A Winner's Checklist

The Canes end their brief break from playing tonight against the Washington C[r]apitals.

During their break, the Canes dropped to 9th in the East, technically tied with the Leafs and Rangers for 8th place.

The Canes have 14 games left, including tonight. I took the liberty of creating a checklist for the rest of the Canes season.

1) Actually put effort in the last 14 games. If they play the lackluster hockey like they did in some of the previous games, you can book that tee time now.
2) Win some games. You can't advance your position in the standings if you don't win. It's pretty elementary.
3) Obtain a playoff spot. I don't want to be writing about other teams in April.
4) Try really hard to not get matched up with the Buffalo Sabres in the first round. Yeah, I'm not saying we couldn't beat them... but our record against them this year doesn't really back up that claim.
5) Win the Southeast. Probably won't happen, as the Canes are 9 points behind. But stranger things have happened.

Luckily, in this particular game the best power forward evah! is slotted to play, having been removed from the injured reserve yesterday.

Meanwhile, if you haven't seen Chris Simon of the Islanders smack Ryan Hollweg of the Rangers in the face with a stick yet click here. It's pretty horrible. Simon has been suspended for the rest of the season for the despicable (vocabulary word!) act.