On the Walker punching Aaron Ward ordeal

Flashback time: Sunday September 28, 2008.

The Philadelphia Flyers were in town to play the Hurricanes in a pre-season tilt. Matt Cullen, who everyone was still being precocious with after returning from double concussions, was blind-sided by Nate Guenin of the Flyers with a vicious hit. Scott Walker immediately went after Guenin and began punching him rabidly.
Walker injured his hand on the play - required ligament surgery - and was out the first six weeks of the season. As he neared his return to the line-up, he dropped this gem:
""People say should I have gotten in the fight," he said. "I try to look back and say what would have I have done different? I think if the same thing happened today I would do it again."
- Canes Now blog entry

Last night in Boston, Walker stood by those six-month old comments and again stepped up for Matt Cullen. While all the focus has been squarely on Walker dropping A-Ward like a limp noodle (rightfully so) - not many people have mentioned Matt Cullen in this discussion.

Ward was all over Cullen as he has been on many of the players in this series. Aaron is great at what he does. But the in-game and post-whistle potshots have been going on for all five games with Ward and the majority of his teammates all being guilty of it. If you watch around the 0:07 mark of this video, you can see Ward violently cross checking Matt Cullen in the head:

Also not mentioned today was the Chuck Kobasew cross check to the back of Erik Cole's head. No one needs reminding of the history behind Cole's neck. How much crap did they think the Hurricanes were going to take before they retaliated? Carolina usually takes the high road and lets their skill-game do the talking. But they've got a Tim Conboy, they've got a Tim Gleason and they've got a Scott Walker ready to do some wailing if need be.

While I wish Aaron Ward would have been better prepared for the punch, Scott was just doing what he's wanted to do all along. Aaron Ward was ready to go with Matt Cullen, but when Walker skates over - he wouldn't drop the gloves and he got what was coming to him.

Thanks to Jon Turpin from HurricanesInsider for sending the image along.

Guess what? Caniac Nation was right

I'm an easily amused guy. This much is obvious. But I always get a kick out of reading the opinions via comments to sports blogs. Other than PD, the most frequent one I visit is Canes Now.

(side note: Canes Now is a little better than "Lord Stanley's Blog", but is that the best they could have done? It falls in line with the "ACC Now" blog @ the N&O. At least it takes away the irony of naming the beat writer's blog after a 2006 cup run while failing to make the postseason the following two years..I digress)

Frequent commentators have been screaming for he of the worst +/- in the NHL Rod Brind'amour to be benched or other similarly drastic.

Strip him of the captaincy!
Trade him!
Send him to the minors to force retirement!
Sit him!

Whatever ridiculous ideas that were proposed, one swimmingly good idea was to demote him from the top two lines to fourth line duty. While he's been back-and-forth between 3rd/4th, it certainly has been the best we've seen Brind'amour to date this season. It works because he can run his shift w/ Bayda/Jokinen/Sutter/Conboy/etc.. but also jump out for face-off duty. He shares the league lead and has been in front for the most of the season in FO % with a challenge from Radek Bonk of the Preds.

What award can we get for Brindy for face-off performance? The Rod Brind'amour award?It's working. That's all I/you need to know about Brindy. Also, that if/when the Canes make a playoff run you want him on this team, hello.

Look, I love the guy. I have two of his jerseys, one pre-captaincy and one post. I think he's HHOF material big-time. But he's sucked this year. He's too much of a man to admit any injuries, but he'll be clutch when he needs to be. Bank it.


Another thing that the fan base was right about was Timmy Conboy.

Dude's MF crazy, no doubt. He's earned a reputation around the league for being a prick on the ice (rightfully so). But damn if his teammates and Canes fans don't love him. How can you not like this guy being on your team when he stands up to an enforcer nearly 147 times his size in his first NHL shift?:



He doesn't ever err have to win the fights but he's not going to back down from anybody. He's like Chad LaRose minus the offensive skills, plus the PIM team leader and bat-shit craziness. He needs to stay in Raleigh though the team management will have one hell of a decision to make when Walker and Williams return to health. You would think that it is obvious what to do, but management usually won't listen to the fan cries. What happened then? Doh.

Thats what happens when you STILL suck

To borrow the line from our friend Tim Gleason - the Hurricanes are still rather crap-tastic one game into the 2nd Paul Maurice era.

At the Pens game last night - the Canes came out firing but had little success getting quality shots on Danny Sabourin. Sabu is about as solid of a backup that one could ask for. Leighton was looking good to start the year but his last few games have exhibited why he has been traded 47 times over his career. Out of position, not controlling rebounds, etc.. are all quick ways to let the other team pounce - as Pittsburgh did successfully nearly every time the puck was around the Canes' net. Sigh, Cam Ward can't get healthy soon enough.

How bad does this Carolina team look right now? As bad as they've been since the pre-lockout '03-'04 season. Sure they've had some clunkers of games over the past 3 seasons but on a consistent basis they've been real bad for quite some time now.

Melichar and Dwyer went back to Albany today. Melichar because he blows (see post below), Dwyer because Williams is back to being healthy. Good on Pat Dwyer for his time here. He got his 1st NHL goal and was playing his part well on the PK. In comes Tim Conboy and Casey Borer.

I was real impressed with Borer last season and lauded his play earlier this year. Glad to see him get his chance again with the big boys. He looked pretty good in pre-season this year and was one of the final cuts. So far on the season with a struggling Albany squad: 1 goal, 3 assists in 21 games. Keep in mind that he's coming back from a horrible knee injury and surgery.

You have to like Tim Conboy as a Hurricanes fan - the energy, the fights, hell - even his offensive contributions. You have to despise him as a fan of any other team. With the departure of Keith Aucoin to free agency (btw, Tater Aucoin will probably be in the line-up for the Caps on Sunday) - Conboy is the new captain of the River Rats. His first shift with the Hurricanes was last year's home game with the Colorado Avalanche. He drops the gloves with Scott Parker - who appeared to be 5 feet taller than him. He got his ass handed to him - but props for showing no fear and standing up to the other team's goon.
But Conboy may very well be certifiably crazy. Like belongs in Dorthea Dix Mental Hospital crazy. During his days of college hockey, he pulled what's being described as a "Todd Bertuzzi like play". He got suspended for his role in this brawl at the end of AHL season for the Rats in April. He bit Steve Downie on the hand earlier this year. He apparently took a run at some Caps players last year and Japer's Rink now refers to him as "Clownboy".

Either way, his infusion into the Hurricanes line-up can do nothing but help this struggling team right now. If they're gonna suck - they at least need to go down biting fighting. We'll see what happens against Philly & DC sat/sun.

Justin Williams just can't catch a break

What a shame, what a shame. The following day after everyone finds out about Brindy's ongoing knee drama - the news wire hits this afternoon that Justin Williams has ruptured his Achilles' tendon and is out for most of the season (4-6 months). He only got to play through December last season and came back for a March 'o8 return only to be sidelined again by a back injury.

You know he's been busting at the seams all summer to get back onto the ice. You can't help but feel sorry for him as he's had two ACL surgeries and now this major setback. I'm sorta curious as to how this happened. All I've heard is that it happened "off-ice". What exactly do you do to rip your Achilles tendon?

With a top winger going down - people are debating who should move up. I'll be all for Ryan Bayda / Wade Brookbank dressed at home with perhaps a Tim Conboy dressed as the seventh D on the road. Jeff O'Neill certainly can see his Carolina return more probable now. Get well soon, J-Will.