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

Weekly Recap: Let's just pretend those last two didn't happen

I'd be concerned if we lost by a significant margin to Edmonton, and the other two are toss-ups - hopefully we'll go 2-1 this week.

That was my hopeful prediction last week. The good news? We didn't lose to Edmonton, instead steamrolling them 7-1. The bad news? We got steamrolled by the two other teams we played - 8-1 by the Flyers on Thursday and 7-2 by the Canadiens on Saturday.

This is just depressing. Hooray, we can beat the second-worst team in the league. But, apparently, we can't hold a candle to anything close to the top of the standings. The Canes didn't just lose, they were demolished. The comparisons to last season are already forming in my head.

So let's talk about something else, why don't we? This past week the NHL released their new All-Star game format, which will debut in Raleigh. Essentially, instead of having East and West teams, or even North America/The World teams, the teams will be picked by two players sometime before the Game. Think high school gym floor hockey when you were picked second to last because you were both a girl and unpopular despite your superior knowledge of the game. Yeah, they're doing that in the pros.

Not entirely sure I like the concept - I hope it's pulled off well if only for the fact that this is the game that's being played in Raleigh. The best positive I can draw from the situation is that, with no conference-based teams, we don't have to worry about the NHL implementing a MLB-style All-Star Game where home field advantage is giving to the winning league. But it does nothing for for cheering on geographical rivalries. I mean, how do you decide who to cheer for? Motley group of All-Stars #1 or motley group of All-Stars #2? Probably whichever team @BizNasty2point0 is on. (If you don't know what I'm referring to, just click the link and find the awesomeness. And follow me on Twitter while you're at it.)

Back to the Canes. They currently have 16 points, placing them 4th in the Southeast and 11th in the East. They play Ottawa, Pittsburgh, and Nashville this week. They're getting Patrick O'Sullivan back from healthy-scratchness, and they picked up some random dude (Troy Bodie) off of waivers from Anaheim today. Not sure if either of those will help, but something has got to start the turnaround for the Canes this week.

Erik Cole stats (Tuesday): 1 goal
On the season: 4 goals, 5 assists

Chad LaRose stats (Tuesday): 1 goal
(Thursday): 1 goal
On the season: 4 goals, 4 assists

A brief season preview

So, Monday was the FIRST PRESEASON GAME, which, of course, was music to my severely hockey-deprived ears. I eagerly turned on the game once I got back from dinner, so very glad to hear Chuck Kaiton's voice coming from the speakers.

Then I heard the score, which at that point was 3-0 in favor of the Panthers with seven minutes left in the first period. Yes, the Canes went down by three goals less than a period into the new season, all three goals being scored in under two minutes. Needless to say, the radio was turned off.

Granted, it was just the first preseason game. But, let's face it, this is not necessarily what I wanted to see as a Canes fan coming off that horrendous season last year. Luckily the Canes won their next game (Erik Cole got an empty net goal) against the Predators 3-0. They played the Preds again tonight, this time losing by a score of 2-1.

Looking good so far? Well, having not watched these games I can't tell you much, but Patrick O'Sullivan looks like he's making a good case for himself, 2 goals and 1 assist in the 3 games played. The Canes signed him to a two-way contract last Friday. For those keeping track, yes, he is the one who was briefly Canes property in the three-way trade to get Erik Cole back two seasons ago. And, yes, that's pretty much all I know about him, other than a vague idea that he hasn't had the best of seasons of late.

The Canes also signed their first round pick from this year's draft, Jeff Skinner, earlier this week.

And so, now that we're all caught up, this brings me to what will be classified as the season preview. Last season I had the highest of hopes before the season began, only to have them crash and burn shortly after. So, this season, enter skepticism.

We're a young team. I'm not confident that anything will work. Goaltending will hopefully go well, as long as Cam manages to make the saves he ought to. Hopefully the defense won't have more holes than Swiss cheese (for the record, I'm still skeptical of relying on Anton Babchuk). Our offense will hopefully produce and hopefully whatever young guys make the team will be a breath of fresh air. Hopefully Eric Staal takes the captaincy and leads our team to victory. Or something like that.


Do you notice all the "hopefully"s? Yeah, I'm not certain about any of this. In truth, I don't see much different in this squad versus what was on the ice last year. Yes, there are differences, but there definitely wasn't a huge signing or trade over the offseason that I can point to and say "That, that event right there. That's the change that's going to make us a playoff team." Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily, but not being bad doesn't automatically qualify it as good.


So, we'll see. We're 1-2 in the preseason, but who cares about the preseason? Or at the very least, who cares about games where 1/3 of the roster will actually be playing night-in and night-out? Perhaps the next few games, with more of our permanent faces, will be more telling of our game-readiness, but I think that's doubtful too. Last year we went 2-2 in the preseason, and that was definitely not an indicator of our season in October.

ERIK COLE IS BACK!!!!

The best power forward evah! is back on the Canes!!!!

I can barely think for the excitement!!!!

The Canes traded for him in a with the Los Angeles Kings and the Edmonton Oilers. The Canes got Patrick O'Sullivan and a 2nd round draft pick for Justin Williams, then dealt O'Sullivan and the pick to Edmonton for Cole and their 5th round pick.

It is a shame that Williams had to go, as he has been with the team a long time and is a very good player (Hello, empty net goal in Game 7!). But, the good news for the Canes is (other than reaquiring my man Cole, of course) that Williams was out with an injury, and this trade brings someone who is actually in the lineup right now.

I honestly can't believe it. I knew that Cole was in the trade rumors, but I thought that Rutherford seemed pretty much set on not dealing anything with what was being offered.

I think that if it was for any other player, I would be lamenting the loss of Justin Williams more. It's definitely going to be wierd not seeing the number 11 on the ice Friday.

But ERIK COLE IS BACK and I couldn't be happier!