Canes hit milestones in 6-1 thumping of Devils

The Carolina Hurricanes crushed the Devils 6-1 on Saturday night, earning their first road victory of the young season. Along the way, there were a couple of milestones worth mentioning.
Erik Cole's unassisted goal at 16:39 of the first period was the 50th goal of his career. Due to a defensive lapse by the Devils, he was the benefactor of a giveaway, which he turned into a breakaway, and beautifully put it top shelf past Brodeur. A mere 17 seconds later, the Canes tallied another, on Matt Cullen's finish of a perfect set-up by Oleg Tverdovsky. With five assists already, I'm certain that Tverdovsky was an excellent pickup in the offseason.

The win was the 100th win in Coach Peter Laviolette's career. He was 77-62-19-6 in two years at the helm of the Islanders, and was 20-26-6-0 after inheriting the Hurricanes mid-season in 2003-04.

With the Canes up 5-1 after two periods, Martin Brodeur allegedly removed himself from the game. I'm not sure that I believe that, but if it makes him happy, then okay. Despite being one of the defacto leaders of that team, he doesn't feel like it's necessary to display leadership qualities like never give up.

I could have stayed in. It was my choice,'' Brodeur said. ``When the team is struggling, why be in there for the sake of being there?''

For the sake of being there??? You're there to help the team, and if you can't then you should admit it. Hey, Marty ... You're supposed to deflect praise and absorb blame, you idiot. Maybe you should have said something like: "I gave up five goals on 19 shots. I wasn't doing much to help the team while I was in there, and a change was necessary".

Despite scoring six goals, Eric Staal could not find his way onto the scoresheet, so his consecutive game goals and points streak has come to an end. Nevertheless, we're all very happy with the improvement Staalsy has made during the lockout.

In other news, my guy Josef Vašíček finally scored his first goal of the season. That goal was really amazing. Radim Vrbata, who already had a goal in the game, made a terrific behind-the-back pass from behind the net to Big Joe, who was all alone in front with a wide open net. Everyone on the ice except those two, thought Verby was going to wrap around, but instead dished it. The Czech Connection strikes again!

With Krispy gone (thankfully) and Jaro Svaboda playing in Dallas, our Czech numbers are dwindling. Even with the addition of František Kaberle on defense, we don't have the Czech numbers that we used to have. It was good to see another Czech connection. Reminds me of the run to the Cup.

Mikey C got his first two assists of the season, and Justin Williams finally got in the scorebook with his first assist.

Andrew Hutchinson was a healthy scratch. He still has zero points on the season.