Everybody Loves Raymond

Nice little story/profile on Ray Whitney in the News & Observer today.

Check it out HERE.


-m

Own The Period

Up and down week for the Hurricanes...and for your's truly (but that's another story completly)...

Got to check in on the Ottawa game online from work, and from the sound of it FSN made a good choice in not televising this stinker. Quick start for the Canes on an Andrew Ladd goal, and a stinker from there on out. Would be tempting and convienent to just file this one away as an "off day", if not for the other stinkers the Canes had posted in two of the previous 3 games. Since rallying to tie the Thrashers for the top spot in the East, the Canes went 1-3 and played some of their worst hockey of the season. Needless to say, I was bumming, with Montreal looming on the horizon.

Thursday's game against the Canadians at the RBC Center was quickly shaping up to be a "must win", if there could be such a thing in late November. The Canes were reeling, falling 5 points behind the Thrashers and seemingly skating in quicksand for the past week - 10days. The Canadians on the other hand came in having won 4 of 5 and having played some of the most consistent hockey in the NHL. Montreal blanked the Canes 4-0 earlier in the season on RBC ice, and the Canes had yet to beat a team in 2006 that they had elimated in their spring run to the Stanley Cup.

The atmosphere at the Big ATM was less than "rockin" as a sparse and damp crowd settled into their seats. The mood in the arena was less excitement and more anxiety and frustration. Here are my notes from the game:

- Both teams skated well in the first period. Hard hitting. You can tell these two teams can get a bit chippy with one another. Michael Ryder put the Habs on the board first, about midway through the period, and seemed to take a good bit of air out of the room. Folks seemed to settle back in their seats with a "here we go again" vibe.

- Cane's struck back with around 6 minutes left in the period as Erik Cole scored a charging gritty goal, knocking in his own rebound in a scrum in front of the net. For whatever reason, Colesey owns the Canadians. He would score a second goal on this night (later in the second period), and seems to play like a man possessed when he sees that Habs sweater across the ice. Overall this was probably the best game I've seen Cole play so far this season. Hard charging, agressive, physical...a threat whenever he was on the ice ... scoring goals, setting up teammates, drawing penalties....when Cole is on his game its a joy to watch.

- After Cole gave the Canes a 2-1 lead in the second, Montreal rallied to tie the score on a goal by Tomas Plekanec a few minutes before intermission.

- Third Period. OWN THE PERIOD. That was the Canes mantra last year where the third period was their own personal playground. After wearing down their oppenents for 40 minutes, the Canes would put the pedal to the metal in the third as defensemen and goaltenders wilted under the pressure. Not so much so far this season. Until Thursday night...

- Rock You Like A Hurricane. The team skated loose, skated fast and applied pressure throughout, peppering Montreal goal tender Cristobol Huet with over 20 shots. Huet's heroics in goal and some bad bounces were the only the things that keep this one from being a blowout. Now this was Hurricanes hockey, fast and relentless. The guys seemed to take Peter Laviolette's pre-game advice, "Skate hard, but remember to have fun", to heart in the third, and it was a joy to see.

- Justin Williams scored the game-winner in the third, and Eric Belanger scored again less than a minute later for insurance. It was good to see Belanger get a goal as his line (with Trevor Letowski and Andrew Ladd) were probably the Canes best line on this night from an effort and energy standpoint.

- The Canes got 48 shots on goal for the game, their highest total of the season, almost half of those coming in the third period.

- Cam Ward was solid in net after a three game layoff. He made 25 saves, and made some spectacular stops, especially in the second period. I'm sure he would like to have Plekanec's second period goal back, but overall a very solid performance. He had the best seat in the house for most of the 3rd period as he simply sat back and watched all the action at the other end of the ice. My unofficial count had him going over 12 minutes of the third without facing a shot.

- For most of two periods on Thursday, the Canes mirrored their season so far, there was some inspired play, some gritty play and some excellent scoring opportunities that slipped away...off a post, a key deflection, two wide open nets that could not be found...while at times they looked slow, lost and befuddled....the Canes would win a battle on the boards only to turn the puck over on a weak pass in their own zone...they would charge hard down the ice with a purpose, only to lose the puck and find themselves down 3 on 2 going the other way...they played well in spurts and awful in others, a lack of consistency that has plagued them all season...

- I turned to Stef at one point and comment that the Canes looked tired, and slow - not necessarily physically tired, but mentally tired, like their bodies just weren't in synch with what their heads were telling the to do. I wondered out loud of the mental toll of defending a Cup - the grind of the playoff coupled with a short offseason and then a regular season where everyone has a target on you - might be more significant than any physical toll. Even if you work to get your body back in shape and ready to go, the mind and the psyche are perhaps more fragile and more difficult to keep sharp. Let's hope this big win over Montreal (not just the win, but the way they won it in the third period) can re-engergize the team and launch them forward as they get ready for a big west coast road trip next week.

- A perfect example of this "tired" play seemed to be evidedent in from an unexpected source on this night. Rod Brind'Amour. After having taken a few practices off during the week , reportedly to "rest" (completely unheard of for the work-a-holic), Brind A'mour looked a step slow and at times hopelessly lost on the ice Thursday night. Nobody gets his body in better shape than Rod Brind A'mour, and he is having a terrific season so far, his best offensive season in over 5 years, practically carrying the Canes on his shoulders at times, but I could not help but wonder if the grind might be having its toll. Heck at times on Thursday, it looked as if he was having trouble staying up on his skates. But to his credit he did gut it out and picked up an assist on Justin WIlliams game winning goal. Perhaps I'm just overreacting, and I certainly hope that there is not an injury that we are not being told about. Brind A'mour is the heart and soul of this team, and I would never question his effort or work ethic. He just seemed noticiably out of synch on Thursday. Let's hope it's just a blip on the radar screen.


-m

Gobble Gobble

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to one and all!



-m

Oi Vey!

Islanders 4 - Canes 2
(and it wasn't even that close)

Well, that was not what we needed.

If the Cane's were "lazy" Tuesday night against the Rangers, they were down right PATHETIC on Wednesday against the Islanders. If this were a character test, everyone - with the notable exception of John Grahame - failed miserably.

One would have hoped for a bounce back effort; for a bit more energy, a bit more grit, a bit more fire than was on display at Madison Sqaure Garden on Tuesday night. But on this night, the mausoleum on Long Island (otherwise known as the Nassau County Coliseum) was the perfect setting as the Hurricanes played as if they were on their way to a funeral all night. I'm not sure what I can say. It was frustrating to watch. The Canes were so sluggish and sloppy with the puck that they seemed to play in their own zone all night. It was as if they were down a man on the power play all night. Turnovers. Getting beat time after time to the puck in the neutral zone. Sloppy passes. And seemingly losing every battle along the boards for most of the night. I had thought that it could not get much worse than the Ranger's game. I WAS WRONG.

According to the TSN Game Re-Cap Carolina coach Peter Laviolette took an extra long time to emerge from his office to meet with the press after the game. Needless to say, he was none too happy:

''John Grahame was great. He kept us in the game. I don't think anybody (else) played well. This is unacceptable. This was a terrible game. After last night, I thought we would show more fight.''

You and me both Peter.

John Grahame was indeed stellar. 44 saves on 47 shots (the official shot tally for NY was 48, but their last goal was an empty netter from the blue line). Many of those saves were from point blank range, from Islanders left wide open and unchecked in the front of the net. Without Grahame single handedly keeping them in the game for more than two periods, the score could have easily been 10-2, or worse. The Canes were outshot 20 to 1 in the first period. That 1 was a slapshot from Kevin Adams from 30 feet away with under 2 minutes to play. Carolina managed 15 shots for the entire game.
Scott Walker and Trevor Letowski notched essentially meaningless goals in the final minutes.

Laviolette became visibly more and more incensed with his team's lackluster play as the game wore on. He seemed especially miffed at the efforts of his "star" players as Eric Cole, Ray Whitney and Eric Staal saw their minutes diminish signifcantly in the third period.

Less than a week ago, the Canes seemed to have hit their stride, playing their best hockey of the year. Over the last 48 hours they have played without a doubt their worst hockey of the year, and if they don't right the ship soon this could get real ugly.

Not much time to recover or mope around. The Canes have an off day tomorrow in Boston and then a 12noon puck drop on Friday against the Bruins. I'm not sure if even Peter Laviolette would cancel an off day on Thanksgiving for one of those brutal soul-crushing-attitude-adjustment practice sessions. But from what I've seen the last two nights, I sure wouldn't blame him.

- Atlanta notched a win tonight 4-2 over the Capitals, ending the Thrashers 4 game losing skid, and sending them back to the top of the Southeast division. The game turned into a slugfest near the end, with over 162 penalty minutes being assessed in the last 62 seconds of the third. Look for some suspensions to come out of this fracas.

- David Tanabe and Andrew Hutchinson were healthy scratches for tonights game.

-m

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