Things are looking up... or at least above .500

The past two weeks were pretty kind to the Canes - in the six games since my last post, Carolina went 4-1-1. Yes, that means that finally the Canes have had a win streak and managed to get above .500 on the season.

Let's recap:

- Canes lost to the Stars 2-1 in a shootout. No one scored in the SO for the Canes.

- In their next game the Canes were finally victorious in the shootout, winning 2-1 over the Blues. Jussi Jokinen scored the only goal in the shootout.

- Canes won 4-3 over the Panthers in a come-from-behind victory. They had gone down three goals early in the game - Ward was pulled from goal after letting two goals in the first two minutes. But, for probably the first time this season, they didn't give up and they powered back for the victory in regulation.

- The Canes also came from behind the next night, winning 3-2 in a shootout over the Atlanta Thrashers. Cam Ward was a complete beast in this one, stopping 45 shots on the night.

I actually watched the game against the Ducks (finals are over, haha!), and I think that the 4-2 win was entertaining enough to earn its own bulleted section of the post. So, my observations:

- The end of the game was INSANE. Yeah, that's the only word that even begins to describe what happened. Three successive penalties called against the Canes resulting in a full two minute six-on-three that the Canes had to kill off. Yes, that's six-on-three due to the fact that Anaheim pulled their goalie. First time in a long time that I've been on the edge of my seat to watch any sort of hockey that the Canes have played. Cam Ward was absolutely stellar to keep the Ducks from scoring more than one.

- Speaking of Ward, he looked amazing. AMAZING. If he can keep up this kind of play, the Canes definitely have a chance for the playoffs. He is a top-notch goalie and he definitely showed all of his skill in this game.

- As for the penalties called to put Cam Ward in the position to have to make those saves... Joe Corvo pretty much lost his mind going after Corey Perry (although he deserved it, but let's just say that Corvo has to be a little less blatant in roughing next time if he doesn't want to get called). Brandon Sutter I guess closed his hand on the puck - debatable, but I'll give the ref credit. Eric Staal's crosscheck, however, was nonexistent. Definitely absurd that the refs should call something like that when a team is already down two men. Talk about trying to decide the game.

- I loved that Corvo went after Perry after he scored the empty netter. Not so happy that Perry started something because his team lost, but I'm glad that Corvo stuck up for himself and didn't just take the crap.

- Eric Staal had a natural hat trick. Yeah, kind of an afterthought after the excitement at the end. But his first goal particularly was a beauty - Staal just took the puck straight up the side during a powerplay - a very pretty goal, although I'm sure the nonexistent Anaheim defense would think otherwise.

So, with this win, the Canes had a four game win streak. That ended pretty ignominiously with a 5-1 loss to the Lightning tonight. Let's just say I'm not crying that this one wasn't televised.

So where does this leave the Canes? They currently have a 15-13-4 record and 34 points on the year, good enough for 9th in the East and 4th in the Southeast. So, if you're keeping track, same as it was last post. The good news, or at least, what could be good news in the future - the C[r]apitals no longer have a stranglehold on the division. Thanks to their recent struggles, they are actually third in the Southeast. In our position it probably doesn't mean much - we're eight points behind them - but hopefully the Canes will continue to win and take advantage of our rival's poor play.

Upcoming this week is Montreal, who is leading their division, and the aforementioned C[r]apitals. I'm hoping for a continuation of the good play of the past two weeks - hey, the Penguins recently went on a twelve game tear, why can't the Canes do the same?

Erik Cole Stats (Dec 15th): 1 goal
(Dec 18th): 1 assist
(Tonight): 1 assist
On the season: 6 goals, 8 assists

Canes are annoying me right now...

The Canes are seriously disappointing me right now.

I did not watch Thursday's meltdown against the C[r]apitals - I chose to go instead to my school's play, an $8 that was worth it both for the quality of the production and the fact that it kept me from throwing something through the TV, as I surely would have done at home.

Yep, the Canes went from leading, to tied, to losing, all within a little under three minutes.

Over and over again, I have stressed that the Canes need to play a full sixty minutes. Here's a perfect case in point.

And my mom says that I should just be happy that the Canes won last night. Yes, they won. Good for them. Came back from a 1-0 deficit in the third period.

But what about the first two periods? They played like crap. That was an utterly lackluster hockey team on the ice last night. To be honest, I'm getting sick of it. I want to see well-executed hockey for the entire game, not just a one-period flurry and the other two periods being merely okay. That's not a way to win a championship, that's for sure.

Granted, the Canes are missing a lot of people due to injury. Hopefully when we get Cullen & Pitkanen back, our power play will finally connect. But Rod Brind'Amour seems completely non-existent on the ice (maybe after-effects of his knee surgeries?), and Eric Staal looked like he took some bad allergy medicine or something - he was not playing anywhere near his best, it just looked like he was going through the motions out there.

A positive thing I have to say today? Well, Peter Laviolette, with the unimpressive win by his hockey team last night, became the winningest American-born NHL hockey coach, surpassing John Tortorella Good for him!

The next game is Sunday against the Thrashers. Hopefully they'll be able to start opening up Lavi's lead on Tortorella...

Canes win in OT

So yesterday I looked at the clock:
- saw 3 pm
- went "crap" because I had forgotten the game was in the middle of the afternoon
- turned on the TV
- saw the Islanders score their first goal
- turned off the TV.

Canes won 3-2 in overtime, in a come-from-behind victory!

Yep, the Canes were down 2-0 heading into the third, but Wallin and Commodore scored goals in the third to force OT and Cory Stillman got the OT winner!

Tonight's game is against the Islanders as well. And it's Ray Whitney figurine night!

Canes play like crap - win anyway

Canes won 3-2 in overtime last night against Toronto in a true example of a come-from-behind-victory!

And, man, did they play like crap for most of the game. They started off strong with 11-ish shots in the first five minutes. And then it went downhill - the Canes looked sluggish and just absolutely boring.

I thought the game was sealed when Craig Adams took a high-sticking penalty with only 3:55 left in the third (which he has since been suspended two games for...).

But then Cory Stillman knocked one in with a little over a minute left and then stripped the puck from a Toronto defenseman (who was looking at an empty net). 58 seconds after the first goal Whitney got a goal to tie the game - on to OT!

And, it almost looked like the Canes were not going to score in OT, having a two-man advantage killed off by Toronto. But, on the single-man advantage Walker finished the comeback with only 33 seconds left in the period.

I was absolutely astounded when the Canes scored a goal in this game, let alone score 2 in the last minute and the OT winner. Nice comeback, but I definitely would have preferred to win the game in the previous 59 minutes...

Erik Cole stats: 2 assists
On the season: 7 goals, 16 assists

Canes win first preseason game!

Canes win 4-3 in overtime in their first preseason game!

Having attended, I can tell you that the Canes have already got into their regular-season form: get behind and have a killer third period to come back and win it.
I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing...

Anyways... the first two periods were kind of bland. The Canes had offense, but it just didn't seem spectactular in any way. Same with the C[r]apitals. Their first goal was a fluke from the blue line, and I honestly can't remember what the second was like.

Then the third period came, and with it came the Canes offense. Noah Babin scored the first goal, and then Erik Cole came streaking down the wing less than a minute later to tie the game up at two. Then, with 3 minutes left, the Canes let one through to get the C[r]apitals ahead, but Justin Williams answered back with a minute left, off of a nice pass by Ryan Bayda.

Then overtime came, and Erik Cole was credited with another goal, this one being tipped from a Eric Staal shot. I thought a Washington dude had tipped it in, but apparently not.

So, to recap, the good news:
- Erik Cole looks as awesome as he ever was.
- Eric Staal ended up with three assists.
- Michael Leighton (the goalie obtained from the Canadiens (I think it was Montreal, at least...)) looked pretty decent in goal.
- Commodore looked solid, with a couple pinches in on net... Gleason looked pretty solid as well.
- Hockey is back!
- We won!

The bad news:
- None of the new guys stood out. I didn't really focus on anybody and say "That's one I'll have to watch out for". Not good.
- I hate the new scoresheets online. I want to see how many shots Grahame let in versus Leighton (and how to spell Leighton's name) - it doesn't tell you! I mean, the new stats (shots on goal during 5v5, 5v4, 4v4, etc.) are nice, but why did they take away stats? Makes no sense at all.
- The whole no-offense for the first forty minutes thing. I mean, it's nice when the Canes can pull it off - not so when they can't.

Next game is on Friday. YaY for hockey!

A Good game and a Bad game

The Canes season ended in back-to-back games at home.

The first game, Friday night, was a pathetic showing by the Canes (two five-on-threes without a goal!) - they lost 4-1 to Atlanta, letting Atlanta win the division. Anson Carter scored his first goal as a Hurricane.

Yep, that game is completely overshadowed in my memory by the Canes come-from-behind victory! over the Florida Panthers last night.

The first two periods were pretty much the Canes that we saw in the Atlanta game - slow, didn't care - and they allowed Florida to be ahead 4-1 after the second period.

Then came the third period, David Tanabe scoring his second goal (!) of the game to open it up. After that, the Canes were pretty much unstoppable, tying the game up with less than five minutes left.

Then, to seal off the victory, Rod Brind'Amour had a breakaway overtime goal to win the game.

Nice note to end the season on, I think.

And... Happy Easter everyone! Hopefully the Easter Bunny brought all sorts of candy and chocolate and marshmallow animals to you!

Erik Cole stats (Saturday): 1 goal
End of season: 29 goals, 32 assists

Perhaps there is hope?...

Canes won over Florida 4-3 in overtime.

I saw absolutely none of this game, as I was in Martinsville, Virginia watching the NASCAR Nextel Cup race. Had awesome seats, and the race was pretty exciting.

Anyways... Canes were down by two in the third, came back to tie it up, and then Ray Whitney scored in OT. Sounds like a come-from-behind-victory to me.

Hey! Chad LaRose scored one of the goals for the Canes! Good for him!

Hmm... with three games left, the Canes are 2 points out of a playoff spot... perhaps we have some hope? Although, we'd need at least two wins to get the same number of wins as Montreal...

Need to win 'em all.

Canes have ultimate third period

[As stated below, I conjured up this post during my Spanish exam earlier today. Factual corrections or later additions are in brackets.]

Ugh. I'm currently writing this during my Spanish exam. I have thirty minuted to burn, so I decided to write the post now, so I'll actually put some thought into what I'm writing an have an actual game recap - not the ramblings that I normally have. (Although there will be ramblings - sitting in a trailer taking an exam for 3 and 1/2 hours will do that to you).

Anyways... the game last night. Wow. Just wow. I don't know whether to be angry or happy, but I am kind of stunned.

The Canes came out in the first doing okay. There should have been a goal, but Mick McGeough proved once again why he is one of the most infamous refs in the NHL. Apparently he stopped play to call a penalty before the puck went in. But that's a bunch of crap. He needs to get contacts because he sees things that aren't there, that's for sure. Él es ciego y gordo.

So the game was 0-0 at the end of the first.
Then came the second period where the Canes went downhill fast and let Florida score 3 goals (2 in 30 seconds, I believe [Actually 2 in 50 seconds. But what does it matter? Just letting two goals in is crap.]). The Canes just didn't do anything good at all. At the end of the second, I hadn't given up hope, but, considering their play, I wasn't too optimistic.

Third period Chad LaRose nets one.
Now, I believe, if someone else on the Canes squad had gotten the goal, it wouldn't have been the same. The excitement in the arena after the goal was insane. I mean, how can you not be overjoyed when a guy like Chad, who gives 110% on every shift in every game, gets his second goal of the season?

After that, the goals just came in waves. Cole got the second, Walker stuffed one in behind Florida goalie Alex Auld to tie it, Stillman put the Canes ahead off of a nice Hutchinson pass, someone who I can't remember scored [Craig Adams], and somebody else got the empty net [Ray Whitney]. 6 goals in one period, a franchise record, I would think. [Nope, record is 7.]

Amazing, just amazing to come back from being down 0-3 in one period. It's just a feat to do that.
But then, I refrain from being too happy because the Canes dug themselves that hole to begin with, with their crappy defensive play [New guy, Seidenberg looked pretty good, though], and no offense whatsoever in the second.

And, because I still have 15 minutes to burn, I'll tell you why I think the Canes were able to pull it off: They played Led Zeppelin at the RBC Center.

Stop laughing.

No, I'm serious. Stop laughing.

I had noticed, in the last Pittsburgh game, when I was watching it on FSN, that "When the Levee Breaks" was playing. I thought to myself: They're playing that at the Igloo! How will we ever win?
End result: Pittsburgh wins 3-0.
In the first period, I heard "Rock and Roll", something that is never heard at the arena - Canes have a miraculous comeback to win the game.
Coincidence? I think not.

Erik Cole stats: 1 goal, 1 assist
On the season: 19 goals, 21 assists