What kind of birthday present is this?

The Canes have traded Patrick Eaves and a 4th round pick to the Bruins for Aaron Ward.

Again, Rutherford has gotten someone who had been with the team previously. (See: Josef Vasicek, Matt Cullen, Paul Maurice). Honestly, I wish he would stop doing that. I do actually like to see new faces in a Canes jersey, not just re-hashes of '02 and '06.

Although, I'm not sure that this is an entirely bad idea. Eaves, although he seemed to have a lot of potential, just didn't click for whatever reason in Carolina. Ward is a defensive defenseman, and at times can be very effective. At other times he can be a slow moving lump that doesn't really do much. But, nevertheless, the Canes need a defensive defenseman, and Ward will certainly fill that part of the equation.

Also in Ward's favor, mainly from a nostalgic standpoint, don't forget that he was the first one to score a goal in Game 7 against the Oilers.

And, to make things even more interesting, remember the Scott Walker sucker punch in the Bruins series? I wonder how their first meeting will turn out. (My prediction? Probably uneventful, but enough of a story line for the TV crew to talk about it for a while).

The more I think about this trade the more I think I will have to wait and see how it plays out in the season. I'm not ecstatic about it - but at least we didn't give up more than Patrick Eaves and a draft pick.

Stupid Red Wings

Well, if today is any indicator, summer is going to be a real biznitch around here. Right now it is 95ºF, feels like 99º... and it doesn't look like it's going to get any cooler anytime soon. And what is it, June 5th? Wow... better than the cold in my book, though.

So, yesterday, the Canes resigned Patrick Eaves to a three year deal which gets him an average of $1.4 mil a year. Seems like a pretty good deal to me, seeing as he's in the beginning of his career now. And I was totally going to post this yesterday, but I got sidetracked by my new cell phone arriving (It's pink! And shiny!), which also means I missed Game 6, which gave the Red Wings their trillionth Stanley Cup in 10 years, or whatever stat they keep spouting. Just one Cup is too many for them, in my opinion, but... *sigh* I guess there's always next year.

Speaking of next year, Glen Wesley won't be on the team. He announced his retirement today. Which is sort of a shame, because he's been with the Whalers/Canes for what seems to be forever, and I know I will definitely look twice when I don't see him out there. I think it's great, though, that he had such a long career and was finally able to top it off with a Stanley Cup.

That being said - to all you Canes personnel out there - I have one word for you: DEFENSEMAN. We need a good, solid, trustworthy, not old, not small, possibly goal-scoring defenseman. That is my solemn offseason wish. That, and you don't trade anyone I like for said defenseman.

Good and Bad news

There's good news and bad news today injury-wise.

Bad news: Patrick Eaves is having shoulder surgery and will be out for 2-3 weeks.

Good news!: Chad LaRose has been activated from IR and will be eligible to play tonight!

That is such great news, I hope he can play! I've missed seeing him and his energy on the ice!

Canes lose in shootout

Canes lost in a shootout to the C[r]apitals 3-2 last night.

Honestly, I think the Canes are lucky to get a point out of this meeting. They really didn't play well, and had no real offense to speak of. I mean, our two goals were pretty lucky - Hamilton's in the first was an improbable bank shot off of a Washington defenseman's leg, and Cole's was lucky to be called a goal - at least if the delay in reviewing it is any indication - he literally crashed the net, being pushed in by a C[r]apital. Otherwise the Canes offense was sort of meh...

Of course, this might be because we are missing a huge number of people, Patrick Eaves being added to the list because he apparently caught the flu. It was like watching the Albany River Rats without moving to New York and dealing with all the snow.

Speaking of Albany, the Canes signed their first round pick Brandon Sutter to a three-year deal. He'll report to Albany for now.

So, yeah, lead in the Southeast is down to four with five games left... not cool.

Next game's against the Thrashers on Friday.

Erik Cole stats: 1 goal
On the season: 22 goals, 25 assists

Corvo notches a hat trick!

I think today's game showed who came out the victor in the Commodore-Stillman/Eaves-Corvo trade.

Canes won 5-1 over Ottawa. Joe Corvo had a hat trick and Eaves added a goal as well.

Meanwhile, Stillman added a mere assist, and Commodore took two stupid penalties for Ottawa - looked like that part of his game hasn't changed any.

Anyways, this game was a very fast-paced, up and down game. Ottawa couldn't get any good chances, and it didn't help they were taking penalties left and right. Or that they only had 3 shots on goal in the second.

This was a nice comeback for the Canes after the Buffalo debacle. Next game is against Atlanta on Wednesday.

Wow, is that blood? Nah, must be red paint on the ice.

Well, Mick McGeough proved once again why he is the worst ref in the NHL in last night's 2-1 OT win over Jersey.

Tuomo Ruutu (who missed warmups, but still made the game) got stabbed in the face by Patrick Elias, and left a trail of blood leading back to the bench that could be blatantly seen from the third level. He needed 40 stitches to sew up the laceration.

McGeough - GET SOME CONTACTS!

Grr...

Anyways, game was great for the Canes. They had some really good cycles against the Devils - and didn't really let them score, as Bret Hedican (I think it was him) inadvertantly knocked the puck in the net.

However, the game was not great for Tim Gleason, who got hit head first into the boards by Jersey's Mike Rupp. Scary looking when he tried to get up - almost had none of his own support skating off the ice. Only update on him I can get is that it's a head injury (duh), probably a concussion.

At least Wade Brookbank got Rupp back, totally kicking his arse later in the period.

Sergei Samsonov looked awesome, scoring both of the goals for the Canes.

Jeff Hamilton was sent down to Albany before the game.

I thought Ruutu played really well. He came out and had a huge hit on some Jersey dude, and looked to be a tough player - maybe a touch of scoring? He did get an assist on Samsonov's first goal.

As for Eaves (who also made his debut) - meh. Granted, he only had 6-ish minutes, but he did nothing spectactular.

Canes are looking great (Better than Ottawa, who fired their coach today). Tomorrow's game is against the Rangers.

Trade deadline!

Well, so much for this trade deadline passing without any big trades...

On the Canes end of things, they traded Andrew Ladd for Tuomo Ruutu from the Chicago Blackhawks.

I have no idea what this guy is like - or how to pronounce his name, for that matter. In Ladd, the Canes lose a gritty forward who could be physical - but he had a lot of injury problems in his tenure which prevented him from reaching the next level.

Hopefully he'll have happy trails in Chicago.

Anyways, Ruutu will wear #15, and he may play tonight depending on his flight.

Patrick Eaves is also expected to play tonight (Finally!).

As for the rest of the league...
- Atlanta trades Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis to Pittsburgh for Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen, and prospect Angelo Esposito AND a first-round draft pick. By far the biggest (at least in number, if not anything else) trade of the day.
- Montreal trades Cristobal Huet to Washington for a second round draft pick. (Don't understand this one...)
- Tampa Bay trades Brad Richards and Johan Holmqvist for some peeps from the Stars.

And a bunch more which I don't feel like typing out or looking at right now. Those at least are the preliminary ones from the Southeast Division

Canes play New Jersey tonight!

Canes let it get close, but win anyways

Canes won 3-2 over the Boston Bruins last night.

Andrew Ladd scored two goals, and Joe Corvo got his first assist as a Cane!

Patrick Eaves did not play, due to a lingering shoulder injury.

The horrifying part of this game was that the Canes had a 3-0 lead in the third period - then Cam, who has a propensity to let things get waaay too close, let in two goals in 27 seconds for the Bruins to pull within one.

Please, I like a close game as much as the next person... but that's the entire 60 minutes, not just the last five minutes.

This is not basketball! You do not need to draw out the last two minutes to make up for the worthless first half!

Anyways... guess who the Canes play tomorrow? THE PENGUINS! A Cole-Orpik rematch at home, perhaps?

Please?

GAH! Canes trade Commodore and Stillman!

The Canes have traded Mike Commodore and Cory Stillman to the Ottawa Senators for Joe Corvo and Patrick Eaves.

Holy crap, I didn't see this coming.

Well, okay, I did see a trade coming. And I had a feeling Stillman was going to get gone (My dad called him "Still-boy" because he reminded us of the Pillsbury Dough Boy out on the ice) - but Commodore? I mean, he was one of our top D-men (and we need all them we can get!).

I miss the hair already.

So, we got a defenseman and a forward in return. Corvo I don't think really stuck out at me a "trade for me" kind of guy, but Eaves I'm pretty sure is a good, young forward.

Hey, if they help us win, then I'm cool with it.

In completely different news, a scary incident last night in a game between the Sabres and Panthers, where Richard Zednik had his neck cut by a teammate's skate. Luckily, he's in stable condition right now. (Link to YouTube video - I personally can only watch it once)

I'm glad to hear that he's okay. Get well soon, man.

We'll see the new Canes acquisitions tomorrow against the Bruins.