Tidbits from around the league

There's a bunch of interesting things going on in the Canes/NHL world.

In order of my open Firefox tabs:

- Matt Murley has reportedly bolted to the Russian KHL, even after signing a two-way deal with the Canes in September.

- In a meld of some of my favorite things, Regan Smith, a NASCAR driver, will be wearing a Canes-themed helmet for this week's race in Charlotte. He will then donate the helmet to the Canes' charity, the Kids 'N Community Foundation, for a charity auction.

- Apparently Rutherford is kind of unhappy with the injury situation, instructing Pete Friesen to make changes to the offseason training regimen. Sounds like a good call to me - I'm sick of seeing players in the press box and not on the bench.

- Blackhawk's forward Ben Eager has been suspended three games for swinging his stick (while he was on the bench) at Sean Avery (who was on the ice).

And, yes, I would have loved to see that. Not that I'm advocating purposefully trying to injure a player... but who wouldn't like to see Avery get pwned?

- Also in news that makes me giggle a little at someone's expense: The Flyers lost their final game at the Spectrum - to their own minor league team.

And, Ladies and Gentlemen, I'll leave you with the happy thought that, no matter how bad things have gone for the Canes, at least we haven't lost to our own farm team.

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 lose; Walker suspended

Canes lost 6-0 to Ottawa last night.

The game was pretty fast paced, especially in the first period. Unfortunately for the Canes the fast paced-ness went in favor of the Senators, Ottawa jumping out to a 3-0 lead after the first. The 3rd period was particularly miserable to watch, the Senators scoring another three in that period.

The most important thing coming out of this game is probably Scott Walker's fight in the beginning of the second. After the fight was kinda-sorta broken up by the linesmen, Walker head-butted Mike Fisher and is now suspended for one game by the NHL.

Perhaps it's my middle-school-era humor coming up, but I think saying "Headbutt" is pretty funny.

Scott Walker being suspended (especially for doing something retarded like headbutting) is not funny.