Remember the 2002 playoff run that ended with a loss to Detroit in 5 games in the Finals?  That was great, wasn't it?

The following year, the Canes went 22-43-11-6 for a league low 61 points.  Last in goals for, and 4th to last in goals against in the entire NHL.

2007 was not quite as bad, but they followed up a stanley cup win with an 11th place finish in the Eastern Conference, with only 88 points.

But this.. this is much worse.

At 27 games played, we are 1/3 of the way through the season.  And we've got 15 points.

I think we can safely avoid the worst record in NHL history though, the Washington Capitals in 1974 apparently went 5-67-5. 

But.. what can the Canes do?  Nothing, that I can see.  We signed a bunch of guys to contracts, and they're not living up to those contracts.    Rod Brind'Amour, the captain, is playing 7 minutes a game - and sucking.  Take one for the team, Rod!  RETIRE! 

Rutherford should put the whole team on waivers.  At least, anyone with a contract past this year.  Nobody would get claimed, but see if there's any interest, then maybe work out some traders where the Canes pay half the salary and get a young player in return.  I'd hold onto Staal and Ward, but that's about it.  Brind'amour, Whitney, Samsonov, Ruutu, Cole, etc.   It's time to start over.

I wonder if there will be a Crosby like character available in next year's draft....

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!

so the Hurricanes defense is pretty well shored up I think.  The top 6 will be Aaron Ward, Niclas Wallin, Joni Pitkanen, Tim Gleason, Joe Corvo, and Andrew Alberts.   The 7th wil likely be one of Jay Harrison, Anton Babchuck, or one of the River Rats (Conboy).  Frank Kaberle's contract was bought out so he's gone.

But what about Dennis Seidenberg?  He's still unsigned, which I think is pretty amazing.  He's a good player and certainly worthy of someone's roster.  He's only 28 years old.

so it's late July now, and I think the Canes are just about done making roster moves.

And I, for one, am pretty happy with what they've done.

Let's summarize:  They resigned unrestricted free agents Jussi Jokinen, Erik Cole and Chad LaRose to two year contracts, and they signed restricted free agent Tuomo Ruutu to a 3 year contract before going to arbitration.  So the offense looks pretty good I think, especially if Brind'amour plays reasonably well.  So that gives us Cole, Staal, Whitney, Cullen, Walker, Jokinen, LaRose, Ruutu, Samsonov and Brind'amour, plus new winger Tom Kostopoulous, and our younger guys to fill out thel ineup (Brandon Sutter an the like)

Defensively, we've got Joe Corvo, Tim Gleason, Niclas Wallin, Joni Pitkanen, Frank Kaberle, plus new guy / old guy Aaron Ward, and new guy Andrew Alberts.  That's 7 solid defensemen (assuming you include Kaberle as a "solid defenseman), plus Anton Babchuk is still on the team, and new guy Jay Harrison has a two way contract.

I don't know if Babchuck will be sticking around, I suspect the Canes are going to move him somehow, and to be honest I wouldn't mind seeing them add another starting defenseman and just buy out Kaberle's contract, the guy has been worthless for 3 straight years now.

But I suspect they're already over Rutherford's desired salary for the team so we probably won't be adding anyone else.

I like it.

I think we're a definate contender, and I can't wait for the season to start!

Okay, so I forgot to blog about the end of the last series in my excitement over winning yet another game 7 on the road, and moving on to the third round.  Nice work, Canes!

So here we are in the Eastern Conference Finals for the third time in 7 seasons, playing the only team that was as hot, or hotter, down the stretch run than the Hurricanes.

So what if the Canes lost game 1?  I mean, how many game 1s have we won this season?  New Jersey won game 1... Boston won game 1.

We don't win game 1.  We win game 7.  I'll take a game 7 win over a game 1 win any day of the week.

As for tonight's game 2 - I'd certainly like the Canes to win - if only for selfish reasons.  My beard needs a trim.  I don't like hair growing on my upper cheeks!

Go Canes!

The Carolina Hurricanes haven't shown us much in the last two games that would indicate any ability at all to win Game 7.  But they did show us plenty in Game 2, Game 3, and Game 4 to that end.

It's said that the hardest game to win is an elimination game.  That may be true.  Boston was backed into a corner after losing 3 straight.  For them, it was do or die in game 5.  For us, it was not.   For them, it was do or die in Game 6.  For us - well, there was certainly a little more pressure because nobody wants to go back to Boston (except Boston players and fans)... but it was not do or die.

In game 7 tomorrow night, it's do or die.  For both teams.

I expect we're gonna see a great contest.  Last time Boston faced a game 7, they got blown out by Montreal.  Of course, that was IN Montreal.... Boston came back from trailing 3-1 - just like in this series, before winning games 5 and 6.

But this is not the same.  Boston is a good solid team, and they're gonna be hard to beat in front of the home crowd, with the home-ice right to last line change.

I hope to see it happen though.   I'm not at all ready for hockey season to end.  The playoffs are too much fun!

GO CANES!

So the big discussion lately has been about Scott Walker's "sucker punch" on Aaron Ward in Game 5.  Walker received an instigator penalty, which comes with an automatic suspension when it occurs in the final 5 minutes of the game - subject to review by the NHL office.

He didn’t get the suspension because the intention of the automatic suspension was to prevent a coach from telling a player to go in and beat someone up just because the game is outta hand.

That CLEARLY was not the case here. Ward tried to start a fight with Cullen - a non-fighter. Ward threw an elbow at Cullen’s head, a guy who has a history of concussion problems. Walker reacted to that, defending Cullen, threw a left with his gloves on. Then threw the right.

Ward knew it was coming and didn’t defend himself because Ward is a wanker who only wants to fight guys he can beat up.

It was only a cheap shot because Ward outright refused to defend himself. A sucker punch implies that you’re punching and the recipient didn’t know it was coming… Walker’s right hook was the second punch.

The NHL made the right call here. The one game suspension exists to prevent something.. but not this. Players have to be allowed to react and defend other players.

So I just read that Jamie Langenbrunner is out for at least the next two games.  Some "freak" occurence led to some kind of lower body injury.  I suppose they could be more obscure about injuries.  At any rate, hopefully that'llgive us a little extra edge, having their captain on the bench.

Looks like we'll be tailgating Sunday afternoon with fried chicken and stuff.  I should make some of that famous "Erik Cole" slaw - a recipe I got from another caniac at a tailgate back in 2006.  We'll be out by Carter Finley Stadium (where all of the real tailgating occurs).

It's just too difficult to tailgate properly in the paved lots around the arena - the spaces are too small and too "regulated".

I want to hear every one of you making noise at the Game on Sunday (okay, yes, I realize i'm probably talking to a whole lot of nobody)

http://despair.com/blogging.html

"Blogging:  Never before have so many people with so little to say said so much to so few"

The NHL announced the playoff schedule, and here it is:

Game	Day	Date	Location	Time
1	Wednesday	April 15	Newark, NJ	7:30 p.m.
2	Friday	April 17	Newark, NJ	7:30 p.m.
3	Sunday	April 19	Raleigh, NC	7:30 p.m.
4	Tuesday	April 21	Raleigh, NC	7:30 p.m.
5	Thursday	April 23	Newark, NJ	7:30 p.m.
6	Sunday	April 26	Raleigh, NC	TBA
7	Tuesday	April 28	Newark, NJ	7:30 p.m.

So yeah, we lose to New Jersey today - a good game, but we started our backup goalie, probably to make sure the loss didn't leave any lasting impression.  Leighton played really well except for two horribly flukey bounces off the boards, and the Canes looked pretty good otherwise, but lost 3-2 in regulation.

So since the Flyers won today, I personally want Pittsburg to win their final game, which is going on right now.  This would match us up with New Jersey, and I'd honestly rather play New Jersey in the first round than Philadelphia.  Of course, if Pittsburgh loses and we somehow make it to the second round, we'd either end up playing New Jersey in the second round or Pittsburgh - and get home ice against Pittsburgh if they beat New Jersey in round 1, so that'd be okay too I guess.  I just think we play better against New Jersey than some other teams - and we've beaten the Devils in the 2002 and 2006 playoffs.

At any rate, our first round matchup will be set in a half an hour or so.

In the month of March, Carolina played some of the best hockey I've seen them play.  They lead the league in goals scored with 3.92.  They also lead the league in goals allowed at 2.00 (thanks Cam Ward!)

Carolina also is the least penalized team in the NHL for the entire season, averaging only 9:40 of penalty time per game.  Of course, the second least penalized team in the Eastern Conference is the Boston Bruins - a team I'd least like to meet in the playoffs.  Nonetheless, the disciplined play can only help in the playoffs.

We've still got to get there though.. another win or two should do the trick...

See you Thursday night!  Go Canes!

I'm still on vacation in Williamsburg but tuned into the game tonight on the internet.  Nice to see the Canes dominate the second and third periods, tie it up in the third and then take the lead and hold it.

This was the first time in 37 games that the Devils had blown a 3rd period lead.

I'm tired, so that's all I've got tonight!

Canes get a 4 day rest and don't play til Thursday.  See ya at the arena!

I'm on vacation in Williamsburg so I had to listen to last night's game on the internet after we got back from dinner.  Sounded like the crowd was really into it.  Like me, I'm sure everyone smells playoffs.  And now we've got a 5 game winning streak, and the Canes have won 8 straight at home.

Now, we get to let the rest of the league catch up to us in games played.  Carolina doesn't play again until Saturday, then not again until next Thursday!  That's a lot of time off, so hopefully they won't lose their mojo!

Go Canes!

okay, that was huge.  Nobody else in the east played last night, and the 2 points puts us 3 ahead of Florida and 5 ahead of Buffalo, both of whom have 2 games in hand.

Friday's game versus the Islanders is definately a "Must Win" because we can't be losing to teams like that.

See you there!

The Caps helped keep the Canes in 8th place last night by beating the Florida panthers in regulation.  Florida is a point behind with only one game in hand right now.

The teams above us got points last night though - Montreal got one in a shootout loss, the Rangers and Penguins both won.  So we're 3 points behind the Rangers (who've played the same number of games as us), and 2 points behind Montreal, who have a game in hand.

We need Martin Brodeur and the Devils to have an off night tonight so we can get a win.  My daughter and I will be there tonight since it was an exchange game.

Oh, hey, I also got VIP Club Ledge tickets for Saturday night from someone on craigslist.  that should be pretty awesome!

Go Canes!

Canes got to OT tonight thanks to "The Secret Weapon" who scored in the 3rd to tie it up.  Canes looked good and had lots of opportunities and scoring chances in the OT to get it done, just couldn't get it past the goalie.

The good news - every other team from 5th to 10th place lost tonight.

The Canes now hold 7th place with 79 points and 71 games.  The 8th, 9th, and 10th place teams have 78, 78, and 76 points but all only have 69 games.  We're now in the stretch run - 11 games to go, 8 of them at home.  We need 7 wins at least... that'll get us 93 points and to be honest I'm not sure that'll be enough.  We got left out with 92 points last year, the 8th place team had 94 points.

The canes really needed a win last night, but Marty Turco wouldn't allow it.  It didn't help that the refs gave Dallas a goal instead of a goaltender interference penalty, but oh well.  If they don't win Saturday, they're probably gonna need to win 8 of their last 11 games.  That's a tough order.  Even with a win on Saturday they might need 7 of 11, which is also a tough order.

It's a shame the Canes had to paly Wednesday in Chicago then fly to Dallas for a game on Thursday, and they're now flying to Washington for a game tomorrow - the last of a nasty stretch of 6 games in 8 days, which included two back-to-backs.  And after Saturday, they get 3 days off to wait for the rest of the conference to catch up to them in games played.

Cross your fingers!

Since I missed every game in my plan in February, I went up to the RBC Center today and turned in 7 tickets (from January and February), and got myself 5 tickets to the March 18th game and a pair of tickets to the April 7th game.  Which means I'll be at every home game the rest of the season, except for the March 25th game (I'll be on my way to Williamsburg for a short spring vacation with Emily)

Canes need a win tonight, I hope they're not too gassed after working hard for that point in the OT loss last night (Thank you Ruutu!).   We really need a win tonight because I think we need 3 points on this road trip and a win tonight seems a lot more likely than a win Saturday night in Washington.

Go Canes!

So I sucked it up and renewed my season tickets today.  I like the idea of the 3 year price freeze, but I especially like the idea of "pay as you go" for the playoffs *AND* the price guarantee.  Ie... Rounds 3 and 4, if we made it, would be the same price as rounds 1 and 2.

The next 3 games aren't all important, but they're pretty big.  I think the Canes have to treat the next 14 games like 2 playoff series.. they need to win AT LEAST 8 of the 14 to have a chance at the playoffs, and I'm not sure 93 points would do it.   Throw in another win or a couple OT losses and I think we'd be set.

The good thing is that 8 of our last 11 are at home.  I'd like to see us come away with at least 3 points in this 3 game road trip, which means we'd have to win 6 of the last 11 and one OT loss to get to 95 points.

Very do-able.

GO CANES!

Don't look now, but the Canes look like they might be making a run.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute.

As of right now they're still on the outside looking in, stuck in 9th place behind the Pittsburg Penguins.  And unfortunately the Canes have played 67 games compared to 66 games for the 5, 6, 7, and 10th place teams.  The good news is that while we're only 1 point behind the 8 seed, there's actually a 3 way tie for the 6th seed so we're 1 point behind the 6th seed and only 2 points behind the 5 seed.

I've got some hope now because they brought Erik Cole back.  I felt like it was a good move even before he showed up Friday night.  Cole was always my favorite player, and I think he'll make that top line a lot better.

Now that he's played 2 games...  well, it's only 2 games, let's not get too excited.  But we beat a solid Calgary team Friday night 6-1 and then absolutely destroyed the lowly Tampa Bay Lightning Saturday night 9-3, and in that game, Cole had 4 assists (Staal had 4 goals).

All the remaining games are big games, but Monday's is especially big because it's against the Rangers, a team we'll be competing with for a playoff slot.

I've got my fingers crossed, I'd like to see some playoff hockey again.

I haven't blogged at all this season, so maybe it's my fault the Canes are sucking.

I really don't think Laviolette was to blame, though I wasn't surprised to see him go.  And I certainly don't think Maurice was the answer, but then again he's certainly not the solution.

If there's any blame to be given, it's the players that have put the Canes in the position they are in.  But since you can't fire the players, Lavi was the scapegoat.

I don't think all the players are at fault, but I do think one player in particular is not up to snuff anymore.

Rod Brind'Amour has given us a lot of good years, but I think he's done.  We gave up a short-handed goal while he was on the ice Saturday night, and the thing is, it didn't surprise me at all.  In fact, I found myself thinking about Brindy's +/- rating about 15 seconds before the Rangers scored that short-handed goal.

In general, I don't think the +/- rating has much meaning.  There's little or no difference between a +5 and a -5.   But Brind'amour is a -21 now.  The second worst player on the team in that category is his linemate Ray Whitney at only -7.

Brind'amour has 8 goals and 11 assists, which means at the very least he was on the ice for 18 goals, and since he's a minus 21, that means opponents have scored at least 39 goals while he was on the ice.  And those 18 goals were only the ones that he was involved in, I'm sure there were at least a few that he didn't get an assist on.

So 45% or more of the goals given up by the Carolina Hurricanes this year have come with Rod Brind'Amour on the ice.

I'm sorry Roddy, but it's time to move on. 

The Canes should try to trade Brindy for anything they can get, and give the "C" to Eric Staal.  Let there be no confusion about the leadership of the team.  Staal is the future, Brindy is the past.

The capitals beat Tampa Bay tonight, so the magic number remains two.  The good news is that the Canes still control their own destiny.  Win friday, and they're in.

Lose Friday... and anything could happen.  We'd have 92 points, and we'd need Washington to lose.  If Washington were to win Saturday night, they'd have 94 points and would take the southeast division.

If *THAT* happened... we'd be stuck hoping that Boston and Philadelphia don't win any more games - both have two left.  The canes would hold the tiebreaker over Boston (who currenly has 92 points), and over Philly (who currenly has only 91 points), so the Canes COULD take a low seed if that were to happen.

But the chances are slim.  The best way for us to get to the playoffs is to beat Floriday tomorrow night.

See you there!

GO CANES!

Okay, so the Hurricanes lost again last night to the Caps, leaving us tied with them for first place in the southeast..  Luckily, we've got the tiebreaker, so if it all ended today, we'd be in and they'd be out.

But we've got two games left - Tampa Bay tonight and Florida on Friday.  Lucky  Washington gets Tampa Bay tomorrow night and Florida Saturday night.

Basically, we've got to win.  If we lose tonight, our destiny is out of our hands.  Right now it's still in our hands, but we've got to win.

Go Canes!

Carolina is playing the best hockey of the season right now, and just in time.  Remember they started off the season only losing one of the first 10 in regulation, but they were still only 6-1-3.  Hot start, but not nearly as hot as they've been lately, going 8-1, and and 11-2-1 in their last 14.

We're down to 10 games... and after the next two against Buffalo and Ottawa, it's all southeast division after that, and 5 home games.

GO CANES!

I know, I've been a slacker this year again in blogging about the Canes. 

I just felt I should blog about Sergei Samsonov, acquired earlier off the waiver wire, claiming him on re-entry waivers.  The move came as a surprise to many Canes fans, as Samsonov had been struggling this year and last year prior to coming here.  He had zero goals and only 4 assists in 23 games with the Blackhawks, and last year only had 9 goals and 17 assists in 63 games with the Canadiens.

He's been one of our best scorers in his 24 games since he joined the Hurricanes, scoring 11 goals and 10 assists.

Jim Rutherford, as usual, knows what he's doing most of the time.  We all make a few mistakes here and there (Trevor Letowski was a mistake, if you ask me).  But Sergei Samsonov was not one of them.  He's pretty freakin' awesome.  The change of zip code has definately done him good!

So, I obviously didn't blog at all last year.  Maybe it was my lack of blogging that caused the Hurricanes to suck last year.  Okay, they didn't suck.  But they missed the playoffs, and that sucked.

Holy cow it's been a long summer, hasn't it?

I don't know about you, but I don't have red pants.  But I really want to wear all red to opening night, so what do I do?

Clearly, I could buy a cheap pair of khakis and dye them red, but I don't really want to do that, so I started googling for red khaki's - they're kinda hard to come by.

But then I discovered red scrubs.  You know, the kind of pants that nurses and surgeons wear.

But a lot of places that sell scrubs don't have real red colors.  But I was able to find Dickie's brand scrubs in a color they call "True Red" and they're really inexpensive.

http://www.mynursinguniforms.com/mens-scrubs.html

Check out the Unisex Drawstring pants.  For good measure, I also bought a Unisex V-Neck top, both available in True Red.

Now.. where did Chuck Amato get those red shoes....

The new season is almost upon us.  I'll blog more about the offseason dealings later, but let's say that I'm pretty happy with the team!

Now, onto the real business

If you are going to Opening Night, YOU MUST WEAR RED.!!!

If you don't have a red shirt, get a red shirt.  Not maroom, Caniac red.

Just do it.

I've got a list of the 2006 Hurricanes restricted and unrestricted free agents here:

http://www.thecaniac.com/2006_Free_Agents.cfm

TV ratings suck, yeah. But so little of the NHL's revenue comes from TV ratings it doesn't really matter right now.

What the NHL is focused on - and what they should be focused on - is improving the game (which they did in fine fashion with the rule changes), getting the local markets back into the game (attendance was up nearly all across the board this year over the previous season), and stablizing the LOCAL television markets. The Fox Sports Net's of the country.

TV ratings sucked for the NHL before the lockout - and it will take time for them to recover.

I do think that OLN will continue to promote the game and they'll increase their national coverage and their in-home reach for next season, and as time goes on, more and more people will discover OLN *IS* actually on their cable and dish systems. And as the local markets fill up the arenas, more people will watch the games on local and national TV.

I'm willing to bet that by the time the current TV deal ends (4 years from now?), hockey will get back onto ESPN, and like all things that ESPN carries, they'll promote it, and things will continue to improve.

The fact is, hockey is a great game, with more, faster action than ANY OTHER MAJOR TEAM SPORT. Even in North Carolina, where the natives have never seen a lake with ice strong enough to stand on are slowly beginning to appreciate the game more. And when you consider the competition that hockey has in that market, their dramatic increase in attendance this year is no less remarkable than the season the team had.

I'm not worried about the state of the sport of hockey.  You shouldn't be either.

Well after being totally screwed by the referees early in the game, Carolina managed to fight through the first period in which they got 4 penalties to the devils NONE (trust me, they COMMITTED penalties) with a 1-1 tie. Then they also had to kill off another penalty to start the second period, after which the Canes must've just decided they weren't going to get ANY calls and just worked around that fact. They finally did get a power play opportunity and took a 2-1 lead, and that's all they needed (though they did end up getting a couple of third period goals including an empty netter to keep Staal's point streak (10) alive).
Two of the calls in the first period were BS calls... one was an interference call against Brindy who never touched anyone, and another was a tripping call where reply conclusively showed the guy tripping over the freaking NET - no Hurricane player touched him.

But even with the help of the obviously biased refs, the devils were sent to the golf courses.

Props to Laviolette for starting rookie Cam Ward again after pulling him just over 20 minutes into game 4. Ward gave up an early goal (it was a really good goal though!) but then really stood up during that first period in which he faced 11 shots. The remainder of the game - well, he had the best seat in the house to WATCH the game. The devils only put up 7 shots on goal the rest of the game I think.

Round 3 will feature Carolina vs. Buffalo in the east. Probably two of the most surprising teams in the eastern conference because they did the best job of predicting how the new NHL would look and what would be successful - both teams are fast skating and skilled with an up and down the ice quick flowing style that should lead to some pretty exciting hockey.

Unfortunately for the Canes, there's a lot of Buffalo fans in the area, so we'll probably have a few thousand opponents fans in the arena - which really (if you ask me) only makes the atmosphere better. Not that we need it during the playoffs, but hey, I kind of enjoy having a few of the opponents fans nearby.

Without FSN broadcasting the hockey games, I've sort of missed the Carolina Ford dealer commercials...

BEEP BEEP!

click the play button

The Carolina Hurricanes broke out a classic Monday evening in the early part of the pregame by playing "Brass Bonanza" (mp3) over the sound system.

Most of you know, of course, that the Carolina Hurricanes used to be the Hartford Whalers, and this was "their song".  It still is, really, as I'd never heard it before at a game, although I knew of the song.

Some Whalers fans followed the franchise and continue to be fans of the Carolina Hurricanes.  There are, apparently, some Whalers fans who are bitter about the team packing up and moving south.  Oh well, you can't please everyone!

Anyway, I just wanted to share.

GO CANES!

the playoff race in the western conference is essentially over. The wings locked up the #1 seed qquite some time ago, while Dallas and Calgary have already locked up their divisions and the #2 and #3 seeds. The only thing in dispute is the order of the 6-7-8 seeds.

The eastern conference, on the other hand, is FAR more interesting. while Ottawa and Carolina have locked up their division, they're still battling for the #1 seed (Carolina has a 1 point lead, each team has one game remaining), the Atlantic division is in limbo with Jersey's 10 game run making it interesting!

The Rangers have the lead with 100 points, but Philly and Jersey are right behind them with 99 points each. All three teams have one game left. And they all play on Tuesday.

Philly gets the Islanders, the rangers get Ottawa (go rangers!), and new jersey gets Montreal.

Of course, there are still three teams battling for the final two seeds as well - Montreal, Tampa Bay, and Atlanta. Atlanta is 9th right now but has the advantage of having 2 games left.

Montreal, on the other hand, currently 7th, has the DISADVANTAGE of having fewer wins than Tampa Bay, since total wins is one of the tiebreakers.

If Montreal loses in regulation and Atlanta wins their remaining two games, Montreal will be out of the playoffs unless Tampa Bay loses its last game too.

Atlanta *HAS* to win both of it's final 2 games to get in *AND* hope for Montreal to lose to the Sens.

I'd love to see Tampa Bay knocked out of the playoffs.. several scenarious could cause that, both requiring two Atlanta wins and Tampa bay either losing in regulation or losing in OT.

All of these games are TUESDAY night. None of the games tonight have any real playoff implications except for the first of the two Atlanta games.

Naturally, I'm rooting for Atlanta tonight just to make it interesting!

Ottawa's recent stumbles combined with our slightly better play have put Carolina in a position to take the #1 seed in the eastern conference when we play our final game on Tuesday versus the Buffalo Sabres.

In fact, there are 9 different scenarios that could occur on Tuesday with Ottawa and Carolina, and 7 of them lead to a #1 seed for Carolina (thanks to this blogger for the full breakdown.

The two situations that would NOT garner a #1 seed for the canes:

• Ottawa wins, AND
• Carolina loses in regulation OR overtime

An Ottawa win and a Carolina OT loss would leave both teams with identical records, and the goal differential tiebreaker would give the #1 seed to Ottawa.

Other situations would give us the same # of points, but would give Carolina the #1 seed based on the total wins tiebreaker (ie, an Ottawa OT loss and a Carolina loss)

Let's just not even worry about it and just beat the Sabres Tuesday night!

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!

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!

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!

The NHL announced that it has set new attendance records for October.  Read the story here.

To summarize, they've attracted 16,820 fans per game, filling arenas to 91.2% capacity on average.  That's a good thing.  And it's only going to go up from here.

Hockey is more exciting than it ever was before.  The days of the 1-0 win are (for the most part) gone.  For those of us who were hockey fans before, we appreciated the action and the "great" goaltending in the games that led to those 1-0 games.  But I think the casual fan is going to find the 5-3 games a lot more interesting.

A perfect example was the Canes 8-6 come-from-behind victory over the Philadelphia Flyers last saturday.  Goals are exciting, and that game was a huge rollercoaster of emotion, filled with ups and downs.  Down 2-0.  Tied 2-2.  Down 3-2.  Tied 3-3.  Down 5-3.  Tied 5-5.  Up 6-5.  Tied 6-6.  Win 8-6.  It was CRAZY in the arena that night!

Even the Penguins, who only won a single game in October, saw attendance increased by 31% over the previous opening month.

I'm glad i've got my season tickets, because as the season goes on, Canes tickets are going to get harder to come by.

GO CANES!

The NHL has named Eric Staal "Player of the Week" for the last week of October AND "Player of the Month" for the month of October.  You can read about it in the Hurricanes' press release..

I was impressed by Staal in 2003-2004 when he made the team as an 18 year old rookie.  I guess it may have been easier to make the team because the Canes simply weren't that good last season, but it's not easy for any young player to come into this league and play.  Staal struggled through the year - as did the team - but we saw flashes of brilliance.

The lockout was probably the best thing that could've happened for him.  He suddenly had a year to workout, mature his body, and work on his game as a full-time player in the minors.  He had a great year last year, setting numerous scoring records.

Well, one month into the new NHL season, we can see that Staal has got what it takes to lead this franchise into the future.

Ron Francis was the face of the Carolina Hurricanes when I started going to the games.  He started as a Whaler, left for a few years to win a Stanley Cup or two, and then came back to the Hurricanes.  I know there are a few people out there who are upset with him for chasing the cup when we traded him to Toronto, but I am not one of them.  Francis gave the Canes a lot of great years, and was a great leader and a great benefactor to our community.

It's not every day that you know, with 100% confidence, that you're watching a future hall of famer on the ice, and certainly during his time in Raleigh, we all knew where he was going.

Welcome to my first Caniac blog entry!  I am The Caniac.  I'll talk more about me later.

So we're 6 games into the season now, and our beloved Canes are 3-2-1.  In Thursday's overtime loss to the Maple Leafs, I thought Carolina was the better team on the ice, but a couple of big mistakes led the the loss.

The New NHL seems to be about players who can skate, and Carolina has definately got them.  I love the new NHL.  The game is far superior to what we've seen the last few years.  It's so much faster and more exciting.  Even the games we've lost, or games during which the team has been "flat", there's been more excitement than before.

How good are they?  Well... I expect no less than a playoff berth this year.  I think they're good enough to be - at the very least - one of the top 8 eams in the conference.

Go Canes!