EDIT 12/2/09 - I'm tempted to delete this entry entirely and just pretend I never made such a prediction, but I'll leave it here for posterity.  It is safe to say that the Canes will NOT make the playoffs this year.  They'd have to go something like 37-9-8 in their final 54 games to make it to the 97 points I predicted..

The season starts tonight!  I've moved from Section 338 "upper corner" to Section 330 "mezzanine", and I'll be there tonight, for what will hopefully be the first of many wins.

I believe that the Canes are a better team than they were last year.  I think Rod Brind'Amour will be a positive factor again, we brought essentially all of our offensive weapons back, and we've added a few veteran players in Tom Kostopoulos and Stephane Yelle. 

More importantly, I think our defense will be better, with Seidenberg, Kaberle, and Babchuk gone, replaced by Aaron Ward, Andrew Alberts, and Jay Harrison.

The team also started out miserably last year and finished strong in the second half after getting rid of Laviolette. 

Last year, we had 45 wins and 97 points.  My season prediction, 48 wins, 25 losses, and 9 overtime losses for 105 points.  We will compete for the southeast division title but not win... and have a 4th seed in the playoffs come April.

See you there!