Box Score

The Hurricanes made 50 shots on goal for the first time since 1989.  And they only got one of them past Washington's backup goaltender, Brent Johnson.

They actually hit the post quite a few times, but overall I thought their legitimate scoring chances were limited, and most of the those 50 shots on goal were pretty easy saves for Johnson.

And the worst part was that the Canes were absolutely SLOPPY with the puck.  Washington had 15 takeaways according to the super stats.  Many of those takeaways led to odd man rushes, some of which ended up as goals.

Carolina was outshot 8-4 in the first few minutes and went down 1-0 very early in the game, were up 3-0 by the middle of the second period.  And when Carolina finally did score to make it 3-1, Washington wasted no time getting that goal back, scoring barely a minute later to make it 4-1.

And then to top off the evening, Washington scored a shorthanded goal in the final two minutes.  Nice.

I thought the effort wasn't there - even though they put the shots up.  Their sloppy puck play said to me they weren't prepared.  I hope they turn it around tonight against Florida.

Thanks to Tampa Bay's win last night, we still need another win to clinch the southeast division title.  I hope they pull it off tonight!

GO CANES!

Well, it was hard for me to get back into blogging after such a long break for the olympics.  Some of you may have noticed that I haven't been blogging since the olympic break.

some of you may also have noticed that the Canes have had a "bad" month too.

You could argue that the "bad" month was due to the fact that the Canes played 9 of 10 games on the road against some good competition, and because they lost Erik Cole to a neck injury.

But let's face it, the Canes have "struggled" clearly because of my lack of blogging.

For that, I apologize.

Now, our beloved Canes, with only their second win of the season over Tampa Bay last night, have clinched a playoff berth.  And with only one more win, we'll clinch the southeast division championship as well.

So let's get back to blogging, the Stanley Cup Playoffs approach!

GO CANES!