Flyers at Hurricanes live streaming video feed

Let's all hope its worth your time to watch:

Go Canes.

Flags at Half Mast...

AMBER ALERT:


Have you seen me? Missing are several hundred Canes car flags. They are about 18 inches tall, red, and have a Canes logo and the letters "STH" printed on the front. Last seen snapping off cars within a couple of miles of the RBC Center along Wade Avenue, I-40, and Edwards Mill Road. If seen, please contact the North Carolina Division of Transportation; roadside cleanup department.

Holy bad promotion Batman! Can you say "debacle"? It seems that the free 'season ticket holder' car flags are defective. So defective, in fact, that they were snapping off at alarming rates in traffic and carpeting the roadways surrounding the Big ATM after the game on Thursday. In fact, the problem is so bad, I got this e-mail today:


Dear East,

We regret to inform you that due to an unfortunate manufacturing error, the distribution of Season Ticket Holder car flags is being temporarily suspended. Our staff is currently in conversations with the manufacturer, and we will be in contact with you again soon to provide additional information regarding the distribution of corrected products.

We apologize for this inconvenience, and hope you will feel free to call 1-866-NHL-CANES (1-866-645-2263) with questions. Thank you for your support!
Go 'Canes!!

P.J. Avetta Manager of Sales & Client ServicesCarolina Hurricanes


And just whey you thought our promotions department couldn't f*ck things up any worse. Well, they went and bought cheap, defective flags from China or something and it looks like it's gonna bite them in the ass. Of course, this shouldn't really surprise anyone. You don't have to look any farther than Corvo, Eaves or Ruutu to see that this team's management has a history of making deals for damaged merchandise. Of course, it's actually kind of fitting that our flags are like our forwards, in that they are breaking before the season even begins.

Luckily, I still have my STH flag vouchers. I'm not even gonna redeem them now. I'm gonna just duct tape one of those little suckers to my car antenna and be done with it. At least I know that with the duct tape, it'll stay put longer than those piece of crap defective flags did.

And you've got to love this line in the above e-mail:

"...due to an unfortunate manufacturing error..."

Translation: "...due to our buying the cheapest product the Red Chi-nee would sell us..."

And then, there's this gem:

"Our staff is currently in conversations with the manufacturer..."

Translation: "Operator, get me the number for the Kunming Lead-Based Infant Toys and Cut Rate American Chotchke Company, and make it snappy!"

Boy oh boy. What a cluster...

Canes @ Flyers, Flyers @ Canes

First of a home & home today with the farewell game to the Philadelphia Spectrum. Not sure who the Flyers plan on icing for this game, but it probably won't match the number of minor-leaguers that the Canes are playing. You see stuff like this and wonder just how successful of a year Carolina can have when two games in, these are the injured:

Corvo, Wallin, Whitney, Brind’Amour, Williams, Samsonov, Babchuk, Gleason, and Ruutu

a big WTF there. Is it possible for them to fake injuries so that they don't have to play the vets in the pre-season?

Even though Brindy is hurt, I'm wondering if he was invited to participate in any the of Flyers festivities today. He played a butt-load of games at the old Spectrum and it would be a fitting tribute to at least show him on the jumbo-tron waving from the press box. Or maybe instead of a wave, he could do some push-ups.

Live streaming video of tonight's Canes @ Caps game

Use this link and it should start playing automatically or just watch it here:

Canes in mid-season form already?

Mid-season as in December through January of last season where they couldn't score a goal or put up a consistent nightly effort? Well, no.

But the pre-season opener last night against the Caps certainly reminded me of that horrible stretch. Can't hold the puck, can't play D.. can shoot the puck on net all night but never generate any solid chances...

Thank goodness that one didn't count. A few notes:

-Pitkanen (if he can stay healthy) is going to have a tremendous year for Carolina. He was a beast pretty much all night.

-Corvo paired with Pitkanen working the points on the power play is rather lethal if they're in the offensive zone. However, having two offensive-minded defenseman during a potential short-handed breakaway (especially Corvo) may not be the best idea. Carolina allowed way too many shorties last year.

-Petruzalek had a great 1st period. If he buries all of his chances, we're talking about a whole different outcome.

-on Bowman & Sutter - meh. Poor B-Sutt couldn't win a face-off to save his life but otherwise showed decent awareness around the puck. Bowman is fast and he will be a sniper, he just looked flat like the rest of the team last night.

-Nic Wallin. Dude. Did you get hammered before the game or something? Get a clue.

-Ward. Mmm, yeah he was already in mid-season form. Allowing 2 goals on the first 3 shots. The first you couldn't really fault him for. The 2nd was mostly Joe Corvo's fault - but he's gonna have to learn to handle those breakaway chances playing this Hurricane style of hockey where that door is occasionally left open.

-Justin Peters - Hey guy, you're supposed to have your butt facing the net - not vice-versa as you were when you gave up your first goal.

-Jeff O'Neill & LaCouture - not real impressive. O'Neill was playing just OK, I barely even noticed LaCouture.

It was outstanding to be at the RBC Center. It was outstanding to tailgate. It was outstanding to finally meet some of my blogger co-horts, David Lee of RBH fame & Beth from the Sliding Pokiecheck. Not such an outstanding game to watch as a Canes fan, but that's what the pre-season is all about. Get out the kinks and move on.

Find out early how Ward will play this year

Cool little flash game up at CH.com where you can compete against others in a slapshot competition, complete with commentary from Johnny Sideburns himself.

Triangle radio loses a good Caniac

A few weeks ago 850 the Buzz decided to go "in a different direction" and fired long-time anchor Chris Clark. CC was the host of the Hurricanes post-game show called "The Aftermath" where he would always field calls from folks leaving the games. He always did a great job with these and wasn't afraid to call it like he saw it.

Chris and I were part of the reason why Chad LaRose and his nickname of "the Chuck Norris of Hockey" came to fruition as I would call in raving about Rosey's play that night. I'm pretty sure Mr. Clark grew to expect a call from "Dave, leaving the game" during the show.

Best wishes to Chris and I hope he lands a new, hockey-friendly job in sports radio somewhere out there.