The Comeback Kings are back: Canes with weekend sweep

Fan A: "Down by two goals again."

Fan B: "We got 'em right where we want 'em then"

The Hurricanes displayed some serious heart and effort in both the opening night 6-4 win over the Panthers and again Saturday night at Tampa with a 4-3 OT decision. What a wild, 24 hour ride for the Caniacs!

Friday night's game:

The opening entrance was pretty cool. I feel sorry for anyone who sat in the lower bowl (Lexus Club side) that had their view obstructed by the impromptu hanging TV screen during all that. The leftover fog seemed to linger around the ice for half of the first period.

Florida came out prepared and walked through an almost non-existent Carolina D to score a few beauties. The Cats made true on their power play chances and Stiller's tip-in goal had the good guys down 2-0 early on. (Methinks Cory Stillman will have a great season with Florida based off Friday's observations and the lack of talent surrounding him.)

After that however, the Canes put on their shit-kickers and started generating pressure by maintaining the offensive zone. Tim Gleason borrowed Wallin's nickname of "The Secret Weapon" and railed out three assists in the game. Pitkanen looked great and scored, as well as Brindy. LaCouture and B-Sutter were workhorses and their efforts paid off as Danny had the game-winner on a feed from Brandon.

Sutter will score at least 3-4 shorties this year - bank it.

In a quip borrowed from the fine folks at The Battle of California, here's your entrusted blogger enjoying the action last night:


Those aren't my usual section 102 seats, but they surely didn't suck. A big thanks and shout-out to reader Bill who provided Wuffy with an adult beverage during the 1st intermission.

On to Saturday's game.

I got home in time to start watching the Tampa game at the beginning of the 2nd period. As I saw the Canes slack around the ice, the Bolts appeared to be taking advantage of a weary Carolina squad. But lo and behold, they crept back into it by waking up and forcing Tampa goalie Mike Smith to do his drama queen act. aside:To Smith's credit, he is a great goaltender that can flat-out play with a suspect defense in front of him. But when he lets in a goal or disagrees with a call, he's more dramatic than the ladies from Desperate Housewives. Exhibit A being the shattering of his stick over the crossbar tonight.

The third period saw Carolina completely dominate play and Tampa in fact looked like the team with tired legs.

In fact, the Canes ate up the Tampa defense, spit them out, swallowed them again and then crapped them out. Outstanding play to come back from being down 3-0 and finish them off with a beautiful Whitney-to-Staal two on one OT marker.

To borrow a line from the boys of The Pensblog:

Canes miss playoffs & all we get is a dorky hat

I've held off on posting my feelings about the Canes and their epic fail of missing the playoffs after being in command of their division all season. I was hoping that some of my rage and disappointment would wither away within a couple of days.. well it hasn't.

There are a number of different reasons to point to as to why things went down the way they did. Injuries, goal tending, defense (lack there of), etc... but what it comes down to for me is the inconsistency. This team was either smoking hot or cold as ice. There was no in between this year. Running out of the gate, this was the only team that could slow down the Senators amidst their record, opening season win streak. Heck, the squad was playing so well that even Jeff "Green Eggs &" Hamilton was on track for an All-Star season. After ripping the months of October & November new ones, either complacency or the injured stars started to wilt away at the Canes' momentum as they won 6 of 17 games between the end of December through the beginning of February. Sure, even the President's trophy winning Satan's minions Red Wings had a few stints of futility, but they kept it to a minimum. Hockey is a streaky sport. The Canes just had one too many slides of mediocrity.

But who could have predicted that Washington would end up going on such a tear? Carolina has been so used to having the Caps as a non-threat, cellar dweller that maybe they didn't take them seriously when they should have.

Then again, who could have predicted that the Canes would have played so well after the loss of Captain Brindy?

Either way, it boiled down to not being able to consistently bring it night after night.

I suppose I am proud of the way that Timmay Gleason developed (as hoped/predicted last year) and that Eric Staal became the "Strong Like Bull" player that he was drafted to be. I'm still proud to be a Caniac and I will still be there rooting them on even if the Charlotte Checkers could beat them.

And who am I pulling for in the playoffs? Well, the Crapitals of course. Come on Ovie; you and your puke yellow skate laces go on and bring home another Coupe de Stanley for the Southeast.

Regardless of how things ended, it's been a fun ride and thank you to all COI readers who have come to either praise, question and even bash the Canes. Good times.

Go River Rats, Fayetteville FireAntz, Charlotte Checkers, SC Stingrays in your respective playoff marches.

Overused Natural Cliche: Hurricanes vs. Lightning

Big test tonight for the Hurricanes at the St. Petey's Forum in TB.

Which team shows up? One that can't beat a bottom feeder Caps team or the one that stomps through Canada kicking ass/taking names?

To make things tougher for the Canes, some minor-leaguer named Mathieu Darche is on a 3-game goal streak. The former Dinner Jacket's farm-teamer has a career high in that span. He is -2 in two games played against Carolina (out of the 400th time the teams have met this season). He apparently is causing a stir with his on-ice antics prompting Sugar Ray Emery to take a shot at his leg the other night.

Puck drops at 7:30 tonight on FSN South. Prepare for pure adulation of Vinnie Lecavalier from Tripp Tracy.

Lets. Go. Canes.

Face Time With the Washington Capitals Blogs

My favorite thing about that team is their quality blogs.

Congrats Guys!

Cory Stillman Scores Goal On Panthers From Cuba

With the NHL spreading its wings and offering regular season games in London (with rumors of an opening game in Prague or Sweden next year), Cory Stillman casted his support for the ongoing league travel by nailing a slapshot from Guantanamo Bay to Sunrise, FLA last night.

“Our commitment to grow the game globally has never been stronger,” said NHL Deputy Commissioner, Bill Daly. “The NHL is extremely proud to be represented in Cuba by a great hockey organization like the Hurricanes .”

In other news from last night, our thoughts and prayers are with the Erik Cole family today as he tried to score a goal with his helmet but crashed into Tomas Vokoun and laid motionless for several minutes before being carted away on the stretcher. As Versus cut to a commercial break, all of Caniac Nation held their breath as they showed a flattened Cole. If you and I were nervous during that commercial, imagine how his family must have felt?

All in all, a great night for the Canes smashing up on their divisional foe and putting silence to the "Divegate scandal".

ESPN Game Recap with Video Highlights

It May Only Be 3 Games Deep But...

I'm loving watching the Trash live up to their expectations. Hossa is bitching about the ice (trade deadline acquisition?), they have scored a wholloping 4 goals and they're 0-3.

And the much hyped FLA Kitties are tanking at 0-3 as well with the same GF @ 4, GA @ 11.

Almost enough to make you feel sorry for them. OK, not really.

That Southeast Is Sooo Hot Right Now

So damn hot - the birds have to use potholders when pulling worms from the ground. This picture was snapped at 5:15 PM on my way home Thursday:



Scientists are buzzing about global warming and the influence it may have - but we all really know what is causing the freakish weather:

Who The Hell To Pull For? I Just May Hate Them All...

Hi all,

As all of our loyal readers (yes, both of them) know, the Wuf is prowling Jamaica, swilling Red Stripe while we are resigned to watching other teams navigate the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Thus, I find myself filling in, upon request. I'd hoped to cobble together some (hopefully) semi-humorous rant for this momentous occasion; but unfortunately, without a Canes playoff run, I seem to be in a creative funk.

And so it was, this weekend I found myself flipping between several playoff bouts on center ice, NHL and the Channel formerly known as OLN. The games were entertaining, but something was missing. It suddenly occurred to me that I had not picked a team to pull for and was thus lacking the requisite emotional attachment to truly enjoy these games. (Well, except for obviously pulling for the Islanders, bless their hearts...). So I got to thinking about it and I found that I was incapable of picking one team. I really wanted to pull for the Rangers because of the presence of Matt Cullen and Kevin Weekes. But it just didn't feel quite right to pull for Jaromir Jagr. Pittsburgh was a tantalizing choice because of Staal Jr. and Mark Recchi, but pulling for Brooks Orprick and Colby Armstrong just gives me the heebie-jeebies. The Islanders have enough of the underdog factor to interest me, but it is just a bit too weird watching Sean Hill actually stay out of the penalty box for me to be truly comfortable. I could probably pull for Ottawa; but given past history, I can't help but feel like that effort would be in vain. The Lightning have the advantage of being from the Southeast Division, but I just can't bring myself to pull for Martin St. Louis (the Baggins can't have my precious...). Atlanta is from the Southeast as well, but Bellanger and Koo Koo for Kovalchuk (thanks C-Leaguer...) irritate me more than St. Louis. I could pull for the Devils... oh who am I kidding, no hell I couldn't. And to be honest, as a true Caniac, I'd rather see my sister in a whorehouse than the Stanley Cup in Buffalo. So I find myself mentally drifting as to which way to go.

Increasingly, during the commercial breaks (when I am able to phase out the Geico and Herpes commercials), I swear I can hear the faint echoes of the spirit of Horace Greeley directing me: "Go west young man. Go west".

I hear San Jose is nice this time of year...