Saturday, January 30, 2010

Game 54: Hurricanes 4, Blackhawks 2

By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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The Chicago Blackhawks are in town for the only time this year, and I'm not in the building.  You see, here at Puck Drops HQ in Knightdale, "plowed highways" are but a wishful thought, and while I think I could have made it to the RBC for the game, getting home after dark might be another story and I decided not to chance it.

Shame, because the Blackhawks are a darned good hockey team and I'm going to be stuck watching them on television.  From what I'm told, the RBC is split about half and half between Hawks and Canes fans, which we usually only see when the Penguins or Red Wings are in town.  This game is the final game of a nine-game road trip for the Hawks, who played in San Jose Thursday night and got in here yesterday before the snow hit.

Chicago is mentioned as a possible trading partner for the Canes as the team heads toward the trade deadline, so it's possible someone we see in a white jersey could be wearing a Canes sweater in a month or so.

Live from my couch, here we go...

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Game 53: Hurricanes 4, Islanders 1

By Brian LeBlanc
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The Canes remain as hot as they've been all season with a 4-1 win over the New York Islanders that sweeps the New York back-to-back by a combined score of 9-2.  After missing the first courtesy of some poorly-timed dental work on your humble reporter, the Live Blog picks up in the 2nd and doesn't miss a beat...

Monday, January 25, 2010

Canes Country Call-In / Puck Drops Podcast #17

By Brian LeBlanc
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This week's Puck Drops Podcast is a joint effort to produce a call-in show with our friends from Canes Country.  In the first hour, we discuss who could be moved at the trade deadline, including the potential for a Joni Pitkanen deal, the recent play of the Albany callups, the status of the Canes' proposed move of their AHL affiliate to Charlotte and more.  The second hour covers whether Paul Maurice is the right coach for a young team, who the right fit on Eric Staal's wing should be, and what we can expect from the Canes heading into an offseason that promises big changes.

Due to the length of the show, it's been broken up into two parts.  Links to download the show are below.

Click here for the first hour.

Click here for the second hour.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Game 51: Hurricanes 5, Bruins 1

By Brian LeBlanc
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Last year, these two teams met in the Eastern Conference semifinals.  This year, both find themselves on the outside of the playoff invitation list, so to say that this game pairs a couple of underachieving teams is an understatement.

Today marks Eric Staal's first home game as captain of the Hurricanes, and it's not much to suggest that the captaincy change has paid dividends for both Staal and now-alternate captain Rod Brind'Amour.  Both players scored yesterday in Philadelphia, and Staal has four in his past two games after a hat trick Thursday night against Atlanta.

Justin Peters has been recalled for today's game as Manny Legace is out with pink eye, and the Bruins will be without passer extraordinaire Marc Savard.  Lines for the Canes remain the same as yesterday's game.

Here we go...

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Puck Drops Podcast #16

By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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We break down the recent play of the Albany callups with Dave Droschak of CarolinaHurricanes.com, and also talk about who's likely to be traded in the next few weeks. Also, we debate the youngsters' ice time and whether the team is getting the most out of their investments.

Click here to download this week's podcast.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Game 48: Lightning 3, Hurricanes 2

By Brian LeBlanc
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When last we saw the Tampa Bay Lightning in this building, the Canes were earning their first win of the season, in a shootout in early October.

Needless to say, no one expected the season to fly off the rails the way that it has, but the Canes enter tonight's game with a pair of players who will return from injuries.  Sergei Samsonov is back, as is tonight's bobblehead honoree, Chad LaRose.  That means two roster spots needed to open up to accommodate the returning players, and Drayson Bowman and Zach Boychuk have been returned to Albany.  Patrick Dwyer and Jiri Tlusty are still here, but at least the players the Canes expected to be on their roster are slowly returning to spots in the lineup.

For the Lightning, goaltender Mike Smith suffered an injury a few nights ago and will be on the shelf for a while, so we'll see Antero Niittymaki tonight, unfortunately for my spell checker.  Yet again, Cam Ward gets the call for the Canes, his 16th straight start.

Here we go...

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Setting the rookies up to succeed

By Brian LeBlanc
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One of the major complaints of Paul Maurice-coached teams, dating to his first tenure with the Hurricanes, is how he consistently underuses young players.  We've seen that played out in the last few games, since the Canes really started importing players from Albany en masse, and it makes me wonder exactly what the coaching staff wants from the young guys.

Below are the ice times for the recent callups over the last five games.  The first number is total ice time, and the second is power-play time.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Game 47: Thrashers 5, Hurricanes 3

By Brian LeBlanc
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The Atlanta Thrashers are in town.

That sentence should give any Canes fan shudders.  After all, the last two games between these teams resulted in epic Carolina collapses, first in Atlanta last February then here at the RBC Center on the day after Thanksgiving, when the Canes blew a 4-1 lead by giving up five goals in thirteen minutes.

Of course, since then the Canes have at least made a respectable showing, while the Thrashers have tanked; in a playoff spot as recently as a month ago, and within a few points of division-leading Washington, the Thrashers currently sit in eleventh place in the conference, and while nominally they're still in second place in the division they're 17 points behind the Caps and only a point ahead of both Tampa Bay and Florida, who play each other tonight.  If the Thrashers lose, they could fall all the way down to fourth in the division tonight depending on the result of the other divisional matchup.

The Canes continue to make calls to Albany to get their young players accustomed to life in the NHL, one of the few beneficial byproducts of their spate of injuries.  Tonight, Drayson Bowman makes his debut with the Hurricanes, replacing Jerome Samson who was sent back after a five-game cup of coffee in the NHL.  The injured list hasn't grown much lately, but it still contains the names of Sergei Samsonov, Erik Cole, Chad LaRose and Joe Corvo, all of whom are skating but are still a decent distance from returning.  Samsonov may be back within the week, but the others are still going to be on the shelf for awhile.

Will the Canes avoid another epic meltdown against the Thrashers tonight?  We're about to find out...

Monday, January 11, 2010

Puck Drops Podcast #15

By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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James Mirtle from the Globe and Mail and the From The Rink blog joins us as the Canes head to Toronto for the first time this season to discuss the Leafs' play this year, the Olympic rosters and more.  Also, Brian and Phil discuss the recent play of Cam Ward, the youngsters in the lineup and the confidence that seems to be slowly building in the Canes' locker room.

(A confession: the interview with James was taped on my home recorder that I got for Christmas, and this was the first time I used it.  James sounds fine, but my own audio is all screwed up and doesn't sound too great.  My apologies for the sound quality.  The second half of the show was taped at the studio, so it sounds normal.)

Click here to download this week's podcast.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Game 44: Hurricanes 4, Senators 1

By Brian LeBlanc
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It's Military Appreciation Day at the RBC Center, as the Ottawa Senators visit Raleigh for the first time this year. The Canes enter today's game after a 2-1 win over Colorado on Friday that saw Cam Ward come within sixteen seconds of his first shutout of the year, but the trips to the injured ward continue as Tuomo Ruutu suffered an upper body injury in a first-period fight with Darcy Tucker and will be out for at least a week.

Not to be outdone, the Sens will be without the services of a number of their regulars. Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza, Milan Michalek and Filip Kuba will all miss the game, so it will be a battle of minor-league fill-ins today.

The Canes, though, get a significant puzzle piece back today. Eric Staal returns after missing two games due to the death of his sister-in-law. We'll see if his return can spark the Canes to their first two-game winning streak of 2010.

Here we go...

Friday, January 8, 2010

Game 43: Hurricanes 2, Avalanche 1

The Canes return to home ice for the first time in 2009 the night after a listless loss to the Predators in Nashville.  Another Western Conference opponent awaits them, as the Colorado Avalanche make their only appearance in Raleigh this season.  The Canes visited Colorado in mid-October and were summarily dispensed as part of their fourteen-game losing streak; that's well in the past, but the Canes are still well in arrears of everyone in the NHL with only 29 points.

For the Canes, the lineup remains the same, with Eric Staal out of town after the passing of his wife's sister and Sergei Samsonov, Erik Cole and Chad LaRose all on the shelf with injuries.  That means we'll get our first good look at the likes of Jerome Samson and second or third peeks at Zach Boychuk and Jiri Tlusty.

Not many in the house tonight, so it will be an, um, intimate setting for the first home game of 2010...

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Midseason Report Card: The Defensemen, Goaltenders and Coaches

By Brian LeBlanc
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We continue our midseason grades by looking at the defensemen, goaltenders and coaches.  

Here we go. (Here are my preseason projections again, just so you can compare laugh.)

Monday, January 4, 2010

Puck Drops Podcast #14

By Brian LeBlanc
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At the midway point of the season, we discuss the players that have made the biggest impact - both good and bad - on a disappointing team. We hand out awards for the team's most and least valuable players, the most surprising, the most promising and more. Click here to download this week's podcast.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Midseason Report Card: The Forwards

By Brian LeBlanc
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(Note: this is part one of a two-part series, focusing on the forwards.  The defensemen, goaltenders and coaches will get their chance with the red pen tomorrow.)

After Saturday's overtime win against the Rangers, the Canes have completed precisely half of their season.  If you're thinking that this season has dragged on to the point that it seems like they've played 141 games rather than 41, well, you're not alone.

The numbers are stunning.  Last in goals scored, the only team in the league that's scored under 100 goals.  Second-to-last in goals against (and dead last in goals against per game). 26th in the NHL on both the power play and the penalty kill. No one even in sniffing distance of a point-per-game pace.  A captain saddled with a MINUS FREAKING 23.

With that said, it's time to go grading!  (You have to think that the GPA will be somewhere in the ballpark of their winning percentage when giving up the first goal, a sterling .158.)

Here we go. (For reference's sake, here are my preseason projections...feel free to see how far off base I was.

Friday, January 1, 2010

New Year's Housekeeping

By Brian LeBlanc
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A new year means a few new additions here at Puck Drops...

First, you can now subscribe to our posts via an RSS feed, which is something I've wanted to add for quite a while and never got around to it.  We're at http://puckdrops.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default, which will mirror what gets posted at our original home.

Speaking of the original home, you might notice we've changed URLs. The Big Tailgate address will still work for a while, but go ahead and bookmark http://www.ncsportstalk.com/Canes-Coverage.aspx.  You can also use http://tinyurl.com/puckdrops, which is significantly easier to remember.

And along with our new home, we've changed Facebook addresses.  Behemoth that it is, Facebook doesn't feel it necessary to allow you to change the name of your fan page, so we had to create an entirely new one.  It's available at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Puck-Drops-NCSportsTalkcom/256901677993 (and hopefully in the next little while, it will be available at http://www.facebook.com/puckdrops, although we need 100 fans to claim the username).  If you were a fan on our old page, please click over to the new one.

I've also configured the Facebook page to import blog posts and Tweets, so you're covered no matter where you go.  (Or, alternatively, you won't be able to avoid us.)  Our corner of the Twitterverse is at http://twitter.com/puckdrops.

Thank you very much for making this such a fun project over the last year and change. We're looking forward to keeping it going through 2010, and hope you'll be here for it all.  The Canes return home on January 8th against the Colorado Avalanche, and we'll be here to cover it all.  Hope you'll join us.