Peter Karmanos: 2009 Classless Asshat Award Winner

You know, suffering through a losing streak is hard on anybody's fandom. Watching your star players stand around on the ice while the other team blows you out of the building makes you want to scream. But just when you thought it couldn't get any worse in Raleigh, our absentee owner suddenly decided to turn into a Grade-A Classless Asshat for no apparent reason.

In case you somehow missed it, Peter Karmanos was the keynote speaker at the Greater Raleigh Sports Council's quarterly meeting today. Apparently, he decided that it would be a good idea to come out and throw Peter Laviolette under the bus in front of god and everybody. And for no apparent reason. WTF?

You can find the whole article here:

http://blogs.newsobserver.com/canes/karmanos-laviolette-had-to-go

I won't parse it all out, but I do want to point out a couple of things. First of all, there was this lovely quote:

"I didn't like our coach," Karmanos said. "His public persona and his
private persona were two different things."

Well, when you consider that Laviolette always seemed to be a really nice guy in public, the only way to interpret that quote is that PK is calling Laviolette an asshole. Worse, PK then insinuates that Laviolette was the reason that Eric Belanger sucked while he was here. (Funny, I always thought it was his lackluster effort and lack of production, but what do I know...). He then makes the following idiotic quote about Belanger (among others):

"He's now a key part of the Minnesota team," Karmanos said. "And that happened
with quite a few players and you just can't afford to lose those kind of
assets."

Seriously? Isn't it JR's job (with PK's blessing) to determine which assets we keep or lose? And who exactly traded Belanger? That's right. JR traded him. And for what? Big Slow Vagisil - ... I mean Big Joe Vasicek. Let's face facts. It was evident from day one that Belanger didn't want to be here. Or at least he sure played like he didn't. And if Belanger is so damn good, then why isn't PK blasting JR for not getting more than Big Slow Washed-up-Czech for him in that trade?

And what other assets did Laviolette lose? Craig Adams? Kevyn Adams? Anson Carter? Jeff Hamilton? Dan LaCouture? John Grahame? That Melichar guy? I guess JR's trading of Andrew Ladd, Erik Cole, Cory Stillman and Mike Commodore doesn't count as losing assets. Or maybe JR's errors are overlooked because of his past acquisitions of such sterling talent like Jan Hlavac and Jamie Storr. . .

I just don't get it. Asshole or not, Peter Laviolette brought the Stanley Cup to Carolina. You'd think that a Cup win would be worth some serious respect from the man that profited most from it. Or at least you'd think it would be worth enough to keep PK's classless piehole shut. For an organization that prides itself in being "like a family", you'd think they wouldn't be trashing the guy who actually made this team (and market) relevant for the first time in years. Though, I guess this organization is analogous to a family; but in the "let's pull the plug on Grandma so we don't have to spend our inheritance to pay for her hospice care" kinda way.

On a final note, I'm not a former Harvard teammate of Jason Karmanos, so nobody told me why PK felt the need slam Lavi. I can only give you my opinion as to why I think he decided Laviolette needed to be trashed today. My impression is that this reeks of desperation. Basically, this team has underachieved for 2 and a half years. When that happens, you can either blame the players or blame the coach. Since blaming the players means blaming your GM and yourself (as the people who ultimately make the sign/trade decisions), it is much easier to blame the coach. So they fired Lavi as the scapegoat for the players not producing. And rather than hiring a new coach, they brought back Paul Maurice to save some serious coin. As a result, the Canes are still sucking on a nightly basis. We are still hovering just below mediocrity (sorta like Toronto the last 2 years - go figure . . .). The coaching change has been a net wash at best. We're really doing no better (win/loss) than we were under Laviolette. So PK's either got to blame himself and JR for the non-productive talent, or for their bargain-bin coaching hire: Paul Maurice. You can bet that neither of those are going to happen. So to deflect the blame from their failings, he throws Lavi under the bus.

Feel free to disagree with my rationale for this boondoggle if you want. But in my opinion, trashing Laviolette for no reason was uncalled for, and just plain classless. I lost a lot of respect for PK and this organization today.

As the old saying goes, Mr. Karmanos: "It takes one to know one."

Asshole indeed.

In case you didn't know it, I'm easily entertained

Just in time for the Toronto/Canes game Thursday night...

Head on over to Barry Melrose Rocks to find out what the hell this is about!

Canes @ Senators - Will Uh Oh Corvo strike again?

Tuesday night has the Canes finishing up a brief, three game road trip in Ottawa before a home game against the Leafs on Thursday. Not to pile on, but in case you didn't already know - Ottawa isn't very good this year.

Okay, they're terrible.

After a dominant run through the 06-07 playoffs that ended with a defeat to Anaheim, they mother-trucked their way through the first half of the season compiling a franchise best winning streak at the start last year. Then, they started to slide. They made the playoffs last season (largely in part because the Hurricanes shit the bed didn't) but were easily swept by the Penguins.

This season, the slide continues as they currently sit 29th out of 30 NHL teams just above the Drive-For-John-Tavares NY Islanders. Fans are calling for GM Bryan Murray's head. They're calling for Coach Craig Hartsburg head. Amidst all this clamo(u)r - the Senators bloggers have been keeping us all entertained.

Where the Hurricanes have been using the team slogan of "Our Team. Our Tradition.", if you visit the Ottawa Senators front page, you see "A Force United". With the disappointing play over the past year - the Sens Army has formed an underground rebellion of sorts titled "A Farce United".Above is friend to COI, Senators Lost Cojones, seen shortly after drowning his sorrows in his bitchin man room. SLC runs the hysterical blog, Five For Smiting. SLC was kind enough to give us a bit of a scouting report on his favorite team of underachievers:

"we're a mess. We can't score, can't stop getting scored upon, the goalies can't be trusted (Young Master Elliot aside), the coaching staff have no clue how to fix it, the GM just sits there and scowls, the playoffs are nothing but a pipe dream, and the howling mobs are so discouraged, we've put away the torches and pitchforks and pulled out the "Welcome John Tavares!" banners. I think that just about covers it. Good luck on Tuesday. Please be gentle."

Thanks for stopping by SLC, and may Joe Corvo & Patrick Eaves haunt your soul both score hat tricks give you a big high-five!

Ottawa has all the talent needed to win on any given night but hasn't. Carolina could easily be walking into a trap here. We'll see what happens I suppose!

Go Canes!

Rough day for NC Sports

Yesterday, the Hurricanes got plastered by the Bruins 5-1. Yes, plastered. Ho hum.

To make matters worse, NC State got beat down by an undefeated Clemson team 63-51 and the Carolina Panthers absolutely showed their ass in a playoff defeat to (of all teams) the Arizona Cardinals.

Umm, go Chargers?

Strange Team Promotions - Part IV

Just when you thought it couldn't get any weirder in Caneland, Wuf forwards me this link:

http://hurricanes.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=402940

Apparently, the Hurricanes are now designing sandwiches for Harris Teeter. I shit you not. The first edition is apparently the "Walker 24". Honest to god, they are promoting a sandwich 'designed' by Scott Walker. The press report is silent as to the actual ingredients that make up the "Walker 24", but an inside source has informed me that the main ingredient is Genoa Salami. According the the tightly guarded Scott Walker recipe (which we here at C.O.I. have obtained), the secret to making the "Walker 24" is that you beat the holy hell out of the Salami, and slam it to the ground. You must then wait 5 minutes before you can put it on the bread.

Now you 3 faithful readers know how we roll (no pun intended) here at C.O.I. This story got me and the Wuf thinking. We just knew there had to be other entrants into the sandwich making promo. Specifically, there had to be some rejected sandwich ideas. So I did some digging. And lo and behold, through some super-secret inside informants, I managed to get the scoop. I can't reveal my anonymous sources, but it turns out, there were a couple of not-so-great sandwich submissions from the lockerroom. So here, in another C.O.I. exclusive, we would like to share a couple of the more interesting rejected sandwich ideas.

The first rejected sandwich idea was 'the Wizard' by Ray Whitney. Apparently, it consisted of a little mayo, a little mustard, a little lettuce and a lot of ham served on short bread.

The next was a creation submitted by Jim Rutherford. It was called the "Craig Adams". According to the taste testers, it was not a great hoagie, just a mediocre grinder. What made this sandwich notable was that Harris Teeter wasn't going to charge anything for it. They were just going to give it away for "future considerations".

An anonymous submission was also recieved and rejected. It was called the "Johnny Grahame". Apparently, the recipe was a bottle of Tequila sandwiched between two Hooters girls. Sure, that submission may not be in line with Harris Teeter's target marketing image, but I've got to admit, I'd stand in line for that one every day at lunch.

There was also a submission by Cam Ward, called the "Glove Side High". It was rejected because the only ingredient was Swiss Cheese.

Then, there was the "Frank Kaberle". It was a toasted sub. It apparently had a lot of potential, but they eventually scrapped it because no matter how much they tried to get it right, it just kept getting burnt.

And finally, there was quite a buzz surrounding Rod Brind'amour's entry. It was called "The Ex Wife". But it didn't get very far. Not only was it bitter, but you had to pay for the sandwich while someone else got to eat it.

So there you have it: the rejected Hurricane Sandwiches of 08/09. During our research, we also found out that this promotion also takes place elsewhere in the NHL, and we managed to get a list of rejected sandwich ideas from other teams around the league. But that is a post for another day.

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.

I'm Still Alive

So Mrs. Wuffy and I bought a house at the end of November and spent the majority of December refusing to do anything but drink getting settled in. Any free time I got outside of the usual hey-day and my vegetable impersonations went towards either painting, raking, cleaning or some other "honeydew" chore.

So alas, we are now Cary-ites and happy homeowners. But COI is not so happy. I'm more than displeased with the fact that there's been nothing but crickets around here. East jumped in when he could (and delivered some dime-pieces, thanks again East) - but I slacked on my blogging big time. For that my friends, I am sorry.

The other day I got an e-mail from Kevin of Barry Melrose Rocks /AOL Fanhouse fame. Seems he's got a super secret internship that requires him to step away from the blogging scene for a bit. He asked me to join in the fun over at BMR to cover his stead while he's away. Naturally, how could I say no? One of my favorite bloggers asks me to hold the reins - you're damned right I'll do it! That's almost like the beer samplers at Miller Brewing calling and asking to come and work for them.
"You mean I get to sample beer for a living? and you're gonna pay me? Like US Dollars?"

With that said - I'm not dropping COI off at the dump. Not by a long shot. But I am entertaining offers if anyone thinks they'd like to give this blogging gig a try. CarolinaOnIce@gmail.com if you're interested, lonely and need to chat, or should you have any questions.

See you around. Go Canes!