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The Canes have traded Wade Brookbank, Josef Melichar, and a 4th round pick for Jussi Jokinen of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
I'm not sure what to make of this. I don't really know much about Jokinen, despite him playing for the Lightning this year. Checking his career stats, it looks like he's having a little bit of a down year compared with his other seasons in the NHL. According to Rutherford:
“Jussi is a skilled, two-positional player that can be used in all situations,” said Rutherford. “He will add depth to our team at an important time of the season.”
In reality, the Canes didn't give up too much for him - Brookbank hadn't played in a game since December, and Melichar's been down in the minors for most of the year.
But I'm definitely going to miss Brookbank. He was essentially the only person who would fight on our team. Oh well...
Game is tonight at nine against Phoenix.
Well, the firing of Laviolette didn't spur the Canes on to victory - they lost 5-2 to the Pens last night.
Granted, they did come out with somewhat more of a spark than they had in games past. But it was nowhere near what is needed to win, especially against a loaded team like Pittsburgh.
I will say, though, that Tuomo Ruutu definitely ate his Wheaties before the game - he was on fire, crashing the net and just being where he needed to be. Sergei Samsonov, playing on the same line, also was pretty good. (They had a goal and an assist between them).
However, Josef Melichar played on the opposite end of the spectrum, being pretty much directly responsible for two of the Pens goals. Needless to say, I'm not that disappointed that he was sent to Albany today, and Casey Borer and Tim Conboy were recalled.
Justin Williams played pretty well for his first game back from injury - probably better than some of the Canes who are perfectly healthy.
Next game is tomorrow against the Flyers.
Canes went 1-1 against the Flyers this weekend.
They lost the first game 4-2, the Flyers being all emotional and whatnot because this was their last game at the Spectrum before its demolition, and they had all kinds of ceremonies and stuff.
Then there was today's game, which the Canes won 1-0. It was a lot more exciting than the score makes it seem - the Canes missing on tons of chances with an open or semi-open net. The Canes played a heckuva lot better than they did in the only other time I've seen them play this preseason (that being Wednesday). Staal, Cullen and Walker were some of the regulars in this game - Cullen didn't play the last two periods because he was hit hard and they were holding him out for "precautionary reasons". Samsonov was the one who scored the goal for the Canes.
I took my new digital camera to the game, and came back with 31 pictures. Most of them were blurry or pictures of the jumbotron so I could judge when in the game I took the pictures.
Anyways, this is the best picture of a string showing Scott Walker's fight with Nate Guenin.
And this is a random picture of Brandon Sutter. I have no idea when or why I took this (I think I was aiming at something else), but it's the best one of the bunch.
I debated taking a picture of the blood across the ice when Josef Melichar was struck by a high stick, but I didn't want to seem overly morbid.
And, the Canes have sent some people back down to juniors/Albany after this game. I'm bummed that Casey Borer didn't make it, and also Jakub Petruzalek, just because I think his name is completely awesome to say out loud a few times (try it!).
Making it through this round of cuts is Bryan Rodney, a defensemen who played really really well in today's game.
Next preseason game is Thursday at Nashville.
Canes locked up another defenseman today, with Dennis Seidenberg signing a one-year, $1.2 mil contract.
This is in addition to Joni Pitakenen (*mumbles something about Cole*), Anton Babchuk, and Josef Melichar.
Now, the Babchuk thing really surprised me when I first heard about it. I didn't expect him to be coming back to play for the Canes if he ever came back - and I didn't think we'd give him a million dollars to do so.
But, looking at some of the other defensive contracts given out this year, I guess a million dollars is pretty cheap.
I wish I would get a job where a million dollars was a low salary. But I digress.
Anyways... Chad LaRose filed for arbitration. I hope whatever wrinkle they hit in those contract negotiations will be ironed out by the arbitrator. I can barely imagine a team without Cole, but without Cole AND LaRose? That would just be too cruel.
