Hockey is over. Sadness ensues.

So the 2010-2011 season is over. Complete. And not the premature "over" that us Caniacs experienced in April - despite our team's failings, there was at least hockey to be seen. Not anymore - no more hockey games until October.

Congrats, I suppose, to the Boston Bruins and their fans. I was cheering them on throughout the playoffs, and it's nice to see them win. I would make some sort of crack about how I'm glad that Canada doesn't have the Cup for another year... but after seeing the riots in Vancouver, I'm beginning to think war might occur if they don't get one soon.

On the home front, there's actually been some Canes news since I last posted. The biggest news is the shuffling of the front office and who's behind the bench. Ron Francis is back at a desk, Tom Rowe is a scout, Brind'Amour is an assistant and newcomer Dave Lewis is also an assistant. Rather unfortunately, we're still stuck with Paul Maurice as head coach for another year. I'm thrilled, and by thrilled I mean that I really hope they don't re-up his contract. I am also sick of my team doing mediocre, so I would like them to do better this year. Just, maybe better because of Jeff Skinner or something and not because of the coach.

Players-wise, apparently contract negotiations have been going on. Today an article was put out on the Canes site about possibly trading for some people because it's not looking positive for Jokinen or Pitkanen returning. Chad LaRose and Erik Cole might be looking to test the market. If both of them go... man, there goes both of my favorite players.

For which I say to Jim Rutherford: Please Please Please Please Please SIGN ERIK COLE!!!! I honestly don't think I could stand him going to some horridly cold non-North Carolina place again. Hopefully he and the team can work something out.

And that's it for now I guess. I'll keep up with whatever little news trickles in this summer.

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

ALL-STAR GAME!!!!

I always tell my dad, generally while eating a plate of waffles at 11:30am after staying up to three the previous night, that college kids operate on a different schedule than the rest of the world. This apparently applies to blog posts as well. When other places have wrapped up their All-Star recaps and gone on to that thing called the "regular season", here I am with still the whole weekend to go over.

Well, hopefully the wait will be worth it? Here we go...

First off, it was AWESOME! In fact, I might just stop typing right now and leave it at that. There is seriously not one thing that I can think of that hit a sour note throughout the entire weekend.

One of the biggest reasons for that? The new format. I think the fantasy draft aspect got rid of a lot of the stale hockey aspect of years past. It seemed to give the players something to play for more than just the Conference they happen to play in - they had to prove that they deserved to be taken at the slot they were, or why they should have been taken higher (I laugh at Phil Kessel being taken last - but the dude got a car out of it? Um, can I be picked last?). I mean, they were actually playing defense (or as close to defense as you'll get in an All-Star Game) in the third period - because neither team wanted to be the ones that were picked to lose.

Below I've posted a slideshow thing of all my pictures (well, the good ones at least) from the weekend. And, yes, I did manage to get a picture of Ovechkin's stick shattering from the upper level.



Let's see, what else was awesome about the weekend? The NHL Fan Fair was spectacular - tons of fun going around to each of the booths and trying your hand at various hockey skill games. I believe I registered a 27 mph slapshot - watch yourself Zdeno Chara, I'm gunning for you!

The Skills Competition was great as well. In fact, it might have beat out the actual All-Star game on the awesomeness scale. I mean, how can you compete with seeing Chara beat his own hardest shot record?

It was really cool to see the best of the best compete against each other. It's pretty hard to believe that some of these guys are so talented - Sedin in the accuracy competition, anyone? I mean, the guy was like a sniper, methodically knocking out those targets.

The only thing I disagreed with was Ovechkin winning the breakaway competition. Honestly, it didn't really live up to my expectations - almost none of the guys could actually get the puck in the net while doing all the fancy work. And, I don't care, that's what really matters when it comes down to it.

While the Skills Competition may have been the more exciting part of the weekend, the All-Star Game itself wasn't without it's charms. First, the opening ceremony of sorts featuring Rod Brind'Amour and Ron Francis was amazingly well done. The game was definitely exciting, with Team Staal gaining and losing a four goal lead, and of course I loved the offensive skill that abounded on each side of the ice.

And what about Ovechkin throwing his stick at Duchene for the penalty shot? Ovechkin may be annoying, but you can't deny that at some points he is an entertaining character.

The only annoying point was the amount of passes these guys were taking - it seemed sometimes like they didn't want to take a shot and get a goal.

Wait, did I say the only annoying point? No, it was also annoying that Jeff Skinner didn't score and that Team Staal lost. I find it to be a shame that Staal's team couldn't manage to win in such a friendly venue for them.

Honestly, this was one of my favorite hockey events that I've attended in a while. I thought the atmosphere was great and that the game was entertaining. Now, if only Raleigh could host it every year...

Final offseason update (?)

Well, I figured I ought to post before it goes an entire month without hearing from me. Luckily, the offseason is almost complete and I shall switch into true hockey mode. It helps, of course, that my college football team has already tanked, so the only distraction from the coolest sport on earth will be that pesky thing called "school".

Anyways, this week the Canes named Rod Brind'Amour Director of Forwards Development, finally finding him the position that they had guaranteed him when he retired earlier this summer. Definitely a good fit, I'm sure that he'll try to instill some of his famous work ethic in our younger forwards. I'm also really glad that he stayed with the organization - for he did have a long and significant stay with the Canes.

And it seems to be fitting to wrap up the summer with what is hopefully the conclusion to the Ilya Kovalchuk debacle. I believe the last time I posted, the NHL rejected his contract. Well, they accepted a new one, and added a section to the CBA to prevent teams from creating similar contracts. Now, the league has fined the New Jersey Devils $3 million and two draft picks - their third round pick in the upcoming draft and a first round pick sometime in the next four drafts. A pretty steep penalty which shows that the league is serious about protecting its salary cap.

But, if the Devils win the Stanley Cup sometime in Kovalchuk's tenure, I'm sure they'll think it's all worth it.

So that's the end of the offseason, or close enough - there's only 6 days until the Canes play their first preseason game! Promise, promise, promise that I will pick up the posting frequency!

Canes update

The Canes had a few news worthy items yesterday to break up the largely dull offseason.

They signed defenseman Bryan Rodney to a two-way one year contract and goalie Justin Pogge to a two-way one year contract as well. Both signings obviously solidify the depth of the organization.


The big news, however, was the announcement that the Canes would retire Rod Brind'Amour's jersey on February 18th against Philadelphia. A very nice honor for a guy who was a core part of our team for so many years. As with Glen Wesley, it is against a team that he also played with in his career.


Although, let me just say, that if the Canes continue on this current jersey retiring clip, they won't have many numbers left in the rotation. Not knocking Brind'Amour, just sayin'.


That's been pretty much it for this offseason so far. If you take a look at the sidebar, I switched some things up. Nothing big, just mild changes and rearranging of information. Will eventually get around to adding blogs to the blogroll, but, like Ilya Kovalchuk, I'm taking things slow this offseason.

Goodbye Brind'Amour

Rod Brind'Amour has announced his retirement today.

From an on-the-ice only perspective, I'm glad to hear that he has retired. His play wasn't the same in the past two years and he wouldn't help the Canes get any younger.

From a nostalgic perspective, I feel a bit sad. Rod was the captain that led the Canes to the Stanley Cup, and for many years he was one of the main faces of the franchise. (One of the most recognizable faces as well...) He was a good two-way player who was clutch in the faceoff circle and known for his workouts off the ice. It's always a bummer to see the career of someone so integral to a team come to an end.

It seems, though, like this was the best way Rod could go out. He isn't forced to part ways with the Canes and seek out a contract with a different team. He repeated several times during his press conference how he loves the area and the people in it - retiring now allows him to remain with the organization where he can still be a part of the Canes "family".


So today is a melancholy sort of day for Caniacs - but I think that the future will be much better for it.

Buyouts?

Buyouts are an interesting concept to me. The fact that you're essentially paying people to not play seems somewhat counterintuitive - but can be very useful when dealing with poor play and large contracts. And, in the Canes case, trying to keep close to their self-imposed low salary cap.

The two names that have been bandied about when it comes to buyouts this year are Rod Brind'Amour, our ex-captain, and Sergei Samsonov. As sad as it is to say, I think that both should be bought out, although perhaps Brind'Amour deserves it more.


Samsonov didn't have that great of a year, certainly not on par with the previous one, and he never really seemed to be a deciding factor in most of the games. He might, however, just be a victim of the Canes trying to get younger and cheaper and unfortunately for Sergei, he is neither.


Brind'Amour, well, let's just say that his play has tailed off from his Selke-winning years. Two years ago, his plus-minus was absolutely horrible, and this past season he followed it up with a worse plus-minus and barely produced point-wise. He was moved to the fourth-line, he spent games in the press box, the captaincy was taken away from him. I understand that it's hard to retire... but I'm not sure that much is left in the tank.


That being said, I do not envy Rutherford for having to make this decision. Brind'Amour has been an integral part of this Canes team for many years and I don't think that a buyout is the way anyone wants this relationship to end. But, I also shudder to think of another year of Brind'Amour playing the way he did last season.


The final decision is Rutherford's and he has until the 30th to buyout either (or both) players. I wouldn't be surprised if either event occurs.


****
A quick blog note: Over the next few weeks I might be moving things around here. Nothing drastic, but just a heads up that if the blog looks like someone threw up HTML I probably just messed something up. If you come back in a few hours and it still looks the same... well, maybe you should stop using IE and switch to a better browser.

Rod Brind'Amour is no longer captain (!)

Yes, you read the title correctly. Rod Brind'Amour has been stripped of his captaincy, which has been given to Eric Staal.

Okay, we all knew this was going to happen eventually due to Brind'Amour's reduced capacity with the team - but I'm startled that it has happened during this season. If you needed to reboot the team, why didn't you do it earlier in the season, when there was still a glimmer of the playoffs? Since Rod has lasted this long as captain of a crappy team, why end it now?

I think it needed to happen, but again, I think the timing is very odd. I suppose this is the signal that we should begin looking forward to the next season.

UPDATED: An article at the Canes site pretty much reinforces the above. Apparently Rod could have vetoed the move if he wanted to, but Rutherford thought the timing was appropriate because the Canes want to move towards their newer, brighter, younger (and hopefully winning) future.

So, we're winning now?

Remember that last post where I said that the Canes had to maintain a .780 winning percentage to get close to making the playoffs? Yeah, well, guess which team has won four of the last five? No, not the New Jersey Devils, you moron. The Canes!

The only loss in this past stretch was against the Nashville Predators last Thursday. It's been a week so I don't remember the details, but pretty much just picture the normal underwhelming offence and pathetic defense and there's the game.

The Canes played the next night against the Colorado Avalanche, winning the game 2-1. Ray Whitney scored both Canes goals, including a laser that took Budaj off guard to open the second period. Cam Ward had a shutout going until Colorado scored with 16 seconds left in the game.

The main story in this one, however, was the multitude of fights that peppered the first period - 15 penalties assessed in the first period alone, with 8 of them being for fighting or roughing. The bad news for the Canes was that Tuomo Ruutu, who fought with Darcy Tucker to settle things (Tucker was the guy Ruutu hit from behind to get suspended earlier in the year), injured something in the fight and did not return to the game. Not good news for this injury-plagued team, as Ruutu will be out for a few weeks.

The Canes then won 4-1 against the Senators and 4-2 against the Leafs. Neither game was on TV, so I can't give you much of a recap other than, uh, we won.

Interesting fact: Rod Brind'Amour has 3 points and a +3 in the past four games - perhaps his contributions are the reason the team has been winning? I sure it certainly doesn't hurt the team.

So the Canes head into tonight's game in Detroit on a 3 game winning streak. Unbelievable, isn't it?

The Canes have issues

Remember my last post, in which I said that if the Canes lost to the Islanders, they have all kinds of issues?

Well, issues are definitely what this current Canes team has. They lost in a shootout to the Islanders, then lost to the Avs in regulation, then lost in overtime to the Wild.

The Canes have not won a game on the road yet. The Canes are last in the NHL in penalties per game, taking an average of 22 minutes per game. They're 4th in the Southeast, 12th in the East, 26th in the league.

What is wrong with this picture? EVERYTHING!

But I'm not done yet. Eric Staal isn't producing, Rod Brind'Amour was moved to wing, Tuomo Ruutu was suspended 3 games for a nasty hit on Darcy Tucker against the Avs.

What happened to this team? They shouldn't be this bad!

But they are. And I don't think the current situation will last very long before Rutherford does something. What could he do? I can't even begin to imagine what can fix this sloppy play and bad chemistry. But something has to be done to stop the bleeding.

Canes win Game 4

Canes won 4-1 in Game 4 on Friday night.

Attempts at writing full coherent paragraphs are not working out today, so here's what I remember:

- Eric Staal played very good. At times he seemed like the only player truly trying out on the ice. His second goal of the night really drove the nail in the coffin for the Bruins.

- Jussi Jokinen scored again. Perhaps not as momentus as his other postseason goals, but it did break a 1-1 tie.

- Rod Brind'Amour finally got a point in the playoffs - assisting on the Jussi Jokinen goal with an excellent pass through the crease.

And, yeah, that's all that I can remember (give me a break, prom was last night and I'm working on four hours of sleep). Oh well. Game 5 is tonight in Boston - Canes can win the series!

Erik Cole stats: 1 assist
Playoffs: 2 assists

Playoffs? You kidding me? Playoffs?

The Canes can clinch a playoff spot by winning tonight against the Penguins! This is so excellent, because that means the Canes can bomb the rest of their games and still make it into the playoffs! (Think bombing all of the final games is impossible? Please refer back to last year.)

And the game is against Pittsburgh, which pretty much guarantees a fun game to watch. And the weather is beautiful, so it's perfect for tailgating! YaY! April with playoffs in sight is so exciting!

But let's go back to the 4-2 win against the Rangers, hm? I must, of course, begin this recap with the obligatory: Sean Avery is a punk! Seriously, that dude has issues. It was a good thing that most of the Canes didn't put up with his crap and didn't shy away from hitting the punk. Joe Corvo I especially remember giving Avery some of his own medicine.

That being said, there were so many uncalled penalties! Don Koharski is pretty much the worst ref in the league - clutching, grabbing, blatant interference - and none of it was called! (Or, rather, the marginal stuff was called against the Canes, but the obvious stuff was never called.)

Although, I guess it did contribute to the playoff atmosphere - not very many calls are made in playoff games (or has that changed? It's been so long since we played in the postseason...). Also, the fans at the RBC Center certainly made it a playoff atmosphere - after Rod Brind'Amour scored, the building seemed about to burst it was so loud. Definitely decibel levels that hadn't been seen since the spring of '06.

Speaking of goals, Chad LaRose was absolutely electric in the game, notching two goals and seeming to always be in the right place at the right time. So awesome to see him score two!

Oh, and in reference to the post title - that is one of my favorite football ads, believe it or not. I think it's because of the quotability of it.

Chad LaRose stats: 2 goals
On the season: 18 goals, 12 assists

Canes lose, hopefully will win tonight

Canes lost 4-3 to the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday. Previously, the Canucks had lost nine straight at home, and eight straight in general.

*facepalm*

Well, it certainly looks like that wonderful win against Atlanta was a fluke. Granted, I didn't watch any of the game, but comments like these taken from the TSN.ca article don't make me feel warm and fuzzy about this game:

[Alex Burrows] beat Carolina goaltender Cam Ward with what he has previously described as his ''only'' move faking a forehand and roofing a backhand. It was a move that Burrows has made many times before, but Ward went the wrong way and could not recover quickly enough.

''I like coming down that side when I go to my go-to move,'' said Burrows, a left-handed shot who raced down left wing. ''I think everybody in the building knew I was going to do that, but obviously Cam Ward watches Eastern Time games and he doesn't stay up late at night to watch our games.''

Oh boy. Yeah, I'm pretty glad that I was fast asleep when this game was on. I think a shorthanded goal against to lose the game would have put me in an absolutely horrible mood.

The real test, though, is tonight against San Jose, the leader of the Western Conference. If we can play with them and win (heck, normally I'd say just play with them, but that won't help us come April) then I feel that the Canes have a good shot. If we get steamrolled, I'm not going to be too optimistic about our playoff chances.

The Canes are going to be without Rod Brind'Amour in the game tonight. Apparently he came back to Raleigh because of "nagging lower body issues", and Jakub Petruzalek (best name ever!) was called up in his place. I'm not entirely sure that this is a bad thing, considering the captain's lame play pretty much the entire season.

Apparently, the Canes are also going to be going with Michael Leighton in goal tonight, a move I find somewhat peculiar, as Cam has started the last sixteen or so games. Why the change, and specifically, why the change against the best team in the West? Maybe they're looking for a change to spark the rest of the lineup. Whatever, I just hope it works out.

Improvement seen

Canes drop another to Atlanta, losing 3-2 last night.

The difference between this loss and the previous ones was the actual energy the Canes showed throughout the game. Especially in the third period, where the Canes had a sustained drive at the Atlanta net, looking for that elusive tying goal.

Also, Eric Staal showed up, only getting an assist, but playing a heckuva lot better than he had the previous games (Of course, that wasn't hard to accomplish...). And Rod Brind'Amour made an appearance as well, albeit only in the third period. But he came through when the team needed a goal to get back in it, and I suppose that's all that matters.

And we had two powerplay goals!

Speaking of powerplays... please, Wallin, next time you decide you need to argue with the refs and get a unsportsmanlike penalty - don't give the other team a 5-on-3 for two full minutes in the process...

The next game is tomorrow against Tampa. Maybe we can *gasp* win this one?

Oh yeah, speaking of Tampa, it's back to ESPN for Barry Melrose - he was fired after only 16 games with the team...

Canes are annoying me right now...

The Canes are seriously disappointing me right now.

I did not watch Thursday's meltdown against the C[r]apitals - I chose to go instead to my school's play, an $8 that was worth it both for the quality of the production and the fact that it kept me from throwing something through the TV, as I surely would have done at home.

Yep, the Canes went from leading, to tied, to losing, all within a little under three minutes.

Over and over again, I have stressed that the Canes need to play a full sixty minutes. Here's a perfect case in point.

And my mom says that I should just be happy that the Canes won last night. Yes, they won. Good for them. Came back from a 1-0 deficit in the third period.

But what about the first two periods? They played like crap. That was an utterly lackluster hockey team on the ice last night. To be honest, I'm getting sick of it. I want to see well-executed hockey for the entire game, not just a one-period flurry and the other two periods being merely okay. That's not a way to win a championship, that's for sure.

Granted, the Canes are missing a lot of people due to injury. Hopefully when we get Cullen & Pitkanen back, our power play will finally connect. But Rod Brind'Amour seems completely non-existent on the ice (maybe after-effects of his knee surgeries?), and Eric Staal looked like he took some bad allergy medicine or something - he was not playing anywhere near his best, it just looked like he was going through the motions out there.

A positive thing I have to say today? Well, Peter Laviolette, with the unimpressive win by his hockey team last night, became the winningest American-born NHL hockey coach, surpassing John Tortorella Good for him!

The next game is Sunday against the Thrashers. Hopefully they'll be able to start opening up Lavi's lead on Tortorella...

Recaps and stuff

I have some overdue game recaps for you, my loyal readers.

First: Canes won 1-0 over Blues on last Thursday. The goal in that one was scored in Tuomo Ruutu, which I didn't see because I went to bed in the middle of the second period. I did realize in this game that, if you happen to be in a bad mood, John & Tripp on FSN South will absolutely cheer you up with their (sometimes useful, sometimes not) blabbering and random factoids.

Second: Canes lost 3-1 to the Oilers Saturday. I was receiving text messages about the score under a dinner table, so I can't really say how the Canes played in this one. I think Matt Cullen got injured, but I can't find an article easily to back that up, so whatever.

Third: The Canes picked up their first third jersey win 6-3 against Toronto. I watched this game, but can't really remember much except that the Canes started out looking like crap, but then they did a massive scoring flurry in the last four minutes of the second period to take the lead. Very good.

Then last night, the Canes won again against Toronto, this time in overtime 5-4. They should have won it in regulation, having gotten out to a 3-0 lead so quickly in the first, looking like they had completely demoralized the Leafs.

But nooooooooo, the Canes decided to mail it in, so the game had to be won by The Secret Weapon, Nic Wallin. Which was incredibly lucky.

So the next game is Thursday at Washington.

In random news: Brind'Amour, Staal, and Whitney made it onto the All-Star ballot.

And Marty Brodeur will be out 3-4 months after elbow surgery to repair a torn biceps tendon. And the description of what happened completely makes me cringe:

Brodeur extended his arm trying to make a save and ended up tearing the tendon that connects the bicep to the elbow off the bone.

Owie! And that completely sinks the Devils chances this season, a bummer for them - because Brodeur is one heckuva goalie.

Chad LaRose stats (Sunday): 1 goal, 1 assist
(Tuesday): 1 goal, 1 assist
On the season: 4 goals, 2 assists

And it's not even training camp yet...

Terrible news: Justin Williams will undergo surgery to repair a torn right Achilles' tendon. He will be out four to six months.

My goodness. This makes the announcement about Rod Brind'Amour yesterday seem like absolutely nothing.

I implore our remaining forwards to refrain from any strenuous activity, lest they be injured as well.

And I am so close to hitting the Panic Button on this season already. Not so much because of the loss of Williams (although, this is a big loss ), but because it does not bode well that the injury bug is striking so early, and with such efficiency.

Oh boy...

Rod Brind'Amour underwent knee surgery to remove torn cartilage.

Wow. An injury before the season even starts. That's promising.

Luckily, Rod is expected back before Opening Night. (23 Days!)

Guess what? I'm totally posting something new!

Wow, I haven't posted in almost a month.

And I feel really bad about that. Like, I've been letting down my readers or something. But then I figure you guys would rather me actually post about a topic, rather than ramble about how there's nothing to post about.

Kind of like this post, actually.

Anyways, Brind'Amour is ready to play after knee surgery. And I say that, if Brind'Amour's ready, what the heck are we waiting for? Let's play some hockey!

...in 37 days, that is...

Canes win but lose Brind'Amour

Canes won 4-2 over the Penguins Thursday night.

It was a pretty good game, considering the Canes were missing several defenseman (Gleason, Corvo, Hedican) and had to call up three from Albany.

Erik Cole started off the scoring in the first on a power play goal tip in. (YaY!)

Canes had 3 power play goals in this one.

The worst part was when the despised one scored the Penguins first goal. BOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Actually, the real worst part was when Brind'Amour tore his ACL - he'll be out for 4-6 months. And we thought our lineup was depleted before?

Canes play tonight against the Panthers.

Erik Cole stats: 1 goal
On the season: 13 goals, 21 assists