Proper hazing to welcome Andrew Alberts & Tom Kostopoulos to the Canes

My boy Jimmy has come through with some clutch signings in the month of July with Erik Cole and Chad LaRose both returning. But today I welcome in D-man Andrew Alberts and forward Tom Kostopoulos to Carolina the only way I know how: by making fun of them.

To Tommy the Greek Kostopoulos: First off - you sound great and I vaguely remember you as a Hab. My boys from FHF dig you so that goes a long way. But I'm concerned that living and playing in the South around all these fun bars and nice women's fashion stores may drive you to be an accomplice to more purse thefts. Yes I know that HE didn't steal the purse that night in Tampa Bay, but hey - guilt by association when something as embarrassing as that happens.

So you're a prankster, eh? Is someone going to have to lock you in your hotel room every time the Canes play Lightning in Tampa?

What the hell is going on with your last name? The letter "O" makes an appearance like 8 freaking times. But it is easy to come up with nicknames with a name like that. It happened spontaneously at 850 the Buzz's post about him today. I'm still fond of my Flight of the Conchords reference; "They call me the Hip-Hop-Kostopoulos, my lyrics are bottomless". So uh, yeah welcome aboard. Do good, please.

To Andrew Alberts: It took a minute, but I figured out why I remembered him:

Of course! He's the one that Scott Walker looked up a foot to and still beat his ass. But he's a hitter and someone who's finally a "defensive" defenseman. There hasn't been a d-man acquisition in a long time that was "D" first in Carolina, it seems. What is it like having two first names? At least those two aren't "Harry" and "Dick". Alberts can join in the "dude, I know how that feels" fun whenever someone has another gruesome injury on the Hurricanes this year: (from his Boston days, apparently)
Pretty kickass July. Nice weather, fun weekends and the band is back together with a good fresh beat added in. Well done, Jimmy Boy.

Canes @ Caps - Ruh roh!

The last thing that the Carolina Hurricanes wanted heading into Tuesday night's game in DC was for it to mean anything other than a final tune-up before the playoffs. Thanks to a loss at the hands of last place Tampa Bay on Saturday and the fact that the Capitals have beaten the tar out of everyone they've played; they find themselves fighting for their very lives among the crapshoot that is the Eastern Conference.

All of a sudden, at 90 points, the Canes would be in 9th place if not for their automatic 3rd seed as division leaders. Washington refuses to lose behind the hard-charging puke-yellow skate laces Alexander Ovechkin and their ragtag group of youth and veterans carrying the load. Overshadowed by A.O. has been the resurgence of Cristobal Huet playing with a chip on his shoulder. He's out to prove to Montreal GM Bob Gainey that he is the real deal, franchise carrying goaltender after he was cast away from Les Habs at the trade deadline this year.

I do love the fact that the majority of hockey fans will be watching with a keen eye to this matchup tomorrow night. It bodes well for the current and future state of the Southeast division that a dramatic finish can draw such attention. Although plenty of outsiders will be pulling for the Caps, be on the lookout for Eric Staal to steal the show. The kid has done everything that is expected of him lately with 31 points in 20 games.

This is a fun time to be blogging about the Canes and just being a hockey fan in general.

Lets. Go. Canes.

Skin 'N Bones Ward Still Owns The Bell Centre

Cam Ward stood on his head making 35 of 36 saves during a 5-1 win in Montreal, where the Habs have laid a goose egg against him since pre-lockout. Tonight he comminced to stand on his head, his skates, his gloves, Alex Kovalev, Mark Streit, the glass, and then just for fun, he went and stood on David Tanabe.

A nice and lengthy prose write-up from Luke at LSB.
D-Lee (possibly the most old-school Caniac) reviews the game and issues his 3 stars.

Four Habs Fans & A Caniac

With the final regular season game against Montreal on Saturday, C.O.I. has crossed streams joined forces with Four Habs Fans - Our NSFW friends to the North.. Enjoy!

Hey there! We are the fine yet perverted folks from Four Habs Fans. All you need to know about us is we seek to unite Montreal's two greatest institutions - Les habitants and strippers.

Thanks to wufpirate for proposing this little cross-posting experiment. We apologize in advance for any Hartford Whalers jokes. We really miss The Whale.

Why are you a Habs fan?

HabsFan10: Well, my father was a Habs fan, and his father, and I suppose if there was any way my grandfather's father was getting game results he would have been a Habs fan too. Born in the 70's, when the Habs played steamroller to the rest of the league's random bike left on the curb. Plus my Dad made it quite clear that any cheering for the Leafs would result in immediate banishment from the family. That's a pretty heavy thing to lay on a four-year old.

HF29: This post explains it.

What do you like / dislike about Carolina?

HF10: I dislike that they aren't still in Hartford. I miss the Whale. I dislike that terrible logo and the not so great uniforms, and I dislike Justin William's errant stick that nearly blinded Koivu. I dislike Erik Cole with a head full of steam bearing down on our goalie, Rod Brind'amour winning every faceoff, and Cam Ward standing on his head.

I like Carolina's crazy, loud, tailgating fans. I really like the Ice Girls. I like that your most famous season ticket holder is the Nature Boy Ric Flair, and I love the "Whooooooooo!!!!" after Canes goals (except against Montreal, of course). I like that your rink is sponsored by a Canadian Bank.

Favorite moment as a MTL fan?

HF10: So many to mention, but here's a unique one: I remember watching Lafleur's retirement ceremony with the "Guy" painters caps they handed out to the crowd. I would have killed for one of those beauties. It was before those types of things became the norm, so the whole thing was surreal ... but the Forum was rocking with "Guy! Guy! Guy!" chants coming down from the rafters through the cigarette smoke haze. Awesome.

HF29: Rioting in the streets.

Lowest moment as a MTL fan?

HF10: The Dark Ages of the 90's and early 2000's, when Savard, Houle, and Corey got rid of Hall of Fame talent in trades and whiffed on a decade's worth of picks, symbolized by the abominable decision to side with Mario Tremblay, a mediocre, hotheaded, confrontational buffoon/coach over the greatest goalie of his generation. The franchise is still suffering the effects.

HF29: Whatever the last loss is.

When I'm not following my team, I'm...

HF10: following my one-year old daughter's path of destruction through the house, hoping she doesn't swing her latest toy/weapon anywhere near the china cabinet or pull down the Christmas tree.

HF29: at a strip club. Duh.

My interview with them is now posted over there. Head over to their comment section for live-blog-ish trash talking!

Thanks, eh!

The Sit-ee-ashun In Goal This Weekend

Mer got me going on this over at Paperwhites In Season this morning.

An interesting dilemma here for the goal tandem this week:

Tampa Bay Thursday - we saw how well that went starting Crackers last time, plus as a former Bolt - they've got the book on him.

Montreal Les Habs Saturday - Cam Ward historically plays lights-out in the Bell (Molson!) Centre.

Winged Wheels (the best team on ice right now) the following day.

Cam Ward should get used to being #1 - and that includes the ability to win back-to-back games, regardless of the opponent.

Leighton is rounding in to good trade bait. Considering all that any other team would do with Mikey is trade him, why not? If it can bring in the elusive "puck-moving defenseman", let him roll.

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)

World's Worst Photoshopper On Les Habs

Carey Price made his NHL debut against Juicy Lips and the Pens the other night allowing only 1 goal. People have a serious boner over him right now in Quebec.

But guess what? Start him Saturday night?

And the Price Is Wrong Bitch!

Canes Drop Opener To Some Eh-Holes

Continuing on with my luck of attending Hurricanes games - they dropped last night's game to Montreal in overtime. What is it about my presence at the RBC Center that makes our favorite team want to lose? Out of the 15ish games I attended last year - the only Ws I witnessed were early on vs. the Thrash and late in the season vs. the Craps.

Erik Cole did look good last night, scoring the games first goal. Cam Ward was standing on his head, skates, ass, hands, you name it. He was spectacular. Staal looked like he is ready to play this season. Our D looked shaky all night. Gleason was like a pylon with skates all night. The cross-checking call on Wallin in OT was garbage.

Oh well, at least the beer was good.

Reviews:

Canes Country Game Review

Lord Stanley's Blog - Montreal 3, Canes 2

850 The Blog - So Much For Another Stanley Cup

It's On Like MF Donkey Kong!!

Finally, a meaningful hockey game at the RBC Center. I'm so excited, I could poo myself. I guess I'll have to man-up and head to The Eye before the game to buy some kind of Canes gear, seeing as the fire destroyed my authentic "A" Brindy jersey. As far as the teams performance, my man Bubba sums it up well:

"On paper we should be better than Montreal, but the game is played on the
ice and you never know what will happen. Their Captain is Saku
Koivu, always a good player. Playing with him are Higgins and Ryder, both
are good. Alexei Kovalev is always very dangerous. Plekanec has been
red hot in this pre-season and had a hat-trick one game. The Canes just
need to play their game, puck pursuit, puck possession, and shoot more than
their opponent with traffic in front of the net. It's easier said than
done!"

The Canes should win tonight, and I predict they will. Montreal sucks, even their Captain thinks so.

And everyone head over to Red & Black Hockey today to wish David Lee a Happy Birthday!! And head to the game tonight and shout "HAPPY BIRTHDAY GLEN!" to our resident geezer, Mr. Wesley.

Here is the YouTube embed for the highlights from the other nights Columbus brawl game.

Opening Night In 1 Day:

How many points will Erik Cole get against Montreal tomorrow?

I'm gonna stick to the conservative side and go with 12.

Stillman Still-The-Man: Canes 3, Jackets 0

Judging from the sounds of Chuck K calling the game on the radio last night - Cory Stillman has his groove back. He nailed a slapshot (complete with the ding off of the goalpost) from 50 feet out. All that I could immediately think of was his series clinching goal that flew over Cristobal Huet's shoulder in Game 6 of the 2006 playoffs.

(for lack of that clip being YouTube available - here is the man himself endorsing Wake County public school bonds - Yaaaaay!)



"Yeaaaah - I still got it!"

Hurricanes History: The Molson Miracle

Stumbled upon this YouTubeage of the '02 Playoff Run. Good stuff.

Featuring:

• A young Bates Battaglia doing his thing
• The emergence of Nicky Wallin as "The Secret Weapon"
• Ronnie Franchise assisting, assisting, then assisting some more
  
• Brind'amour kicking ass, as usual
• A pre-roid rage Sean Hill
• Sami Kapanen (one of my favorite ex-Canes, classy guy)

I was a senior in college watching this game and can remember vividly almost jumping through my apartment window when each of these goals were scored. Enjoy!

The Molson Miracle