
The Carolina Hurricanes are in the enviable position of having 10 or 11 forwards (either signed or RFA status), with top nine skill. [...]
No Surprises - Canada Wins Exhibition over Finland 3-2
Martin St. Louis scored 2 goals and Jason Chimera scored one as Team Canada defeated Team Finland by a score of 3-2 in a WHC pre-tournament game in Quebec City on Sunday. Cam Ward played 30 minutes and allowed just one goal.
Tuomo Ruutu and Ville Peltonen had the goals for Finland. For [...]
A Momentary Lapse of Reason - Panthers 4 Hurricanes 3
Hell officially froze over Friday night as the Hurricanes somehow blew their one time huge division lead and the Florida Panthers beat them 4-3. There are no excuses. The team had 9 powerplay opportunities to none for Florida, including two 5 on 3’s. They outshot the kittykats 46-17 and still couldn’t beat [...]
Whole Lotta’ Rosie - Hurricanes 6 Lightning 2
Chad LaRose scored his first NHL career hat-trick and the Carolina Hurricanes dominated the Tampa Bay Lightning last night, 6-2. The win puts Carolina on the threshold of the Division championship as they just need one more win (or Washington loss), to lock things up.
The Canes started this game much differently than the [...]
Bad to the Bone - Capitals 4 Hurricanes 1
NHL “official” Brad Watson falls within at least one of these three criteria.
He simply hates Carolina because of some unknown reason.
He’s just an incredibly bad referee.
He makes calls based upon taking orders from the league office, rather than how he actually sees a game.
This is a referee who not only made numerous questionable calls against [...]
Pressure - Hurricanes at Capitals Pre-Game
The Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals meet tonight at the Verizon Center for the most important game of the season for both clubs. The Canes lead the Southeast Division by a meager 2 points, but could clinch the division title with a win in regulation. The Caps desperately need a win to keep [...]
Welcome to my Nightmare - Sabres 7 Hurricanes 1
Apparently, the Carolina Hurricanes felt like they could sleepwalk into the HSBC tonight. But before they were 14 minutes into the game, the fired up Buffalo Sabres had scored 4 goals and Carolina’s starting goalie Cam Ward was pulled from the shellacking. By time the game was over, the Hurricanes team had accumulated [...]
Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow - Hurricanes at Sabres Pre-Game
The Carolina Hurricanes are up in the Great White North visiting the friendly shores of Lake Erie for a match tonight with the Buffalo Sabres. The Hurricanes have won 5 games in a row and have a record of 8-1-1 in their last 10 games. The Sabres on the other-hand are having a [...]
Slide - Sabres at Hurricanes Pre-Game
The Buffalo Sabres had a tough time getting out of the snow in Buffalo yesterday, but they made it to Raleigh and they are ready to take on the Carolina Hurricanes at the RBC tonight, starting at 7. This is a huge game for the Sabres as they currently sit in the number 9 [...]
We Gotta Get Out of This Place - Hurricanes at Thrashers, Pre-Game
After having the luxury of a few days off, the Carolina Hurricanes begin a busy spell and have to play 3 games in the next 4 nights, starting with the first one tonight in Atlanta.
Speaking of Atlanta, doesn’t anyone want to play for them anymore? Heatley wanted out. Hossa wanted out. [...]
The Best of Me - Players Have Career Years in Carolina
The current talk of the town is that Carolina’s pick up from the waiver wire in January, Sergei Samsonov has had a re-birth of sorts here with the Hurricanes. The skilled Russian sniper went from having zero goals and 4 assists in 23 games for Chicago to scoring 11 goals and 10 assists in [...]
Back in the High Life Again - Hurricanes 5 Lightning 1
The Carolina Hurricanes took advantage of a tired and listless Tampa Bay Lightning squad Saturday night and beat them soundly by a score of 5 to 1. Although the Canes gave up the first goal of the game in somewhat typical fashion for them, they came on strong afterwards and didn’t let up [...]
Don’t Look Now - Lightning at Hurricanes Pre-Game
Don’t look now, but the Washington Capitals are within 3 points of the Carolina Hurricanes again and they still have 2 games in hand. The Caps got their 2nd shut-out of the season last night from newly acquired goalie Christobal Huet in his first performance as a Capital. Do you think they might [...]
Yours is No Disgrace - Rangers 4 Hurricanes 2
Sooner or later, the home ice winning streak had to come to an end, and it came to a resounding thud last night as the Carolina Hurricanes lost to the NY Rangers by a score of 4-2. The home team came out of the dressing room flat in the first period and several [...]
Higher - Hurricanes 6 Capitals 3
The Carolina Hurricanes continued to stake their claim to first place in the Southeast Division with a convincing 6-3 win over the Washington Capitals on Saturday night. While the Capitals started the game out with the most jump and took a 2-1 lead during the 1st period, the Hurricanes rallied for three goals in [...]
Walk All Over You - Hurricanes 5 Thrashers 3
The Carolina Hurricanes totally dismantled the Atlanta Thrashers last night, 5-3 in a game that was not as close as the score. The Canes came out of the dressingroom fired up from the get-go and took it to the faltering Atlanta club all night long. After watching the Thrashers’ effort last [...]
No Surrender - Bruins 3 Hurricanes 2, OT
The Carolina Hurricanes lost to the Boston Bruins last night 3-2 after a shoot-out which the Canes would probably like to forget. They did have a very memorable ending in the last minute or so of regulation though!
The Hurricanes were down to their final minute and 15 seconds in the game and were losing to [...]
Keep Pushin’ - Bruins at Hurricanes Pre-Game
Apparently, everyone made it home safe and sound after yesterday’s fiasco at the Rock in New Jersey. Carolina has no choice now but to put yesterday’s 5-1 beatdown behind them, lick their wounds, and “keep pushin’ on” as the saying goes. The Boston Bruins are in town for a big game for [...]
