Canes storm all over the Panthers.

Canes beat the crap out of Florida 7-2 last night at the RBC Center.

This was the first game I went to in person this season and it was somewhat unfortunate that such a beatdown went on in front of such a paltry crowd... but, then again, Florida wouldn't have been my top choice to view either.

The score is not so much a result of how great the Canes played, but how bad Florida played. There were tons of turnovers by the Panthers - specifically Jussi Jokinen's goal off of a poorly played puck behind the net.

The good thing for the Canes was the fact that all seven goals were scored by seven different people - definitely a variety of contributors from several lines, with Tom Kostopoulos getting his first Canes goal (a shorthanded steal) and Jay Harrison getting his first goal as well.

The two goals scored by Florida came far too late to actually make a difference in the score, and weren't really Ward's fault at all. Cam played very well in net the few times he was challenged.

I feel actually sort of bad for the Florida fans. Essentially the only players on their team are Nathan Horton, David Booth, and Cory Stillman. That's it. That's their depth. Pretty pathetic, actually.

Canes play again tonight against Tampa. Hopefully their success against Florida-based teams will continue.

News from the offseason

News from the offseason (complete with stilted sentences because coherent thinking is totally not made for when school is out):

Signs that the next season is getting closer (but still dreadfully far away) were seen in the past few days. The Canes released their preseason schedule, which consists of four games with the Predators and Thrashers being the opponents. The full regular season schedule will be released on the 15th (Wednesday!), which coincidentally is the start of the prospect conditioning camp.

The Canes are continuing to try and solidify the ranks for the next season, signing Jay Harrison to a two-way contract. There is also talk of buying out Frank Kaberle to help save the team some money. If the Canes would manage to sign someone good I wouldn't be against such a move - as of now I really don't see that our defensive depth has improved since the last season (especially with Anton Babchuk looking to take his wicked slapshot back to Russia), so currently I don't think Kaberle being on or off the team really makes a difference.

You may have seen that the Canes made the 1st-of-the-NHL, 2nd-overall position in ESPN the Magazine's Ultimate Team Rankings. Rutherford has some nice things to say about us fans in an open letter about the rankings.

All I have to say is finally - FINALLY! - the Canes are getting some respect from a national source. We Caniacs have known all along how awesome hockey in the Triangle is - it's nice to see other people wising up to that fact as well.