In this past set of back to backs, the Canes had a golden opportunity to clinch the division and have 3 games to not worry about making sure to get every point.

They did their best on Friday, all but killing the Thrashers with a final tally of 7-1. The Thrashers could have easily played spoiler since they have nothing else to play for at this point, but it didn’t happen. Hamilton and Ruutu both scored twice on the one they call Moose and although that was enough we also got goals from Corvo, Letowski and Staal.

Perhaps we should have saved some of that offensive energy for last night. The Lightning were waiting for us in Tampa Bay where the Canes struggled all season..even if they are the worst team in the league. Kari Ramo was stellar in goal for them facing 39 shots and stopping 38 of them. At the other end of the ice Ward continued his solid play, but a bad goal put the Bolts up 2-1 that proved to be the game winner.  We just looked like a team who was tired and had played the night before. A 3rd period rally of desperation couldn’t tie it up to at least get us one point and combined with a Washington win the Canes lead in the Southeast has been cut to two points with 3 games left for each team.

The importance of Tuesday’s game grew infinitely around 10pm last night after our game. If we win, we take the SE and are set. If we lose, Washington ties us for points pretty much meaning we must win our last two (One on Wednesday and one on Friday) in order to stay tied (in that case, the Canes would win the tiebreakers)

The sense of urgency must come from the National Anthem on for the Canes and they just need to finish it on Tuesday!