Dud

I'm baaaack....

Long time between posts. Work has been crazy of late. Life in general has been busy. Severely cutting into blogging time. Will have to get back into the habit.

The Canes went on quite a little run there, climbing all the way back into a first place tie with the Thrashers. Got to check out 3 games in person at the RBC Center, all wins. Our seats this year are indeed "up in the rafters", but it's all good. For the Pittsburgh game a couple of weeks ago, I shelled out the big bucks ($85) for the primo seat - center ice, section 119, downstairs...best seats I've ever had...I was literally straddling the center-ice line...and well worth it...a great game, a Canes win.

Back to the present...last night's game against the Rangers was a big fat DUD. Painful to watch. The Canes were flat, got out skated, out hit, out shot and out hustled. Everything that had went right over the past few weeks and a 6-1-1 streak, definitely went wrong in Madison Square Garden. Doh! If it were not for some spectacular goaltending, and Jagr inexplicably blowing a 2-on-none breakaway, the final score could have, and probably should have been a lot worse than 4-0 Rangers. Laviolette described it after the game as a "lazy" effort. And I think that is putting it mildly.

Well, it's back to the ice in about 30minutes on the Island. Perhaps the quick turnaround will work in our favor. No time to stew over a dismal performance. Will be interesting to see how the Canes respond. I think the biggest challenge the Canes will face all year is maintaining their intensity and fightring off complacency. They came out a bit complacent at the beginning of the year and dug themselves a whole. After fighting and clawing to dig themselves out of that hole, regaining the top of the Southeast division and second place in the Eastern Conference, they came out flat and complacent again against the Rangers. Wake up call? One can only hope. This 3 games in 4 days stretch in NY and Boston is a real test of their mettle.

Let's see how they respond tonight on Long Island.

Go Canes.

-m