All good things must come to an end.  We knew the winning streak was going to end.  I don't think the Canes played particularly poorly other than taking too many penalties.  But then, I didn't see the third period (I shouldn't have even been at the game because I was feeling awful).  Yeah, I left after two periods, with the Canes trailing 4-0.

But, as the title says, there is a silver lining.  Several, actually.

First, the New York Rangers won last night, mathematically eliminating Buffalo (and Florida) from the playoffs.  So even though we couldn't eliminate them personally, they were still eliminated, and that's something that nearly all Hurricanes fans can smile about.

Related to that, the Rangers beat Philadelphia in regulation, so we are still tied with Philly - and now also with Pittsburgh - with 97 points - and Philly has a game in hand.

If we win Saturday against New Jersey, we can finish in 4th or 5th place.  If we lose on Saturday, we could finish in 4th, 5th, or 6th place.  To take 4th, we'll have to win and have Philly lose one more *OR* lose and have Philly lose twice and Pittsburgh lose their final game.  Seems unlikely since Philly plays the AHL Islanders Saturday night, but anything could happen.

If we lose and Pittsburg wins and Philly wins one of their last 2... we'll end up in 6th place.  And even that might be a silver lining because we'd end up playing New Jersey in the first round.

I'm glad Leighton got some playing time last night.  I think Ward will probably start against New Jersey, and to be honest, if Leighton gets much playing time in the playoffs, it won't be a good thing.  I'd like to think that Leighton's season is over.

Oh, one last thing - Philly could potentially drop to the 6 spot if we beat New Jersey, Pittsburgh wins their last game, and Philly loses two.  That seems to be the least likely scenario, so I think we're definately looking at a Philly or New Jersey matchup in the first round.

Go Canes!

What a crazy night last night!   It's always extra fun with Carolina and Buffalo get together but last night the crowd seemed even more buffalo slanted than normal.  I think there were probably 5000 buffalo fans in the arena and when they scored, it was pretty loud.

Buffalo fans are always extremely obnoxious too.  They're noisy, and most of them seem to be drunk, and don't mind running up and down the aisles during puck play hollering about how awesome their team is.  Maybe it's the blue-collar, "$10/hour is the best I can do" nature of Buffalo fans, who knows.

But if there ever was a playoff athmosphere in a regular season game, last night was it!  Thank god we scored first and maintained the lead for most of the game or it could've been even more stressful than it was.  When Buffalo tied it up, I was worried, and the Canes blew 2 straight powerplays to end the game, and in the OT, Buffalo couldn't stay out of the box, and Carolina won the game with a game winner from Scott Walker on the power play.

Since Washington lost yesterday, Carolina stretched its division lead to 7 points over Washington, who dropped back into a tie with Florida for second place.  The Crapitols still have 2 games in hand, so it's nice to keep building the lead.

Go Canes!

Box Score

I missed most of both games this weekend due to other obligations, and Monday's game wasn't on TV and my clock radio - the only radio in my house - doesn't get 99.9FM.  I hate that.

But I did tune into FSN last night for the Canes-Sabres game, and wow, what a fun game!  2 periods of exciting, somewhat stressful hockey that ended with a 2-2 tie, and then an offensive blowout in the third period with the Canes scoring 4 goals for the 6-2 win.

Bret Hedican came to play, scoring a goal and getting two assists.  Eric Staal had a goal and two assists too.  And Jeff Hamilton made an amazing slapshot that I don't think anyone could've stopped by any manner of skill, it was like a rocket.

No time to go into further detail but the Canes are now 6-1-3 and looking mighty fine.  They've gotten points in 9 of 10 hockey games, and have a nice 7 point lead in the southeast division.

See you at the game Friday night!

GO CANES!

Box Score

After starting out February 1-3, and riding a 2 game losing streak going into their final game before the Olympic break, I think it was important for Carolina to win this game.  Sitting on a 3 game losing streak for 2 weeks wouldn't be good.

Well, thankfully, the Canes agreed with me.  After putting on a pretty pathetic performance Friday night versus the worst team in hockey, our guys came out strong and played a really solid game against Buffalo, one of the better teams in the league.

Even "The Secret Weapon" Niclas Wallin got in the game with his career high 3rd goal of the season.  For the uninformed, John Forslund always refers to Wallin as "The Secret Weapon whenever he scores.  I think he had a game winning goal in the Stanley Cup playoffs back in 2002.  Wallin and Doug Weight lead the team in shots on goal with 5 a piece.

Martin Gerber and the defense gave up a few shabby goals late in the second period (at 16:58 and 17:55), but Carolina came on strong to basically dominate play in the third period, outshooting Buffalo 12-5, and that continued in the overtime 7-1, but Ryan Miller managed to get his team to the shootout, where unfortunately for Buffalo, the Canes went on to win their 6th shootout victory in 7 attempts.

I think the loss to the Pens on Friday may have helped refocus this team and reminded them that they've got to show up to win these games.

Sunday's game was preceded by a nice Olympic ceremony honoring our 2006 Olympians - Eric Staal (Canada), Frank Kaberle (Czech Republic), Martin Gerber (Switzerland), Eric Cole (USA), Bret Hedican (USA), Matt Cullen (USA), and of course, Coach Laviolette (USA).

See you after the Olympics!

GO CANES!  GO USA!

Box Score

I've seen a fair amount of hockey in the last 4 years.  Not a ton, but I've attended probably 40 games and watched numerous others.  And I have never seen a penalty shot (outside of highlight reels).

Until tonight.

Eric Cole, in the third period, had two clean breakaways where the scoring chance was denied from behind illegally, and a penalty shot was awarded.  The first one resulted in a goal on a beautiful shot.  The second shot went wide, but it was that first penalty shot that ended up being the game winner - Carolina's 4th goal of the night.  Justin Williams finished off the Sabres with an insurance goal on an empty net in the final minute.

Martin Gerber had an amazing night, facing 44 shots and turning away 41 of them.  Buffalo dominated the puck just about the entire night, getting shot after shot after shot - especially in the second period where they outshot the Canes 22-3.  They were 0-22 in that period, while we were 1-3.  I guess that's what counts!

Buffalo played with intensity, but they couldn't solve Martin Gerber.

The last 7 game winning streak by the franchise was in 1985, and it was ended by Buffalo that year.  The results were different tonight, and Carolina set a new franchise record with 8 consecutive wins.

GO CANES!