College Hockey is so close you can smell it, really

The first weekend of October is lining up as a great one for college hockey throughout both NC and SC. As August finally frickin' comes to an end, the puck is coming back and many informal training camps and tryouts are underway or in the near future.

In the works is the Carolina On Ice Google Calendar that will be an automatically updated schedule with all the two state's game-times as well as the Hurricanes, Charlotte Checkers and hopefully others.

To get your team's schedule added, contact CarolinaOnIce@gmail.com.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day Weekend. Enjoy and relax if you can.

850 The Buzz & My Boy Jimmy answer everything

As this post is being typed, I'm listening to the lengthy interview of Jim Rutherford today by Adam Gold & Joe Ovies on 850 the Buzz. Must say that it is rather outstanding, as they ask the Canes' GM all the burning off-season questions:

The Return of Captain Hot Topic and his ability to play left, right or center if needed. All signs have pointed towards O'Neill looking sharp in Camp Brind'amour.

The health of Matt Cullen and his dome-piece / skating / "feeling great. 100%".

David Tanabe is expected to come to training camp. If the team could legally buy him out they would have, so the only thing JR can do - is expect Avi to show up to camp in three weeks. Check out D-Lee's coverage on the Tanabe situation over this summer, he's been following it closely.

Rutherford on Brandon Sutter - "he's got a chance to make the team" - COI Translation: Sutter will be a Carolina Hurricane this year, you can bet your first born on it.

AG & Joe Ovies do it respectively as always, but certainly didn't hold much back for this interview. Towards the end of the clip, the conversation shifts to the fact that since the championship 2006 season - it's been two dissapointing, playoff-free years in a row.

Listen to the rest over at 850's site. It's certainly a good listen.

Is it just me, or does Jim Rutherford sound like the years have taken its toll on him? Listen, I'm a huge JR fan and there is a reason he's the longest tenured NHL GM. Perhaps it is just this YouTube clip that makes me think he's still a strapping young lad.

Fox Sports would like to remind you not to draft David Tanabe

I scooted by Fox Sports's website to see if the Hurricanes TV Schedule was released yet to no avail but did find this:


Really? Thanks for the fantasy advice. Who the hell am I supposed to draft first now?

Hockey <3's Baseball

G-dubs, aka Puck Daddy, posted last week about the Binghamtom Mets minor-league baseball team having a hockey night in conjunction with the Binghamton Senators (the Ottawa farm team). They had former B-Sens on hand as well as the IceGirls at the ball game. They showed clips during intermissions from the movies Slap Shot and The Mighty Ducks. The baseball players were wearing uniforms that looked eerily similar to the B-Sens uni's.

Seeing all this made me think of the Durham Bulls and the Hurricanes previous ventures together.

After the the Canes won the Stanley Cup, there was a night of celebration in Durham as several Hurricanes threw out the first pitch and the Stanely Cup was on site. Needless to say, it was a sold-out, packed house and it wasn't because of the Durham Bulls vs. Richmond Braves big match-up. It was a lot of fun and seeing the evening's festivities (from a Caniac standpoint) compensated for the fact that it was 101 degrees w/ 100% humidity.

Also, as recent as last week Chad LaRose himself was the guest of honor at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park to deliver the first pitch, albeit a dead duck of a throw. What hasn't Rosey done this summer? He's on hand for RBC Centura bank grand openings, Caniac Fun Fests, baseball games... I'm waiting for the announcement that he'll be an honorary scooper at Bruster's Ice Cream in North Raleigh for a day (or insert shameless promotion x.here).

Apparently there are some Durham Bulls fans that are also Carolina Hurricanes fans, contrary to what some will tell you.

Mail it in

Mailing it in on a lazy weekend with a pretty well put together YouTube clip:

The Canes can make the playoffs again if...

(image via Flickr's Kaatiya)

Some of them are saying that this will finally be the year that the Hurricanes make it back to the postseason, while others are still not convinced. After giving it some thought, I'm still undecided on what to expect from this year's team. The past two seasons have seen squads loaded with talent that either couldn't play because of injury or perhaps because of complacence.

I see the Canes being either Division Champs or at least playoff-bound again IF they can avoid their evil twin named "Slackass".

Don't remember him? Let me remind you:

December 12, 2008. Ottawa Senators are in Raleigh to take on the Canes. The Sens were still the hottest team in hockey and hadn't completely dismantled themselves yet. Carolina was coming off of a rather mediocre streak. They played at the Bell Centre in Montreal to remind themselves how to win. Less than 24 hours later, they had to play the eventual SC Champion Red Wings in Detroit and lost 5-2 (but sort of played them respectively).

So in comes OTT on the homecoming for the Hurricanes and instead of playing tough, they let the Sens walk all over them and it led to bloggers posting stuff like this:

East of Here's: Just What Am I Paying For?

and Caniacs in general either drank the sorrows away that night or cried in their collective pillows.

Fast forward a month. The NY Islanders are in the RBC Center. With the exception of Samsonov joining the team, January has sucked for the Canes as they are still losing to teams they can take craps bigger than. The Isles squad manages to score all 3 of their first goals on shorties. It's a NYI record. Outstanding. And D-Lee noted that two of them were on the same Carolina power play. Wade Dubielewicz (and his imposing stature) allows 3 Hurricanes goals but stands on his head to make 44 of 47 saves in a 6-3 win. Pathetic.

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Unfortunately, there are a number of other games that I could have chosen to reference. If the Hurricanes can avoid games like those - they'll hopefully find themselves in a position where they don't have to win their final game of the season to make the playoffs.

Camp Brind'amour in full swing

(Photo: Canes Country Bubba)

Ready for some hockey? Can't wait until training camp officially starts? Can't wake up at the asscrack of dawn to watch Brindy and the X-Canes skate at the RecZone? Good - me neither.

Thankfully, it appears that some more reasonable time slots are now scheduled for "Camp Brind'amour" at the Canes' practice facility:

Current RecZone Schedule

"11:00 - 12:00 Private Ice Rental RecZone : Rod" is posted for the next couple of days and something tells me it's not reserved for Rod Stewart or Rowdy Roddy Piper (although that would be interesting).

Starting on Monday 10:00-12:00 it will be "Hurricanes skate". Get out and see some hockey, folks.

Glove tap to the LGC again on finding the linkage..