Thank God that Tuomo Ruutu isn't bat-sh*t crazy like his brother

Case in point - Jerko Ruutu's shenanigans last night in Buffalo:

Listen, it's great to be aggressive. It's a good thing to be a little crazy and unpredictable. And while Tuomo Ruutu may get called with a questionable hit or check from time to time, you (hopefully) won't ever see him resort to this kind of BS.

Speaking of Ruuty, I'm loving his game-winning goal highlight from the Devils game last night:

Tuomo has had some big time, clutch goals this year. The MTL OT winner comes to mind. As does the game at St. Louis. Last night just added to the Ruutu lovefest in Raleigh.

Anyone remember this quote from then coach Denis Savard as Ruutu left Chicago for Carolina?:
"watching him play for a couple years, a lot of times he had complete possession of the puck and just fell down."

Unfortunately, Savard was spot-on with that assessment. You've got to love him if you're a Caniac, but damn if he isn't the clumsiest skater I've seen. My zinger whenever he gets the puck is "Arrrrrrrre You Ready To Stummmmmmmble?!?!?!?" Not exactly as sure-footed as a mountain goat.

Good times.

Summertime, Summertime, SumSumSummer Time!

Posting will be scarce around here for the next week or so, unless cohort East of Here decides to stop by....

The Wuffie family is heading down to Sunset Beach NC for our annual beach week (after a stop in to see Jimmy Buffett at Walnut Creek on Saturday), so enjoy yourselves and stay cool!

NHR: My Brother the Fish Wrangler

You've gotta love when you get an e-mail the first day back to work after a holiday weekend, like this one from my brother, Bryson today:

"I caught this big ol catfish Sunday night in the Wateree River off a shrimp. He weighed in at 41 lbs, 2oz."

With a fish that big, do you really need to add the "2oz." at the end? Anyhow, well done bro. Nice shorts.

Take a train to happy town, w00t! w00t!

I leave Raleigh for the weekend and the boys finally show up for a game, giving the home crowd something to cheer about for a change. D-Lee gave an inspiring recap that left him crying like a baby again. Cason's prose is back with frequency (Canes get bad, the C/B skepticism dept. goes into overdrive). Are you Caniacs checking Hurricanes Insider on the regular now too?

"I don't wanna work, I just wanna play on H/I all day."

A 7-2 romping over the Oil was fine and great I'm sure, but the questions are still there. One big win over a bottom feeder Edmonton doesn't fix what has been two months of suckage. It will be a good test for this team squaring off in the "home-and-home" against an Isles team with consistency questions of their own.

Just because I said something, watch Joe "Dry erase marker" Vasicek show up with a natural hatty tonight.

Avalanche @ Canes - The Battle of the Beatens

Picture from the Wuf family recent Boulder trip:

Lovely day for a tailgate.

I've been looking forward to this game. Colorado is breath-takingly beautiful. Breweries everwhere. The people are nice. Downtown Denver in the Coors Field area is an experience not to be missed. I get the occasional update on the Avalanache from our good friends living in Boulder.

The Avs are without their Ultra Captain Joe Sakic and Ryan Smyth due to injuries (sounds familiar). If you don't like big Joe, you can pretty much get out of my country. What a stand-up character guy. They've been on a not-so-hot streak lately, struggling to find consistent goaltending (again, familiar). Hopefully this will be an entertaining, high scoring affair tonight.

Favorite Avs related blog: Jerseys & Hockey Love with Tapeleg.

Go Canes!

What Makes It All Worthwhile

Wins are awesome. Effort is awesome.

I gave my 2 year-old nephew the Hurricanes jersey that I've wanted to give him since before he was even born over the weekend. He's rather shy, but he put it on (he'll have to grow into it of course) and I got a big hug and a "Go Canes!" out of him. Love it.

Daddy Canes Support A Montreal Beat-down

The Hurricanes players' fathers are in town for their annual Dad's Weekend where they all get hammered and shoot things travel with the team for a road game. Before they take off to NY Island territory for a Saturday night matchup, the Canes will take on the Montreal Canadiens for the 400th time this season.

GameDay Previews:
HabsInsideOut's Game Preview
NHL.com's

In other news, the Canes have sent goalie prospect Danny Manzato to the Charlotte Checkers. Although the Checks are a NY Rangers farm team, this is a good sign for future development. Wouldn't it be nice if all our juniors were playing only as far away as CLT? (glove-tap to Andy @ Hurricanes Insider)

My Badass Quilting Mama

First off, let me state that this post is long overdue. Some of you may have noticed a slightly out of place link on the COI Daily Hits entitled "All Things Quilty". My mother and I both started our blogs around the same time (back in March). I wanted to post this before the NHL regular season started.

My Mom is one hell of a lady. She has been quilting since the late 1970's. She worked as a teacher in Wake County Public Schools for over 30 years (a large chunk of it teaching Learning Disabilities K-2, nonetheless). Now that she is retired - the majority of her time goes into her beautiful quilts and spending time with her grandbabies (my brothers kids! Wuff will remain childless for a few more years!).

Her posts vary from day-to-day between her quilting skills, latest techniques, nature photography, and reports on her grandbabies.

To highlight a few of my favorite posts she has done:

A Tribute To My Artistic Father (defenitly worth checking out - My Grandfather is a retired professional water-color artist)

Quilting Gardeners (yes, she's also got an extremely green thumb)

Spring Has Sprung

Love you Momma - Keep up the good work!

I Might Have To Buy A New Jersey After All

So do any of you remember a few weeks back when the new Canes jerseys were unveiled, I stated that I wouldn't buy one because my $300 old school Brindy jersey set me back enough?

Well, turns out I'll be needing a new one.

Out of all the things that we tried to salvage - this was the one I wanted to save the most. After numerous attempts - the smoke and soot stains just don't want to come out of the white fabric.

On the serious side of things - I am thrilled to be alive and well (same goes for all my neighbors and their pets). It is amazing the good that comes out of people when something like this happens. Whether it was our friends & families, co-workers, or even just random strangers - everyone stopped by to offer their helping hands. 'Tis nice to feel such love when looking over such a horrific site as your home and belongings covered in ash and soot.

Many have asked what they could do to help us. We have plenty of support between everyone who has been out to lend a hand. What you can do: Please consider the American Red Cross when you are doing your next charitable contribution. I can't say enough good things about the volunteers and their caring ways. They are paying for us to stay in a hotel until a new apartment is ready. They gave us money for clothes and food. They are paying for our 1st month rent in the new place.

To help yourselves: Buy renters insurance (if you rent, of course). That $15 per month has been an absolute lifesaver. Several of my unfortunate neighbors who lost everything did not have it. Because you never know what may happen.

The wife & I are ready to get back to a normal life. The ushering in of the new hockey season will help to take our minds off of the tragedy and tribulations of replacing things. I'll be back to blogging as often as possible once things have settled down a bit.

And again - Thanks to all of you out there for your kind words and good wishes!

Doing The Birthday Dance

Today is the only time in my life that my age will coincide with my date of birth. Turning 26 on the 26th, I certainly feel no older than I did turning 25. Most importantly however, when I am turning 40 years old I will still feel young at heart. Yes I pay bills, work full-time, and have to deal with the same everday BS that we all do. But inside, I just want to go outside and play!

So that is what I'm going to do! I'll be in my favorite place in the world: Ashe County in the NC Blue Ridge mountains this weekend celebrating and floating down the river (pictured above). Peace!

(ps - My normal saying for my friends on their birthday is: "I hope your parents had as much fun making you as I have knowing you..." but I couldn't really wish that upon myself.)

Canes Get A Jedi & My Niece Is Walking

The Philadelphia Flyers & New York Rangers made the two biggest splashes today in the free agency pool. NYR snagged up both Drury & Scotty Gomez while the Flyers added Daniel Briere to an already bolstered lineup featuring recently acquired Kimmo Timonen & Scottie Hartnell. I'd hate to see what the average salary rate is now after the day's hefty checkbooks have been busted out. Inflation is a bitch!

Carolina announced the signing of the very affordable winger Jeff Hamilton with a 2-year deal at $800K per. Sure, you may have never heard of him before today either:

But if he can win shootouts in a Canes jersey:



He's already worth his weight to me seeing as the boys laid the goose egg last season in shootout wins. It's exciting in any measure to have new blood around here. Jeff Hamilton is a fresh face that will hopefully ignite the team and make the contributions that a Trevor Letowski could not quite accomplish last season.

Upon first looking at Jeff and his head gear, all I could immediately think of was The Empire Strikes Back:

In your too cute moment of the week, reports from SC are that my niece is now taking her first steps. She'll be ready for skates in no time.