Carolina Hurricanes (2-0-0) vs Dewoit Wed Wings (1-1-0)

(last matchup December 9, 2007: 5-2 loss)

Puck Drop: 7PM

Canes debut new 3rd jerseys

and rally towels are being handed out.

Facing the defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Canes are going to have to put 60 minutes of effort into this game to have a chance to win the game. No getting down by 2+ goals early in the first and spending the rest of the game trying to fight back. It won’t work against this team.

The Canes haven’t won their first three games since…1995-1996..meaning they weren’t even the Canes at that point.

I will post some lineups if I can find them, but there is no pregame skate tomorrow so we may not find out until game time who is playing and on what line. Interesting note though..apparently Leighton is 4-2-0 with a 2.48GAA against the Wings. Ward let in 5 goals in his only match against them last season.

I’m expecting a full house there tomorrow to see these new jerseys and to fill the building with energy for the team to feed from to try and beat these Wings.

]]> http://faceoffcircle.net/2008/10/12/game-3-canes-and-red-wings/feed/ http://faceoffcircle.net/2008/10/11/canes-take-revenge-in-season-opener/ http://faceoffcircle.net/2008/10/11/canes-take-revenge-in-season-opener/#comments Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:45:56 +0000 Katy http://faceoffcircle.net/2008/10/11/canes-take-revenge-in-season-opener/

What a great way to open at home..can’t complain about a 6-4 win. Canes haven’t won a home opener since before the 2002-2003 season (the archives only go back that far) Just an fyi for those who don’t know, the Canes get to open at home most years because after the first week in October the State Fair is in town and because the fairgrounds are across the street from the arena and the logistics of parking etc the team spends those two weeks on the road.

The opening ceremonies were just awesome. 100 times better than last years for sure (aside from the on ice pictures and videos) By the time the team skated out the noise already had risen to a deafening level. Brind’amour, Staal and Ward definitely got the loudest cheers but it was impressive how loud the cheers were for guys like Pitkanen and Leighton.

Now to get to the actual game I want to break it up into three parts:

The Good:

• Brandon Sutter - This is the first game I’ve seen this kid use his size and hit people. He was a beast on the penalty kill which accounted for about 1/2 of his ice time. AND he got his first NHL point in his first NHL game. Not too shabby, eh?
• Kaberle, Pitkanen, and Gleason - I was absolutely amazed at how well Frank Kaberle played. Hopefully it wasn’t just a fluke and he will perform like that every night. Pitkanen and Gleason were both very solid defensively and with carrying the puck down the ice. Just what we need from our top two blueliners.
• Offense - Obviously our offense is doing okay if we can score 6 goals. You see big guys like Whitney and Brind’amour scoring but you also have guys like Eaves and LaCouture putting some points up which was great.
• Faceoffs - Although we only won 52% of the faceoffs overall individual efforts in the circle were really solid. Staal was 8-4 for 67% and Brind’amour was his usual self going 14-9 for 61%.
• Power play - Going 2-4 is not so bad at all. Something we need to keep up.
• The crowd - pretty much the typical RBCC crowd.Very loud and warm towards our team even starting a Let’s Go Canes chant before the team went to the bench for the start of the game. Although I do sometimes wonder why they feel the need to boo when the Canes go offsides….

The Bad:

• Cam Ward - The team won’t be able to score 6 times every night to make up for silly mistakes Cam makes while settling into the game. He is better than his 4.00 GAA and he needs to start showing it. Oh and high glove side anyone?
• SOG - If we can allow the Florida Panthers to take 33SOG then a team like Montreal will be taking 50 on us when we play them. Our defense is going to need to do something to prevent that from happening every game.
• Penalties - The early parts of the game the Canes were just completely sloppy which led to PP opportunities for the Panthers that got us into a 2-0 defecit.

The Ugly:

• The Refs: They let the Panther get away with taking shots at Staal that could have easily been penalties and then turn around and give the Canes penalties for just looking at a Panther wrong. I’m thinking maybe there is some lingering feelings from last year when the Panthers talked badly about the Canes to the media and called us divers and all but said if the refs let us have any PPs they were handing us the game and mysteriously that night when we played them Brad Watson called most of the penalties against us…and there were a lot of them. It included 2 diving penalties and a call against Wesley that pissed him off enough to skate after the ref when he was leaving the box.
• The girl sitting in front of me -  I know everyone doesn’t cheer for hockey in the same way but it was really annoying to have someone turn around and stare every time I cheered or said anything. Of course that just caused me to say even more ridiculous things like yelling at Cam to shoot the puck every time he came out to play it.

Lots of good things, but we definitely have some things to improve on if we are going to be a solid team this season.

I want to extend a thanks to the parking attendent who always lets us into the first lot. Makes my life a lot easier.

Also much props to the marketing and promotions staff…I love my new car flag!

Not shockingly…the Canes got stuck with a back to back on their first two games. Tampa Bay actually tried to get us to play at 5pm tonight so it wouldn’t interfer with the baseball game…yes that’s it…baseball…not that they want to be well rested and give us 2 and a half hours less between games. Hopefully we take care of business tonight against this team that is supposedly going to be a powerhouse this season.

 Carolina Hurricanes vs. Florida Panthers Kitty Cats

(Last matchup result: 4-3 loss)

Puck drop: 7PM at

Last time the Canes faced the Panthers, it resulted in a loss that caused the Canes to miss the playoffs by 2 points. Tonight the Canes kick off the season hoping to get some revenge for that loss.

The lineup hasn’t been finalized but it should look something like this:

Whitney – Staal – Eaves
Samsonov – Brind’Amour – Ruutu
Bayda – Cullen – LaRose
Brookbank – Sutter – LaCouture

Gleason – Pitkanen
Kaberle – Corvo
Seidenberg – Wallin
Melichar - Babchuk

Ward/Leighton

 I will be there early tomorrow…headed out to the arena about 5:30 to be one of the first in the door since they are handing out car flags with our secondary logo on it:

For those of you who can’t get to the game it will be on FSN South and on 99.9 The Fan.

I plan on taking lots of mental notes and doing a full post-game…possibly a video…either Friday when I get home or sometime Saturday.

To get an idea of what the Caniac carnival is, think Disney Land but replace the rides with hockey related stuff. After arriving to the RBC center at 8am it was definitely a nice change from seasons past for the weather to be in the lower 70’s instead of 90’s.  Attending the autograph session it was just nice to see all the players smiling and sounding like they are ready to roll for the season. Joni Pitkanen looked happy with the warm welcome he was receiving from the fans. No doubt coming from places like Philly and Edmonton he might be weary of how the fans would act since he was traded for one of the BIGGEST fan favorites.

Skipping forward….we finally got to see what we in the Triangle have missed for  five long months. Open seating allowed me to grab a seat 6 rows back behind the benches. The guys who played yesterday were mostly those who will be headed to Albany soon but there were a few players of note:

Jeff O’Neill: On a tryout with the team he probably has the most legitimate shot at making the team coming out of camp (even moreso since Justin Williams ruptured his Achilles tendon) O’Neill received a huge round of applause when he was being interviewed and again when he scored in the game, which kind of came as a surprise to me seeing as what kind of terms he left the fans on) He looked alright at the beginning of the scrimmage and by the end of it looked really comfortable making smart plays.

Patrick Eaves: I’m hoping he didn’t  look 100% because he wanted to avoid injury

Anton Babchuk: Really impressed me with his smart blueline work yesterday. Looks like Russia did him a bit of good as far as maturation as a defenseman. I can’t wait to see him in actual game mode to see if it carries over.

Wade Brookbank, Ryan Bayda, Tim Conboy: All looked like their play from last year has carried over and improved. These guys worked their tails off to get to where they are and are going to be rewarded with time with the big club.

Brandon Sutter: I am terribly worried that all the hype is because of his last name and not because of the talent he possesses. I am told he has gained 15lbs, but he still looks very lanky and could use some more weight. He is pushed off the puck like he is 5′7…which was the way Staal was at the very beginning of his career. I’m thinking he could use another year with his Junior team, which won’t happen. To cap off the way he played on his last shift of the scrimmage he goes to hop over the boards onto the ice and fell flat on his face. I won’t lie..I laughed a bit.

Melichar: Maybe the number 22 is cursed or something now, but I didn’t really like the play I saw from him. Although today at practice he looked a lot better. We’ll see.

I’ll update more after Wednesday’s preseason game against AO and the Washington Crapitals.

Go Canes!

He kept his press conference short today when announcing it, saying that he had to in order to make it through it without tears. Understandable for a guy who spent many years of his career with a team who struggled and then ultimately relocated and basically started anew here in the Triangle. (Just as a side note, Wesley is the last of the players who relocated with the team to North Carolina.)

His hard work payed off in 2006 when he finally was able to raise the Stanley Cup above him and then in a very kind act he spent his day with the Cup at Camp Lejuene  before taking it to his church.  He said that his 2nd best memory with this organization was getting to see the fans tailgate and just seeing the development of a fanbase.

Glen WILL be staying with the Hurricanes as Director of Defenseman Development and hopefully he can pass down some of what he learned from Ray Bourque to the younger generation of defensemen.

Rutherford announced that some time during the 2008-2009 season there will be a night where Wesley will have his jersey retired and raised to join Ron Francis’ number in the RBC Center rafters. A very fitting end for a great career.

So after 1,457 and 537 points and more heart than I have seen in any other player I salute Mr. Wesley for all he has done.

The goal for the team is to raise $5,000 and my personal goal is at $125 right now.

Please click here: http://race.komennctriangle.org/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1030&px=1293965 to view my page where you can donate to this great cause!

You can also click here: http://www.komennctriangle.org/ to view the main page for the Susan G. Komen walk.

Now that I am done with my shameless self promotion…Go Canes!!

The feeling that all the time, money, emotion I have spent this season as a hockey fan is probably done……well…really I just never thought it would be this hard.

I know a lot of people cheer against the Canes, everyone wants to see Alex Ovenchicken in the playoffs. I get it. But I think a lot of people don’t really understand why this team deserves a better fate than this.

300+ man games lost: Justin Williams, David Tanabe, Matt Cullen, Rod Brind’amour, Chad Larose…the list includes EVERYONE one of our players except for Eric Staal…..all injured at some time or another. We went for 2 months without our Captain…..

The “Rat pack”: Keith Aucoin, Ryan Bayda, Wade Brookbank, and Tim Conboy. I can’t say enough about these 4 guys. They were our heart and soul when we were sitting in the slumps. They really filled in for guys…who they probably shouldn’t have been able to fill in for. Brookbank went out and dropped the gloves with guys he KNEW were going to beat the crap out of him. What says “I want to be here” more than that?

Ruutu, Samsonov and Corvo: Guys who were on their last leg with their former teams and seemed to find their touch here. Here is to hoping Tuomo AND Samsonov stick around for a while. Joe is stuck with us for a couple years so no worries about him!

Everyone doubted this team…especially when Rod Brind’amour went down. This team has fought like crazy and they really deserved better than this. All of them. They work together as a team and took the blame for every loss instead of pinning it on the other team like some teams do (See: Washington Capitals and Florida Panthers)

So to my team…thank you for all the memories this year. It was a hard road, but I wouldn’t trade it for any other team.

I appreciate Torts putting Smith in against us for several reasons:  he is very entertaining to watch, we owned him last time, Caps get the better goalie tomorrow, and he does stuff like leave the net when we threaten to dump it in and then we get open net!

I loved the lines tonight. Samsonov was not working out with Staal and Cole, Whitney is a much better fit there. I was liking all 4 of our lines actually. Our 1A,B,C,D lines that is. That’s one thing I love about this team. The 1D line is just as important as the line with Staal on it.

Anyway. This game is done and we are not. Time for them to focus on Friday. They will get the much needed rest tomorrow and be back for game 82 against the Panthers. Should be intense.

Best of luck to all of the Lightning tomorrow!!

I am too disgusted to write any more tonight..I will edit the post later.