By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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For the Canes, tonight's first part of a home-and-home with the Atlanta Thrashers is a perfect opportunity to play spoiler. With next to no chance of making the postseason, the Canes are reduced to attempting to derail someone else's chances.
That opportunity couldn't come at a better time for the Canes, or at a worse time for Atlanta. Since trading away Ilya Kovalchuk in early February, the Thrashers have somehow remained in the playoff conversation in the Eastern Conference, but an ill-timed loss to the Boston Bruins on Thursday dealt a serious blow to those chances.
Now in need of some help to make the postseason, the next two games against the Hurricanes will go a long way to determine if the Thrashers surprise everyone and make the postseason in a year when they dealt away their franchise scorer.
The big news for the Canes came yesterday, when they returned Justin Peters to the Albany River Rats for their playoff run, indicating that Cam Ward is ready to return after nearly two months on the shelf with a wonky back. Ward will back up Manny Legace tonight, and he will earn a start of his own when the Canes head to Atlanta on Monday night.
Lots of storylines tonight as we get our first look at the Kovalchuk-less Thrashers, so here we go...
2:40 1st: It's been a fantastic second year for Thrashers defenseman Zach Bogosian, but he almost gifted the Canes the first goal of the game. I'm not sure what he was thinking, but I guess he was trying to set the table for Johan Hedberg to start a breakout at the side of the net. Yeah, it looked about as bad as I described it, and Ray Whitney came darned close to making the Thrashers pay.
8:07 1st: The first power play of the night, to the Canes courtesy of a rather dumb Ron Hainsey penalty, generated next to nothing, with the best chance coming late in the man advantage when Erik Cole fanned in the high slot on an open shot. Not really the way the Canes wanted to start, but at least they haven't sacrificed the first goal of the game.
12:06 1st: The Canes have been giving up way too many quality chances so far. In the span of about two minutes they allowed three separate odd-man breaks to develop, and they've been way too careless with the puck in the Thrashers' zone. It's a credit to Manny Legace that the game is still scoreless, because it could easily be a multiple-goal deficit despite a 2-0 power play advantage to the Canes thus far.
18:35 1st: Needless to say, the Canes' special teams have left some things to be desired so far. Two rotten power plays followed by a scary-bad penalty kill in which the Canes were caught with all four penalty killers strung out in a line through the slot in front of Legace. The Canes are very, very, very lucky that this game is still scoreless.
End 1st: The Canes will begin the second period on the power play after Brian Pothier took an uncalled dive to hand Clarke MacArthur a cross-checking penalty with seventeen seconds left in the period. Shots were 17-6 Thrashers, and they have to be all sorts of upset that they aren't leading this game. Certainly the Canes had no interest in leading, in one of the worst periods of hockey we've seen at least since the new year.
3:15 2nd: For all their trouble at creating anything resembling a coherent scoring attack, the Canes actually came close on a Zach Boychuk one-timer on their best shift of the game so far. It didn't result in a goal, though it did draw a Maxim Afinogenov hooking penalty to put the Canes on their fourth power play of the night.
7:46 2nd: Thrashers lead 1-0; Peverley 21 (Afinogenov) The only surprising thing about that goal is that it took so long. Rich Peverley was on the receiving end of a great centering pass from Afinogenov and had an easy tap-in from ten feet, right through Legace's legs to put the Thrashers on the board first.
8:43 2nd: Thrashers lead 2-0; Artyukhin 7 (Thorburn, Enstrom) Now the Thrashers are just making up for lost time by scoring twice in under a minute. Evgeni Artyukhin, a fourth-line grinder, undressed Patrick Dwyer who was attempting to play defense in the absence of a pinching defenseman, and that went about as well as can be expected. Artyukhin won't set the world on fire with his skill, but even he could make that puck go in, past Legace's stick and in off the near post to make it a two-goal lead.
14:30 2nd: Comment in the press box: "This game's like watching paint dry." Actually, I'd take home improvement over watching the likes of Evgeni Artyukhin, Marty Reasoner and Chris Thorburn control play. Inept doesn't start to describe it.
17:43 2nd: Thrashers lead 3-0; Bergfors 21 (Little, Kubina) Can't really fault Legace for any of the goals so far. They've been the result of some sorely lacking defensive work in front of him, the latest coming when Niclas Bergfors backed a defender up and danced around him in the low slot, surprising Legace with a high backhander to give the Thrashers a 3-0 lead.
End 2nd: Some scattered boos to escort the Canes off the ice, and the way they've played so far it's hard to say they haven't earned it. Shots in the period were 12-9 Thrashers, who got the results they probably should have gotten in the first, leading to a 29-15 (!) differential through two.
4:40 3rd: More of the same to start the third period. Outside of one good chance, the Canes have generated absolutely nothing, and Paul Maurice has juggled the lines as a result.
7:45 3rd: Great play by Johnny Oduya to break up what would have been a Staal breakaway from the blue line. Granted, it was Staal with the chance, who's anything but money on breakaways, but still a nice play to keep Hedberg's shutout bid intact.
14:34 3rd: Hedberg hasn't had to work hard tonight, but he's been big when the Thrashers needed him to be and he still has a shutout going, now heading towards 55 minutes into the game. The Canes' line shakeup looks to have sparked them a bit, but they haven't been able to get one past the Moose, who's being serenaded with "Mooooooose" cheers from a Thrashers contingent in section 114. Hedberg has something for the Canes; he's been great against them his whole career.
End 3rd: Hedberg now has two career shutouts after Jim Slater scored on a late power play to make it 4-0 Thrashers. Shots in the third were 19-14 Canes, but it didn't matter; the hole they dug in the first two periods was more than substantial enough to ensure the outcome even with Hedberg standing on his head in the third.
Postgame: The Canes knew they blew one tonight. They knew exactly what the Thrashers were going to do tonight, and when the game started they allowed the Thrashers to do precisely that. Not really a recipe for success there.
With Boston's win earlier today, the Canes' tragic number now stands at six, meaning there's a high likelihood that they'll be eliminated from the postseason by the time they return home next Saturday to face New Jersey and it could happen as soon as Tuesday; if the Canes lose in Atlanta Monday night and the Bruins sweep a Buffalo/New Jersey back to back Monday and Tuesday, the Canes are likely out (depending on results of other games, but it's highly likely). They won't be back at the RBC until next Saturday, as they head to Montreal and Ottawa after the game in Atlanta.
Click for audio from Eric Staal, Manny Legace and Brandon Sutter. Paul Maurice's press conference is attached.
We'll be back next Saturday when the Canes face the New Jersey Devils, and we'll see if there's still hope for the Canes in the race to the postseason. Until then, take it easy.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Game 74: Hurricanes 3, Capitals 2 (SO)
By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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With less than three weeks to go in the season, the Washington Capitals come to town for the second time in a week to face the Hurricanes in a game that means little to either side. The Caps played last night, scoring a come-from-behind 4-3 shootout win over the archrival Pittsburgh Penguins, while the Canes have had a day off after an overtime loss at Tampa Bay on Tuesday night.
The biggest news out of Canes camp is the shoulder surgery for Tuomo Ruutu, successfully performed earlier today. Ruutu injured his shoulder in a January fight with Colorado's Darcy Tucker, and while he's tried to play through the pain since just before the Olympics he decided to shut it down and get the necessary operation out of the way now. Ruutu will be on the shelf for 4-5 months, placing his return sometime in early to mid August and giving him plenty of time to prepare for the new season, including two games in his native Finland.
To compensate for Ruutu's absence, the Canes have called up Drayson Bowman for his second tour of duty and juggled the lines, with some interesting looks that we'll see for the first time tonight. Eric Staal will center a line with the, ahem, delicately sized Chad LaRose and Zach Boychuk, no doubt making Staal feel like Zdeno Chara in the process. Manny Legace will get the start, his second straight and perhaps one of his last, as Cam Ward could return before the end of the week from his injured back.
With a win, the Canes will improve their record to 4-1-1 against the NHL's best team, but even a worst-case scenario loss will still mean that the Canes are 3-2-1 against the Caps, an impressive achievement for a team that's had few of them this year. We're 60 minutes away from knowing the end result...
2:11 1st: Canes lead 1-0; McBain 2 (Jokinen, Whitney) At some point we're going to get tired of Simpsons references when discussing Jamie McBain, but they haven't gotten old yet, not when the man has points in five of his first six NHL games. Rainier Wolfcastle put the Canes on the board first with a seeing-eye point shot from the blue line, one-timing home a pass from Jussi Jokinen along the far boards through traffic and cleanly past Semyon Varlamov to give the home team a 1-0 lead.
7:45 1st: The Canes seem really intent on peppering Varlamov with shots from outside. They're throwing it at the net every chance they get without really taking their location into account. Not saying it's a bad thing, as they've clearly made him uncomfortable and he seems to be fighting the puck a little bit, but just a change in the Canes' normal "wait for the perfect shot" routine.
9:09 1st: Canes lead 2-0; Rodney 1 (Jokinen, Dwyer) With all the Rats in tonight's game, it's no surprise that the second of the night was off the stick of another player who spent most of the season in Albany. Bryan Rodney has the Canes up by two on the strength of his first in the NHL, off a broken play in the neutral zone. It looked like Eric Fehr had stolen the puck for the Caps, but it rolled off his stick and right onto Patrick Dwyer's lumber. Dwyer started a 3-on-2 rush into the offensive zone, capped off by a Rodney 30-footer (again, a shot from well out) that beat Varlamov high to the blocker side.
10:05 1st: Nearly 3-0 on an open net that Erik Cole couldn't quite get a handle on. The Caps look every part the team that played an emotional game last night.
17:26 1st: Not sure how that wasn't a Washington goal. Mike Green wound up and fired from his office in the high slot with all sorts of traffic, but Legace not only stopped the puck but caught it cleanly for a faceoff. The Caps looked a little stagnant on their first power play of the night, but they did get a couple of great looks.
End 1st: That was an impressive showing by the 28th-place team in the NHL against the first-place team. Shots were even at 13, but it sure seemed like the Canes had better chances and their game plan was certainly well-rounded. The Canes will begin the second period with a 56-second power play thanks to a John Erskine interference penalty late in the first.
1:43 2nd: Caps pull to 2-1; Semin 35 (Fleischmann, Morrison) It wouldn't be a Canes/Caps game without Alexander Semin scoring, would it? Off a faceoff, Brendan Morrison won the puck backwards, and Semin fired a shot on Legace that was originally stopped. The rebound, though, bounced right back to Semin, and he fired it home through Legace's five-hole to put the Caps on the board.
5:00 2nd: Twice in one shift Mike Green has gotten away with a penalty, first on Chad LaRose then on Zach Boychuk behind the Canes' net. The Caps are really lucky they avoided a penalty there.
11:30 2nd: Green gets the favor returned to him by Sergei Samsonov, of all people, as Samsonov knocks Green down earning some serious applause from the home crowd.
12:02 2nd: For all the griping about the Crosby/Ovechkin rivalry, it seems that the battle lines are being pretty clearly drawn. Ovechkin looks like the prototypical wrestling heel, doing things to get a rise out of the crowd and for no other good reason. This time, he ran over Manny Legace in the crease for no good reason with a forearm shiver to the head, buckling Legace's left knee and earning himself some loud and sustained boos. This crowd hasn't forgotten what happened between Ovechkin and Tim Gleason in November, that's for sure.
16:36 2nd: Give Varlamov credit. After a shaky start, he's really settled down and has risen to the occasion. I'm sure he'd appreciate a little more help at the other end of the ice, but he's done his job in the second period, even as the Canes have piled up seven more shots.
17:02 2nd: Alex Ovechkin certainly thought he had tied the game, hands up and all ready to celebrate. Problem was, his celebration didn't fool referee Frederic L'Ecuyer, who saw that the puck never crossed the goal line behind Legace and whistled the play dead keeping the Canes up by one.
End 2nd: Well, that was certainly an entertaining period, and the Canes came close to making it a two-goal game again on a Whitney backhand with a few seconds remaining. Shots in the period were 12-9 Caps in the period, who took a 25-22 lead overall.
:28 3rd: Erik Cole's second close call of the night, as the puck got behind Varlamov and lay in the crease for a second before a Caps defender poked it to the corner a millisecond before Cole was about to pool-cue it into the net for a 3-1 lead.
2:12 3rd: Caps tie it at 2; Carlson 1 (Chimera, Erskine) Of the four goals so far tonight, two have been first career markers. Caps defenseman John Carlson finished off a 3-on-2 rush to tie the game at 2, dancing around Bryan Rodney in the low slot and surprising Legace with a quick snap shot through the five hole. At this rate, I fully expect Drayson Bowman to get the game winner.
10:35 3rd: LaRose just took a run at Ovechkin in front of the Canes' bench. If this wasn't a tie game we could see it get out of hand very quickly.
End 3rd: A great end to the third without any other scores. Shots were all Washington in the third. Off to OT for the fourth time this year.
Postgame: Canes win 3-2 in a shootout; LaRose with the GWG We'll send you to Twitter for the play by play of the shootout, but after Ray Whitney scored in the third round to send the shootout to extra shooters Chad LaRose won it in round 5 with a great move to beat Varlamov around his left skate and into the net. When Manny Legace stopped Mike Green to seal the win, he had more than earned the first star with 41 saves during the game and another four in the shootout.
Both teams finished 3-1-2 against the other this season, but the Canes won the season series based on goals scored, as they outscored the Caps 21-20 over their six games. Go figure that one out.
The Canes' tragic number remains at ten with their win combined with a Boston loss to Tampa Bay. It's still not likely, in the least, but at least there's still hope on the horizon.
Click for audio from Bryan Rodney, Jamie McBain, Manny Legace and Chad LaRose. Paul Maurice's press conference is attached.
Back at it Saturday when the Atlanta Thrashers come to town for the last time this season. We'll be here, and hopefully you will as well.
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With less than three weeks to go in the season, the Washington Capitals come to town for the second time in a week to face the Hurricanes in a game that means little to either side. The Caps played last night, scoring a come-from-behind 4-3 shootout win over the archrival Pittsburgh Penguins, while the Canes have had a day off after an overtime loss at Tampa Bay on Tuesday night.
The biggest news out of Canes camp is the shoulder surgery for Tuomo Ruutu, successfully performed earlier today. Ruutu injured his shoulder in a January fight with Colorado's Darcy Tucker, and while he's tried to play through the pain since just before the Olympics he decided to shut it down and get the necessary operation out of the way now. Ruutu will be on the shelf for 4-5 months, placing his return sometime in early to mid August and giving him plenty of time to prepare for the new season, including two games in his native Finland.
To compensate for Ruutu's absence, the Canes have called up Drayson Bowman for his second tour of duty and juggled the lines, with some interesting looks that we'll see for the first time tonight. Eric Staal will center a line with the, ahem, delicately sized Chad LaRose and Zach Boychuk, no doubt making Staal feel like Zdeno Chara in the process. Manny Legace will get the start, his second straight and perhaps one of his last, as Cam Ward could return before the end of the week from his injured back.
With a win, the Canes will improve their record to 4-1-1 against the NHL's best team, but even a worst-case scenario loss will still mean that the Canes are 3-2-1 against the Caps, an impressive achievement for a team that's had few of them this year. We're 60 minutes away from knowing the end result...
2:11 1st: Canes lead 1-0; McBain 2 (Jokinen, Whitney) At some point we're going to get tired of Simpsons references when discussing Jamie McBain, but they haven't gotten old yet, not when the man has points in five of his first six NHL games. Rainier Wolfcastle put the Canes on the board first with a seeing-eye point shot from the blue line, one-timing home a pass from Jussi Jokinen along the far boards through traffic and cleanly past Semyon Varlamov to give the home team a 1-0 lead.
7:45 1st: The Canes seem really intent on peppering Varlamov with shots from outside. They're throwing it at the net every chance they get without really taking their location into account. Not saying it's a bad thing, as they've clearly made him uncomfortable and he seems to be fighting the puck a little bit, but just a change in the Canes' normal "wait for the perfect shot" routine.
9:09 1st: Canes lead 2-0; Rodney 1 (Jokinen, Dwyer) With all the Rats in tonight's game, it's no surprise that the second of the night was off the stick of another player who spent most of the season in Albany. Bryan Rodney has the Canes up by two on the strength of his first in the NHL, off a broken play in the neutral zone. It looked like Eric Fehr had stolen the puck for the Caps, but it rolled off his stick and right onto Patrick Dwyer's lumber. Dwyer started a 3-on-2 rush into the offensive zone, capped off by a Rodney 30-footer (again, a shot from well out) that beat Varlamov high to the blocker side.
10:05 1st: Nearly 3-0 on an open net that Erik Cole couldn't quite get a handle on. The Caps look every part the team that played an emotional game last night.
17:26 1st: Not sure how that wasn't a Washington goal. Mike Green wound up and fired from his office in the high slot with all sorts of traffic, but Legace not only stopped the puck but caught it cleanly for a faceoff. The Caps looked a little stagnant on their first power play of the night, but they did get a couple of great looks.
End 1st: That was an impressive showing by the 28th-place team in the NHL against the first-place team. Shots were even at 13, but it sure seemed like the Canes had better chances and their game plan was certainly well-rounded. The Canes will begin the second period with a 56-second power play thanks to a John Erskine interference penalty late in the first.
1:43 2nd: Caps pull to 2-1; Semin 35 (Fleischmann, Morrison) It wouldn't be a Canes/Caps game without Alexander Semin scoring, would it? Off a faceoff, Brendan Morrison won the puck backwards, and Semin fired a shot on Legace that was originally stopped. The rebound, though, bounced right back to Semin, and he fired it home through Legace's five-hole to put the Caps on the board.
5:00 2nd: Twice in one shift Mike Green has gotten away with a penalty, first on Chad LaRose then on Zach Boychuk behind the Canes' net. The Caps are really lucky they avoided a penalty there.
11:30 2nd: Green gets the favor returned to him by Sergei Samsonov, of all people, as Samsonov knocks Green down earning some serious applause from the home crowd.
12:02 2nd: For all the griping about the Crosby/Ovechkin rivalry, it seems that the battle lines are being pretty clearly drawn. Ovechkin looks like the prototypical wrestling heel, doing things to get a rise out of the crowd and for no other good reason. This time, he ran over Manny Legace in the crease for no good reason with a forearm shiver to the head, buckling Legace's left knee and earning himself some loud and sustained boos. This crowd hasn't forgotten what happened between Ovechkin and Tim Gleason in November, that's for sure.
16:36 2nd: Give Varlamov credit. After a shaky start, he's really settled down and has risen to the occasion. I'm sure he'd appreciate a little more help at the other end of the ice, but he's done his job in the second period, even as the Canes have piled up seven more shots.
17:02 2nd: Alex Ovechkin certainly thought he had tied the game, hands up and all ready to celebrate. Problem was, his celebration didn't fool referee Frederic L'Ecuyer, who saw that the puck never crossed the goal line behind Legace and whistled the play dead keeping the Canes up by one.
End 2nd: Well, that was certainly an entertaining period, and the Canes came close to making it a two-goal game again on a Whitney backhand with a few seconds remaining. Shots in the period were 12-9 Caps in the period, who took a 25-22 lead overall.
:28 3rd: Erik Cole's second close call of the night, as the puck got behind Varlamov and lay in the crease for a second before a Caps defender poked it to the corner a millisecond before Cole was about to pool-cue it into the net for a 3-1 lead.
2:12 3rd: Caps tie it at 2; Carlson 1 (Chimera, Erskine) Of the four goals so far tonight, two have been first career markers. Caps defenseman John Carlson finished off a 3-on-2 rush to tie the game at 2, dancing around Bryan Rodney in the low slot and surprising Legace with a quick snap shot through the five hole. At this rate, I fully expect Drayson Bowman to get the game winner.
10:35 3rd: LaRose just took a run at Ovechkin in front of the Canes' bench. If this wasn't a tie game we could see it get out of hand very quickly.
End 3rd: A great end to the third without any other scores. Shots were all Washington in the third. Off to OT for the fourth time this year.
Postgame: Canes win 3-2 in a shootout; LaRose with the GWG We'll send you to Twitter for the play by play of the shootout, but after Ray Whitney scored in the third round to send the shootout to extra shooters Chad LaRose won it in round 5 with a great move to beat Varlamov around his left skate and into the net. When Manny Legace stopped Mike Green to seal the win, he had more than earned the first star with 41 saves during the game and another four in the shootout.
Both teams finished 3-1-2 against the other this season, but the Canes won the season series based on goals scored, as they outscored the Caps 21-20 over their six games. Go figure that one out.
The Canes' tragic number remains at ten with their win combined with a Boston loss to Tampa Bay. It's still not likely, in the least, but at least there's still hope on the horizon.
Click for audio from Bryan Rodney, Jamie McBain, Manny Legace and Chad LaRose. Paul Maurice's press conference is attached.
Back at it Saturday when the Atlanta Thrashers come to town for the last time this season. We'll be here, and hopefully you will as well.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Game 72: Sabres 5, Hurricanes 3
By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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It's the second day of spring, there are tailgaters all over the place in the parking lot and the Canes have won two in a row. What better way to celebrate than by bringing in the loved and revered Buffalo Sabres to town?
The Sabres are here for the final time this season, after their previous visit resulted in a 4-3 overtime win just before the Olympics on February 11. Since then, the Canes have been on a tear, 6-3-1 in their last ten and with wins over Washington and Pittsburgh in the last three days.
And speaking of Pittsburgh, that sure was an eventful game yesterday. Manny Legace was forced from the nets in the second period after Tyler Kennedy rolled over his leg and hurt his knee. Legace will not miss any time, and Justin Peters will get the start today as was originally scheduled, but with both Mike Murphy and Justin Pogge hurt in Albany one wonders who the Canes will turn to if Peters is forced from the net with an injury as well. Meanwhile, Jamie McBain has been on fire, adding two points yesterday (including the game-winning goal with :00.9 left) to make his total four points in three games since his callup.
The Canes' roster will remain the same tonight, and with Boston's loss this afternoon a win will put the Canes six points out of the playoffs with ten games to go. We'll see if they can make their recent winning streak stand up...
1:50 1st: I know it's by now become a meme to anoint Tyler Myers the Calder Trophy winner by acclamation every time he does something as inconsequential as stepping on the ice, but the guy certainly does know how to play and isn't at all lost out there. There's a good reason he plays over twenty minutes a game, and we just saw it: break up what could have been a 2-on-1 at one end, serve as the pivot for a tic-tac-toe play at the other end that resulted in a pass going just behind Thomas Vanek's legs.
6:32 1st: Canes came awfully close to taking a 1-0 lead off a faceoff, when the puck pinballed around Ryan Miller's pads and gave Zach Boychuk an open look. Miller dove across and made the save, and Boychuk got twisted around by Craig Rivet for his troubles. Not really a surprising save, but the Sabres could easily be down one if not for Miller.
7:43 1st: And at the other end, Adam Mair gets a face full of Eric Staal's glove as the Canes captain takes exception to Mair continuing to whack away on Justin Peters after the whistle. That's the kind of thing you'd see from Rod Brind'Amour in his prime, and it's good to see Staal stepping up and claiming the mantle as he should now that he's the man in charge.
9:00 1st: Staal is a man possessed tonight, at least in the first ten minutes. He leveled Craig Rivet with a legal hit, Rivet retaliated by slashing Staal and handed the Canes the game's first power play on a silver platter. Tuomo Ruutu and Chris Butler went at it with a few facewashes after the whistle and earned roughing penalties, though it didn't affect manpower.
11:20 1st: Just after the power play expired, Peters denied Mike Grier with the very tip of his left skate. This is about all you can ask for from a hockey game so far, with some awesome saves and great up-and-down action.
13:47 1st: Sabres lead 1-0; Connolly 16 (Vanek, Roy) (pp) That's in textbooks next to a broken play. Justin Peters lost his stick while trying to (and, incidentally, succeeding in) poke-check the puck away from Thomas Vanek, and in the wild scramble to get Peters a stick Jay Harrison lost his man. Tim Connolly was his man, and he was parked at the near post with no one near him to tip a rebound home and give the Sabres a 1-0 lead.
End 1st: After the Sabres' goal, the game really settled down until Jussi Jokinen leveled Connolly behind the Sabres' net with about thirty seconds left. I have to admit, I'm a little surprised there wasn't a shoving match as the teams left the ice for the intermission. Shots in the period were 9-6 Sabres, and it's one of the rare occasions this season that the Canes have been in this physical of a matchup; hits are 12-9 for the Canes.
1:08 2nd: Just like the first period, the Canes come out of the gate hard in the second. Eric Staal missed on a turnaround backhander from the doorstep as he spun out of the way of a defender, then a few seconds later Tuomo Ruutu had a perfectly-placed one-timer tipped out of play by a Sabres stick.
1:49 2nd: Sabres lead 2-0; Hecht 18 (Pominville) And less than a minute later, Justin Peters gives up a rare bad goal that makes it a two-goal Buffalo lead. Jochen Hecht and Jamie McBain were tied up skating down the ice, and it looked like Peters didn't recognize that Hecht could snap a shot off his forehand. Peters didn't close his legs in time and the puck went through his five-hole for a 2-0 Sabres lead.
4:30 2nd: Sabres lead 3-0; Hecht 19 (Stafford, Myers) (pp) Make it a three-spot on Hecht's second in under three minutes. While on a power play, Hecht brought the puck into the zone and faked Peters out, drawing him out of position and gifting Hecht a wraparound into the open far side of the net. Peters' reaction time hasn't been where it needs to be on the last two goals.
9:45 2nd: Sabres lead 4-0; Lydman 3 (unassisted)
9:57 2nd: Canes cut it to 4-1; Samsonov 14 (Carson, Brind'Amour)
11:11 2nd: Sabres back up four at 5-1; Kennedy 8 (Vanek, Roy) Yes, they happened so quickly that I didn't have time to write them all out. The most newsworthy event occurred after Lydman's goal, when Paul Maurice pulled Peters following his third straight bad goal for a still-injured Manny Legace. Carson's point shot was tipped in by Samsonov just thirteen seconds later, but then another odd-man advantage (3-on-2) was converted on a pretty three-way passing play just over a minute later. Not really a banner night for the Canes' goaltenders; Legace had a good chance to stop Kennedy's shot as well.
End 2nd: Not much to write about in that period other than goals. The Canes are just playing out the string now, as they look to keep from being further embarrassed. Shots in the second were 11-9 Canes, but it sure seemed like the ice was tilted toward the Canes' end way more than the shot counter would indicate.
2:07 3rd: Canes back within 3, down 5-2; Sutter 18 (unassisted) Might as well award Ryan Miller an assist for that one. Miller had the puck skating backwards at the goal line, and he made what can only be described as a bonehead passing attempt to the near boards. The puck was easily picked off by Brandon Sutter, who returned fire right back on the Buffalo net and got the puck through Miller's pads for the Canes' second of the night.
8:15 3rd: This game sure looked like it was going to be a knockout affair after fifteen minutes. Now, it looks like two teams that are doing nothing more than running out the clock. To say that the effort has been a bit disappointing is an understatement.
11:15 3rd: Miller atones for his earlier gaffe by forcing Ray Whitney to the outside, then denying him a chance at either a centering pass or a redirection into the net by stretching out and stopping the puck with his glove while laid out on the ice. That's more of what we expected to see from the Team USA goaltender, who got a healthy "U-S-A" chant from the Sabres fans in attendance (and there are more than a few) a couple of minutes ago.
13:00 3rd: Joni Pitkanen bails out Legace by stoning Jason Pominville from the doorstep with both Pitkanen and Legace down on the ice. Probably the best save by a Hurricane since Peters' first-period skate save, and it came from a defenseman. Ouch.
17:00 3rd: Canes cut it to 5-3; Staal 23 (McBain) (pp) Well now, we got us a hockey game. Adam Mair took an exceedingly dumb double-minor for cross checking (and earning himself a ten-minute misconduct as well) by taking a run at Chad LaRose after the play, and the Canes cashed in on the front end of the power play. Another bad Buffalo giveaway ended up on Jamie McBain's stick, and he fed Eric Staal across the slot for a one-timer that pulled the Canes to within two with another power play yet to work with.
End 3rd: Nothing doing despite several great chances on the back end of the double minor, and the Sabres escape with a rather easy 5-3 win; I say easy even though the Canes had plenty of chances late in the third. The Sabres went into a defensive shell, allowing the Canes to outshoot them 13-3 in the period for a 30-20 advantage overall.
Postgame: The Canes find themselves on Sunday night where they were when the weekend started: eight points out of the playoffs, now with only ten games to go. The Bruins' magic number to eliminate the Canes from the playoffs is 13, meaning any combination of 13 points gained by the Bruins or lost by the Canes will mathematically end the Canes' chances. It's looking more and more like an impossibility, but then again who had the Canes beating Washington and Pittsburgh at the end of last week?
Click for audio from Jamie McBain, Eric Staal and Brandon Sutter. Paul Maurice's press conference is attached.
The Canes head to Tampa Tuesday night, then they're back here for another Thursday date with the Capitals. We'll be back here then, and hope you'll join us as well.
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It's the second day of spring, there are tailgaters all over the place in the parking lot and the Canes have won two in a row. What better way to celebrate than by bringing in the loved and revered Buffalo Sabres to town?
The Sabres are here for the final time this season, after their previous visit resulted in a 4-3 overtime win just before the Olympics on February 11. Since then, the Canes have been on a tear, 6-3-1 in their last ten and with wins over Washington and Pittsburgh in the last three days.
And speaking of Pittsburgh, that sure was an eventful game yesterday. Manny Legace was forced from the nets in the second period after Tyler Kennedy rolled over his leg and hurt his knee. Legace will not miss any time, and Justin Peters will get the start today as was originally scheduled, but with both Mike Murphy and Justin Pogge hurt in Albany one wonders who the Canes will turn to if Peters is forced from the net with an injury as well. Meanwhile, Jamie McBain has been on fire, adding two points yesterday (including the game-winning goal with :00.9 left) to make his total four points in three games since his callup.
The Canes' roster will remain the same tonight, and with Boston's loss this afternoon a win will put the Canes six points out of the playoffs with ten games to go. We'll see if they can make their recent winning streak stand up...
1:50 1st: I know it's by now become a meme to anoint Tyler Myers the Calder Trophy winner by acclamation every time he does something as inconsequential as stepping on the ice, but the guy certainly does know how to play and isn't at all lost out there. There's a good reason he plays over twenty minutes a game, and we just saw it: break up what could have been a 2-on-1 at one end, serve as the pivot for a tic-tac-toe play at the other end that resulted in a pass going just behind Thomas Vanek's legs.
6:32 1st: Canes came awfully close to taking a 1-0 lead off a faceoff, when the puck pinballed around Ryan Miller's pads and gave Zach Boychuk an open look. Miller dove across and made the save, and Boychuk got twisted around by Craig Rivet for his troubles. Not really a surprising save, but the Sabres could easily be down one if not for Miller.
7:43 1st: And at the other end, Adam Mair gets a face full of Eric Staal's glove as the Canes captain takes exception to Mair continuing to whack away on Justin Peters after the whistle. That's the kind of thing you'd see from Rod Brind'Amour in his prime, and it's good to see Staal stepping up and claiming the mantle as he should now that he's the man in charge.
9:00 1st: Staal is a man possessed tonight, at least in the first ten minutes. He leveled Craig Rivet with a legal hit, Rivet retaliated by slashing Staal and handed the Canes the game's first power play on a silver platter. Tuomo Ruutu and Chris Butler went at it with a few facewashes after the whistle and earned roughing penalties, though it didn't affect manpower.
11:20 1st: Just after the power play expired, Peters denied Mike Grier with the very tip of his left skate. This is about all you can ask for from a hockey game so far, with some awesome saves and great up-and-down action.
13:47 1st: Sabres lead 1-0; Connolly 16 (Vanek, Roy) (pp) That's in textbooks next to a broken play. Justin Peters lost his stick while trying to (and, incidentally, succeeding in) poke-check the puck away from Thomas Vanek, and in the wild scramble to get Peters a stick Jay Harrison lost his man. Tim Connolly was his man, and he was parked at the near post with no one near him to tip a rebound home and give the Sabres a 1-0 lead.
End 1st: After the Sabres' goal, the game really settled down until Jussi Jokinen leveled Connolly behind the Sabres' net with about thirty seconds left. I have to admit, I'm a little surprised there wasn't a shoving match as the teams left the ice for the intermission. Shots in the period were 9-6 Sabres, and it's one of the rare occasions this season that the Canes have been in this physical of a matchup; hits are 12-9 for the Canes.
1:08 2nd: Just like the first period, the Canes come out of the gate hard in the second. Eric Staal missed on a turnaround backhander from the doorstep as he spun out of the way of a defender, then a few seconds later Tuomo Ruutu had a perfectly-placed one-timer tipped out of play by a Sabres stick.
1:49 2nd: Sabres lead 2-0; Hecht 18 (Pominville) And less than a minute later, Justin Peters gives up a rare bad goal that makes it a two-goal Buffalo lead. Jochen Hecht and Jamie McBain were tied up skating down the ice, and it looked like Peters didn't recognize that Hecht could snap a shot off his forehand. Peters didn't close his legs in time and the puck went through his five-hole for a 2-0 Sabres lead.
4:30 2nd: Sabres lead 3-0; Hecht 19 (Stafford, Myers) (pp) Make it a three-spot on Hecht's second in under three minutes. While on a power play, Hecht brought the puck into the zone and faked Peters out, drawing him out of position and gifting Hecht a wraparound into the open far side of the net. Peters' reaction time hasn't been where it needs to be on the last two goals.
9:45 2nd: Sabres lead 4-0; Lydman 3 (unassisted)
9:57 2nd: Canes cut it to 4-1; Samsonov 14 (Carson, Brind'Amour)
11:11 2nd: Sabres back up four at 5-1; Kennedy 8 (Vanek, Roy) Yes, they happened so quickly that I didn't have time to write them all out. The most newsworthy event occurred after Lydman's goal, when Paul Maurice pulled Peters following his third straight bad goal for a still-injured Manny Legace. Carson's point shot was tipped in by Samsonov just thirteen seconds later, but then another odd-man advantage (3-on-2) was converted on a pretty three-way passing play just over a minute later. Not really a banner night for the Canes' goaltenders; Legace had a good chance to stop Kennedy's shot as well.
End 2nd: Not much to write about in that period other than goals. The Canes are just playing out the string now, as they look to keep from being further embarrassed. Shots in the second were 11-9 Canes, but it sure seemed like the ice was tilted toward the Canes' end way more than the shot counter would indicate.
2:07 3rd: Canes back within 3, down 5-2; Sutter 18 (unassisted) Might as well award Ryan Miller an assist for that one. Miller had the puck skating backwards at the goal line, and he made what can only be described as a bonehead passing attempt to the near boards. The puck was easily picked off by Brandon Sutter, who returned fire right back on the Buffalo net and got the puck through Miller's pads for the Canes' second of the night.
8:15 3rd: This game sure looked like it was going to be a knockout affair after fifteen minutes. Now, it looks like two teams that are doing nothing more than running out the clock. To say that the effort has been a bit disappointing is an understatement.
11:15 3rd: Miller atones for his earlier gaffe by forcing Ray Whitney to the outside, then denying him a chance at either a centering pass or a redirection into the net by stretching out and stopping the puck with his glove while laid out on the ice. That's more of what we expected to see from the Team USA goaltender, who got a healthy "U-S-A" chant from the Sabres fans in attendance (and there are more than a few) a couple of minutes ago.
13:00 3rd: Joni Pitkanen bails out Legace by stoning Jason Pominville from the doorstep with both Pitkanen and Legace down on the ice. Probably the best save by a Hurricane since Peters' first-period skate save, and it came from a defenseman. Ouch.
17:00 3rd: Canes cut it to 5-3; Staal 23 (McBain) (pp) Well now, we got us a hockey game. Adam Mair took an exceedingly dumb double-minor for cross checking (and earning himself a ten-minute misconduct as well) by taking a run at Chad LaRose after the play, and the Canes cashed in on the front end of the power play. Another bad Buffalo giveaway ended up on Jamie McBain's stick, and he fed Eric Staal across the slot for a one-timer that pulled the Canes to within two with another power play yet to work with.
End 3rd: Nothing doing despite several great chances on the back end of the double minor, and the Sabres escape with a rather easy 5-3 win; I say easy even though the Canes had plenty of chances late in the third. The Sabres went into a defensive shell, allowing the Canes to outshoot them 13-3 in the period for a 30-20 advantage overall.
Postgame: The Canes find themselves on Sunday night where they were when the weekend started: eight points out of the playoffs, now with only ten games to go. The Bruins' magic number to eliminate the Canes from the playoffs is 13, meaning any combination of 13 points gained by the Bruins or lost by the Canes will mathematically end the Canes' chances. It's looking more and more like an impossibility, but then again who had the Canes beating Washington and Pittsburgh at the end of last week?
Click for audio from Jamie McBain, Eric Staal and Brandon Sutter. Paul Maurice's press conference is attached.
The Canes head to Tampa Tuesday night, then they're back here for another Thursday date with the Capitals. We'll be back here then, and hope you'll join us as well.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Game 69: Bruins 5, Hurricanes 2
By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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Thanks to the wonders of 7:30 meetings, your humble blogger is a wee bit late for tonight's tilt between the Canes and Boston Bruins, so we begin with the third period. At this point the Bruins lead 2-1 on goals by Patrice Bergeron and Johnny Boychuk; the Canes goal is a power-play marker by Eric Cole that also marked Jamie McBain's first NHL point with an assist. We pick it up with twenty minutes to go...
:45 3rd: Bruins lead 3-1; Recchi 15 (Krejci) They don't make 'em much more disheartening than that. Not fifteen seconds after the Canes blew a couple of golden opportunities thanks to some seriously good saves by Tuukka Rask, they give up another goal in the first minute of a period. Mark Recchi was in the penalty box but a stroke of good luck resulted in him coming out at the exact time the puck reached the penalty box. Recchi used a decoy to beat Manny Legace high to the glove side to re-establish a two-goal lead.
1:53 3rd: Canes make it 3-2; Cole 8 (Sutter, Ruutu) We've got us a hockey game again. Erik Cole is doing all the heavy lifting tonight, although this one was a gift from Rask, who failed to cover the puck after a badly-forced clearing attempt ended up on Tuomo Ruutu's stick along the far boards. The puck was hacked at about five times before Cole cleaned it up and shoveled it into the net to cut the Bruins' lead to one for the second time tonight.
8:10 3rd: The Canes are all over Rask so far in the period. We're not even halfway done and they have ten shots already.
9:48 3rd: Bruins lead 4-2; Ryder 16 (unassisted) And all that effort goes for naught. The B's are back on top by 2 after Brian Pothier momentarily loses his hockey sense and telegraphs a pass right onto Michael Ryder's stick. Ryder had all day to pick a corner and he went low to the far side to beat Legace and give the B's a 4-2 lead.
12:27 3rd: Bruins lead 5-2; Krejci 15 (Satan) The B's forecheck has been relentless since the Ryder goal, and it paid dividends again when Miroslav Satan forced a turnover behind the net and fed David Krejci in the low slot. Krejci spun around and got himself free, and the spin-o-rama faked out Legace and allowed Krejci to fire the puck home from the top of the crease to give the B's their first three-goal lead of the night.
End 3rd: After that opening flurry to start the third period, the Canes really petered out, only mustering two shots after the ten minute mark to top the B's 12-11 in the period.
Postgame: Manny Legace sat in his stall waiting for the inevitable media throng to descend, and what we got when we made our way to the back corner of the locker room was one of the bluntest, most self-flagellating assessments I've ever heard. Legace minced no words in saying he was horrible and he lost this game, but the consensus of everyone else (including Paul Maurice) was that the team didn't do nearly enough to support their goaltender. It was a veteran move from a guy who's been around the block a few times, and who knows that time is fleeting. In Legace's words, channeling Roy Williams, the Canes now find themselves "frickin' ten points" back of the Bruins, and you can hear the desperation in their voices as they know they blew a golden opportunity.
Perhaps Legace took this harder than his teammates since this is the first time since his early-November signing that he's been witness to such a self-implosion on home ice. These losses were commonplace at the beginning of the year, but not so much since Legace's arrival, which makes it more painful to a guy who has done an admirable job keeping his team in the race for the better part of five months.
After winning eight in a row at the RBC Center, a streak that came to a screeching halt Saturday night, the Canes have now lost two straight and have been outscored 9-2 in the process. It goes to show how far back the team set itself in October and November and why they find themselves in the predicament they do now.
Click for audio from Legace (must-listen), Jamie McBain and Erik Cole. Maurice's press conference is attached.
The four-game homestand wraps up Thursday night when the Washington Capitals, minus the suspended Alex Ovechkin, come to town for the second time this season. We'll be back then (for all three periods) and hope you will as well.
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Thanks to the wonders of 7:30 meetings, your humble blogger is a wee bit late for tonight's tilt between the Canes and Boston Bruins, so we begin with the third period. At this point the Bruins lead 2-1 on goals by Patrice Bergeron and Johnny Boychuk; the Canes goal is a power-play marker by Eric Cole that also marked Jamie McBain's first NHL point with an assist. We pick it up with twenty minutes to go...
:45 3rd: Bruins lead 3-1; Recchi 15 (Krejci) They don't make 'em much more disheartening than that. Not fifteen seconds after the Canes blew a couple of golden opportunities thanks to some seriously good saves by Tuukka Rask, they give up another goal in the first minute of a period. Mark Recchi was in the penalty box but a stroke of good luck resulted in him coming out at the exact time the puck reached the penalty box. Recchi used a decoy to beat Manny Legace high to the glove side to re-establish a two-goal lead.
1:53 3rd: Canes make it 3-2; Cole 8 (Sutter, Ruutu) We've got us a hockey game again. Erik Cole is doing all the heavy lifting tonight, although this one was a gift from Rask, who failed to cover the puck after a badly-forced clearing attempt ended up on Tuomo Ruutu's stick along the far boards. The puck was hacked at about five times before Cole cleaned it up and shoveled it into the net to cut the Bruins' lead to one for the second time tonight.
8:10 3rd: The Canes are all over Rask so far in the period. We're not even halfway done and they have ten shots already.
9:48 3rd: Bruins lead 4-2; Ryder 16 (unassisted) And all that effort goes for naught. The B's are back on top by 2 after Brian Pothier momentarily loses his hockey sense and telegraphs a pass right onto Michael Ryder's stick. Ryder had all day to pick a corner and he went low to the far side to beat Legace and give the B's a 4-2 lead.
12:27 3rd: Bruins lead 5-2; Krejci 15 (Satan) The B's forecheck has been relentless since the Ryder goal, and it paid dividends again when Miroslav Satan forced a turnover behind the net and fed David Krejci in the low slot. Krejci spun around and got himself free, and the spin-o-rama faked out Legace and allowed Krejci to fire the puck home from the top of the crease to give the B's their first three-goal lead of the night.
End 3rd: After that opening flurry to start the third period, the Canes really petered out, only mustering two shots after the ten minute mark to top the B's 12-11 in the period.
Postgame: Manny Legace sat in his stall waiting for the inevitable media throng to descend, and what we got when we made our way to the back corner of the locker room was one of the bluntest, most self-flagellating assessments I've ever heard. Legace minced no words in saying he was horrible and he lost this game, but the consensus of everyone else (including Paul Maurice) was that the team didn't do nearly enough to support their goaltender. It was a veteran move from a guy who's been around the block a few times, and who knows that time is fleeting. In Legace's words, channeling Roy Williams, the Canes now find themselves "frickin' ten points" back of the Bruins, and you can hear the desperation in their voices as they know they blew a golden opportunity.
Perhaps Legace took this harder than his teammates since this is the first time since his early-November signing that he's been witness to such a self-implosion on home ice. These losses were commonplace at the beginning of the year, but not so much since Legace's arrival, which makes it more painful to a guy who has done an admirable job keeping his team in the race for the better part of five months.
After winning eight in a row at the RBC Center, a streak that came to a screeching halt Saturday night, the Canes have now lost two straight and have been outscored 9-2 in the process. It goes to show how far back the team set itself in October and November and why they find themselves in the predicament they do now.
Click for audio from Legace (must-listen), Jamie McBain and Erik Cole. Maurice's press conference is attached.
The four-game homestand wraps up Thursday night when the Washington Capitals, minus the suspended Alex Ovechkin, come to town for the second time this season. We'll be back then (for all three periods) and hope you will as well.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Game 68: Coyotes 4, Hurricanes 0
By Brian LeBlanc
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A tough week continues tonight for the Canes. After facing the Capitals (#1 in the East) and Penguins (#4) on back to back nights, earning three of a possible four points, the Canes face the #4 team in the other conference tonight. And if you claim that, before the season, you had the Phoenix Coyotes sitting fourth in the Western Conference on March 13, you're lying.
The Coyotes have outplayed even the most optimistic expectations this year, following an offseason of turmoil when it looked as if they had loaded up the moving vans and set sail for Winnipeg, Hamilton, Thunder Bay or just about any other Canadian outpost. The Dallas Stars' loss is certainly the Coyotes' gain, as after the Stars surprisingly jettisoned coach Dave Tippett in the offseason the Coyotes snapped him up, and he is now the clubhouse leader for the Jack Adams Trophy.
The Canes and Coyotes only hook up this one time, and the Coyotes kick off a four-game swing through the Southeast Division tonight that continues tomorrow in Atlanta. Brandon Sutter will miss the game after suffering a lower-body injury (leg), meaning Jerome Samson will make his second appearance with the Canes this season. He will play on a line with Zach Boychuk and Rod Brind'Amour, and Tom Kostopoulos will move to a new line with Patrick Dwyer and Sergei Samsonov. Two nights after making 37 saves against the Penguins, Justin Peters will be back in net for the Canes tonight.
Can the Canes make it nine in a row at the RBC Center? We're about to find out...
2:15 1st: Peters had to be big early, making a kick save on Matthew Lombardi off a tricky wrister from the low slot. He's lucky that the puck rolled off Lombardi's stick a bit, because I'm not sure he was in position to actually make the save if it was on target.
3:59 1st: Coyotes lead 1-0; Stempniak 18 (Fiddler) For the third straight game, the Canes have given up the first goal of the night. Joni Pitkanen coughed up the puck under pressure from Vernon Fiddler behind the net, and Fiddler found Lee Stempniak for a wraparound shot that took advantage of Peters being just barely out of position on the far post. It's Stempniak's fourth goal in as many games since being traded from Toronto at the trade deadline.
7:58 1st: For the second straight game, Erik Cole was the recipient of a pass to set up a breakaway. For the second straight game, he shot it right into the goalie's right pad. Almost not worth mentioning, isn't it?
13:36 1st: Could have been a tie game after a beautiful piece of stickhandling from Jerome Samson, in his third game of the year. Streaking down the right side, Samson danced the puck around two Coyotes defenders and created a two-on-one all by himself that nearly generated a goal on a Rod Brind'Amour rebound chance. Samson was absolutely flying down the wing, and probably deserved a point just based on his effort there.
14:01 1st: And then Samson took a seat for four minutes courtesy of a high stick on Sami Lepisto. Fate can be cruel, no?
15:59 1st: Coyotes lead 2-0; Stempniak 19 (Jovanovski, Aucoin) (pp) The first half of the double-minor burned the Canes. Stempniak potted his second of the night on a screen shot from the top of the slot through about four players and high to Peters' glove side to double the Coyotes' lead. The Canes are going to need some major help if they want to win this game, since the Coyotes have only lost three times this year after scoring first.
End 1st: It's also noteworthy to point out that the Coyotes are a ridiculous 20-1 when leading at the first intermission. Just sayin'. Shots in the first were 9-6 Hurricanes, but the Canes didn't convert their chances and the Coyotes did, which explains the scoreboard. (Or, if you're the glass half full type, it means they're due for a letdown. Your choice.)
1:20 2nd: The Canes have had three shifts since the start of the period, and every shift has resulted in a high-quality scoring chance. You think something rather impolite might have been said in between periods in the home locker room?
7:30 2nd: The Canes are on their first power play of the night, and it's obvious now why the Coyotes are 18 games over .500. Their penalty killing is outstanding, and even when they give up good chances (like Brian Pothier's late in the man advantage) they're in perfect position to prevent the Canes from getting to the rebound. The Canes have thrown everything at Ilya Bryzgalov in the first seven-plus minutes of the period and have come up short.
13:00 2nd: Shots in the period so far are 8-3 Carolina, but the Coyotes are looking like the mid-90s Devils in the defensive zone and the Canes are starting to get frustrated. Compounding matters is the fact that Tim Gleason has gone to the locker room for reasons unknown.
13:50 2nd: Coyotes lead 3-0; Hanzal 9 (Doan, Aucoin) I have no idea how that puck went in. Martin Hanzal somehow got behind two Carolina defenders and knocked home a pass from Shane Doan that flew up about 20 feet in the air. Probably the strangest pass you'll see all day, and it reiterates the Devils comparison: the Coyotes are taking advantage of any break they get, no matter how innocuous it is.
19:01 2nd: After a hard hit along the boards on Brett Carson from Taylor Pyatt, the Canes earn their second power play of the night and the Coyotes are lucky it wasn't a two man advantage, because after the play Vernon Fiddler got a couple of licks in on Zach Boychuk (of all people) and very easily could have earned a roughing penalty to put the Coyotes down two men.
End 2nd: The Canes will have just over a minute left on Pyatt's penalty to start the third, and they desperately need to score. Gleason returned late in the period, and it looked like it was just an equipment issue after all. Shots in the second were 14-6 Carolina, but the Coyotes have thorougly earned their 3-0 lead.
1:00 3rd: Ilya Bryzgalov has earned his paycheck tonight. Two spectacular saves on a Canes 5-on-3 have kept the home team off the scoreboard, first stoning Rod Brind'Amour from point-blank then doing a split while flashing a glove out to deny Joni Pitkanen. And yes, that was quite painful to look at.
2:45 3rd: Coyotes lead 3-0; Hanzal 10 (Michalek) The opportunistic Coyotes strike again. Brett Carson had the puck on his backhand deep in the Coyotes' zone and was pickpocketed by Zbynek Michalek, who started a rush that ended with a cross-ice pass to Martin Hanzal. Hanzal fired it home from 50 feet tbefore Peters had a chance to get over, and the Coyotes' 20-1 record when leading after 1 appears mighty safe.
11:30 3rd: The Devils comparisons are really hitting the mark right now. I don't think the Canes have played a team all year that's as defensively stifling as we've seen the Coyotes tonight. You can tell that the Canes are getting antsy because they haven't scored yet, and barring a miracle they have no prayer to come back on a team that's playing this well.
End 3rd: No surprise here: Bryzgalov came up big over and over again, and Paul Maurice never even bothered to pull Peters as the game approached its end. Shots in the third were 8-6 Coyotes, and much like Peters was the difference against Pittsburgh, Bryzgalov was a big part in why the Coyotes improved to 21-1 when leading after the first period.
Postgame: Paul Maurice was reluctant to admit this, but the game seemed to fall into the same category that so many games early in the season resulted in: every time the Canes made a mistake or fell asleep at the switch, the puck was in the back of their net within a few seconds. That's not a knock on Justin Peters, who could have reasonably been expected to only make one save out of the four goals, the first one that was a result of not quite covering the post. Anyone who's ever played goal has made that mistake, so it's not fair to hang too much on that one shot.
That said, it's now three straight games where the Canes have gone down 2-0, and while they've gone 2-1 in that stretch they can't afford to keep spotting the opposition a two-goal lead. Not with under a month to go in the regular season.
Click for audio from Jussi Jokinen and Justin Peters. Paul Maurice's press conference is attached.
The Canes will be back at it on Tuesday, and if a game against the eighth-place Boston Bruins with a month left in the season and an eight-point deficit doesn't define "must-win game" then you probably think that there are no such things. There won't be a live blog for the game, as your humble reporter has a meeting to go to and likely won't get to the arena until the 3rd period, but we'll be there for postgame reaction, so swing by after the game and we'll have all the details.
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A tough week continues tonight for the Canes. After facing the Capitals (#1 in the East) and Penguins (#4) on back to back nights, earning three of a possible four points, the Canes face the #4 team in the other conference tonight. And if you claim that, before the season, you had the Phoenix Coyotes sitting fourth in the Western Conference on March 13, you're lying.
The Coyotes have outplayed even the most optimistic expectations this year, following an offseason of turmoil when it looked as if they had loaded up the moving vans and set sail for Winnipeg, Hamilton, Thunder Bay or just about any other Canadian outpost. The Dallas Stars' loss is certainly the Coyotes' gain, as after the Stars surprisingly jettisoned coach Dave Tippett in the offseason the Coyotes snapped him up, and he is now the clubhouse leader for the Jack Adams Trophy.
The Canes and Coyotes only hook up this one time, and the Coyotes kick off a four-game swing through the Southeast Division tonight that continues tomorrow in Atlanta. Brandon Sutter will miss the game after suffering a lower-body injury (leg), meaning Jerome Samson will make his second appearance with the Canes this season. He will play on a line with Zach Boychuk and Rod Brind'Amour, and Tom Kostopoulos will move to a new line with Patrick Dwyer and Sergei Samsonov. Two nights after making 37 saves against the Penguins, Justin Peters will be back in net for the Canes tonight.
Can the Canes make it nine in a row at the RBC Center? We're about to find out...
2:15 1st: Peters had to be big early, making a kick save on Matthew Lombardi off a tricky wrister from the low slot. He's lucky that the puck rolled off Lombardi's stick a bit, because I'm not sure he was in position to actually make the save if it was on target.
3:59 1st: Coyotes lead 1-0; Stempniak 18 (Fiddler) For the third straight game, the Canes have given up the first goal of the night. Joni Pitkanen coughed up the puck under pressure from Vernon Fiddler behind the net, and Fiddler found Lee Stempniak for a wraparound shot that took advantage of Peters being just barely out of position on the far post. It's Stempniak's fourth goal in as many games since being traded from Toronto at the trade deadline.
7:58 1st: For the second straight game, Erik Cole was the recipient of a pass to set up a breakaway. For the second straight game, he shot it right into the goalie's right pad. Almost not worth mentioning, isn't it?
13:36 1st: Could have been a tie game after a beautiful piece of stickhandling from Jerome Samson, in his third game of the year. Streaking down the right side, Samson danced the puck around two Coyotes defenders and created a two-on-one all by himself that nearly generated a goal on a Rod Brind'Amour rebound chance. Samson was absolutely flying down the wing, and probably deserved a point just based on his effort there.
14:01 1st: And then Samson took a seat for four minutes courtesy of a high stick on Sami Lepisto. Fate can be cruel, no?
15:59 1st: Coyotes lead 2-0; Stempniak 19 (Jovanovski, Aucoin) (pp) The first half of the double-minor burned the Canes. Stempniak potted his second of the night on a screen shot from the top of the slot through about four players and high to Peters' glove side to double the Coyotes' lead. The Canes are going to need some major help if they want to win this game, since the Coyotes have only lost three times this year after scoring first.
End 1st: It's also noteworthy to point out that the Coyotes are a ridiculous 20-1 when leading at the first intermission. Just sayin'. Shots in the first were 9-6 Hurricanes, but the Canes didn't convert their chances and the Coyotes did, which explains the scoreboard. (Or, if you're the glass half full type, it means they're due for a letdown. Your choice.)
1:20 2nd: The Canes have had three shifts since the start of the period, and every shift has resulted in a high-quality scoring chance. You think something rather impolite might have been said in between periods in the home locker room?
7:30 2nd: The Canes are on their first power play of the night, and it's obvious now why the Coyotes are 18 games over .500. Their penalty killing is outstanding, and even when they give up good chances (like Brian Pothier's late in the man advantage) they're in perfect position to prevent the Canes from getting to the rebound. The Canes have thrown everything at Ilya Bryzgalov in the first seven-plus minutes of the period and have come up short.
13:00 2nd: Shots in the period so far are 8-3 Carolina, but the Coyotes are looking like the mid-90s Devils in the defensive zone and the Canes are starting to get frustrated. Compounding matters is the fact that Tim Gleason has gone to the locker room for reasons unknown.
13:50 2nd: Coyotes lead 3-0; Hanzal 9 (Doan, Aucoin) I have no idea how that puck went in. Martin Hanzal somehow got behind two Carolina defenders and knocked home a pass from Shane Doan that flew up about 20 feet in the air. Probably the strangest pass you'll see all day, and it reiterates the Devils comparison: the Coyotes are taking advantage of any break they get, no matter how innocuous it is.
19:01 2nd: After a hard hit along the boards on Brett Carson from Taylor Pyatt, the Canes earn their second power play of the night and the Coyotes are lucky it wasn't a two man advantage, because after the play Vernon Fiddler got a couple of licks in on Zach Boychuk (of all people) and very easily could have earned a roughing penalty to put the Coyotes down two men.
End 2nd: The Canes will have just over a minute left on Pyatt's penalty to start the third, and they desperately need to score. Gleason returned late in the period, and it looked like it was just an equipment issue after all. Shots in the second were 14-6 Carolina, but the Coyotes have thorougly earned their 3-0 lead.
1:00 3rd: Ilya Bryzgalov has earned his paycheck tonight. Two spectacular saves on a Canes 5-on-3 have kept the home team off the scoreboard, first stoning Rod Brind'Amour from point-blank then doing a split while flashing a glove out to deny Joni Pitkanen. And yes, that was quite painful to look at.
2:45 3rd: Coyotes lead 3-0; Hanzal 10 (Michalek) The opportunistic Coyotes strike again. Brett Carson had the puck on his backhand deep in the Coyotes' zone and was pickpocketed by Zbynek Michalek, who started a rush that ended with a cross-ice pass to Martin Hanzal. Hanzal fired it home from 50 feet tbefore Peters had a chance to get over, and the Coyotes' 20-1 record when leading after 1 appears mighty safe.
11:30 3rd: The Devils comparisons are really hitting the mark right now. I don't think the Canes have played a team all year that's as defensively stifling as we've seen the Coyotes tonight. You can tell that the Canes are getting antsy because they haven't scored yet, and barring a miracle they have no prayer to come back on a team that's playing this well.
End 3rd: No surprise here: Bryzgalov came up big over and over again, and Paul Maurice never even bothered to pull Peters as the game approached its end. Shots in the third were 8-6 Coyotes, and much like Peters was the difference against Pittsburgh, Bryzgalov was a big part in why the Coyotes improved to 21-1 when leading after the first period.
Postgame: Paul Maurice was reluctant to admit this, but the game seemed to fall into the same category that so many games early in the season resulted in: every time the Canes made a mistake or fell asleep at the switch, the puck was in the back of their net within a few seconds. That's not a knock on Justin Peters, who could have reasonably been expected to only make one save out of the four goals, the first one that was a result of not quite covering the post. Anyone who's ever played goal has made that mistake, so it's not fair to hang too much on that one shot.
That said, it's now three straight games where the Canes have gone down 2-0, and while they've gone 2-1 in that stretch they can't afford to keep spotting the opposition a two-goal lead. Not with under a month to go in the regular season.
Click for audio from Jussi Jokinen and Justin Peters. Paul Maurice's press conference is attached.
The Canes will be back at it on Tuesday, and if a game against the eighth-place Boston Bruins with a month left in the season and an eight-point deficit doesn't define "must-win game" then you probably think that there are no such things. There won't be a live blog for the game, as your humble reporter has a meeting to go to and likely won't get to the arena until the 3rd period, but we'll be there for postgame reaction, so swing by after the game and we'll have all the details.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Game 67: Hurricanes 4, Penguins 3 (OT)
By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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Two of the hottest teams in hockey hook up tonight in Raleigh.
Wait, Raleigh? Home of the 13th-place Carolina Hurricanes? The team that at one point lost fourteen straight games?
Believe it. Over the last ten games, no one can touch the Canes' 8-1-1 record, and following an overtime loss in Washington last night the Canes have solidified their hold on 13th in the conference, eight points out of a playoff spot with 15 games to go.
After Manny Legace did a solid job in fending off the Caps' attack last night, he gets the night off and Justin Peters, 3-1 in his NHL career, will have the honor of facing the Pens' lethal scoring machine, including newly-acquired Alexei Ponikarovsky who came to Pittsburgh from the Toronto Maple Leafs at the trade deadline. Also, the Pens have some guy named Sidney Crosby, who scored a goal you might have heard about at the Olympics.
Speaking of the Olympics, the Penguins haven't lost since the NHL returned from its two-week hiatus, going 4-0 in that stretch. The first time the teams met at the RBC Center was one of the fourteen straight losses, a 3-2 shootout loss on October 14th. Like that night, the RBC will likely be a hotbed of Pens fans tonight, as they always come out en masse when their team comes to town.
One large swath of fans will go home disappointed tonight. Which will it be? We're about to find out...
1:04 1st: Pens lead 1-0; J. Staal 19 (Dupuis, Eaton) Well, that didn't take long. The Penguins get on the board first on their second shot of the game, on a goal that was created by a Rod Brind'Amour turnover behind the net. The puck came to the left point where Mark Eaton fired it back deep to Pascal Dupuis, who then hit Jordan Staal with a perfect pass in the far circle and Staal snapped a wrist shot home before Peters had a chance to react.
5:29 1st: Pens lead 2-0; Guerin 18 (Malkin, Crosby) (pp) And the fun continues. Here's hoping I'll have more to write about than just Pittsburgh goals tonight. A wild scramble at the front of the Carolina crease resulted in a couple of chops by Evgeni Malkin from point-blank range before Bill Guerin put an end to the proceedings by banging home the fifth or sixth rebound low to Peters' blocker side. And in case you were wondering, yes, there are a good number of Penguins fans here, and they've had plenty of reasons to be very loud thus far.
7:45 1st: Canes make it 2-1; Whitney 20 (Pitkanen, Pothier) (pp) Yes, I'm still writing about goals, but this time it's the home team putting themselves back in it on their first shot of the night. After a Sergei Gonchar boarding penalty that drew the Canes' ire, Ray Whitney blasted a one-timer from the top of the near circle and put the Canes on the board on their first shot of the night, off the post on the glove side low and past Johnson.
9:05 1st: Jussi Jokinen took a blatant high-stick that drew blood five feet away from referee Dan O'Rourke, and nothing was called, to the Canes' amazement. It would have been a double minor, and at the next stoppage Jokine angrily slammed his stick on the boards to alert O'Rourke to the idiocy of the non-call.
9:11 1st: Canes tie it at 2; Boychuk 2 (unassisted) But honestly, what's a better way to make up for a non-call than by tying the game off the ensuing faceoff? The Pens won it by the letter of the rule, but Zach Boychuk snuck through the Penguins forwards and gained possession, then potted his second goal on a beautiful backhand to the top shelf after undressing the Canes' old pal Brooks Orpik with a ridiculous backhand-forehand-backhand deke. The dont' come much more gorgeous than that.
16:30 1st: Big kick save by Peters on Dupuis, who was set up at the top of the crease in perfect position by Sidney Crosby but couldn't beat Peters' pads to give the Pens the lead.
17:45 1st: And speaking of big saves, Peters came way out of his net to try to trap the puck, but he couldn't cover and the puck came to the front of the net where both Alexei Ponikarovsky and Ruslan Fedotenko were stopped by a bizarre combination of Tim Gleason and Peters scrambling around to keep the puck out of the net. Kind of hard to figure out how the Pens didn't score there, but the Canes will gladly take it.
End 1st: A wild period settled down late, but the Penguins still had the better chances and find themselves tied. Chalk that up as a victory for the home team. Shots in the period were 9-6 Pittsburgh, who will begin the second period down a man for 1:06 thanks to a late Maxime Talbot holding penalty.
Begin 2nd: Brandon Sutter's night is done after he took a check late in the first and finished his shift, but didn't return to the ice. The Canes are calling it a lower-body injury, looks like something in the area of his leg.
2:09 2nd: Canes lead 3-2; E. Staal 21 (Cole) The Staals are tied at one, which means the Canes have their first lead of the night. Eric did the honors after playing catch with Erik Cole behind the net, working his way out to the near post then somehow finding daylight between Brent Johnson's skate and the post to sneak the puck in and give the Canes a 3-2 lead. Johnson has allowed 3 goals on 7 shots, and can probably be glad he doesn't play for Ottawa coach Cory Clouston, who would have told him to hit the showers in all likelihood.
6:00 2nd: Pens tie it at 3; Cooke 13 (Dupuis, Goligoski) Matt Cooke has had a week, eh? First he knocks out Boston's Marc Savard, becomes synonymous with the NHL's head-shot debate, earns the ire of seemingly every NHL fan for not being suspended, then ties the game thanks to some hard work in front of the net. After failing to clear the puck, Alex Goligoski kept the puck in allong the far boards and worked it behind the net to Pascal Dupuis, who fed Cooke at the goal mouth and after a few whacks, beat Peters to tie it up.
11:54 2nd: PING! Bill Guerin beats Peters but not the crossbar to keep it a tie game. Since the Cooke goal, the Penguins have owned the number of chances, with the Canes' only good chance coming on a fanned Erik Cole rebound chance in the low slot with Johnson out of position.
18:00 2nd: Loud boos for the Canes' power play after they fail to do anything with a lengthy two-man advantage, and the "shoot-the-puck" types are coming out of the woodwork. Honestly, can't say I agree; the Penguins took away all the passing lanes and did a great job killing the penalties.
End 2nd: Late in the period, Chad LaRose finally gave in to the loud "SHOOOOOOOOOOT!" yells from the stands, and fired...right into Jordan Leopold's leg about a foot away. See, there isn't always a shot there, folks. Shots in the period were 16-7 Penguins, and the Canes once again are lucky to be tied, if not for some stellar work by Justin Peters.
3:30 3rd: The Canes' lines have been all jumbled since Sutter's injury, but the best one of the retooled lines has been a Whitney-Staal-Cole combination, which has already accounted for one goal and did everything it could to record a second with some serious zone time deep in the Pens' end of the ice.
6:25 3rd: And speaking of that combination, Cole earns a breakaway from the red line...and fires it into Johnson's pad. They've certainly had their chances tonight.
8:29 3rd: Tuomo Ruutu earns a questionable interference penalty for pushing Mark Eaton into Johnson, which caused Johnson to fall face-down to the ice and not move for a few seconds at a TV timeout. Ruutu earned some facewashes for his trouble, but honestly it didn't look like it was his fault. He did get a penalty for interfering with Eaton, however.
12:24 3rd: Good Lord, the Penguins are just owning the ice right now. Peters has been sharp, and that's the only thing keeping the Canes in the game. They're being outshot 11-3 right now in the period.
19:05 3rd: Evgeni Malkin hits the post with under a minute left. The Canes sure don't deserve a point, but it looks like they'll get one barring a miracle.
End 3rd: Just like the last time these teams met, the Canes and Pens will move to overtime. Jussi Jokinen was slashed by Malkin in the far corner as regulation ended, and he's probably lucky he didn't pick up a retaliation slashing penalty. Shots were 14-7 in the third period, but it sure seemed more lopsided than that.
:23 OT: Canes win 4-3! Pothier 5 (Whitney, Staal) Can't script it much better than that. It's not stretching the truth at all to say that the Canes stole two points courtesy of their newest defenseman. Brian Pothier was on the receiving end of a cross-crease pass from Ray Whitney and he placed the one-timer perfectly, firing it home past Johnson and sending the crowd into delerium. Despite being outshot 40-21, Justin Peters and the Canes somehow managed to rob the Penguins of the second point, and the Canes now firmly have a stake on the hottest-team mantle with their eighth straight home win.
Postgame: The Canes were visibly tired after the second part of a back-to-back, and Paul Maurice referenced their fatigue multiple times after the game. It seemed like they knew that they had a built-in excuse to lose the game and didn't take it up, which is a far cry from where we were the last time the Penguins were in town. With the win, the Canes move to within three points of ninth, and those playoff hopes -- however faint -- still cling to life. Who'd have thought that in mid-November?
Click for audio from Zach Boychuk, Eric Staal and Justin Peters. Paul Maurice's press conference is attached.
The Canes continue a four-game homestand Saturday night when the Phoenix Coyotes, led by coach of the year shoo-in Dave Tippett, come to town for the only time this year. After the ACC Tournament, join us here for some puck action, won't you?
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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Two of the hottest teams in hockey hook up tonight in Raleigh.
Wait, Raleigh? Home of the 13th-place Carolina Hurricanes? The team that at one point lost fourteen straight games?
Believe it. Over the last ten games, no one can touch the Canes' 8-1-1 record, and following an overtime loss in Washington last night the Canes have solidified their hold on 13th in the conference, eight points out of a playoff spot with 15 games to go.
After Manny Legace did a solid job in fending off the Caps' attack last night, he gets the night off and Justin Peters, 3-1 in his NHL career, will have the honor of facing the Pens' lethal scoring machine, including newly-acquired Alexei Ponikarovsky who came to Pittsburgh from the Toronto Maple Leafs at the trade deadline. Also, the Pens have some guy named Sidney Crosby, who scored a goal you might have heard about at the Olympics.
Speaking of the Olympics, the Penguins haven't lost since the NHL returned from its two-week hiatus, going 4-0 in that stretch. The first time the teams met at the RBC Center was one of the fourteen straight losses, a 3-2 shootout loss on October 14th. Like that night, the RBC will likely be a hotbed of Pens fans tonight, as they always come out en masse when their team comes to town.
One large swath of fans will go home disappointed tonight. Which will it be? We're about to find out...
1:04 1st: Pens lead 1-0; J. Staal 19 (Dupuis, Eaton) Well, that didn't take long. The Penguins get on the board first on their second shot of the game, on a goal that was created by a Rod Brind'Amour turnover behind the net. The puck came to the left point where Mark Eaton fired it back deep to Pascal Dupuis, who then hit Jordan Staal with a perfect pass in the far circle and Staal snapped a wrist shot home before Peters had a chance to react.
5:29 1st: Pens lead 2-0; Guerin 18 (Malkin, Crosby) (pp) And the fun continues. Here's hoping I'll have more to write about than just Pittsburgh goals tonight. A wild scramble at the front of the Carolina crease resulted in a couple of chops by Evgeni Malkin from point-blank range before Bill Guerin put an end to the proceedings by banging home the fifth or sixth rebound low to Peters' blocker side. And in case you were wondering, yes, there are a good number of Penguins fans here, and they've had plenty of reasons to be very loud thus far.
7:45 1st: Canes make it 2-1; Whitney 20 (Pitkanen, Pothier) (pp) Yes, I'm still writing about goals, but this time it's the home team putting themselves back in it on their first shot of the night. After a Sergei Gonchar boarding penalty that drew the Canes' ire, Ray Whitney blasted a one-timer from the top of the near circle and put the Canes on the board on their first shot of the night, off the post on the glove side low and past Johnson.
9:05 1st: Jussi Jokinen took a blatant high-stick that drew blood five feet away from referee Dan O'Rourke, and nothing was called, to the Canes' amazement. It would have been a double minor, and at the next stoppage Jokine angrily slammed his stick on the boards to alert O'Rourke to the idiocy of the non-call.
9:11 1st: Canes tie it at 2; Boychuk 2 (unassisted) But honestly, what's a better way to make up for a non-call than by tying the game off the ensuing faceoff? The Pens won it by the letter of the rule, but Zach Boychuk snuck through the Penguins forwards and gained possession, then potted his second goal on a beautiful backhand to the top shelf after undressing the Canes' old pal Brooks Orpik with a ridiculous backhand-forehand-backhand deke. The dont' come much more gorgeous than that.
16:30 1st: Big kick save by Peters on Dupuis, who was set up at the top of the crease in perfect position by Sidney Crosby but couldn't beat Peters' pads to give the Pens the lead.
17:45 1st: And speaking of big saves, Peters came way out of his net to try to trap the puck, but he couldn't cover and the puck came to the front of the net where both Alexei Ponikarovsky and Ruslan Fedotenko were stopped by a bizarre combination of Tim Gleason and Peters scrambling around to keep the puck out of the net. Kind of hard to figure out how the Pens didn't score there, but the Canes will gladly take it.
End 1st: A wild period settled down late, but the Penguins still had the better chances and find themselves tied. Chalk that up as a victory for the home team. Shots in the period were 9-6 Pittsburgh, who will begin the second period down a man for 1:06 thanks to a late Maxime Talbot holding penalty.
Begin 2nd: Brandon Sutter's night is done after he took a check late in the first and finished his shift, but didn't return to the ice. The Canes are calling it a lower-body injury, looks like something in the area of his leg.
2:09 2nd: Canes lead 3-2; E. Staal 21 (Cole) The Staals are tied at one, which means the Canes have their first lead of the night. Eric did the honors after playing catch with Erik Cole behind the net, working his way out to the near post then somehow finding daylight between Brent Johnson's skate and the post to sneak the puck in and give the Canes a 3-2 lead. Johnson has allowed 3 goals on 7 shots, and can probably be glad he doesn't play for Ottawa coach Cory Clouston, who would have told him to hit the showers in all likelihood.
6:00 2nd: Pens tie it at 3; Cooke 13 (Dupuis, Goligoski) Matt Cooke has had a week, eh? First he knocks out Boston's Marc Savard, becomes synonymous with the NHL's head-shot debate, earns the ire of seemingly every NHL fan for not being suspended, then ties the game thanks to some hard work in front of the net. After failing to clear the puck, Alex Goligoski kept the puck in allong the far boards and worked it behind the net to Pascal Dupuis, who fed Cooke at the goal mouth and after a few whacks, beat Peters to tie it up.
11:54 2nd: PING! Bill Guerin beats Peters but not the crossbar to keep it a tie game. Since the Cooke goal, the Penguins have owned the number of chances, with the Canes' only good chance coming on a fanned Erik Cole rebound chance in the low slot with Johnson out of position.
18:00 2nd: Loud boos for the Canes' power play after they fail to do anything with a lengthy two-man advantage, and the "shoot-the-puck" types are coming out of the woodwork. Honestly, can't say I agree; the Penguins took away all the passing lanes and did a great job killing the penalties.
End 2nd: Late in the period, Chad LaRose finally gave in to the loud "SHOOOOOOOOOOT!" yells from the stands, and fired...right into Jordan Leopold's leg about a foot away. See, there isn't always a shot there, folks. Shots in the period were 16-7 Penguins, and the Canes once again are lucky to be tied, if not for some stellar work by Justin Peters.
3:30 3rd: The Canes' lines have been all jumbled since Sutter's injury, but the best one of the retooled lines has been a Whitney-Staal-Cole combination, which has already accounted for one goal and did everything it could to record a second with some serious zone time deep in the Pens' end of the ice.
6:25 3rd: And speaking of that combination, Cole earns a breakaway from the red line...and fires it into Johnson's pad. They've certainly had their chances tonight.
8:29 3rd: Tuomo Ruutu earns a questionable interference penalty for pushing Mark Eaton into Johnson, which caused Johnson to fall face-down to the ice and not move for a few seconds at a TV timeout. Ruutu earned some facewashes for his trouble, but honestly it didn't look like it was his fault. He did get a penalty for interfering with Eaton, however.
12:24 3rd: Good Lord, the Penguins are just owning the ice right now. Peters has been sharp, and that's the only thing keeping the Canes in the game. They're being outshot 11-3 right now in the period.
19:05 3rd: Evgeni Malkin hits the post with under a minute left. The Canes sure don't deserve a point, but it looks like they'll get one barring a miracle.
End 3rd: Just like the last time these teams met, the Canes and Pens will move to overtime. Jussi Jokinen was slashed by Malkin in the far corner as regulation ended, and he's probably lucky he didn't pick up a retaliation slashing penalty. Shots were 14-7 in the third period, but it sure seemed more lopsided than that.
:23 OT: Canes win 4-3! Pothier 5 (Whitney, Staal) Can't script it much better than that. It's not stretching the truth at all to say that the Canes stole two points courtesy of their newest defenseman. Brian Pothier was on the receiving end of a cross-crease pass from Ray Whitney and he placed the one-timer perfectly, firing it home past Johnson and sending the crowd into delerium. Despite being outshot 40-21, Justin Peters and the Canes somehow managed to rob the Penguins of the second point, and the Canes now firmly have a stake on the hottest-team mantle with their eighth straight home win.
Postgame: The Canes were visibly tired after the second part of a back-to-back, and Paul Maurice referenced their fatigue multiple times after the game. It seemed like they knew that they had a built-in excuse to lose the game and didn't take it up, which is a far cry from where we were the last time the Penguins were in town. With the win, the Canes move to within three points of ninth, and those playoff hopes -- however faint -- still cling to life. Who'd have thought that in mid-November?
Click for audio from Zach Boychuk, Eric Staal and Justin Peters. Paul Maurice's press conference is attached.
The Canes continue a four-game homestand Saturday night when the Phoenix Coyotes, led by coach of the year shoo-in Dave Tippett, come to town for the only time this year. After the ACC Tournament, join us here for some puck action, won't you?
Friday, March 5, 2010
Game 63: Hurricanes 4, Senators 1
By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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My, how things have changed since the last time we saw the Carolina Hurricanes on home ice.
The Canes bring a six-game winning streak into tonight's matchup with the Ottawa Senators, but more importantly they beat Toronto 4-1 on Tuesday night. Since then, though, the Canes have shipped out a good number of familiar faces. The trade deadline Wednesday saw the Canes deal Joe Corvo, Aaron Ward, Scott Walker, Stephane Yelle and Andrew Alberts, requiring the recall of Jay Harrison and Zach Boychuk from Albany and allowing Brian Pothier, acquired from Washington in the Corvo deal, to make his Canes debut tonight.
Of course, before the Olympics, the Canes made a deal with these same Senators, trading Matt Cullen to Ottawa and receiving Alexandre Picard, who will make his first appearance with the Canes at the RBC Center tonight. Manny Legace will be in net tonight, but Paul Maurice said this morning that Cam Ward's back has calmed down and the team expects him to return to the lineup before the end of the season.
Can the new-look Canes build on their season-high winning streak? We're about to find out..
1:30 1st: A good early chance for Patrick Dwyer goes high over the Sens' net, but that's to be expected considering the lines are barely recognizable to everyone in the building.
5:18 1st: Canes lead 1-0; Kostopoulos 6 (unassisted) A nice piece of hustling behind the net earns Kostopoulos the first goal of the game. Kostopoulos didn't take the puck directly off Pascal Leclaire's stick, but he forced Leclaire into turning it over along the far boards, and while Leclaire stopped Kostopoulos' first shot he couldn't handle the rebound and Kostopoulos knocked it in for a 1-0 lead.
6:23 1st: Canes lead 2-0; Brind'Amour 6 (Boychuk, Carson) Carson gets an assist for firing the puck into the zone off a faceoff, which shows you how broken this play was. Brind'Amour was in the right place to pick up a loose puck in the near circle, and he danced around a defender to fire a shot for which Leclaire again couldn't pick up the rebound. Cory Clouston had seen enough, and pulled Leclaire for Brian Elliott to loud cheers from the RBC faithful.
11:20 1st: Manny Legace gets into the game with two big saves on backdoor plays during a Sens' power play, and the crowd keeps getting louder. At this point the Canes can't do any wrong in the fans' eyes, and the team is all over the place to keep the pressure on.
17:30 1st: Alexandre Picard denies former teammate Jason Spezza with a well-timed kick save in front of Legace. Spezza did a heck of a job to dangle the puck around Picard, but before Spezza could get a shot off the puck was redirected to the corner.
18:50 1st: Staal skates to the bench with an injury of some sort. Maybe took a puck to the midsection? Not sure, but he's bent over in pain on the bench.
End 1st: After the goaltending change you could really sense a shift in momentum toward the Sens, and the Canes were chasing their tails for long portions of the second half of the period. They're lucky to be up by two; shots in the period were even at 9.
5:00 2nd: It took a little while for the Canes' offense to heat up as the Sens carried the play for most of the first five minutes, but they broke out in a big way with a fantastic shift from the Whitney-Staal-Jokinen line that would have had a goal if not for an overpass by Whitney on a 3-on-2.
6:30 2nd: Huge save on Sergei Samsonov by Brian Elliott, who flashed the glove as Samsonov skated in alone with two teammates engaged with Senators defensemen in the low slot. Samsonov outwaited Elliott and drew him down to the ice, but Elliott snared Samsonov's shot at the last second and earned a stoppage instead of giving up a three-goal lead.
12:45 2nd: Tom Kostopoulos came within gn inch of his second of the night on a redirection of a Jay Harrison point shot. Say what you will about the wisdom of playing Zach Boychuk with Kostopoulos and Brind'Amour, but that combination has been by far the best line on the ice for either team, and no other line is even in the discussion.
15:50 2nd: Canes lead 3-0; LaRose 5 (Staal, Ruutu) Chad LaRose was the beneficiary of some lucky timing on a line change, finding himself on the ice with Eric Staal and Tuomo Ruutu and putting the Canes up by three. Some hard work along the boards by Ruutu freed the puck up for LaRose to take a shot that was saved by Elliott, and Eric Staal's rebound chance bounced off Elliott and right to LaRose, who fired it home into the empty cage.
End 2nd: After a rough start to the period, the Canes slowly took over and have earned their three goal lead. Only three power plays so far, and none of them have resulted in anything on the scoreboard. Shots in the second were 10-7 Canes, who lead overall 19-16.
4:15 3rd: A bad turnover in front of Elliott leads to a golden chance for Whitney, who for some reason passed -- again -- from five feet and had his pass picked off by Erik Karlsson in front of the net. That's twice tonight that Whitney passed up a good chance for a goal by making one too many passes.
9:55 3rd: Legace has earned his money in this period. He's been on top of his crease and is making the puck look like it's approximately the size of a beach ball. For a guy who hasn't played in nearly a month, it's good to see.
11:55 3rd: Sens pull to 3-1; Cullen 13 (Alfredsson, Fisher) So much for the sutout. The Canes will remain without a bagel on the season after Matt Cullen scores what can only be described as a Matt Cullen goal: draw a hooking penalty behind the net, wrap around the far post, stuff it in. Seems like we've seen that move a million times.
16:30 3rd: The Sens are just owning the play now. The Canes are really back on their heels, and they're quite lucky to have the luxury of a two-goal cushion.
18:12 3rd: Canes lead 4-1; Sutter 16 (unassisted) (en) The Canes ice it away with an empty-netter from the red line that just barely trickled into the net inside the near post courtesy of Brandon Sutter, who has matched his jersey number with 16 goals on the season and continues to defy all expectations.
End 3rd: Not a banner third for the Canes, as they were outshot 9-3 in the period and the Sens led overall 26-21. If not for a pair of early defensive breakdowns this would have been a nailbiter, but the Canes got the breaks to go their way and skated off 2-0 since the Olympics -- and don't look now, but they've won seven in a row, their longest streak of the season.
Postgame: Eric Staal talked at length about the Olympics, the experience of going through a trade deadline as a seller, and plenty of other things as well. Zach Boychuk is still the wide-eyed rookie who couldn't believe his good fortune playing on a line with Rod Brind'Amour. Yes, needless to say, it's a happy time in the home locker room.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the arena, Matt Cullen was disappointed that his team lost tonight, but you could tell in talking to him that he's excited to be in a situation where he can again go deep into the playoffs. Cullen moved his family back to Minnesota during the break, and he said that the break actually came at a fortuitous time for him; he had plenty of time to get his affairs in order without having to wear multiple hats at the same time.
Click for audio from Staal, Boychuk, Rod Brind'Amour and, from the other locker room, Cullen. Paul Maurice's press conference is attached.
The Canes hit the road for a quick back-to-back this weekend, as they face Florida on Saturday and Atlanta on Sunday. The next time we'll see them here is next Thursday, when the Pittsburgh Penguins come to town for the final time this season. In the meantime, there's a high likelihood of another Canes Country Call-In next week, so stay tuned and we'll keep you updated on a date and time.
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My, how things have changed since the last time we saw the Carolina Hurricanes on home ice.
The Canes bring a six-game winning streak into tonight's matchup with the Ottawa Senators, but more importantly they beat Toronto 4-1 on Tuesday night. Since then, though, the Canes have shipped out a good number of familiar faces. The trade deadline Wednesday saw the Canes deal Joe Corvo, Aaron Ward, Scott Walker, Stephane Yelle and Andrew Alberts, requiring the recall of Jay Harrison and Zach Boychuk from Albany and allowing Brian Pothier, acquired from Washington in the Corvo deal, to make his Canes debut tonight.
Of course, before the Olympics, the Canes made a deal with these same Senators, trading Matt Cullen to Ottawa and receiving Alexandre Picard, who will make his first appearance with the Canes at the RBC Center tonight. Manny Legace will be in net tonight, but Paul Maurice said this morning that Cam Ward's back has calmed down and the team expects him to return to the lineup before the end of the season.
Can the new-look Canes build on their season-high winning streak? We're about to find out..
1:30 1st: A good early chance for Patrick Dwyer goes high over the Sens' net, but that's to be expected considering the lines are barely recognizable to everyone in the building.
5:18 1st: Canes lead 1-0; Kostopoulos 6 (unassisted) A nice piece of hustling behind the net earns Kostopoulos the first goal of the game. Kostopoulos didn't take the puck directly off Pascal Leclaire's stick, but he forced Leclaire into turning it over along the far boards, and while Leclaire stopped Kostopoulos' first shot he couldn't handle the rebound and Kostopoulos knocked it in for a 1-0 lead.
6:23 1st: Canes lead 2-0; Brind'Amour 6 (Boychuk, Carson) Carson gets an assist for firing the puck into the zone off a faceoff, which shows you how broken this play was. Brind'Amour was in the right place to pick up a loose puck in the near circle, and he danced around a defender to fire a shot for which Leclaire again couldn't pick up the rebound. Cory Clouston had seen enough, and pulled Leclaire for Brian Elliott to loud cheers from the RBC faithful.
11:20 1st: Manny Legace gets into the game with two big saves on backdoor plays during a Sens' power play, and the crowd keeps getting louder. At this point the Canes can't do any wrong in the fans' eyes, and the team is all over the place to keep the pressure on.
17:30 1st: Alexandre Picard denies former teammate Jason Spezza with a well-timed kick save in front of Legace. Spezza did a heck of a job to dangle the puck around Picard, but before Spezza could get a shot off the puck was redirected to the corner.
18:50 1st: Staal skates to the bench with an injury of some sort. Maybe took a puck to the midsection? Not sure, but he's bent over in pain on the bench.
End 1st: After the goaltending change you could really sense a shift in momentum toward the Sens, and the Canes were chasing their tails for long portions of the second half of the period. They're lucky to be up by two; shots in the period were even at 9.
5:00 2nd: It took a little while for the Canes' offense to heat up as the Sens carried the play for most of the first five minutes, but they broke out in a big way with a fantastic shift from the Whitney-Staal-Jokinen line that would have had a goal if not for an overpass by Whitney on a 3-on-2.
6:30 2nd: Huge save on Sergei Samsonov by Brian Elliott, who flashed the glove as Samsonov skated in alone with two teammates engaged with Senators defensemen in the low slot. Samsonov outwaited Elliott and drew him down to the ice, but Elliott snared Samsonov's shot at the last second and earned a stoppage instead of giving up a three-goal lead.
12:45 2nd: Tom Kostopoulos came within gn inch of his second of the night on a redirection of a Jay Harrison point shot. Say what you will about the wisdom of playing Zach Boychuk with Kostopoulos and Brind'Amour, but that combination has been by far the best line on the ice for either team, and no other line is even in the discussion.
15:50 2nd: Canes lead 3-0; LaRose 5 (Staal, Ruutu) Chad LaRose was the beneficiary of some lucky timing on a line change, finding himself on the ice with Eric Staal and Tuomo Ruutu and putting the Canes up by three. Some hard work along the boards by Ruutu freed the puck up for LaRose to take a shot that was saved by Elliott, and Eric Staal's rebound chance bounced off Elliott and right to LaRose, who fired it home into the empty cage.
End 2nd: After a rough start to the period, the Canes slowly took over and have earned their three goal lead. Only three power plays so far, and none of them have resulted in anything on the scoreboard. Shots in the second were 10-7 Canes, who lead overall 19-16.
4:15 3rd: A bad turnover in front of Elliott leads to a golden chance for Whitney, who for some reason passed -- again -- from five feet and had his pass picked off by Erik Karlsson in front of the net. That's twice tonight that Whitney passed up a good chance for a goal by making one too many passes.
9:55 3rd: Legace has earned his money in this period. He's been on top of his crease and is making the puck look like it's approximately the size of a beach ball. For a guy who hasn't played in nearly a month, it's good to see.
11:55 3rd: Sens pull to 3-1; Cullen 13 (Alfredsson, Fisher) So much for the sutout. The Canes will remain without a bagel on the season after Matt Cullen scores what can only be described as a Matt Cullen goal: draw a hooking penalty behind the net, wrap around the far post, stuff it in. Seems like we've seen that move a million times.
16:30 3rd: The Sens are just owning the play now. The Canes are really back on their heels, and they're quite lucky to have the luxury of a two-goal cushion.
18:12 3rd: Canes lead 4-1; Sutter 16 (unassisted) (en) The Canes ice it away with an empty-netter from the red line that just barely trickled into the net inside the near post courtesy of Brandon Sutter, who has matched his jersey number with 16 goals on the season and continues to defy all expectations.
End 3rd: Not a banner third for the Canes, as they were outshot 9-3 in the period and the Sens led overall 26-21. If not for a pair of early defensive breakdowns this would have been a nailbiter, but the Canes got the breaks to go their way and skated off 2-0 since the Olympics -- and don't look now, but they've won seven in a row, their longest streak of the season.
Postgame: Eric Staal talked at length about the Olympics, the experience of going through a trade deadline as a seller, and plenty of other things as well. Zach Boychuk is still the wide-eyed rookie who couldn't believe his good fortune playing on a line with Rod Brind'Amour. Yes, needless to say, it's a happy time in the home locker room.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the arena, Matt Cullen was disappointed that his team lost tonight, but you could tell in talking to him that he's excited to be in a situation where he can again go deep into the playoffs. Cullen moved his family back to Minnesota during the break, and he said that the break actually came at a fortuitous time for him; he had plenty of time to get his affairs in order without having to wear multiple hats at the same time.
Click for audio from Staal, Boychuk, Rod Brind'Amour and, from the other locker room, Cullen. Paul Maurice's press conference is attached.
The Canes hit the road for a quick back-to-back this weekend, as they face Florida on Saturday and Atlanta on Sunday. The next time we'll see them here is next Thursday, when the Pittsburgh Penguins come to town for the final time this season. In the meantime, there's a high likelihood of another Canes Country Call-In next week, so stay tuned and we'll keep you updated on a date and time.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
First reaction to the Canes' deadline moves
By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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The NHL trade deadline is commonly described as a sort of hockey Christmas, as general managers find themselves wheeling and dealing like old hands at a swap meet and fans of the thirty teams sit on the sidelines Monday-morning quarterbacking their favorite team's deals. It's rare for the Canes to be a seller at the deadline, but the situation presented itself this season and Jim Rutherford didn't disappoint, trading five players off his roster for a smattering of draft picks and prospects.
Let's start with the biggest deal of the day, which was one that was never completed. At 3:00 on Wednesday, Ray Whitney remained with the Hurricanes despite all the noise being made that he was the most coveted player on the market after Ilya Kovalchuk was dealt in early February. Whitney's much-ballyhooed no-trade clause may not have been the reason he wasn't traded on Wednesday; Rutherford admitted that he only received one call from a team interested in Whitney the entire day. Rather, Rutherford's asking price of a first-round draft pick plus an NHL-ready prospect scared off a bunch of teams and a deal was never struck.
Rutherford finally acknowledged what had been rumored for over a month, that Whitney used his no-trade clause to block a move to a Western Conference team (widely assumed to be Los Angeles) about a month ago, and since that time the Canes did not receive any comparable offers with which to go to Whitney and ask him to waive the clause. As the day went on, it became more and more obvious that Whitney was not going to move, as the Penguins and Kings, the two teams assumed to be most active in their pursuit of Whitney, both made moves that screamed consolation prize, acquiring Alexei Ponikarovsky and Jeff Halpern respectively.
For a bit, the Washington Capitals were rumored to be hot on Whitney's trail, but as their deals started trickling in around noon it became evident that they wouldn't be able to afford the cap hit for Whitney. More on the Caps in a bit.
The Monday-morning quarterbacking of the Whitney non-trade has already begun, and we'll chime in with our two cents here at PD sometime Friday. It's a chicken-or-egg conundrum: is the deal the fault of Whitney's no-trade clause, or is it because the asking price was too high, or is it Rutherford's fault that Whitney had a no-trade clause to begin with? That doesn't have an easy answer.
The first trade that actually took place involving the Hurricanes involved a player who we thought had more than a 50% chance of being moved. It was assumed when the Boston Bruins traded Derek Morris to Phoenix for next to nothing that they were clearing cap space to acquire a defenseman, and they were -- only it was former Cane Dennis Seidenberg, not Ward, that got the call to Beantown. Not long after, the Canes shipped Ward to Anaheim for goaltender Justin Pogge and a 4th round pick (ironically, Boston's pick, which will be in either the '10 or '11 draft). For a guy who's had (admittedly) a horrible season, this is a heck of a return. Pogge will be a restricted free agent this offseason, and much like Alexandre Picard he will have a chance to prove himself worthy of a new contract in the last month of the season. With Manny Legace and Justin Peters manning the fort until Cam Ward returns, Pogge will likely remain in the AHL where he's been all season, but there's a chance he could make a cameo appearance in the NHL before the end of the year.
Full credit to Darren Pang, who on TSN announced that the Canes have succeeded this season...in the "goalies named Justin" category. A well-earned chuckle.
Meanwhile, a bit later Scott Walker was moved to Washington for a 7th round pick in this year's draft, and while this is the type of depth move that gets made all the time on deadline day Walker was quite emotional in meeting the media on his way out of his final practice with the Hurricanes. Walker's been through a lot here, with his wife's cancer during last year's playoffs, his infamous sucker-punch of future teammate Ward in the second round last year, his overtime game-7 winner, and more. He'll be missed in the locker room, and it says a lot that a guy that was moved for a final-round draft pick probably garnered the most chatter among Canes fans all day.
Then, after a two-hour wait, things really got interesting.
Right before 3:00, the Canes traded Joe Corvo to Washington for Brian Pothier, prospect Oskar Osala and a 2nd rounder in 2011. I have a feeling that either Washington was after another defenseman and took Corvo as a fallback, or the Canes had received interest in Corvo from other teams and waited to pull the trigger to see what kind of return they could get. If Washington was the only suitor, they could have simply packaged Corvo with Walker and not wasted the NHL's time with two separate transactions. Either way, Pothier is an unrestricted free agent, like Corvo, and I would be mildly surprised if he re-signs with Carolina given his pricetag this season; he could easily command above $3 million on the open market and I would be stunned if the Canes offer him that much. Osala has played two games in the NHL, spending most of his time with Hershey (AHL) where he won the Calder Cup championship last season.
The Canes' final two moves of the day were simple salary dumps. Andrew Alberts moved to Vancouver, ironically just as the TSN talking heads were bemoaning the lack of moves made by the Canucks at the deadline (granted, it's not a game-changing deal by any stretch, but the timing couldn't have been better), and Stephane Yelle was packaged with the River Rats' Harrison Reed in a deal to Colorado that netted the Canes a sixth-rounder and prospect Cedric Lalonde-McNicoll, who has put up underwhelming numbers in the AHL after a 100-point season his final year in junior hockey.
So at the end of the day, what do the Canes have to show? Most importantly, they have approximately a $2 million savings to show owner Peter Karmanos. Rutherford said that it's always hard to trade guys, especially when they've been so loyal to the organization, but the financial realities combined with the subpar performance on the ice essentially forced his hand. The Canes are looking at approximately $42 million committed to salaries next year, with the only free agents of significance still remaining unsigned being UFAs Whitney and Pothier, plus a handful of restricted free agents (Tlusty, Carson and Peters being the most notable). The Canes will have plenty of cap space with which to maneuver in the offseason.
Our first look at the new-look Canes will be Thursday night, when the Ottawa Senators come to town...with former Hurricane Matt Cullen in tow and returning to the RBC Center for the first time since his own trade just before the Olympics. Some of the names and jersey numbers might look a little different, but it's obvious that today isn't the final chapter in the Canes' extreme makeover, so there's no telling how long those names will be taking up residence in the home locker room at the RBC Center.
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
Email Puck Drops
The NHL trade deadline is commonly described as a sort of hockey Christmas, as general managers find themselves wheeling and dealing like old hands at a swap meet and fans of the thirty teams sit on the sidelines Monday-morning quarterbacking their favorite team's deals. It's rare for the Canes to be a seller at the deadline, but the situation presented itself this season and Jim Rutherford didn't disappoint, trading five players off his roster for a smattering of draft picks and prospects.
Let's start with the biggest deal of the day, which was one that was never completed. At 3:00 on Wednesday, Ray Whitney remained with the Hurricanes despite all the noise being made that he was the most coveted player on the market after Ilya Kovalchuk was dealt in early February. Whitney's much-ballyhooed no-trade clause may not have been the reason he wasn't traded on Wednesday; Rutherford admitted that he only received one call from a team interested in Whitney the entire day. Rather, Rutherford's asking price of a first-round draft pick plus an NHL-ready prospect scared off a bunch of teams and a deal was never struck.
Rutherford finally acknowledged what had been rumored for over a month, that Whitney used his no-trade clause to block a move to a Western Conference team (widely assumed to be Los Angeles) about a month ago, and since that time the Canes did not receive any comparable offers with which to go to Whitney and ask him to waive the clause. As the day went on, it became more and more obvious that Whitney was not going to move, as the Penguins and Kings, the two teams assumed to be most active in their pursuit of Whitney, both made moves that screamed consolation prize, acquiring Alexei Ponikarovsky and Jeff Halpern respectively.
For a bit, the Washington Capitals were rumored to be hot on Whitney's trail, but as their deals started trickling in around noon it became evident that they wouldn't be able to afford the cap hit for Whitney. More on the Caps in a bit.
The Monday-morning quarterbacking of the Whitney non-trade has already begun, and we'll chime in with our two cents here at PD sometime Friday. It's a chicken-or-egg conundrum: is the deal the fault of Whitney's no-trade clause, or is it because the asking price was too high, or is it Rutherford's fault that Whitney had a no-trade clause to begin with? That doesn't have an easy answer.
The first trade that actually took place involving the Hurricanes involved a player who we thought had more than a 50% chance of being moved. It was assumed when the Boston Bruins traded Derek Morris to Phoenix for next to nothing that they were clearing cap space to acquire a defenseman, and they were -- only it was former Cane Dennis Seidenberg, not Ward, that got the call to Beantown. Not long after, the Canes shipped Ward to Anaheim for goaltender Justin Pogge and a 4th round pick (ironically, Boston's pick, which will be in either the '10 or '11 draft). For a guy who's had (admittedly) a horrible season, this is a heck of a return. Pogge will be a restricted free agent this offseason, and much like Alexandre Picard he will have a chance to prove himself worthy of a new contract in the last month of the season. With Manny Legace and Justin Peters manning the fort until Cam Ward returns, Pogge will likely remain in the AHL where he's been all season, but there's a chance he could make a cameo appearance in the NHL before the end of the year.
Full credit to Darren Pang, who on TSN announced that the Canes have succeeded this season...in the "goalies named Justin" category. A well-earned chuckle.
Meanwhile, a bit later Scott Walker was moved to Washington for a 7th round pick in this year's draft, and while this is the type of depth move that gets made all the time on deadline day Walker was quite emotional in meeting the media on his way out of his final practice with the Hurricanes. Walker's been through a lot here, with his wife's cancer during last year's playoffs, his infamous sucker-punch of future teammate Ward in the second round last year, his overtime game-7 winner, and more. He'll be missed in the locker room, and it says a lot that a guy that was moved for a final-round draft pick probably garnered the most chatter among Canes fans all day.
Then, after a two-hour wait, things really got interesting.
Right before 3:00, the Canes traded Joe Corvo to Washington for Brian Pothier, prospect Oskar Osala and a 2nd rounder in 2011. I have a feeling that either Washington was after another defenseman and took Corvo as a fallback, or the Canes had received interest in Corvo from other teams and waited to pull the trigger to see what kind of return they could get. If Washington was the only suitor, they could have simply packaged Corvo with Walker and not wasted the NHL's time with two separate transactions. Either way, Pothier is an unrestricted free agent, like Corvo, and I would be mildly surprised if he re-signs with Carolina given his pricetag this season; he could easily command above $3 million on the open market and I would be stunned if the Canes offer him that much. Osala has played two games in the NHL, spending most of his time with Hershey (AHL) where he won the Calder Cup championship last season.
The Canes' final two moves of the day were simple salary dumps. Andrew Alberts moved to Vancouver, ironically just as the TSN talking heads were bemoaning the lack of moves made by the Canucks at the deadline (granted, it's not a game-changing deal by any stretch, but the timing couldn't have been better), and Stephane Yelle was packaged with the River Rats' Harrison Reed in a deal to Colorado that netted the Canes a sixth-rounder and prospect Cedric Lalonde-McNicoll, who has put up underwhelming numbers in the AHL after a 100-point season his final year in junior hockey.
So at the end of the day, what do the Canes have to show? Most importantly, they have approximately a $2 million savings to show owner Peter Karmanos. Rutherford said that it's always hard to trade guys, especially when they've been so loyal to the organization, but the financial realities combined with the subpar performance on the ice essentially forced his hand. The Canes are looking at approximately $42 million committed to salaries next year, with the only free agents of significance still remaining unsigned being UFAs Whitney and Pothier, plus a handful of restricted free agents (Tlusty, Carson and Peters being the most notable). The Canes will have plenty of cap space with which to maneuver in the offseason.
Our first look at the new-look Canes will be Thursday night, when the Ottawa Senators come to town...with former Hurricane Matt Cullen in tow and returning to the RBC Center for the first time since his own trade just before the Olympics. Some of the names and jersey numbers might look a little different, but it's obvious that today isn't the final chapter in the Canes' extreme makeover, so there's no telling how long those names will be taking up residence in the home locker room at the RBC Center.
Monday, March 1, 2010
TZ and Brian recap the Olympics
A day after the most hyped game in hockey history, Taylor and Brian recap the Games and discuss what it might mean for the NHL going forward.
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