Trade deadline recap

Well, the NHL trade deadline has come and gone. Not too exciting this season - most of the trades had occurred before today, and there weren't too many superstars being tossed about as in previous years.

Canes-wise, Rutherford continues his mantra of "reduce, reuse, recyle" by bringing back Cory Stillman from the Florida Panthers for Ryan Carter and a fifth round pick. I mean, I guess there are worse former Canes that could come back into the fold. Stillman did manage to score a goal in his first game back with the team, and the Canes didn't really give much up for him, so I guess there's not too much that can go wrong with this trade.

Today the Canes picked up Bryan Allen from the Panthers (I think Florida traded away their whole team over this past week - seriously, there was barely a trade they weren't involved in) for Sergei Samsonov. I think it's a good move, giving some more support on the back end and hopefully giving Samsonov a location where he can be a little more consistent and get more playing time.

Since my last post, the Canes have gone 2-2-1, giving them an overall record of 29-25-9 which is good enough for 8th in the East and 3rd in the Southeast. So, yes, they're just barely squeaking in the playoffs at this point, two points above Buffalo in 9th.

It seems like this team is playing mediocre right now. They have good games (beating Pittsburgh) and bad games, and they often have to have comebacks or let the opposing team get back into the game. Not the most confident of play going into the playoffs. Just the fact that they had a chance to steal 7th place from the Rangers in their game on Tuesday and they failed doesn't give me too much of a warm and fuzzy feeling. 

But who knows, with this team, it seems that as long as they can get into the playoffs they'll have a decent shot. This week presents another close to a must win game, in Thursday's game against Buffalo. A victory over them could go a long way to securing that playoff spot.

Erik Cole stats (18th): 1 goal
(22nd): 2 assists
(25th): 1 goal, 1 assist

Chad LaRose stats (18th): 1 goal
(26th): 1 assist

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.

Canes win, deal Cullen

This has been a moderately busy week for the Canes so far. It started with a 4-1 win over the Panthers. I would attempt to give you more information about it, but I can't remember what happened despite listening to it on the radio, and the highlights online were boring. So, yeah, I'll say it was an unexciting game.

Then came the news that the Canes were moving their AHL team from Albany to Charlotte. It makes sense for the Canes minor league team to be close to the home arena, especially with the revolving door system that's been in place this season.

Last night the Canes managed to pull a win out of their butts against Buffalo in overtime. Brandon Sutter took advantage of a turnover to backhand pass it to Samsonov to win it. This was after the Canes were playing miserably for a lot of the first period, including letting in an extremely soft deflection goal.

This is the second time the Canes have beaten Buffalo in the past two weeks, which is something I like a lot. Again, why couldn't they have played like this earlier in the season?

Resulting from their early season poor play is the fire sale that Rutherford has started. Matt Cullen was today's casualty, being sent to Ottawa for Alexandre Picard and a second round draft pick. I don't know much about Picard, other than that he is 24 years old and a defenseman. This trade obviously doesn't hurt the Canes, as Cullen is a free agent at the end of this season, so he could in theory resign with the team, and the Canes get a player and a pick out of the deal.

I believe the Olympic trade freeze has just passed, so it looks like that will be all the Canes trade news for right now. The Canes play one more game and then it's the Olympic break for two weeks.

U-S-A! U-S-A!

A week's worth of games!

Massive week recap: initiate

Canes lost their only game of the past week last Saturday against the Flyers 4-2.

Yes, that means they won more games than they lost in the last seven days. Of course, all of those games they won were against teams that aren't in playoff contention, but that is trivial information.

The next game was a 5-1 win over the Bruins, in which Cam Ward became the franchises' leading goalie in wins! The game was a shootout until David Krejci spoiled it a little over halfway into the third period. A real accomplishment for Ward, and I think it's a good sign that he still has so much of his career ahead of him. (Or at least, he better, due to the massive contract he'll be getting...)

Then came Wednesday's game against the Rangers, also a 5-1 tally in favor of the Canes. Sergei Samsonov and Eric Staal both had two goals apiece in that one.

Finally, the Canes knocked off the Islanders 4-1 last night.

Why couldn't we play this well earlier in the season? Why is this team suddenly having a spurt of wins when really we don't need them at all? Is this the aftereffects of the change in captaincy? If so, that move should have been done a long time ago, perhaps when we still had an outside shot at the playoffs.

Speaking of our captain, Eric Staal has 9 points in the five games since he became captain, 8 of them goals. Seriously, was the key to the lock on the dam of offensive talent a different letter stitched on your jersey? Dang.

So it's great that we're playing well, but this Caniac is slightly miffed that, in reality, it means nothing. We're still the second worst in the league (not even the worst anymore, what a consolation prize).

I guess this little winning streak can show to everyone that, see, all of us weren't crazy for rating this team higher in the preseason. This team can score goals. They just decided not to for the first half of the year.

We'll see how good this mini turnaround truly is when the Canes play the Blackhawks this Saturday. If the Canes win, well, I'd say we've got something going on here. If we lose, well, I won't be overly surprised.

Chad LaRose (Sunday): 1 goal
On the season: 3 goals, 8 assists

Canes are playing better

Canes lost 3-1 to the Rangers last night.

From what I was able to see, it is evident that this team is playing a lot better than they had been previously this season. Are they playing well enough to beat the 9th place team in the Eastern Conference? Apparently not. But they do look better.

The lone goal in this game was scored by Sergei Samsonov on a nice wrap-around. Of course, half a minute later the Canes let the Rangers kill all momentum by tying it up. But, to the Canes' credit, they didn't collapse completely and allow a bazillion goals after that. See, I told you they were playing better.

The one person who isn't playing better is Cam Ward. On the above goal he had slid waaaaay out of the crease, giving an open net to Marian Gaborik (who definitely does not need an open net to score). There have been several times in the past few games that I've seen him out of position and it led directly to a scoring chance, if not to a goal.

I'm not sure what would be causing this sort of play by Cam - maybe he's still recovering from the injury? If that's the case (although I find it tough to believe that a leg laceration messes up your awareness of the crease), then I hope he gets better soon because this team does not need its goaltender screwing up.

The next game is tomorrow against Montreal. It's Erik Cole bobblehead night!

Canes win first game

A very quick recap of the past game:

Canes won their first of the year against the Lightning on Tuesday. They won it 2-1 in a shootout, with Samsonov and Ruutu connecting in the shootout to win it.

Good that it's a win, bad that Tampa played us to a shootout.

Next game is tonight (!) against Florida.

Canes drop first, are pathetic on powerplay

The Canes dropped their first game 2-0 to the Philadelphia Flyers last night.

First of all, let me just say that I don't believe you can really appreciate Chuck Kaiton until he is your only possible way of listening to a game. Also, the RBC must have been rocking at the start of the game, considering you could barely hear Chuck over the noise of the crowd.

That being said, after watching the "highlights" of the game, I am not that sad that I didn't see this one. It seemed like the Flyers took it to us, and we just couldn't convert. Not that we didn't have any opportunities, going zero-for-eight on the power play.

The penalty kill and power play are what killed the Canes, I think, seeing as both Philly goals came on a 4-minute Sergiei Samsonov high-sticking penalty (22 seconds apart, 47 seconds into the second period - aka "How to kill whatever momentum you might have had"). And, seriously, 0-for-8? That better not become a trend because that's just unacceptable.

Not to mention, the Canes were shut out against Ray Emery, a goalie who I really didn't think was going to be that good this year - I mean, come on, he played in the KHL last year. But either he's better than I thought, or we were just pathetic.

Tim Gleason got the first instigator penalty of the year, making him sit out 17 minutes of the game, after fighting Dan Carcillo who hit Ray Whitney from behind. And y'know, I'll take Gleason sitting out for that long just to make the point that punks like Carcillo can't take cheap knocks at our players. Good for Gleason to stick up for Ray Whitney.

Of course, I don't think that Gleason's absence helped the Canes at all on the defense, especially because Joni Pitkanen did not play in the game. But whatever, it's not like the defense was present when the Flyers scored their goals anyways.

Finally, props do go out to my man Erik Cole, who had two spectactular drives to the net which made the highlights. Unfortunately, he didn't convert on them, but it is a very good thing to see him as a presence on the ice in the first game.

The next game is tonight against Boston, who'll probably be out for revenge after their Game 7 loss in the playoffs. Maybe we'll score a goal in this one?

Jussi Jokinen, I think I love you

Canes win Game 3 in overtime 3-2.

Jussi Jokinen is proving that he is the clutch-est player around. Yes, of course he got the key OT winner - with the way his playoffs are going, who else would it be?

And I'm trying to think of what to say for the rest of this post, but my mind just keeps turning back to Jokinen and how completely awesome he's been. A game-winner in .2 left in regulation, a game-tie-er in Game 7, and now another game-winner in OT. Dang, this guy is clutch.

As for the rest of the team, they played pretty well last night. The first period and some of the second was a little sloppy - they let Boston get out to a 1-0 lead. But the Canes came on in the late second, scoring two goals in less than a minute to get the lead. (Sergei Samsonov got his first playoff goal on a nice shot).

Oh, and by the way, the refs were absolutely horrible in this game. Couldn't call an obstruction penalty if their life depended on it. Look, I understand that you don't want to slow the game down unnecessarily with marginal penalties - but that doesn't mean you shouldn't call the blatant stuff!

The Canes then played pretty good in the third, but still let in a Bruin goal for them to tie it up. The game went to overtime, but luckily the Canes were able to stick to the overtime-is-only-for-winning rule.

Jussi Jokinen - just wow. Rutherford is looking like a genius for picking this guy up.

Game 4 is tomorrow at the RBC Center. Hopefully the Canes can win it - it would be nice to go back to Boston with a 3-1 series lead!

An abrupt end to the game

Canes lost in OT 2-1 to the Flyers last night.

They didn't play too bad, I thought. Again, they came out with more enthusiasm than in some past games.

Sadly, that didn't stop them from giving up a stupid shorthanded goal in the first period. Defensive turnovers are not fun to watch, especially on your own power play.

Wade Brookbank fighting is always fun to watch, though. I managed to take the following snapshot:Which is, coincidentally, the only picture I took at last night's game. I got tired of taking pictures of empty ice due to my camera's slow shutter speed.

Anyways... the third period was a very good period to watch - very exciting. Probably could've been less of a sloppy period, but I don't care, it's always fun to watch chances on both ends of the ice.

Sergei Samsonov had an excellent power play goal, knocking one in a pretty much vacant net. This allowed the game to go into overtime!

Which was absolutely completely lame. Not necessarily for the Canes play - but for the way it ended. It was one of those things where I'm looking at the jumbotron at a very creepy clip of a dancing Santa Claus and then - BAM! The puck's in the net. Pretty much right off of the faceoff Jeff Carter just blasts one by Michael Leighton. It was a fair goal - but it's not fun having such an abrupt end to the night, especially when the Canes had been doing well in the third and overtime periods.

Oh great... I just actually *read* the article I linked to (versus just skimming it). Looks like Wallin might be out for today's game with an ankle injury. Not good. We already were only playing with six defensemen, two of them having been called up from Albany for injuries to Gleason, Seidenberg, and Kaberle.

Won't this team ever be healthy?

Game is this afternoon against the C[r]apitals.

Same old, same old

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.

Thanksgiving was not very kind to the Canes record

Soooo... The Canes went 1-3 over my Thanksgiving break... Not very good.

First, the Canes lost to Florida 3-2.

Then they lost to Philadelphia 3-1 (while wearing their third jerseys... making them 2-2 on the season with them... I'm not exactly sure why I'm continuing that stat, other than now that I've started, I certainly can't stop...)

Then they won in Philly 3-2 in overtime. I saw the first period of that game (while eating a delicious cheesesteak), which was merely an okay showing by the Canes. I also saw Wade Brookbank's fight, which was an excellent fight to watch, the referees letting them go at it for quite a bit. Don't think either one won the fight, though.
Sergei Samsonov scored in the overtime period.

Finally, they lost 4-1 to the Ducks yesterday. About the time of puck drop I was lamenting the Washington Redskins' slow shuttle system to take us back to our parking spot all the way on the other side of I-495. Yep, I went the Giants-Redskins game on the way back from Pennsylvania - froze my butt off in the stupid mist, too (although my six layers of clothing did keep me moderately warm...)

Anyways... Canes lost Cam Ward to a groin injury in that Ducks game - he'll be out for the next three games and Justin Peters will be called up to back up Leighton.

Good news on the injury front (unexpected news as well) is that Justin Williams of all people will more than likely be back on the ice sometime this week. And this is after busting his Achilles' tendon in training camp. ("Busting" being the proper medical term in cases such as these.) Good news - we could definitely use him out on the ice. I just hope he doesn't get injured from coming back too fast.

Next game is on Thursday against Pittsburgh.

Chad LaRose stats (Monday): 1 goal
(Wednesday): 1 goal
On the season: 7 goals, 2 assists

Samsonov is here for three

A signing today in Canes-land...

Canes signed Sergei Samsonov to a three-year $2.5-ish mil contract.

Sounds good to me. Samsonov really turned it around after being picked up off the waiver wire. Might be a tad too much moola, but if he continues to produce then it's cool with me.

And Sean Avery is a punk. I believe the Acid Queen sums it up very well in this post.

Whatever.

*sigh* I just haven't wanted to write anything on here. I think I'm a little hockey-depressed right now...

But, I feel the only way to get over this feeling of abject loss is to power through it, so here goes:

First off - Rutherford's thinly veiled anti-Laviolette comments

My advice to you, Jim (because I know my blog is one of your number one reads...), is to power through the loss and DON'T FIRE LAVIOLETTE! Laviolette is awesome! I even wrote a post about his complete awesomeness here. (If you can call that coherent writing...)

Second - Offseason signings

Jeez... who's even up for free agency this year? Ah well, sign Samsonov, he wants to stay.

Third - The 2008 playoffs

Despite what I think should have happened, the NHL playoffs have continued to go on without the Canes present. No predictions for this season, I've decided (it's sort of too late for that, y'know?). And, who am I rooting for? Whoever is playing the C[r]apitals. Go Flyers! (Sorry, no cool graphics or Southeast Division loyalty this year...

Fourth - ...?

Yeah, no fourth. I guess three's the charm in this post.

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.

TOTAL AWESOMENESS! (except for the 2nd and 3rd periods)

Man, that Pittsburgh game started out great.

Yes, the fight that I have been anticipating since March 4, 2006 occured - ERIK COLE v. BROOKS ORPIK!!!!
Totally awesome. True, it was more like a wrestling match than an actual fight, but just the fact that it occured was TOTALLY AWESOME! I mean, Cole fighting somebody is awesome alone, but when you couple that with the fact that it was the despised one he was fighting... TOTAL AWESOMENESS!!!!

So, I was totally, absolutely pumped up after that, and when Sergei Samsonov scored in the first, the game looked to be going in the right direction.

Then the uninteresting second period came and went.

Then the third period came. The Canes allowed four unanswered goals in an absolute meltdown. Quite pathetic, actually. A really lame end to an awesome beginning.

Tomorrow they play Nashville. 60 minutes of hockey guys? Please?

Erik Cole stats: TOTAL AWESOMENESS!!!!

PANIC!!!!

Hey, Canes... You want to end this little downward spiral you're in?

I mean, don't worry about it. It's not like with last night's loss you fell out of first place in the Southeast or anything.

Oh wait...

Does anyone else feel like pressing the Panic Button right now?

Really? Good. Cause here's my physical manifestation of the Panic Button:


Only press it if you are truly in panic mode... I've warned you...

Anyways, the good about the Toronto game. (From what I can gather from the online article because the game was not on TV. AGAIN!

- Samsonov had his first goal with the Canes and 2 assists
- Erik Cole had a goal and an assist!
- Er... that's about it. Sounds like the Canes lost it in the third again...

Next game is against Ottawa. Maybe the Canes will, y'know, win?

Erik Cole stats: 1 goal, 1 assist
On the season: 11 goals, 19 assists

Short recap

Canes won 1-0 against Boston last night.

Eric Staal got the lone goal in the game.

Cam Ward looked really good, making some miraculous saves throughout the game.

Sergei Samsonov, the Canes new acquisition, also looked pretty good in his 20+ minutes.

Next game is against Jersey tomorrow.

This is my 426th post on this blog! Amazing, isn't it?

Chad LaRose stats: 1 assist
On the season: 5 goals, 7 assists

Canes pick up Samsonov (?)

Do you ever think you're steadily going insane?

No? Oh...

Well, uh, Canes picked Sergei Samsonov off of waivers today. The thoughts that ran through my brain:

Allright! I know this guy from... somewhere... he's pretty good, right?
Oh, wait, he must be the physical defenseman we need! YaY! DEFENSE! DEFENSE! DEFENSE!
Wait, he's a right wing... YaY! Physical right wing!

Why I thought a Russian was physical is beyond me... continuing...

Wait, this guy's 5'8"?
And he only scored 4 assists in 23 games with Chicago?
And he has a $3.5 mil contract (of which the Canes will pay half)?

Huh?

And that's the thought I have right now. Huh? I thought defense was the key need right now. Not a scrawny right wing who appears to have his 70-pt seasons behind him...

Well, maybe Rutherford knows what he's doing. Or maybe not...

Either way, we'll see Samsonov in Boston tonight.