Ladd has four points in rookie game

Andrew Ladd, the first round pick by the Canes in the 2004 entry draft, scored two goals and added two assists as the Carolina Hurricanes rookie squad beat up on the Florida Panthers rookie squad 5-2. This was the first game of the 2005 Ottawa Senators Rookie Tournament. Ken Preston of carolinahurricanes.com writes about it here. We're all hoping that Ladd has a great rookie tournament and a good camp. We'd love to see him in a Canes sweater, although the consensus is that he'll have to spend some more time with the Calgary Hitmen of the WHL. He will turn 20 in December, which means, as I understand it, he's still not old enough to play at our AHL Affiliate, the Lowell Lock Monsters.

In other exciting news, I got my tickets today!!!
The UPS guy came yesterday, but I wasn't here. I had to set it up for me to pick my package, which turned out to be more of an ordeal than I thought, but all is well now. My camera has gone AWOL (actually, I know exactly where it is, but it isn't at my disposal right now), so I can't provide an actual image of an actual ticket, but some of the tickets have this image on them. Others have a picture of a generic player in a Hurricanes uniform. No face, just the upper body and a hint that the number 05 is on the sweater. Once I retrieve my camera, I'll provide pictures. They look better than it sounds.

To be honest, I'm not crazy about our new slogan "Here to play, here to stay", but I guess it might be better than 2003-04's "THIS is hockey". However, I've always loved our alternate logo, so I like that it's incorporated in our new slogan. If the day ever comes when we have a third sweater, I think it would be sweet to see that (the hockey stick with the "hurricane warning" flag) on a black sweater. Actually, in proper nautical usage, you would fly two of the black on red square flags on the same mast to indicate a hurricane warning. One flag indicates a storm warning, but that's just splitting hairs.