Now That's What I'm Talkin' 'Bout

I think this is what you would call "putting it all together" - defense, offense, power play, penalty kill, goaltending - as the Carolina Hurricanes played by far their most complete game of the season in dismantling the Tampa Bay Lightning at the St. Pete Times Forum Monday night. The only disappointment in the final score (5-1 in favor of the good guys), was that Cam Ward barely missed grabbing the first regular season shut out of his career by about 90 seconds. But it was still a night of firsts for at least one of the Canes. Justin Williams broke out of his early season scoring slump, in a big way, with his first NHL hat trick (his first 3 goals of the season) in route to a 4 point night.

The Canes came out and skated the full 90 minutes with grit, intensity and flare, taking out their second division opponent in their third straight road win. Rod Brind'Amour had his first goal of the season to go along with two assists, while Eric Belanger also added a goal (his second of the year) to complete the rout. Brind'Amour finished with 3 points, Eric Staal and Ray Whitney chipped in with 2 assists each, while Erik Cole, Scott Walker and Anton Babchuk also added helpers as the Hurricanes reached the .500 mark for the first time this season. Cam Ward was stellar in goal as he continued his recent hot streak, getting the nod in goal over former Lightning netminder John Grahame who many thought might get the start against his former team. Ward stopped 33 of 34 shots and was simply spectacular at times, stoning Tampa stars Martin St. Louis (7 times) and Brad Richards (at least twice) with amazing stops from point blank range. As was the case with Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk on Friday night, I doubt St. Louis had a restful night's sleep last night with images of Ward in the crease still lingering. The win and its 2 points moved the Canes into a tie with Florida for second place in the Southeast Division with 7 points on the young season, only 2 points off the pace currently being set by the Atlanta Thrashers.

The Canes will return to Raleigh for a couple of days of homecooking before heading back out on the road for what is sure to be another high intensity confrontation with the Buffalo Sabres Friday night (The Cane's and Sabres went to a shootout in the season opener in Raleigh). This promises to be one early season clash that you won't want to miss.

NOTES:

- Defensemen Brett Hedican and Glen Wesley each missed their second straight game with nagging injuries, but the remining defensive corp of Niclas Wallin, Mike Commodore, Tim Gleason, David Tanabe, Anton Babchuk and Andrew Hutchinson held strong and played one of the Canes most cohesive defensive games of the young season. Niclas Wallin led the Canes in ice time with nearly 25 minutes (24:49, 31 shifts).

- The Hurricanes dominated the face-off circle taking 37 of 58 draws overall (64%) and 14 of 20 in the defensive zone,

- Carolina's 3 goals in the second period were the first given up by Tampa Bay in the middle frame all year.

- Ryan Bayda and Keith Aucoin, called up from Albany to replace injured forwards Trevor Letowski and Andrew Ladd, both got their feet wet in their first NHL game of the season. Bayda logged 8:05 of ice time on 10 shifts, while Aucoin saw 5:49 of action on 7 shifts.

-Along with everything else that seems to be starting to click for the Canes, they went 3 for 8 on the power play Monday night; while their penalty kill was solid in holding the Lightning scoreless on their 5 power play opportunities.

- Turning Points: Tampa coach John Tortorella, perhaps sensing Lightning blood in the water, used his only timeout just 2:29 into the second period to try to fire up his team and put a halt to a Carolina offensive onslaught that had the Lightning on their heels seemingly as soon as they stepped out of the locker room. The result - Justin William's first goal of the season just 52 seconds later. Conversely, Cane's coach Peter Laviolette used his timeout 17:11 into the second with 3 seconds left of a 5 on 3 power play. The Canes scored their second power play goal of the evening (Justin Williams again) just 11 seconds later for a 4-0 lead going into the second intermission.

-According to the game announcers on VERSUS, Monday's game marked the first ever NHL meeting of two American-born coaches who had both won a Stanley Cup.

- Full Game Coverage:

THE NEWS & OBSERVER
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
TSN

-martin

Lucky 13!! - Ray Whitney

Whew! Exhale.
Now that's a relief.

A Ray Whitney wrist shot on a bouncing puck as time expired gave the Carolina Hurricanes their first victory of the season in Atlanta on Friday night, and a collective sigh of relief could be heard all across the triangle.

Everyone was starting to get a little tense. Myself included. And while this one win does not right all that has been going wrong for the Canes early on, it does get that cliched monkey off their backs. Hopefully they will now be able relax a little and just play the hockey they are capable of playing. Pittsburgh will be a stern test tomorrow (Saturday) night. But everyone should sleep a little easier now that the first one is out of the way. At least that late night flight to Pittsburgh on the team plane will be a little less tense.

The Canes came out of the gate tonight playing inpsired hockey. Coach Peter Laviollette shook up his forward lines, as promised, hoping to mspark some offense, and after taking a 3-0 into the lockeroom after the first period, it seemd liker a brilliant coaching move. The new line pairings were: Walker/Staal/Williams; C. Adams/Brind'Amour/Cole; Ladd/Belanger/Whitney with Kevin Adams and Chad LaRose playing mix and match for the fourth line. The first period was a thing of beauty with the Canes skating aggressively and, for the most part, taking the play directly at the Thrashers. The new line combinations worked beautifully, especially Adams/Brind'Amour/Cole combination, with Craig Adams notching two goals, and Brind'Amour picking up 2 assists. The offense kept it simple - skate hard, shoot the puck, crash the net. Both of Adams' goals came as he picked up juicy rebounds around the net to beat Atlanta's Kerri Lehtonen (who until tonight's first period had been almost unbeatable in the Thrasher's first four games) from both sides of the net. The rebounds came courtesy of slapshots from Erik Cole and Niclas Wallin. Eric Staal closed out the first period in style with a goal as time expired. Staal was set free on a breakaway seconds after Cane's goalie Cam Ward had stoned Thrasher's supa-star Ilya Kovalchuk 's breakaway at the other end. Mike Commodore collected the rebound behind the net and sent it around the boards, with Staal collecting the puck near center ice and breaking free on Lehtonen as the clock ticked down to zero. Staal found the back of the net with a wrist shot with 1.5 second left in the period. 3-0 Canes.

The second period did not get off to a good start for the Canes as the Thrashers came out and made it clear early on that they would not go gentle into that good night. Canes forward Andrew Ladd did not return from the lockeroom after the first intermission, and it was quickly learned that he was out for the rest of the game with the ubiquitous "upper body" injury. The Thrashers were agressive, and defintely took the play to the Canes early in the period. The Canes held their own thanks largely to Cam Ward, who was electrifying all night, and who stood strong for the Canes as their offense sputtered a bit. The Thrashers finally broke through, in a big way, 14 minutes into the 2nd, as Jon Sim scored two gritty goals in the span of 20 seconds. The first goal came in the midst of mayhem in front of the net, as the puck bounced off of two Thrashers and over the net before Sim was able to get his stick on it in the crease, just sneaking the puck behind a sprawling Ward. Officals had to go to the replay to confirm the goal but the call stood (as it should have). Sim was back at it again before the crowd could even watch the replay and get the offical scoring. The Thrashers won the center-ice faceoff sending the puck deep into the Canes zone. Sim cut to the front of the goal as Vyacheslav Kozlov gave him a beautiful feed from behind the net. Sim manged to squeeze the puck between the legs of Cane's defensemen Tim Gleason and between Ward'a pads. Boom-Bang-Boom. Canes 3 - Thrashers 2 at the end of the second period.

As high as the Canes must of felt heading into the locker room at the first intermission, they must have been a bit shaken as they came back on the ice for the 3rd period. And it showed, as the Thrashers came out like a buzzsaw and continued to pressure and attack hoping to take advantage of what had to be the Canes' shakey confidence. The first 5 minutes of the third were a blitzkreig on the Cane's net as Atlanta got off 8 shots and controlled to flow of the game with a relentless forecheck that kept the puck in the Cane's zone shift after shift. Once again, if not for the heroics of Cam Ward, the Canes would have been in deep trouble. Momentum shifted a bit when the Thrasher's 2nd period hero Jon Sim took a goalie interference penalty 9 minutes in. The Canes did not score on the ensuing powerplay, but they did seemto find their legs and managed to keep the puck in the Thrasher's zone for several great scoring chances. Even back at 5 on 5 the Canes seemed to be back up on their skates, playing aggressively instead of playing not to lose. Both teams skated well for the next 5 or 6 minutes, matching check for check, with both goalies making some spectacular stops. Ward stood especially tall against Kovalchuk, who is sure to have nightmares tonight about the Canes netminder. Breakways, point blank slap shots, beautiful one on one moves, it did not matter as Ward stoned the talented Russian star time and time again. Kovalchuk got off 10 shots in the game, but is still scoreless for the season.

With both teams shifting momentum back and forth in the 3rd period, but with nothing tangible to show for it, something had to give one way or another. The first crack came at the Cane's expense. Bobby Holik played a nifty give and go at the blue line with Scott Mellanby. Holik got by Tim Gleason and skated in on Cam Ward as David Tanabe rushed in to protect his goalie. Holik lost control of the puck briefly, but it bounced off of Tanabe's skate, right back onto Holik's stick as he deftly put a wrist shot against the grain and past Ward who was shifting with the flow of the play. 14:39 into the third the Thrashers had come all the way back. With just over 5 minutes to play it looked like a game had started out so impressively for the Cane's was slipping out of their grasp, and heading to overtime.

Both teams had a few more chances in the closing minutes, but nothing materialized until Whitney's heroics took center stage. With less than 10 seconds left before overtime and a disappointing split of two points that the Canes badly needed, Rod Brind'Amour came onto the ice for a faceoff deep in the Thrasher's zone. Whitney set up at the point, hoping to be in position for a last second blast should Brind'Amour win the draw. Eric Staal was in position to crash the net for a deflection or possible rebound. But (surprizingly) Brind'Amour did not win the draw, and the faceoff bounced towards Staal in front of the net. Staal tried a quick shot, that popped up high over the back of the net. A hustling Staal managed to get to the bouncing puck behind the net, and his only option at that point was to flip the puck back towards the crease and hope for the best. The best on this night was in the form of Ray Whitney, sweeping in from the point to corral the bouncing puck directly in front of the net just in time to flip a wrist shot delicately past a lunging Lehtonen as time expired. 4-3 Hurricanes. Game. Set. Match, Exhale.

A win is a win. The Canes played inspired hockey at times, but after jumping out to an early lead they allowed the Thrashers back into the game by allowing Atlanta to control play for much for the second and third periods, where the Canes seemed to play a bit nervous at times. Hopefully, getting this first one under their belt will propell the Canes towards palying the aggressive but smart hockey that we all know they are capable of. First test comes quickly in Pittsburgh on Saturday night.

NOTES: Cam Ward had 31 saves, many of them spectacular, and Kerri Lehtonen (equally spectacular at times) had 29 in a battle of two of the NHL's most talented young goaltenders...Rod Brind'Amour broke out in a big way scoring his first 3 points of the season on 3 assists...Eric Staal scored his first goal since opening night against Buffalo, and Erik Cole picked up his first point (an assist) since opening night as well..Mike Commodore continues to rack up the penalty minutes with 3 trips to the box tonight for 6 minutes. I just wish he were taking good pnealties more often than stupid ones...newcomers Eric Belanger and Scott Walker continued to impress with strong forechecking and agressive skating...Ray Whitney, who wears jersey #13, scored the game winning goal on Friday the 13th...spooky!...Trevor Letowski and Anton Babchuk were healthy scratches for the Canes.

-martin

Searching for Consistency

I'm not going to panic. I'm not. Not yet. But I think every Caniac out there has reason to be concerned.

The Hurricanes fell to 0-3-1 tonight with a 6-3 loss to the Panthers in Sunrise, FL.

Ollie Jokinen and Gary Roberts scored two goals a piece, with Stephen Weiss and Martin Gelinas (still my favorite player in the league) chipping in as well. Alex Auld continued his strong play in goal for the Panthers with 32 saves, some of them nothing short of brilliant, and with Todd (the thug) Bertuzzi chipping in with 2 assists that trade with Vancouver is looking better all the time. Both of Jokinen's goals looked bad for the Canes with his first coming short handed after he stole the puck in the Canes' zone and just abused Eric Staahl, and the second on a bascially uncontested blast from the blue line that somehow mystified goalie John Grahame.

The Canes got goals from Scott Walker, Eric Belanger and Andrew Hutchinson, who scored on the power play in the third period to make things interesting...for a little while at least. John Grahame had a less than stellar debut in goal, the low point probably coming with Jokinen's blast from the blue line.

The Canes skated pretty well in the third period and tried to make things interesting. But in the end, it was too little to late.

Coach Peter Laviolette saw it this way: "I thought there were some people that gave good skating efforts, but again I'd have to say they skated probably better than we did, and it's a skating game right now. We need to get better."

That's the thing that concerns me most about the Cane's sluggish early start, they seem to be getting outskated every single night. There might be stretches of good skating, but it's not nearly as consistent as it needs to be. This is not a team that can win unless they are skating well. It is a team built for speed and aggressiveness, just like last year, when they outworked their opponents on a consistent basis, win or lose. I suppose it's natural to have a Stanley Cup hangover - their best players through the first week of the season have been Belanger, Walker, Litowski and Gleason, none of whom were around for last year's magical run - but they had better snap out of it soon and learn what it feels like to win again. Otherwise, losing can become a hard habit to break. The Southeast Division has seemingly improved from top to bottom. The Canes cannot afford to fall too far behind too early, or it could be a long uphill climb of a season.

There were a few signs of progress tonight, but overall it was in no way a big step forward. The defense was sloppy at times.
Rob Brind A'mour and Justin Williams continue to be invisible, offensively and defensively, and the Cole/Whitney/Staal line has produced no offense since the opener against Buffalo. When your best, and at times, only offensive threat is your 3rd line, you might be in for trouble.

The defense seems to mirror the offense, playing well in spurts but then making a foolish turnover or taking a silly penalty.

I'm not as concerned about the power play and some seem to be. Sure the Canes are only 3-for-27 on the season, and there is plenty of room for improvement, but that's better than or at least comparable to where they were at this point last year. My biggest concern is 5 on 5. That's where we are getting beat. That is where we are getting out skated, out hustled and out worked. And that is where the Canes made their hay last season.

It may be cliche, the Canes are going to be a marked team all year. They will get everyone's top effort every night out. They have to match that intensity. They have to rediscover that hunger, before it's too late.

I'm not ready to panic. I still believe. I'm just hoping things start to click sooner rather than later.

-m

What a difference a day makes...

On Wednesday night in Toronto, Martin Gerber made his debut in net for the Ottawa Senators and looked like a future Vezina Trophy winner in a 4 - 1 victory over the Maple Leafs. Only a Mats Sundin penalty shot, that barely trickled across the goal line prevented an opening night shut out.

Move forward 24 hours and the script was flipped. Gerber on Thursday looked more like the shell shocked goalie, pulled mercifully from the shooting gallery in game 2 of last year's playoffs. On this night it was Ray Emery (instead of Cam Ward) who was brought in to stop the bleeding - 5 goals on 24 shots - after the second period. Emery gave up one goal in the third, while on the other end of the ice Andrew Raycroft, as shaky in Wednesday's game as Gerber was strong, got the shut out with 34 saves in goal for Toronto. Final score 6-0.

First win in Toronto for former Hurricane's/Whaler's head coach Paul Maurice, who still looks like he would get carded ordering a drink in a bar. Former Hurricane fan favorite and all around swell guy, Bates Battalgia, also pitched in for the Leafs, scoring his first goal of the season in the third. Battaglia spent all of last season in the minors, playing for the Toronto Marlies under his former coach Maurice. Both moved up the big club this year.

Chad Kilger got the Leafs started early with a short handed goal about half way through the first period. Kilger added a second goal later, to join Darcy Tucker (2), Alex Ponikarovsky and Battaglia on the score sheet. Kyle Westwood had 4 assists (a career high) and Mats Sudin added 2 helpers for the Leafs.

TSN GAME RECAP - here.

-m

Game On...

Opening night...what a feeling.

The Big ATM was packed to the rafters (where your's truly's seats were) and the Caniacs were stoked.

Banner raising ceremony drug out a bit, but I suppose these things usually do...I mean, when you are introducing everyone from the assistant to the assistant equipment manager and all your pro scouts, right up to Staal, Cole and Brind'Amour, well it's gonna take a little time. Karmanos got a nice ovation, Rutherford too. Place went nuts for Laviolette. But the biggest cheers of the night definitely came for Cole and Brind'Amour. To be expected. I was not in full playoff throat so I just enjoyed the spectacle. It was nicely done, not too over the top, not excruciatingly boring...though you could tell the players were getting antsy towards the end. I thought Commodore was going to turn and check Whitney into the boards, just to hit someone.

Well, it's done. That's it. Finished. Closure. Last year is over. Let's get it on...

Game Notes:

-The Canes came out early firing on all cylinders offensively, seemed as if the ice was tilted towards the Buffalo goal for most of the first period. Canes were obviously fired up and feeding off the adrenaline rush of the pre-game ceremony, and Buffalo might have been caught on their heels a little to start things off. As things settled down a bit, both teams started to really skate well. The first period was some exciting hockey to watch. But despite some good chances (Cole hit the post on a beautiful quick-wrister from point blank range), the Cane's could not crack Ryan Miller, who had a great night. At one point I glaced at the shot totals and it was 11-1 in favor of Carolina. Then a few moments later a puck deflected off of two or three players in front of the net and snuck past Ward. 1-0 Buffalo. 1 goal on two shots. Not a bad ratio.

- Both teams were a little flat in the second period as the penalties started to pile up. Eric Staal tied the score on a breakaway, after a beautiful long pass from Ray Whitney. Cam Ward actually was announced as the second assist on the play. As Ward cleared the puck from behind the net, Whitney picked it up near the blue-line and found Staal breaking free on MIller.

- The penalty kill units for both teams were strong, each killing off chunks of 5 on 3 time until Eric Cole snuck one past Miller late in the second period with the Sabres down two skaters. The goal came at the end of a long stretch of 5 on 3 for the Canes (they had almost 3 minutes of two man advantage in a 5 minute stretch of the period) and the roar from the crowd seemed to be as much a cry of relief as anything.

- Chris Drury, who always seems to be in the right place at the right time, tied the score for the Sabres on a nifty deflection past Ward.

- The third period was grinder with both teams skating hard but not generating many scoring chances. The Canes seemed to tire a bit perhaps, which might be expected under the circumstances - high emotions early, a tough, physical, high-paced game throughout. It had the feeling of playoff hockey in the spring time already. These two teams are obviously very evenly matched and share similar styles of play. If all goes to plan, they should be seeing a lot of each other again next spring. But that's a long way away.

- Both goalies played exceptionally well. Miller in particular, was stellar early in the game, withstanding the Cane's initial charge/burst of energy, and remained steady throughout. Ward seemed to take a bit longer to get into the flow, largely because he was not facing shots early, but was huge in the third and in the overtime. From my vantage point there was not a lot he could do on either of Buffalo's goals. By my completely unofficial count the Canes hit the post 4 times.

- Briere's goal in the shootout was a thing of beauty, while none of the Hurricane's shots on Miller had much of a chance. Wondering how much we are gonna be missing my boy Matt Cullen in the shootouts this year. For all of his skill Staal really seems to struggle in shoot-outs and on penalty shots.

- The new guys for the Canes (Gleason, Bellanger, Walker, Letowski) looked solid. Gleason looked especially good. Was really impressed with his play. He's a big kid who doesn't mind banging in the corners or along the boards. Looks good on both the power play and the penalty kill. Seems to have a nice shot from the point. Logged a lot of ice time, I have not seen the official numbers, but he had to have around 25 minutes. I was impressed.

- A lot of the chattter on the post game radio call-in seemed to be all about slamming David Tanabe. Not sure where that comes from or why. Tanabe did not have a great game, sure, but he was not blatantly horrendous either. But then again, I was not obsessed with watching his every move on the ice as some seemed to be. From where I sat, he just looked like a guy who was a little bit tight, trying to hard to make a big play or a big hit, which threw him just a little bit off his game. Maybe a little jittery on his return "home". Hopefully, he will settle down now that this first game is under his belt. We'll see. Definitely seems to have lost some of his speed after the knee surgeries, but still a fluid skater.

- Definitely a different feeling walking out of the RBC Center on Monday night that is was last time around. But I don't think that, no matter what happens, I'll ever have an experience at a sporting event as amazing as Game 7 against Edmonton. That was truly special. But it's over now. The banners have been raised. The Cup goes back to Toronto (ok, I think it will stick around for one more game). Time to turn the page. Time to start writing the book all over again. Chapter by chapter. Night by night.

Hockey is back and I could not be happier.

Game on indeed!

-m