Good start in Finland!

Well, we're 2-0 after two games in Helsinki! Which already means that this season is better than last season - is the cure for a bad start to play two games overseas? Not for the Wild, haha.

But, let's continue.

I was not able to view the Thursday game, which the Canes won by a tally of 4-3. But, viewing was not necessary to tell that Brandon Sutter had a great game, scoring two goals in the season debut. Babchuk and Jokinen scored the other goals for the game.

I was lucky enough to be able to see the Friday game, which the Canes won in a shootout 2-1. My thoughts:

- Minnesota came out with a jump in their step, as evidenced by their early goal. They controlled most of the first period, and were out for blood - several scrums after the whistle and a fight by Tom Kostopoulos.

- The Wild lost their step in the final two periods, which ultimately benefited the Canes. The Canes had something like six straight minutes (a double high-sticking minor and a minor called after that) on the penalty kill in the second period that the Wild squandered. Had Minnesota been able to connect, that could have been deadly for Carolina.

- Cam Ward is the man, at times holding the team's collective head above water. Without him, the Canes would have easily lost the game.

- Jeff Skinner is the real deal. Not only did he score the only shootout goal (and look pretty sweet while doing it), he was an integral part of the play that led to the Canes' regulation goal scored by Tuomo Ruutu.


So, overall, I think it was a successful overseas venture for the Canes. Hopefully the jet-lag won't kill them too much as they come back to the States - after a game against the Senators, they head out West to face the Canucks and Sharks, teams who are both expected to do very well this year. Major test to start off the season? I'd say so. Although, if these two games are any indication, if Cam Ward continues to play well, we definitely will have a good chance at winning.

Erik Cole stats (Thursday): 1 assist

Hockey is back!

Great news, everyone! The hockey season starts TOMORROW! The Canes are facing off against the Minnesota Wild in Helsinki, Finland.

But, if you were lucky enough to watch it, some overseas hockey has already occurred. The Canes took on the KHL team SKA St. Petersburg, losing 5-3 in their final preseason game.

My thoughts? Absolutely amazingly awesome. Probably because I was watching Canes hockey after several long months without it (The withdrawal symptoms were getting pretty tough, man). Also, what equated to a 11:30 EST start time made for a very nice lunch break - although, again, since it was the first hockey I've seen since June (even longer than that for Canes hockey) I probably would have been this excited if the game was played at 4 o'clock in the morning.

So I was a little caught up in the "first hockey of the season" moment to actually notice a lot about the game itself. It also probably didn't help that the announcing was in Russian and whenever I switched tabs to tweet, SKA seemed to score. But from what I could tell:

- Defense didn't look great on a few goals. Par for the course.
- Jeff Skinner is the man, looking excellent on the goal that he scored. And, yes, like everyone else I couldn't believe they drafted this dude. I'd supply a link to that particular opinion but I'm feeling a little lazy right now. But, obviously Skinner is proving everyone who was skeptical wrong with goals like that. (Will the Canes keep him? Another story entirely.)
- Yup, the Russians were going after players knees. Pretty blatant knee-to-knee contact on Eric Staal. Not good, but you know what I liked about this episode? Our players stood up for Staal, both Jay Harrison and Tim Gleason. Oftentimes it seems like people take shots at our star players and there's never any repercussion. Hopefully this represents a new mindset in our team.

I wasn't disappointed in this game at all. There seemed to be a lot of jump in our team, definitely opposite to some of the horrible games we suffered through last year. A little tough to get a good read off of our season-readiness due to the fact that we weren't playing an NHL team (although it did have a few NHL castoffs - Alexei Yashin and Evgeni Nabokov to name a few), and also because Eric Staal won't get yanked from a normal game for safety reasons.

And if I may digress from the Canes for a brief point: I hate how this game got no publicity in the US. It seemed as if the Russian media was spinning it as a Russia against USA game, why weren't we doing the same? Yes, many of the Canes players are not from the USA, or even North America, but I would think that after the success of the Olympic games any correlation between nationalities would be played up a bit. Of course, it probably doesn't help that it's a preseason game, but I would still have expected a tad more hype. Then again, maybe I'm watching too much morbidly-detailed NFL coverage (Breaking news! Brett Favre may or may not be coming back next year!).

Back to the Canes: Are we season ready? Well, we better be - our first game is set to have the puck drop tomorrow at high noon EST, kicking off both our season and the NHL season. Hockey is back!

Lots of hockey stuff today

Well, today has certainly been a hockey-news-riffic day, especially considering it's before the draft and free agency.

To begin with, the NHL released the 2010-2011 schedule today, which holds some irregularities for the Canes. First, the Canes are opening the season in Helsinki, Finland against the Wild. Before this they will play six preseason games, one of which includes the KHL St. Peterburg team. Because of this overseas start, which is followed by a brief Western Conference road trip, the Canes' home opener is not until the 27th of October, which is really abnormally late.

Second, the Canes do not have a New Year's Eve home game for the first time in... forever? I honestly can't remember the last year in which this did not occur. However, the Canes do play on New Year's Day, which will make a nice doubleheader of sorts after watching the C[r]apitals-Pens Winter Classic earlier in the day.

Third, of course, is the All-Star Game, which isn't technically on the Canes schedule, but will be totally awesome nonetheless, and is possibly the thing I am looking forward to the most about this upcoming season.

To finish up with the Canes-specific news, they signed Jerome Samson today to a two-way contract. Which I think is good, as he played well when he had his brief stint with the Canes, and had the fourth most points in the AHL this past season. Not to mention, his name sounds awesome when spoken aloud.

A big move in the Southeast today - the Panthers traded Nathan Horton and Gregory Campbell to Boston for Dennis Wideman. I think Boston gets the better talent in Horton - us Caniacs can vouch for his offensive ability - but the move also puts themselves in a tough position under the salary cap. Or rather, doesn't relieve their cap issues at all.

Scott Niedermayer retired today, ending an era on the blueline.

And, finally, the Hockey Hall of Fame class was announced today, consisting of people that I don't recognize because I'm not old enough or because I don't follow women's hockey. Definitely not that Francis/Messier/MacInnis/Stevens class of a few years ago.

The NHL Awards banquet is tomorrow. I'm not canceling my plans for it.

The NHL Draft is this Friday and Saturday. Canes draft 7th overall - could've been higher, but noooooo, they had to decide to win halfway through the season. (How dare they!) I'm hoping for a pick that's not a dud!