Box Score

Carolina has won all three games that they've played against the Montreal Canadiens this season, starting on New Years Eve when they put up 5 goals against Jose Theodore, a goaltender who had traditionally stumped the Canes.

That first game was the only one he finished, as he gave up 5 goals in 28 minutes on January 23 when the Habs were beaten soundly 7-3, and in tonight's contest he lasted only 25 minutes before giving up his 5th goal and being pulled from the game.

Erik Cole got a hat trick and an assist, Eric Staal added two goals, plus one each from Kevyn Adams, Craig Adams, and Niklas Nordgren.  Ray Whitney notched 3 assists too.

I didn't get to watch this one but I did listen to a lot of it while I was bowling.  These guys are only gonna get better when Doug Weight joins the team on Friday when the Canes travel to New Jersey.

GO CANES!

Carolina made a big trade yesterday afternoon, acquiring Doug Weight from the St. Louis Blues for 2 players off our NHL roster and 3 draft picks including our 2006 first round pick.  The 2 players we gave up were Jesse Boulerice, an enforcer who has little skill and has been a healthy scratch most of the time this season, and Mike Zigomanis.  Ziggy is a 25 year old 2nd round draft pick (2001) and is a decent prospect, but had only scored 1 point in 21 games this year.

Doug Weight (for those of you who don't know) is a 15 year veteran, 4 time all star, who somehow managed to get 44 points in 47 games playing for the worst team in the NHL.  He was St. Louis' leading scorer.  Weight is also a Team USA Olympian, so he'll now get an extra week or so of coaching from Team USA coach Peter Laviolette and some extra skate time with Team USA teammate Erik Cole.

I'm excited about this trade.  We gave up a lot to get this guy, who probably won't be hear next year.  But our GM and coach think he'll fit into the system very well, he's a class act and a professional and a skilled skater.

It's a sign that Jim Rutherford realizes what Carolina has got right now, and he wants to build some depth for the playoff run.  And the Canes have so many solid young players on the team and in the system that giving up a few draft picks for this guy isn't a bad thing.  It's not like trading John Smoltz for Doyle Alexander ;)

I haven't blogged about the games for the last week because i've been at Disney World.  I love the Canes, but I don't have time to blog when I'm on vacation ;)  So I thought a little commentary was in order...

The Carolina Hurricanes are 12-1 this month, and that includes a really tough stretch of games from January 13 to January 28 that included 9 games with no more than one day off between games, and one 2 day 2 game road trip.

Aside from a tiny glitch January 21 when the Canes lost to the lowly Washington Crapitals, the team came out smelling like roses, and have lost only one game so far this month.

They've gotten fabulous goaltending in 13 games this month too, with Cam Ward and Martin Gerber only giving up 2.38 goals per game.  Compare that to 3.64 goals per game in December, 3.23 goals per game in November, and 2.91 goals per game in October.

And they've done all this through a myriad of injuries, with various key players going out at different times.  Just as Glen Wesley returned to the lineup on Wednesday, Matt Cullen broke his jaw, so he and his 34 points have gone on injured reserve.  And Cory Stillman has missed the last 5 games too.

Thankfully though, Aaron Ward will be back soon (he practiced the other day), and the 2-1/2 week Olympic Break coming up February 13-27 should give us a chance to get everyone healthy for the final 25 games of the season.

I keep looking at the standings and somehow, Ottawa still manages to be keeping pace.  Although we're 4 points ahead of Ottawa right now, we've also played 3 more games than they have.  Ottawa is a dominating team that has outscored their opponents 202-112 this season.  By comparison, Carolina has outscored their opponents 193-156.

Right now, I'm not concerned about making the playoffs.  We've got an 18 point lead on Tampa and we're 24 points up on Atlanta, with a game in hand against each.  I'd really like to get home ice throughout the playoffs, and that means winning the Presidents' Trophy.  That would be truly awesome.

Bring it on!  GO CANES!

Box Score

I don't have a whole lot to say about last night's game, other than I'm glad we won.

Carolina was THOROUGHLY outplayed in every aspect of the game - except for goaltending - in the first two periods.  Somehow, the canes managed 3 goals on 12 shots through the first two periods, while the Islanders threw the puck at the net 29 times and scored only twice.

Well, the win makes 9 in a row - matching the Canes longest winning streak ever, a record set earlier this season.

Hopefully, they can make it 10 against Washington on Saturday.  Washington is not good.  They've only won 16 games.  Of course that makes them better than the St. Louis Blues, whom the Canes struggled against.

Still, I predict a whooping!

GO CANES!

Box Score

The Comeback Canes did it again.

Trailing 1-0 at the end of two periods, and down by two goals TWICE in the third period (2-0 and 3-1), the Canes rallied to tie the game with goals by Matt Cullen, Oleg Tverdovsky, and Erik Cole to tie it up in regulation.  With no scoring in overtime, the game went to the shootout - where the first two shooters for each team each scored and the third shooter did not.

So the shootout itself went to "overtime".  Rod Brind'Amour was our fourth shooter, and he put it past Philly's goalie, then Martin Gerber stood up and stopped Jeff Carter's shot for the win.

Once again, the Canes reside in the #1 spot in the entire NHL with an 8 game winning streak, one point ahead of Ottawa and two ahead of Philly.

The streaking Atlanta Thrashers - 7-2-1 in their last 10 - are still 16 points behind Carolina (who is currently 8-1-1 in their last 10)

The New York Islanders are coming to town on Thursday.  I don't have tickets in my mini-plan but I might go anyway!

GO CANES!

So, my sister-in-law Erin and I went to the Rec Zone today to see the Canes practice, and to get autographs.  Practice was scheduled from 11am-1pm, so we got there around noon and went inside.  There were only 5-6 players on the ice so after a few minutes, we went out to the players exit to wait with the other fans.

And there were a lot of them!  You see, today is Marlin Luther King Jr. Day, and the kids were out of school.  I'd say there were maybe 40-50 people waiting outside the exit when the guys started coming out.

We managed to get 13 autographs on her jersey, including Eric Staal, Martin Gerber, Cam Ward, Rod Brind'Amour, Kevyn Adams, Craig Adams, Niklas Nordgren, Danny Richmond, Mike Commodore, Bret Hedican, and Oleg Tverdovsky.  Erin also got her picture taken with Nordgren.  Very nice of him.

Since the jersey in question actually belonged to my wife, we went to the Eye afterwards where a replacement jersey was purchased.  She can get her own autographs!

The guys were all very nice about it and most of them came out bearing sharpies.

Thanks guys!  GO CANES!

Box Score

Eric Staal broke out of his goal scoring drought in a big way yesterday with a natural hat trick, scoring the Canes second, third and fourth goals of the game against the lowly St. Louis Blues.  His third goal came with only 8 seconds remaining in the game, as the Hurricanes tried to get him the puck (and the hat trick) in the final minute of play.

One might call it poetic justice, because yesterday happened to be John Deere hat giveaway night.  They gave out 18,000 hats to the fans entering the arena, and let's just say that a lot of those fans didn't leave with hats.

I'm certain that the staff was ready for it.  When you give out that many hats, and you've got a guy with 2 goals and a good chunk of time left in the game, you've got to be prepared.  They must've had the trash bags ready because they were out on the ice picking up hats as soon as it started "raining green" - as Chuck Kaiton put it on his radio broadcast.

Honestly, Carolina didn't play that great at any point in the game, and the Blues got a lot more scoring opportunities than I think they should have.  Cam Ward did a great job making saves most of the night and I was surprised he didn't end up as the second star of the game.

Speaking of stars, Eric Staal was named the league's #1 star yesterday with his hat trick in the NHL.com Three Star Contest.  He's in second place overall to Jaromir Jagr.  It's totally meaningless, really, but the three star contest does indicate when you are one of the top 3 players in the game that day - at least according to some subjective criteria!  Go Eric!

Carolina plays a big road game against the first place Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday.  A win will guarantee we'll remain in first place by ourselves for another night.  A loss will put Philadelphia on top.

GO CANES!

Box Score

I'm not sure how many cheap shots on our players Predators goalie Tomas Vokoun thought he could get away with, but apparently, he went one cheap shot too far.

Vokoun may have been upset the way Carolina players were coming into the crease hard during the first period, but time and again I saw him bring up his stick on our players, and on top of that, he took numerous cheap shots, swings, shoves, etc, against our guys after the fact.

Well, about 2 and a half minutes into the extra inning, he got busted, and the penalty - a 10 minute misconduct - resulted in a penalty shot.  Frank Kaberle took the puck low and slid it between Vokoun's leg for the winning goal.

Great crowd tonight, over 18,000 apparently!  And I've heard that the Sunday afternoon game is nearly sold out already too.

That's a great crowd, when you consider last Friday's game against New York was only attended by just over 14,000 people.  And Nashville doesn't draw fans, so tonight (unlike Tuesday) it was all Carolina fans.

Carolina's 62 points means that we now have the best record in the NHL!  Philadelphia also has 62 points but they have 1 fewer win and 2 more losses (both in OT) so our winning percentage is better.

Sunday afternoon, the worst team in the NHL comes to the RBC Center - the St. Louis Blues at 10-27-5.

GO CANES!

Box Score

Last night's game was huge! Internationally broadcast on OLN in the United States and TSN in Canada. I heard some people say it wsn't on in Detroit - I wonder if they only looked at FSN Detroit... can't imagine any reason why it wouldn't be on OLN up there...

Carolina came out strong in the first with 3 goals before Yzerman put the Wings on the board. Period 1 ended with the score 3-1 Carolina. The Wings scored another in the second period, and that was the end of the scoring. But it sure wasn't the end of the excitement.

Carolina only outshot Detroit 12-11 in the first period but made 3 of them count for goals - not a good period for Legace! I also felt like Detroit dominated the puck in the entire second period although THEY only outshot us 8-7 in that period. It seemed like they had more puck control though. Most of the third period was kinda back and forth, no real sustained puck control by either team for the first 15 minutes of the third. Only 2 penalties were called, and I feel like a lot of old school clutching and grabbing was NOT being called.

In the end, Frank Kaberle got a minor hooking penalty with 1:42 left in the game. With the faceoff at center ice, Legace stayed in goal until Detroit quickly gained possession and control, and then skated off.

What ensued was the most exciting and hair-raising 90 seconds of hockey I've ever seen. It was both 90 seconds of hockey time and 90 seconds of real time. No penalties, no stoppages. Detroit fired it at the net over and over and over again, and several times, Carolina tried to clear but failed.. once the puck was somehow blocked in, and once it was stolen away from Brind'amour who was trying to skate it out... they finally cleared it with about 25 seconds left and Detroit brought it back in the zone and again controlled the puck and shot it without mercy.

I think Gerber stopped 8 shots in the final 90 seconds... and there was a LOT of activity around the goal. Even as the seconds expired, Detroit was working the puck right around the crease.

The horn blew, Gerber put a glove (fist?) in the air, and the crowd went nuts.

The building was sold out, and I'd say there were at least 4,000 vocal red wings fans there. Of course, the "Let's Go Red Wings" chants had to always be countered by our own, so the atmosphwere was ELECTRIC.

I'm glad we won! It was a great game.