Rather delayed recap

I suppose I should start off this post with a sincere apology for not writing about the Hurricanes over the past few weeks. Truth be told, I have had a crap-ton of schoolwork (not just a ton, mind you, a crap-ton) and I honestly haven't paid too much attention to the team.

Let's start with the most recent news. First of all, tonight is Rod Brind'Amour Night, where his number is being raised to the rafters before the Flyers game. In fact, it's probably occurring as I type this. Kind of a bummer that I'm not present for the night, as I had seen both Wesley's and Francis' numbers go up, but unfortunately school schedules don't revolve around hockey.

Also occurring today is the Canes making trades with the San Jose Sharks. They first received defenseman Derek Joslin for future considerations, then traded Ian White for the Sharks' 2012 second round pick.

Looking at what we got, Joslin is a young defenseman who has appeared in a few NHL games over the past three seasons. Rutherford sounds pretty confident that he'll be battling for ice time, so hopefully Joslin will pan out as a good defenseman for the future.

As for what we sent to the Sharks, I honestly barely noticed Ian White when I was able to see a game. Granted, for a defenseman that might mean you're doing your job because that means I'm not noticing your glaring mistakes. But I don't think the Canes lost a key asset in the trade, which is always a good thing.

So, the playoff stretch. The Canes currently have a record of 27-23-8, good enough for 62 points and eighth place in the East and third in the Southeast. The past three weeks they've gone 2-4-2, which isn't that hot, but they've definitely been helped by a tanking Atlanta team. What worries me are the losses to teams like the Maple Leafs and Devils (twice!) - we definitely should be beating them around this time of the season.

What's awesome? Erik Cole. Check out the statline at the bottom of the post and this video of the game-winning OT goal against Atlanta. Certainly makes this Caniac happy to see her favorite player playing well.

The trade deadline is February 28th this year, which seems really early. Perhaps it was just the Olympics pushing everything back that makes me say that. Anyways, I will not profess to have any clue about what the Canes will do. I wouldn't imagine that they'd be sellers in 8th place, but with the Ian White trade occurring today it will be interesting to see if anything does happen - getting rid of his contract does open up some room for the Canes to make a move.

So, to recap, the Canes are in a much better place than they were earlier in the season, which is to say that they're finally holding steady in a playoff spot. As long as they can keep that up, well, not too much else matters.

Erik Cole stats (Feb 1st): 2 assists
(Feb 5th): 1 goal
(Feb 12th): 1 goal, 1 assist
(Feb 13th): 1 goal
On the season: 16 goals, 18 assists

Chad LaRose stats (Feb 10th): 1 assist
On the season: 10 goals, 11 assists

Shootouts galore!

I think I must be some sort of shootout magnet. Three out of four of the games I have managed to watch this season have gone to a shootout - I suppose I must apologize to those who dislike the practice, expect December and January to have a lot of shootouts if current trends continue.

But let's rewind to Wednesday, when the Canes made a trade. They acquired Ian White and Brett Sutter from Calgary for Tom Kostopoulos and Anton Babchuk, Sutter being waived the next day to be sent to Albany. (For those wondering, Sutter is current Cane Brandon Sutter's cousin). Having seen him in action, I can say that White is a smallish defenseman who looks to be pretty solid in the defensive zone - he stepped in pretty well in a pairing with Joni Pitkanen both Friday and Saturday.

I'd say, from this early vantage point, that it's a good trade for the Canes. White seems like a good defenseman, who would certainly be an upgrade from Anton Babchuk's flightiness (I'm not too sad to see him and his seasons in Russia go, although his slapshot might be missed.) Kostopoulos is a good character guy, but not a core part of the Canes team. And I won't miss struggling to spell his name while blogging.

Also on Wednesday the Canes won 7-1 over the Ottawa Senators. Generally a win of this goal differential would be something I'd celebrate, but it doesn't seem right to be cheerful, as the Senators had attended the funeral of the assistant coach's daughter earlier that day.

So let's move on to the two games I was able to view, one on the television, and one in person. The former was a 5-4 shootout loss to the Penguins. I thought the Canes played extremely well in this game, constantly battling back from being down a goal. They really played up to the Penguins level, which I was certainly not expecting, having seen the boxscores from the previous week. They also got a point in the standings, in spite of the refs (and the War Room in Toronto), who showed that they could use a new contact and hearing aid prescription. A goal in the third period was allowed for the Pens where the whistle was clearly blown before the puck crossed the goal line. Luckily, the Canes were able to come back once again so that the call didn't cost them the entire game.

The next shootout loss was last night against the Predators. Where the Pittsburgh game was offensively powered and fun to watch, the Nashville one was defensively driven and kind of a snoozefest.

Interestingly, the same three shooters were chosen for both shootouts - Jeff Skinner, Jussi Jokinen, and Patrick O'Sullivan. Skinner and Jokinen I understand, but I just do not understand the choice of O'Sullivan. Granted, he didn't get to show his stuff in the shootout against Pittsburgh, but I wasn't impressed last night. I somehow get the feeling that Paul Maurice keeps writing down "8" thinking Matt Cullen's on the bench, and then is somewhat disappointed when he realizes it's a different guy in the jersey.

Anyways... a more successful week for the Canes than the previous, I'd say. I was very impressed with the play against Pittsburgh - definitely gives me hope for playing well in other close games this season. Currently the Canes are 9th in the East and 4th in the Southeast with 20 points - movin' on up. Up next for the Canes are the C[r]aptials on Wednesday and the Bruins on Friday - not easy matchups in any sense. Hopefully they can play like they did this past Friday and maybe get a win out of one of them.

And my final thought for this post: Make sure you're voting for the All-Star Game! I'm officially on the Paul Bissonnette bandwagon!

Erik Cole stats (Wednesday): 1 assist
On the season: 4 goals, 6 assists

Chad LaRose stats (Wednesday): 2 goals, 2 assists
On the season: 6 goals, 6 assists